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Technical Expert, Accelerated Restoration Grand Challenge
IT
Remote
Posted on Jul 25, 2026
Conservation X Labs Inc Technical Expert, Accelerated Restoration Grand Challenge Remote · Full time Company website
Conservation X Labs (CXL) is hiring a Technical Expert to anchor the restoration science behind the Accelerated Restoration Grand Challenge, a three-year open-innovation program inside the South America Fire Fund (SAFF) focused on post-fire forest restoration across the Amazon, Chiquitania, and Pantanal. The word accelerated is the point. This challenge is not about doing the restoration we already know how to do. It is about the advances that make restoration faster, cheaper, and more durable at scale. You will define what those advances are, turn them into a clear set of challenge topics, convene and chair the Technical Advisory Committee, shape how entries are judged, and keep a technical eye on field-testing.
About Conservation X Labs Inc
Our mission is to prevent an impending sixth mass extinction – the first in Earth’s history driven by the actions of a single species: ours. Unlike traditional conservation efforts, Conservation X Labs focuses on leveraging the best technology, the newest innovation, interdisciplinary genius, and the power of the marketplace to boldly confront the biggest problems facing the planet. Though humans have driven this sixth extinction, we know humans have the power to reverse it.
Description
About Conservation X Labs
Our mission is to prevent an impending sixth mass extinction, the first in Earth’s history driven by the actions of a single species: ours.
Unlike traditional conservation efforts, Conservation X Labs focuses on leveraging the best technology, the newest innovation, interdisciplinary genius, and the power of the marketplace to boldly confront the biggest problems facing the planet. Though humans have driven this sixth extinction, we know humans have the power to reverse it.
Description
The South America Fire Fund (SAFF) seeks to tackle fire, the leading cause of tropical primary forest loss, in three globally significant ecoregions including the Amazon, Chiquitania, and Pantanal. It is an experiment at the size of the Amazon Basin to prevent the Amazon from tipping. The Fund unites partners to build and test integrated prevention and response systems, learn quickly, and scale what works. It focuses on the underlying conditions that drive destructive fire and combines community-led stewardship, cutting-edge innovation and technology, and data-driven decision systems.
The Accelerated Restoration Grand Challenge is a three-year prize challenge nested within the SAFF. Its premise is that the bottleneck in post-fire restoration is no longer whether to restore but how to do it at the speed and scale the crisis demands, and that the answers will come from advances the field has not yet put to work at scale. The Technical Expert is the restoration-science anchor of the challenge, running across the whole program from design through judging and field-testing, and working hand in hand with the Challenge Manager and the Accelerator Program Manager. We know the right person may not have full time to give. A fractional or advisory arrangement is fine.
Who you are
• You are an innovator in restoration. You know where restoration science is heading, not just where it has been. You can tell a real advance from a marginal improvement on current practice, and you are current on the methods that could change the cost, speed, or durability of restoration at scale.
• You have deep expertise in ecological restoration or fire-affected landscapes, for example in restoration ecology, seed or soil science, or reforestation.
• You have set technical criteria and judged projects, proposals, or innovations on their merits.
• You have the standing to convene senior experts and chair an advisory group people take seriously.
• You are energized by the CXL mission to end extinction, and you want to spend this part of your career on a hard problem that matters.
How you will support CXL
• Decide what the challenge is actually asking innovators to solve, and set the bar at genuine advances rather than standard practice, choosing revolutionary over evolution, but in a way that can be tested on the ground. That means naming the restoration bottlenecks and the advances that could break them, such as getting enough viable seed of enough species to germinate, improving soil with amendments and microbial inoculants, or smarter planting that uses drones, AI-assisted decisions, and patterned revegetation, and matching them to what the target ecoregions really need. You would check this thinking against restoration partners and the SAFF strategy leads.
• Set up and run the Challenge’s Technical Advisory Committee, drawing on the Fire Fund’s network of world renown experts in restoration ecology, seed and soil science, fire-affected landscapes, and innovation, and bring them together to review the technical criteria and the field-testing protocols.
• Write the evaluation criteria and rubrics, recruit and brief the outside evaluators and judges, and lead the technical read on both the applications and the field-tested results. Judging looks at four things: whether the technology works, whether it works for the people and communities using it, how it performs environmentally, and whether it can scale and sustain itself.
• Keep technical oversight of the field-testing phase alongside the Accelerator Program Manager, including how results get validated, how ecological monitoring is done, what the field protocols are, and where the cohort needs technical mentoring.
• Help lead the technical and restoration partnerships, contribute to the Handbook and the overall structure, and make sure the design fits the LIFT or LIFTs we land on and connects to the Fire Fund’s other levers in technology, finance, and behavior change.
Qualifications
Required
• Deep expertise in ecological restoration or fire-affected landscapes, for example in restoration ecology, seed or soil science, or reforestation, with a current view of where the science is advancing.
• Experience setting technical criteria and judging projects, proposals, or innovations on their merits.
• The standing to convene senior experts and chair an advisory group people take seriously.
• Working English.
• Willingness to travel to field sites in South America.
Desired
• Spanish and/or Portuguese.
• Field experience in the Amazon, the Pantanal, the Chiquitano dry forests, or similar South American ecosystems.
• Knowledge of restoration technology such as drone seeding, AI decision tools, or microbial inoculants, and of how prize or accelerator programs work.
• Good connections among restoration researchers, NGOs, and practitioners in the region.
Application Instructions
Please apply with a cover letter that explains why you fit what we are looking for, along with your resume.
About Conservation X Labs and Our Culture
Conservation X Labs (CXL) seeks to solve the world’s greatest conservation problems by supporting innovative solutions that address the underlying drivers of extinction. We create solutions to prevent the extinction crisis by developing new technology in our labs, leading innovation competitions, and empowering talented innovators across disciplines to create transformative products that serve people and our planet. CXL operates as both a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and a related B-corporation.
We are building an organization of problem solvers who are personable, highly motivated, and passionate about our mission. We want people who want to disrupt conservation in order to radically improve it. We are looking for those who have dared mighty things by trying a path others have not chosen, who have failed and learned from it, and who like to experiment, make things, hack things, test things, and break things, particularly dogmatic approaches to conservation or technology. Finally, we want kind, hardworking people who will devote their intellectual and creative energy to our mission, enjoy working on a team, and are driven by their passion.
CXL is committed to creating and cultivating a diverse workforce and an inclusive environment where every employee and contractor can work free from all forms of unlawful or intentional discrimination. We hire, promote, transfer, terminate, and make all employment-related decisions without regard to race, creed, ethnicity, religion, national origin, sex, gender, or sexual orientation. To learn more about our programs and mission, please visit www.conservationxlabs.com.
Terms
This role runs three years, reporting to the Open Innovation Director. The time needed grows as field-testing ramps up, so full-time, part-time, or fractional arrangements all work. Location is flexible, with a base in Latin America preferred. Compensation will be determined based on location and experience.