Senior Cultural Resource Leader

ESA is seeking an established cultural resources leader to build and grow our Southeast practice from the ground up. This senior leadership role offers the opportunity to set the direction, recruit a team, and develop a business that reflects your experience and ambition, with the support of a full-service environmental consulting firm that is employee-owned and has an established national cultural resources practice. The ideal candidate shall launch a regional cultural resources group as a near-term priority in ESA’s South/East Growth Plan. Our clients and teaming partners already seek these services alongside our biological resources and environmental planning work. You will turn that demand into a regional practice, bring more cultural resources work into ESA, and develop new client relationships.

This practice will advance ESA’s broader growth in transportation and aviation, water and public infrastructure, energy, and coastal restoration and resilience. You will connect cultural resources expertise with environmental planning, permitting strategy, and natural resources services to help clients address complex projects. Building on our Florida foundation, you will help pursue opportunities in Georgia, the Carolinas, Texas, and the wider Gulf Coast.

You will work closely with the Regional Director, regional business group leaders, and ESA’s Cultural Resources Practice Leader to shape the growth plan and priorities for hiring. Collaboration with cultural resources colleagues across ESA will connect the new team to technical expertise and project delivery support as the Southeast practice develops. This role can be based in a hybrid arrangement from ESA’s Tampa, Orlando, Boynton Beach, Sarasota, or Pensacola offices. We are also open to remote candidates in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina.

Who You Are

• An entrepreneurial industry leader and technical expert who enjoys building a business and helping people succeed.
• Translate client relationships and market knowledge into a focused pipeline of work, make sound hiring decisions, and stay involved in project delivery while a team takes shape.
• Have excellent judgment to balance growth with technical quality, staff development, and financial performance.
• Approachable and collaborative, with a record of earning trust among clients, colleagues, tribes, and agency partners. Flexible and creative and value enduring client relationships and understand that protecting ESA’s employee-owner culture is central to successful growth.
• Ability to mentor future leaders, welcome different perspectives, and create a respectful workplace where people can contribute and advance.
• At least 10 years of relevant cultural resources consulting experience, with demonstrated success winning and retaining clients, leading teams, and managing complex projects and business performance.
• A strong professional network in the Southeast, experience in Florida, and relationships across the Gulf or South Atlantic states are especially valuable.
• A graduate degree in anthropology, archaeology, architectural history, cultural resources management, or a related field, and qualifications that meet the Secretary of the Interior’s Professional Qualification Standards for Archaeology.
• A track record of growing cultural resources services or expanding into new markets is especially valuable.
• Experience directing cultural resources work in the Southeast, including archaeological investigations, historic architectural studies, resource evaluation, and treatment or mitigation planning, with the ability to assemble the right specialists for each assignment.
• Strong working knowledge of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, NEPA, and applicable state and local requirements; experience integrating cultural resources analyses into environmental reviews and coordinating complex compliance efforts.
• Experience working with federal, state, and local agencies, State Historic Preservation Offices, Tribal representatives, and land managers, with a respectful approach to supporting agency-led Tribal consultation.
• The ability to develop business and capture plans, lead proposals, negotiate scopes and budgets, and guide project managers through delivery, quality review, and financial management.

What You Will Do For ESA

You will lead the development, operations, and financial performance of the Southeast cultural resources group. Your responsibilities will evolve as the practice grows, with an initial emphasis on winning work, recruiting key people, and establishing a dependable delivery team.

Build the practice and win work

• Develop and implement a regional growth plan with clear client, market, staffing, and financial priorities. Work with ESA’s regional and national leaders to align resources and the pace of hiring with the project pipeline.
• Partner with ESA client managers to pursue cultural resources work on existing contracts and alongside biological resources services for architecture and engineering partners. Build relationships with public agencies, infrastructure clients, and teaming partners, lead priority pursuits, and grow a sustainable backlog.

Recruit and develop the team

• Identify and recruit key talent, then build local field capacity and project management depth to match client needs. Coordinate with ESA’s national cultural resources practice to draw on expertise and staff as the regional team grows.
• Mentor staff, align assignments with professional development goals, and build a culture of collaboration, inclusion, and employee ownership. Develop future project managers and practice leaders.

Deliver excellent work and a sound business

• Serve as Project Director or senior technical advisor on strategic and complex assignments. Guide regulatory coordination and quality review and help multidisciplinary teams address cultural resources early in project planning.
• Establish and manage the group’s annual business plan and budget. Monitor backlog, utilization, profitability, and project risk, and work with project managers to deliver on scope, schedule, and budget commitments.

What’s Special About ESA

Joining ESA means becoming part of a close-knit team of environmental professionals who contribute to outstanding projects, improve environmental stewardship, and advance a more sustainable and resilient future for our communities and wild places.

At ESA, we provide benefits such as medical, dental, and vision insurance (paid at 70% for you AND your family), annual allocations of company share through our ESOP, a 401(k) plan with company match, and paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays, to name a few.

We also provide specific programs whether you want to further your technical expertise, sharpen your business acumen, or help lead the next generation of employee-owners. We want to support you in reaching your career goals through tuition reimbursement, professional development bonuses, and attendance at conferences.