U.S. Ice Drilling Program Field Support Manager
The U.S. Ice Drilling Program (IDP) is seeking a Field Support Manager! This position is based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and supports field work funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The team in Madison is small and is composed of engineers and support staff who design, assemble, test, and ultimately operate ice and rock coring drills in polar and glacial environments all over the world! The Field Support Manager works closely with IDP customers (U.S. scientists) and with NSF polar logistics contractors to plan for support of field science projects and to coordinate cargo shipments to and from the polar regions. In this exciting and fulfilling opportunity, you will find yourself busy coordinating and executing exciting field projects in both the Arctic and Antarctic and anywhere in between! For more information about the U.S. Ice Drilling Program, please visit us at https://icedrill.org/!
Position Summary:
To understand our world and the universe, the IDP group within the UW-Madison Space Science & Engineering Center develops and deploys drilling systems to support the U.S. scientific community's research across the world in polar and glacial regions. IDP's history of deploying a diverse set of ice drilling and coring systems, rock drills, and associated support equipment ranges from small hand-held drills to rigs that drill through thousands of meters of ice to retrieve rock cores.
The selected candidate will work closely with multidisciplinary teams, including scientists, engineers, technicians and administrative personnel to organize and manage IDP support of NSF-funded fieldwork. The primary responsibility of the IDP Field Support Manager is to provide specialized technical support for U.S. Principal Investigators (PIs) funded by the NSF, including, but not limited to assistance with proposal documentation, project planning, and coordination of logistics with multiple organizations and freight providers. A secondary component of the position involves project management of anywhere from 5 to 15 individual field projects per year, including project planning and financial tracking and reporting. The position will also entail some level of personnel oversight and coordination with regard to IDP's equipment operations staff. While direct engineering or design experience is not required, a basic understanding of equipment designed and maintained by IDP must be achieved.
NOTE: Selected candidate will be required to periodically deploy to remote camps in the polar regions for 1-3 month periods to provide technical support and field operation of equipment.