Senior Specialist, Mangrove Restoration & MRV, Ghana

The Senior Specialist, Mangrove Restoration & MRV in Ghana will serve as Terraformation's senior in-country technical lead for the Keta Blue project, providing mangrove restoration expertise and technical guidance across field implementation, monitoring, reporting, and verification. This role will ensure that restoration and monitoring protocols are implemented accurately, project data is complete and reliable, and technical standards are consistently applied by Terraformation teams, implementing partners, and contractors. They will translate project designs, carbon requirements, and mangrove best practices into effective field execution, troubleshoot technical and ecological challenges, strengthen partners' technical capabilities, and use field learning to continuously improve project performance, MRV systems, and restoration practices.

Responsibilities

Own the in-country technical and MRV execution for the Keta Blue mangrove restoration project, ensuring compliance with approved carbon methodologies, monitoring plans, Terraformation standards, and mangrove restoration best practices; Provide technical guidance on mangrove restoration design and implementation, including site assessment, species selection, hydrology, planting approaches, maintenance, and adaptive management; Translate project designs, technical standards, carbon-monitoring protocols, and sampling methodologies into practical field implementation plans for Terraformation staff, implementing partners, and contractors; Maintain a strong field presence to assess restoration performance, verify adherence to protocols, identify technical, ecological, and data-quality risks, and oversee corrective actions; Familiarity with Verra VM0033 Methodology for Mangrove Restoration or equivalent blue carbon methodology; Oversee the collection, validation, and submission of field data supporting carbon accounting, including survival, growth, and ecological data; Own spatial data quality and integrity across field implementation and verification; Establish quality assurance and quality control processes for field data; Coordinate and provide technical direction to local partners, field technicians, consultants, survey teams, and contractors; Train and coach implementing partners and field teams on mangrove restoration practices, MRV protocols, data-collection tools, and technical documentation; Work cross-functionally with Ghana-based project, safeguards, partner-quality, and country leadership teams; Identify technical and data-integrity issues affecting restoration performance or carbon monitoring, and implement corrective actions or escalate material risks; Support third-party validation and verification audits; Capture field lessons and use them to continuously improve Keta Blue's restoration practices and Terraformation's broader mangrove and MRV standards

Requirements

Must be willing to spend up to 50% of their time onsite; 7+ years of relevant technical experience in mangrove restoration and conservation, coastal ecology, forest carbon, environmental monitoring, or a related technical field; Demonstrated field experience designing, implementing, or overseeing mangrove restoration, including site assessment, hydrology, species selection, planting, maintenance, and performance monitoring; Demonstrated experience implementing MRV systems for forest-carbon, mangrove restoration, or other nature-based projects; Strong knowledge of field-monitoring protocols, sampling methodologies, ecological and geospatial data collection, data-quality assurance, and technical documentation across large or remote project areas; Experience translating technical designs and standards into practical field guidance for implementing partners, field teams, consultants, and contractors; Demonstrated ability to identify restoration, ecological, or data-quality issues, conduct root-cause analysis, and implement corrective actions; Experience training and strengthening the technical capabilities of implementing partners and field teams; Demonstrated GIS competency, including field data collection, spatial data management, and producing audit-ready geospatial evidence; Strong data-management and analytical skills, including proficiency with spreadsheets and experience using field data-collection platforms, databases, or project-monitoring software; Master's degree or equivalent technical field experience in mangrove restoration, coastal ecology, or a related discipline; Fluent in English

Nice to have

Professional proficiency in Ewe