Scientist (Inland Fisheries and Aquatic Food Systems)

About WorldFish

WorldFish is an international research organization working to transform aquatic food systems to reduce hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. It collaborates with international, regional, and national partners to co-develop and deliver scientific innovations, evidence for policy and knowledge to enable equitable and inclusive impact for millions who depend on fish and other aquatic foods for their livelihoods and nutrition. Our work in countries advances progress on multiple 2030 Sustainable Development Goals through science and innovation, with a vision of healthy people, healthy planet and shared prosperity.

About the Position

The Scientist is responsible for initiating and leading research initiatives in constructing analytical frameworks and developing tools, models, and approaches to address challenges and foster solutions. The role supervises research activities, ensures high-quality data collection and analysis, translates findings into actionable policy recommendations, and establishes interactive platforms for knowledge dissemination. The Scientist oversees stakeholder engagement, fosters collaboration with external partners, explores funding opportunities, and manages the timely delivery of high-quality research outputs that inform decision-making and policy development.

The Scientist will provide technical leadership on inland fisheries, aquatic food systems, and riverine livelihoods within the Triple F project in Peru. The position will lead WorldFish's contributions to understanding the interactions between aquatic ecosystems, fisheries, food and nutrition security, and community resilience. Working closely with CIFOR-ICRAF, national research institutions, and government partners, the Scientist will generate evidence to inform sustainable fisheries management, aquatic food systems, and integrated landscape approaches while strengthening policy uptake and stakeholder capacity.

Key Responsibilities

Main Purpose of Job:

- Initiate and lead research initiatives in land fisheries, aquatic food systems, and riverine livelihoods within integrated forest-river landscapes, collaborating with colleagues and external partners to generate evidence and solutions that strengthen food and nutrition security, sustainable fisheries and resilience in forest-river landscapes while shaping the research agenda at the project / program level.
- Construct analytical frameworks and develop innovative tools, applications, models, and approaches to address challenges and foster comprehensive solutions.
- Lead research activities, including data collection, quality assurance, and analysis, aligned with project goals and objectives.
- Conduct qualitative and/or quantitative research relevant areas to provide evidence for targeted decision-making and policy development.
- Integrate research findings into policy recommendations and disseminate through mediums such as workshops, guidelines, and policy briefs to inform practical applications.
- Develop and implement methods or frameworks to track and assess area of work, analyzing options to address challenges and find relevant solutions.

Main engagement, collaboration and communication responsibilities:

- Engage with other team(s) and other CGIAR centers in area of work, ensuring knowledge exchange, alignment, integration and synergy.
- Collaborate with external stakeholders and partners to advance research efforts, build capacity, and implement activities aimed at making progress in area of work.
- Organize peer-to-peer learning opportunities and knowledge-sharing platforms to foster collaboration, innovation, and knowledge uptake.

Main responsibilities in the delivery of timely and quality services:

- Write and publish research findings in high-quality formats such as seminar papers, peer-reviewed journals, and program reports, while presenting results at workshops and conferences to showcase scientific contributions.
- Translate research outputs in area of work into actionable knowledge for stakeholders to promote application and scaling of results.
- Provide actionable contributions to policy advice and develop comprehensive action plans to ensure evidence-based decision-making.

Requirements

This job might be for you if you have the below skills and qualifications:

- PhD in relevant in Fisheries Biology, Aquatic Resources Management, Environmental Science, or a closely related discipline, with demonstrated research expertise in inland fisheries and aquatic food systems.
- Fluency in English is essential to communicate in writing and speaking.
- Working knowledge of Spanish.
- Completed a Post Doc / Fellow Program in relevant area.
- Experience conducting independent applied research in relevant areas.
- Has several published international peer-reviewed articles (in press or in review), including as a lead author.
- Exposure to developing and refining research proposals, designing research or experiments, and implementing data collection strategies.
- Experience in contributing to writing grant proposals.
- Experience collaborating with multidisciplinary teams, government agencies, and partners in implementing and scaling research.
- Experience working in or with an international not-for-profit organization is an advantage.
- Experience conducting interdisciplinary research on inland fisheries, aquatic food systems, and riverine communities in tropical freshwater ecosystems, including participatory engagement with Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

Key Competencies Required

Core competencies

- Accountability: Takes ownership of work, showing initiative in problem-solving and decision-making. Stands firm on ethical issues, even when faced with challenges.
- Collaboration and Communication: Communicates clearly, articulating thoughts in a straightforward manner while interpreting nonverbal cues to enhance responses and foster productive interactions. Actively participates, seeks and listens to others’ perspective. Demonstrates a willingness to learn from others and welcomes constructive feedback to improve personal and team performance.
- Respect and Inclusion: Promotes and advocates for respect and inclusion within team, program or organization. Actively seeks incorporates diverse ideas and experiences into decision making.
- Results and Impact Orientation: Establishes clear standards of excellence to achieve results, aligns individual and team goals with organizational objectives. Uses data and metrics to assess, monitor, and improve performance. Identifies improvement opportunities by evaluating and applying emerging technologies.

