Work with us this summer!

Water Rangers is a non-profit organization aiming to make water science easy to understand so that ALL Canadians can participate in water’s protection.

We deepen our impact by providing tools and training so that anyone can understand, test, and protect waterways. Our platform is open-data and built for crowdsourcing water quality data. We’re always experimenting with new ideas on how to motivate and teach.

These three positions for Summer 2020, will be from 8 weeks to 16 weeks, 30-35 hours per week and earning $15/hour + 4% vacation pay. The positions will be based in Ottawa or Montreal, with some travel, depending on the position.

To be eligible, you must:

• be between 15 and 30 years of age at the start of the employment;
• be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or person to whom refugee protection has been conferred under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act for the duration of the employment*; and,
• have a valid Social Insurance Number at the start of employment and be legally entitled to work in Canada in accordance with relevant provincial or territorial legislation and regulations.

*International students are not eligible participants. International students include anyone who is temporarily in Canada for studies and who is not a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or person who has been granted refugee status in Canada.

All interns

We are looking for exceptional humans who want to change the water world. Every position’s goals are important to the wellbeing of the organization. You will have the opportunity to make a true difference for water, and full-time work could continue into the Fall, depending on funding.

We are a small, dynamic social enterprise, and so you will have opportunities to learn lots of new skills in these positions and we believe strongly in mentoring you with skills to help you succeed in your career. We will spend time together as a team in our co-working space every week, but you will also have days that you work on your own, either at the office or in the field. We work on trust and independence, so these positions require you to:

• Manage your own schedule based on priorities we set together weekly and report it to us using our project management tools
• Check-in daily with what you’ve worked on
• Take initiative to research methods to achieve your goals, but also a willingness to ask questions
• Pitch in to help others on important projects (e.g. getting ready for events, big orders)
• If there are organization goals or tasks that take you away from work on your deadlines, to communicate how you plan on managing it
• Choose at least one testing location so that you can participate in official monthly water testing

Your first week will be spent learning about existing systems and how we manage workflows. You will then begin to make your plans for the summer with goals we will set together. You will be required to have your own laptop to work from.

At the end of every summer, we celebrate our successes with a team excursion… on the water!

Education and Outreach Development Intern

Beginning May 11 until the end of August. In this position, you will be responsible for outreach activities with youth and adult groups in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec, with a focus on the Ottawa area. This position will also help manage a testkit lending program across Canada and build community communication tools. Starting with our existing educational and web resources, you will learn how to use our water testing kit and website to train water testers. Your main goal is to translate the experience of training people in-person to an online training experience, to automate / answer common questions, and build capacity to train more water testers.

As part of helping to develop online curriculum and resources, you will continually improve it by testing it with real people, including running seminars on water testing.

You will also be responsible for improving and managing our existing testkit lending program alongside our researchers. We have prominent partners across Canada who are set-up for lending and a system in-place. You will be looking to integrate training and research into this process and improving user’s experience to ‘on-board’ them to become regular testers.

The ideal candidate should:

• be studying or recently graduated from subjects in related field (science education, sustainability, science communication, environmental science, biology, chemistry or similar)
• Demonstrated skills in science education
• Experience designing fun courses
• Excellent communication and writing skills
• Very organized and detail oriented
• Outgoing and personable
• Knowledge of Google Suite, WordPress, client relationship management systems
• Social media skills
• Able to drive with a valid drivers license
• Willing to work some weekends and evenings depending on the activities that week (other days off will be given in lieu)
• Basic photography, video skills
• Ability to speak French fluently is a huge bonus

Access to a vehicle is a bonus (and will be compensated at $0.52/km).

Below: Kathleen Murr, Educuation Intern, out in the field during “Stream Day” where we learned water chemistry and benthic invertebrates.

Sustainable Development Intern

More than ever, social enterprises and non-profits need to consider their long-term sustainability. You will be responsible for developing workflows to improve operations, running and improving an online store and fulfilling orders to build better relationships with water testers so that we can grow the movement throughout Canada and the world!

You will conduct research into best practices to decrease waste, improve user-experiences, and grow the impact of our organization. This position will begin May 11 and continue until the end of August.

This position requires someone who likes figuring out how to make systems more efficient. While the skills specified below are desirable, this position will be supporting our Executive Director and will adapt depending on your aptitudes (for example, perhaps being more involved in partnership development). It will be a prototype-driven position with a small budget to implement proposed solutions with lower risk through mentorship.

The ideal candidate should:

• Be studying or recently graduated from subjects in a related field (e.g. sustainability, business marketing, management, environmental management or similar)
• Have experience and strong interest in social enterprise and/or sustainability
• Have experience and strong interest in operations (e.g. forecasting, ordering, process management, marketing automation, bookkeeping)
• Have skills in Google Suite, WordPress, client relationship management systems. Other coding skills as well as skills building dashboards, automating reports are a huge asset.
• Experience with international expansion, managing online stores, taxes and other business practices are a huge asset.

Below: Gaspard, International Ambassador, in Brazil

Communication Intern

This position will focus will be on social media and creating visual assets to help grow our citizen monitoring movement. You should have a proven background in social media and share examples of visual assets. This position is currently an 8-week position.

Generally, the ideal candidate:

• Is interested in water quality testing and citizen science education
• Is studying or recently graduated from subjects in related field (sustainability, science communication, environmental science, biology, chemistry or similar)
• Is an excellent communicator with experience in social media and blogging (we’re looking for a talented writer!)
• Has experience with photography and video production; illustration is a bonus
• Is a fast learner, and is a self starter that will look for where they can help out the rest of the team
• Is outgoing and willing to learn lots of new things quickly
• Bilingual is a huge asset
• Is willing to work some weekends and evenings, plus travel depending on the activities that week

Below: Executive Director Kat, Communication Intern Cassidy, plus Tina from WWFCanada during our media blitz last summer before presenting at Breakfast Television

How to apply

Please include which position you’re applying for in your subject line, and email your resume to kat@waterrangers.ca.

We believe in show, not tell! Please include specific examples that support your skills (e.g. sample curriculum, photos, etc) as well as answers to the following questions:

• What do you think is the benefit of citizen science?
• What is your favourite body of water and why?

Interviews will occur on a rolling basis. The final deadline for applications is March 9th, 2020. However positions may be filled before.