Biodiversity Consultant

ERM is the world’s largest specialist sustainability consultancy, with over 50 years of experience helping organizations navigate complex environmental, social, and governance challenges. We bring together a global community of experts to deliver meaningful impact for our clients and the planet.

Our Consulting Delivery Hub (CDH) in India is a critical part of ERM’s global consulting model enabling scalable, high-quality delivery across regions and service lines. CDH teams work in close partnership with regional consultants to support global client projects, providing specialist expertise, driving consistency, and enhancing delivery efficiency across our most important programmes.

As part of the Consulting Delivery Hub, you will collaborate with colleagues worldwide, contribute to complex sustainability projects, and play a key role in shaping the future of global consulting delivery.

Why this role matters?

As a Biodiversity Consultant , you will support ERM’s global Capital Project Delivery (CPD) work by delivering discrete, desk-based biodiversity workstreams and producing high-quality baseline, impact-assessment, and reporting outputs across major infrastructure, renewables, transmission & distribution, hydrogen, carbon capture (CCUS), mining, and diversified energy projects. Working within the CPD Nature & Biodiversity sub-team, you will collaborate with regional ecologists, and task leads to scale ERM’s biodiversity delivery capacity. This is a desk/office-based, globally connected role; field survey work is delivered by regional teams.

What your impact is?

- Prepare desk-based biodiversity and ecological baselines —supporting preliminary interpretation of protected-area, designated-site, habitat, and species data from public and licensed databases (e.g., IBAT, IUCN, national datasets).
- Draft ecological impact assessment (EcIA/ESIA) chapters, technical appendices, and scoping reports to internationally recognized standards (e.g., IFC Performance Standard 6, Equator Principles), adaptable to region-specific regimes.
- Support desktop habitat mapping, constraints and buffer analysis, and preliminary/desktop wetland and habitat delineation using GIS, coordinating with ERM’s GIS teams where required.
- Apply the mitigation hierarchy (avoid, minimize, restore, offset) and support biodiversity metric / net-gain style calculations and no-net-loss analysis.
- Manage discrete workstreams end-to-end — coordinating CDH and regional inputs to deliver on time, on budget, and to ERM quality, technical, and Health & Safety standards.
- Act as a reliable day-to-day point of contact for regional task leads, presenting findings clearly and supporting continuous improvement of templates, methodologies, and CDH–region ways of working.

What will you bring?

- Bachelor’s degree in ecology, zoology, botany, wildlife science, environmental science, conservation, forestry, biological sciences, or a closely related discipline; a relevant Master’s (M.Sc./M.Tech.) is strongly preferred.
- Typically, 2–4 years of relevant experience in environmental/ecological consulting, EIA/ESIA, research, or an NGO/government body, with a track record of contributing to biodiversity baselines or impact-assessment chapters for infrastructure, energy, or development projects.
- Familiarity with environmental impact assessment processes and biodiversity/ecology assessment methods; exposure to India’s EIA regime (MoEF&CC / SEIAA) and/or international frameworks (IFC PS6, EU/UK/Irish, or other) is valued. Willingness to learn multiple regional regimes are essential.
- Strong technical report-writing skills in English — scoping reports, biodiversity chapters, and technical appendices.
- Working knowledge of GIS platforms (ArcGIS Pro / QGIS) to interpret habitat mapping, constraints, and designated sites, and to produce clear figures for reports.
- Excellent written and verbal communication, strong attention to detail and quality, and the ability to work efficiently within scope, budget, and time across time zones with global teams.

Preferred qualifications, skills & competencies

- NABET–QCI accreditation or experience as an EIA functional-area expert (Ecology & Biodiversity), or equivalent recognised ecological credential.
- Exposure to biodiversity work on major infrastructure regimes (e.g., IFC PS6 / lender due diligence, NSIP/DCO, or comparable) — or a clear aptitude to build it.
- Familiarity with ecosystem services, biodiversity net gain / no-net-loss metrics, or emerging nature frameworks (TNFD, nature-positive) is a plus, though the core of this role is project-based ecological impact assessment.
- Experience in a global delivery, shared service, or hub environment, working alongside regional consultants across time zones.
- Familiarity with automation, AI-enabled tools, remote sensing, or digital habitat-survey approaches to support baseline, assessment, and reporting workflows.

Key responsibilities

- Draft scoping reports, biodiversity/ecology chapters, and technical appendices from desktop data sources.
- Manage discrete workstreams (scoping, planning, delivery, technical/QA review, and coordination with regional Ecology Leads, Sub-Team Leads, and Project Managers).
- Contribute to bids, proposals, thought leadership, and internal capability building — including standardising templates, method statements, and tracker tools.
- Maintain current knowledge of relevant biodiversity policy, guidance, and metrics across the regions ERM supports.
- Adhere to ERM’s Health & Safety, ethics, and quality-management systems in all project work.