DC Trail Rangers Job Description

Do you love being outdoors, riding bikes, and connecting with people? Want to be part of a collaborative trail team in DC, and be paid to engage with folks about trails and bikes?

The Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) is looking for passionate and energetic trail champions with a wide range of skills and experiences for our Trail Ranger Team. This winter, we are looking to hire a dependable and thoughtful person who can grow into their role and join our existing field team.

This position is expected to begin in early February 2025. Pay will be $49,000 annually , plus benefits. This position is a full-time opportunity, with four-day, 8-hour per shift work weeks. A standard work week will be Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday for individual staff. Shifts will vary in start time to ensure varied trail presence, more details are included below. 

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Spend the majority of your work hours outside, biking on or between trails year-round (except during thunderstorms, very cold days, and other hazardous conditions).
• Complete office tasks as assigned, and plan and implement individual office based projects. 
• Work eight-hour shifts with a partner, riding electric-assist cargo bikes at a relaxed, conversational pace.
• Collaborate with your team members to determine daily priorities and share program information. 
• Support and encourage trail use with friendly and helpful trail presence, regular maintenance efforts and consistent outreach events.
• Help lower barriers to bicycling, build community, and build a more robust trail network.
• Run trail cleanups, and a variety of programming and community events with the Lead Trail Rangers, including outdoor and indoor programming. 
• Perform trail condition inspections and trail corridor maintenance, including pruning branches, gathering trash, and removing obstructions.
• Track outreach and maintenance work in Google Sheets.

This position is based out of WABA’s Adams Morgan office in Washington, DC.

QUALIFICATIONS

There is not a standard job history, experience of biking, years of experience or skills set that made previous Trail Rangers successful. We would love to consider you as a candidate and don’t expect staff to know everything on day one! Give us your best pitch of how your professional and/or personal experience fits the job qualifications and the role in your cover letter.

Trail Rangers must have:

• A proven track record for being dependable, timely, and communicative.
• The willingness to be positive and engaging in a public setting.
• A proven track record for working collaboratively within a team and as a proactive self starter.
• Excellent communication skills in informal settings and across lines of difference.
• Creative problem-solving skills and capacity to innovate.
• The ability to prioritize and a thoughtful attention to detail.
• The capacity to be available for 32 hours per week in 8 hour shifts with weekday and weekend availability. Shifts are generally:
  • 6:30 am – 2:30 pm or 8:00 am – 4:00pm.
  • Individual Trail Rangers work Tuesday through Thursday and either Saturday or Sunday each week
• An understanding of the demands of a public facing and outreach focused position, and with that, the willingness to have their photo used for program documentation and promotion.
• A commitment to being a safe and exemplary bicyclist.
• A commitment to respect, include, and be kind to all.
• An understanding of how race, gender, and other factors shape conversations and experiences.  
• The willingness to continually learn more about trails, neighborhood history and the many different cultural competencies necessary for working in the DC region.
• The ability to ride a bike, with a willingness to ride in mixed city traffic and off-street trails.
• Candidates must be located in the Washington, DC area.

Additional qualifications and experience that are helpful, but not required:

• Lived experience with our program trails, and the nearby neighbors and neighborhoods, especially near Marvin Gaye and Oxon Run trails.
• Street smarts. By which we mean knowledge to make nuanced decisions while doing a field-based job, including recognizing hate language in graffiti, what might be at play in perceived threats to trail users and/or which options are safest for engaging angry members of the public. 
• Experience working in a multi-lingual, including mixed Deaf and hearing, work environment.
• Amateur or formal experience in mid-Atlantic plant identification and ecology, and native plant restoration. 
• Working fluency in Spanish, ASL and/or Amharic.
• Previous experience as a DC Trail Ranger. 
• Working knowledge of bicycle maintenance, up to and including flat repair, shifting adjustments, hydraulic brake maintenance, and regular maintenance tasks needed for the Tern fleet bikes (complicated maintenance will be performed by a local bicycle shop).
• Basic computer skills.
• Experience with Google Suite (Gmail, Chat, Drive, Sheets, Docs) and Salesforce.
• District residency is preferred. 