Functional and Technical Competencies

- Analytical, Critical and Systems Thinking: Synthesizes diverse information for well-informed conclusions and actionable recommendations.
- Scientific Ethics, Integrity and Writing: Ensures transparency and proper research documentation and upholds ethical standards in research by following scientific ethics standards, and in scientific writing by avoiding plagiarism and accurately representing data following FAIR principles. Constructs evidence-based scientific arguments for peer-reviewed publications.
- Data Analysis and Management: Integrates data from different sources to identify trends and patterns, proactively suggests areas for further exploration and communicates data-driven insights effectively through clear presentations and impactful visualizations.
- Capacity Building: Delivers engaging capacity building approaches using diverse methods, adjusting the needs to the audience while effectively responding to participant feedback.
- Resource Mobilization: Prepares tailored input to donor proposals while proactively engaging with potential partners to cultivate and secure new funding opportunities.
- Inland Fisheries and Aquatic Ecosystems: Demonstrated technical expertise in inland fisheries ecology, fish biodiversity assessment, aquatic habitat characterization, fisheries monitoring, and sustainable fisheries management in tropical freshwater ecosystems.
- Aquatic Food Systems and Riverine Livelihoods: Demonstrated expertise in aquatic food systems, food and nutrition security, livelihood analysis, value chains, and socio-economic assessment of small-scale fisheries and riverine communities.
- Participatory Research and Fisheries Governance: Demonstrated expertise in participatory research methodologies, local ecological knowledge, stakeholder engagement, co-management of fisheries, and the co-design of evidence-based solutions with Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and government partners.

Managerial and Leadership Skills

Managing Team Dynamics

- Recognizes and identifies personal and others' emotions and the influence of personal behavior on team dynamics, showing understanding of the emotional intelligence concept.
- Build trust and rapport with supervisees or team members by empowering and engaging them on tasks, supporting and guiding them to reach shared goals, while setting clear expectations, providing regular feedback, and conducting fair assessments.
- Takes time to connect and show an interest in the well-being of team members or supervisees.

Strategic Leadership

- Recognizes relationships and partnerships as essential to achieving goals, demonstrating willingness to work in partnership, understanding and clarifying needs and mutual expectations.
- Actively participates in and supports change initiatives, adapting processes or procedures to align with evolving organization needs, showing openness to new ideas and approaches.
- Proactively identifies potential risks within their team’s operations, assesses their impact, and suggests mitigation strategies to the manager.
- Seeks to understand the organization’s purpose and goals and identifies opportunities for team process improvements and emerging technologies in alignment with organizational goals.

Benefits

This Internationally Recruited Staff (IRS) position. WorldFish's IRS shall receive an attractive retirement plan, comprehensive health insurance, life insurance, accident, and long-term disability insurance. Internationally recruited staff employed outside of their home base/country of nationality will also be eligible to receive relocation assistance, a housing allowance, home-leave plane tickets for self and eligible dependents and education assistance for school-age dependents between age 4 and high school graduation. The duration of the contract will initially be for a two-year period with possibility for extension, depending on funding and performance. All benefits are subject to terms and conditions.

How to Apply

Your application must include:

- A copy of your curriculum vitae,
- A cover letter which addresses key requirements stated above; and
- Contact information of three professional referees who may be contacted if you are short-listed for the position.

To be considered, applications must be submitted by no later than 23:59 (MYT), 30 November 2026.

Location : The post holder will be based in Lima, Peru, with fieldwork in San Martín and Loreto, where Triple F is being implemented. The Lima duty station remains subject to confirmation of the institutional hosting arrangements.

The screening will start  immediately and will continue until the position is filled. Due to the high volume of applicants for WorldFish positions, we appreciate all interest, but only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Our Gender, Diversity and Inclusion Commitment

Over 40% of WorldFish staff is women with some 30 nationalities represented and contributing to its dynamic multicultural work environment. WorldFish is committed to promoting a work environment where diversity and inclusion are valued and we seek to have gender balance in the organization. We aim to also seek balance across other diversity dimensions.

People in WorldFish are treated equally irrespective of gender, ethnicity/race, national or social origin, disability, religion, political affiliation, age, family size, marital status or any other form of personal identity.

We are an equal opportunities employer and strongly encourage qualified women and men from developing nations to apply.