Help to protect over 1,200 acres of environmentally sensitive land across Waterloo Region and Wellington County while providing a refuge for over 5,200 species and improving our community’s sustainability and health and well-being.
We love our dogs at rare! Not only are dogs allowed (on a leash) on our Grand Allée, Maple Lane, Deer Run, ECO Centre, Springbank, Neuman and Grand Trunk trails, our office is dog friendly! Dogs may be found in our Lamb’s Inn offices during work hours, looking for love.
At rare, we are dedicated to removing bias from our hiring process and have implemented an anonymous review component to our recruitment process. This means we remove your name, address and e-mail from your application/resume prior to it being reviewed by the hiring manager. This information is only made available to the hiring manager if you are selected for an interview.
We are committed to racial justice, reconciliation and equity-building and we welcome individuals from marginalized communities, including Black people, Indigenous people, people of colour, 2SLGBTQI+ and self-identifying women candidates applying for jobs at rare. We encourage people with disabilities to apply for jobs at rare. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process.
Note that rare is a Certified Living Wage Employer and we include the salary range in all postings.
Depending on funding, rare typically offers four paid internship positions each year in areas of monitoring, education, gardening, and land stewardship. An additional 3-5 summer student positions are also offered in areas of education, gardening and land stewardship. These are typically posted each spring.
Applicants should send a resume, cover letter, and the names, e-mail addresses and telephone numbers of two professional references as an attachment to an e-mail to [email protected]. If possible, please compile your documents into a single PDF File. Any application materials provided in the text of your e-mail will not be considered. Please include the name of the job position you are applying for in the subject line.
We do not accept applications over the phone. Only selected candidates will be contacted for an interview. References will not be contacted until you have been short-listed and informed.
We strongly encourage you to still apply! At rare, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment. We encourage your application even if you don't believe you meet every single qualification outlined, because we are committed to help you grow and develop!
Modelled after an academic institute or research lab more so than corporate Canada, the culture we strive for is a casual work environment that is positive, supportive and collegial. As an environmental organization, working at rare is not merely a job but a lifestyle choice where sustainability is a core value. This is reflected in our physical work environment as well as in finding ways to support a healthy balance of life and work.
As part of our orientation process, we invite you to be an active listener, observe your environment and ask as many questions as you like to help you understand the organization and its values. Most of our staff dress casually and we invite you to be yourself and dress how you are most comfortable to do your work. We all have different bodies to dress and it doesn’t matter what you wear, it only matters what you contribute to the collective work. It takes all kinds people to do good work collectively, and we treat each other in a friendly manner and with respect regardless of our differences.
People at rare follow a passion, and want to work towards a greater good by contributing to the team – our success is only as good as the entire team, but everyone needs to be able to work independently to contribute to that. This also means we assume that everyone has high expectations for themselves and their work, and we trust each other that everyone is trying to do their best work. If we see others struggle, we try to help and support them. We also try to focus people’s work around their strengths.
If you are struggling at home or at work we are here to listen and support you the best we can to find ways to accommodate you temporarily until the difficulties are resolved.
This environment of trust, and our academic culture, also means that we encourage taking risks, experimentation and ultimately failure on the way to success, but we try to fail forward (i.e. not making the same mistakes again). This also means that sometimes projects or ideas are emergent and take some time to develop, and not everything is urgent – we’re not working towards making the biggest profit for a corporation, but working towards finding the best ways on how we want to live sustainably, and that’s often not necessarily a straight path from start to finish. You will have a lot of freedom to develop yourself and ideas, and to a certain extent, everyone is expected to be a leader in their own area of work. Conferences, trainings, and particularly, reading and sometimes simply taking the time to thoroughly think things through, are all considered part of your work and encouraged.
You will find many opportunities to socialize with colleagues and supporters during outings, celebrations, all-hands-on-deck events, learning opportunities and shared meals.
For posted positions, applicants should send their resume, cover letter, and the names, e-mail addresses, and telephone numbers for two professional references as an attachment to the following email address: [email protected]. Please compile your documents into one pdf file. Any application materials provided within the body (text) of your email will not be considered. Please include the role you are applying for in the email subject line.
No phone calls, please. Only selected candidates will be contacted for an interview. References will not be contacted until you have been interviewed and informed.
We believe in diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging as something all people deserve in the workplace. We strive to create an organization where our employee population is reflecting the communities we live and work in. Some of the ways we try to achieve this are as follows:
Inclusive Job Postings – All job descriptions are reviewed for inclusive language, ensuring we are mindful of gendered language and language that could be considered exclusionary.
Anonymous Screening - We are dedicated to minimize bias in our hiring process. For this reason, we have implemented an anonymous review component to our recruitment process. This means that we will be removing your name, address and e-mail address from your application/resume prior to it being reviewed by the hiring manager, during the first stage of the recruitment process. If you are selected for an interview, this information will become available to the hiring manager only at that time.
Standardized Interviews – Every candidate for a role meets with the same panel of interviewers and goes through the same basic questions to ensure candidates are assessed by the same people and against the same competencies and requirements.
Interview in Panels – Every candidate will be interviewed by a panel of at least two interviewers.
Accessibility Accommodations for Interviews – We have a prompt in our interview invitations to make our team aware of accommodation needs you require. Accommodation requests are reviewed on a case by case basis. Examples of possible accommodations include; providing a written copy of the interview questions during the interview or adding time to an interview.
Don’t hesitate to contact us so we can support you in having a positive interview experience.
To ensure the safety of our staff, volunteers, and guests, the rare Charitable Research Reserve requires all staff to be fully vaccinated (at least two shots) against COVID-19 as a condition of employment.