SUPPORT 

There’s a lot of work to do! Here’s some of what’s available to help get it done:

• Orientation and team management that prioritizes your well-being, including training in preventing common bicycling injuries.
• Doing our best to have a consistent schedule that respects your time and outside obligations. 
• Providing all the tools, bikes and materials needed to perform the job, including Tern electric cargo bikes.
• Over ten years of institutional knowledge in running the DC Trail Ranger program. 
• Teaching you the skills necessary for the job (urban bike riding, basic trail maintenance, basic bike maintenance, how to do field outreach, etc).
• An inclusive, collaborative professional team environment. 
• We are set up as an intersectional outreach program that recognizes the multitudes of identities and promotes diversity, inclusion, and equity for employees and the public.
• WABA’s other staff for knowledge sharing and collaboration. 
• A lot of other events and resources by WABA and trail partners to chat with trail users about. 

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS 

This is a full-time, non-exempt position with an annual salary of $49,000. Other benefits include:

• 100% employer-paid health, dental, and vision insurance premiums.
• Vacation, sick and personal leave, including:
  • Accrue up to 120 hours of paid vacation starting in your first year, with additional hours after two, five, and ten years of service.
  • Accrue up to 160 hours annually of paid sick time starting in your first year.
  • WABA supports and promotes the health of its staff. You may use accrued sick time for unscheduled leave when not feeling well (mind or body), as well as for scheduled medical appointments.
• Paid time off for holidays following the federal holiday calendar. 
• 4 weeks paid parental leave and up to 12 weeks of additional parental leave from the DC Paid Family Leave act (based on eligibility).
• Immediate access to WABA’s 403(b) retirement program, with up to a 5% employer match after one-year of service.
• Optional commuter transit benefit (pre tax deduction).
• A fun and relaxed workplace environment.

HOW TO APPLY 

Email your cover letter and resume to jobs[at]waba[dot]org with “DC Trail Ranger” as the subject line. Applications are due by January 15, 2025 and we expect the positions to start in mid February 2025. 

Please make sure your application illustrates how you meet the qualifications for the job and what additional skills you would bring to the team. Here are some helpful resources as you prepare your job application materials: compilation of resources and resume basics. Applications that do not include a cover letter will be considered incomplete. 

No phone calls please.

WABA is committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all persons regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, marital status, arrest record or criminal convictions, political affiliation, sexual orientation or gender identity, disability, sex, or age.

About the Trail Rangers Program

WABA’s Trail Ranger Program aims to make the District’s trails welcoming and inclusive to all residents, frequently used, and in a state of good repair. The program encourages trail use through daily trail presence, community engagement, trail maintenance, and trail user assistance.  Trail Rangers cover paved multi-use trails within the District, including the Oxon Run Trail, Metropolitan Branch Trail, Anacostia River Trail, Marvin Gaye Trail, and connecting street routes. Trail Rangers act as trail ambassadors, offering a consistent and friendly presence to make the trails more enjoyable, inclusive and dependable for transportation and recreation. 

Starting in January 2022, the Trail Ranger Program began year round staffing and operations (the program was seasonal for the previous nine years). Year round operation enables WABA to have a professional trail team with ongoing training and skill development.

You can learn more about the Trail Ranger Program here.

TEAM

The WABA Trail Ranger Team includes: the DC Trail Ranger field staff, two Lead Trail Ranger Managers, and a Trail Ranger Director. Day-to-day management of the program is done by the Lead Trail Rangers, with overall strategy and regional coordination by the Director. Team culture heavily values collaboration and mutual respect, with weekly all-staff team meetings and many decisions made or led by field staff. Individual Trail Rangers report directly to one of the Lead Trail Rangers.

ABOUT WABA

Mission & Vision

WABA empowers people to ride bikes, build connections, and transform places. We envision a just and sustainable transportation system where walking, biking, and transit are the best ways to get around.

Values

To make our vision a reality, we ground our work in five key values:

Joy: We celebrate people and share the joy of bicycling.

Boldness: We think big and transform passion into action.

Integrity: We earn trust through consistency, honesty, and transparency.

Justice: We put justice at the heart of our work.

Stewardship: We care for people and the environment, conserve resources, and evolve thoughtfully.

Learn more about WABA here.