Description
JSI invites you to join our team as an Archaeologist/Environmental Specialist II on our Environmentals & Permitting team in our Lubbock, TX office where you'll play a critical role in advancing broadband and telecommunications initiatives that expand connectivity and drive digital inclusion—while advancing your career within a mission-driven, growth-focused organization.
Position Overview:
As an Archaeologist/Environmental Specialist II on the Environmentals & Permitting team you will serve as one of the firm's senior decision-makers with expert knowledge of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). You will ensure overall compliance with historic preservation legislation for federal infrastructure projects funded through BEAD, USDA RUS ReConnect, and other federal programs.
Our clients are electric cooperatives, telephone companies, and broadband providers deploying fiber across long linear corridors on aggressive federal funding timelines. What they need from us is a defensible finding, delivered when they need it, that survives agency review without a second round.
Responsibilities
Regulatory Practice Leadership:
- Serve as a Western Region Senior Technical Authority on NHPA, ensuring Section 106 compliance with all federally funded undertakings in the portfolio.
- Determine whether an activity constitutes an undertaking, identify historic properties, define direct and indirect Areas of Potential Effects (APE), and provide all required documentation.
- Apply National Register eligibility criteria, provide eligibility recommendations, and make and defend effect findings of no historic properties affected, no adverse effect, and adverse effect, including conditioned no-adverse-effect findings.
- Negotiate, draft, and shepherd Memoranda of Agreement and Programmatic Agreements to execution, including multi-state and territory-wide agreements.
- Direct resolution of adverse effects through avoidance, minimization, and mitigation strategies, including development of agreement documents.
Consultation – SHPO, THPO, Tribal, and Agency:
- Consult with State Historic Preservation Officers across multiple jurisdictions and support federal agency clients in coordination with federally recognized Tribes and Tribal Historic Preservation Officers.
- Identify consulting parties, facilitate public involvement under 36 CFR 800.2(c), and ensure sensitive site information is protected under NHPA Section 304 and the Archaeological Resources Protection Act.
- Advise federal agencies on Advisory Council on Historic Preservation participation and build consultation relationships that persist across projects.
Practice Management and Growth:
- Contribute cultural resources scope, level-of-effort assumptions, and pricing to proposals and statements of work.
- Mentor archaeologists and architectural historians, maintain firm qualifications and permit standing, and represent JSI with clients, agencies, trade associations, and technical conferences.
Qualifications
Required Qualifications
- Master's degree in Anthropology, Archaeology, Architectural History, Historic Preservation, History, or a closely related field.
- Meets the Secretary of the Interior's Professional Qualification Standards (36 CFR Part 61) in Archaeology, Architectural History, or History.
- Minimum of 5 years of Section 106 compliance practice, including at least four in a principal, program-lead, or equivalent decision-making role
- Demonstrated record of drafting and negotiating Memoranda of Agreement or Programmatic Agreements to execution.
- Direct, sustained consultation experience with multiple SHPOs and with THPOs or Tribal representatives.
- A portfolio of eligibility and effect determinations that withstood agency review, with the ability to walk through the reasoning on request.
- Experience with linear or corridor undertakings, where the APE is long, narrow, and crosses many jurisdictions.
- Strong technical writing skills with experience developing MOAs, PAs, and other regulatory documentation.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Registered Professional Archaeologist (RPA) credential.
Experience supporting broadband, telecommunications, BEAD, ReConnect, E-Rate, or FCC tower sitting via TCNS and Forms 620 / 621. - Experience with ArcGIS Pro, geospatial analysis, archaeological predictive modeling, or cultural resources GIS applications.
Benefits and Compensation
- Competitive salary + performance-based bonuses.
- Comprehensive benefits package (medical, dental, vision, 401(k)).
- Generous PTO and travel support.
- Ongoing professional development and educational opportunities.
To learn more about JSI, visit us at jsitel.com.
){kind=logo}
