Geospatial Analyst

Description

National Forest Foundation (NFF) is pleased to offer an exempt, full-time, 3 Year Term position that will design, build, and manage innovative geospatial solutions, perform spatial analysis, and work closely with conservation teams and external partners to organize, clean, and manage data workflows for new and historic reforestation, recreation, and wildfire planning and restoration projects.

About the NFF: As the official national partner to the US Forest Service (USFS), the National Forest Foundation was chartered by Congress in 1993. Today, the NFF advances forest resiliency, healthy watersheds and wildlife habitat, and recreation for all by working with communities and organizations across the country. The Foundation has grown significantly in the last few years in programmatic impact, revenue and support, and organizational capacity. NFF leads with impact, deploying roughly 90% of its expenses towards projects and programs across the country’s 193-million-acre National Forest System. NFF is forward-thinking and innovative, with ambitious strategies and goals to advance and prepare forests for a new economy.

Position Function: The National Forest Foundation is seeking a highly motivated, full-time Geospatial Analyst with expert GIS skills to join our team of cutting-edge, passionate conservation professionals working in a cross-departmental, fast-paced, collaborative environment to help design, build and manage innovative geospatial solutions in service of restoring and protecting people, nature, and our planet. The Geospatial Analyst reports directly to the GIS Program Developer and will be responsible for transforming data (both spatial and non-spatial), curating, and performing QA/QC on project site information (including boundaries shapes, feature GPS points, geotagged photos, spreadsheets, timber cards, etc.) while ensuring the data meets National Forest Foundation’s high quality monitoring data requirements. The analyst will develop GIS data schema and governance, implement documentation and thorough metadata. The analyst will accurately record and integrate data into the National Forest Foundation Projects geospatial databases, ArcGIS Online (AGOL), ArcGIS Hub, and eventually cloud-based ArcGIS Enterprise. The GIS databases will support large-scale growth, impact assessment and monitoring, and grant, financial, and project reporting.?

To be successful in this role, the Geospatial Analyst will be agile and excel at working in an environment with shifting priorities, be a team player, collaborate effectively, seek innovation, be engaged, proactive, and an excellent communicator. The Geospatial Analyst will develop, ingest, and organize data into National Forest Foundations geospatial data schemas and associated workflows sourced from a broad range of platforms, including geospatial and non-geospatial platforms such as AGOL, ArcGIS Hub, ArcGIS Enterprise, Google Earth, multimedia platforms, Microsoft Dynamics, Avenza and others. The ideal candidate will also have experience with Azure SQL databases and be able to write scripts (Python, etc.) for data syncing and QA/QC automation. Experience managing AGOL and ArcGIS Hub groups, creating out of the box geospatial applications including Experience Builder, Dashboards, Storymaps, and Esri’s Survey123 and Field Maps suite of products, and managing data in ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Hub is necessary. Experience with cloud-based ArcGIS Enterprise is a plus. Experience with cloud-based Microsoft Azure environments and working with data in Microsoft Azure Dynamics 365 SQL databases is preferred. The analyst will work closely with the GIS Team, National Forest Foundation project managers and implementation partners throughout the data QA/QC lifecycle.

The Geospatial Analyst will play a critical role in strengthening our many fields including wildfire resilience, conservation, reforestation, recreation, restoration, and through partnerships. The analyst will perform spatial analysis and modeling in support of this work. Frequent collaboration with restoration and reforestation and recreation sector partners and data/technology solution providers will be a part of this role. The successful candidate will work in a cross-departmental, fast-paced, collaborative, agile environment to power analytics and information that serve the measurement, evaluation, verification, reporting, data-driven decision making and storytelling functions of the organization.

Position Duties and Responsibilities: The Geospatial Analyst will:

Manage/Organize Geospatial Data: 60%

Responsibilities

The Geospatial Analyst will be responsible for managing and organizing geospatial data to ensure accuracy of polygons, lines, and points, and creating workflows for accessing and providing feedback on data accuracies to project managers, partners, implementation contractors, and other stakeholders. The analyst will be responsible for ingesting data (both spatial and non-spatial) into databases, managing consistent flows of data coming in from multiple platforms and data types. Other key responsibilities include:

• Developing and implementing data quality control procedures to ensure accuracy and completeness of geospatial data.
• Working with geospatial databases to store, manage, and analyze data.
• Collaborating with project managers and other stakeholders to identify data needs and requirements.
• Creating data workflows and automating data processing tasks to improve efficiency and reduce errors.
• Adjusting coordinate system projections to meet mapping needs at country, regional, local, and other geographic scales.
• Developing and maintaining metadata documentation to ensure data can be easily discovered, understood, and used by others.
• Create process documents
• Providing technical support and training to internal and external users on geospatial data management and analysis tools and workflows. This could also include 1-on-1 or group sessions with staff and partners to support them in collecting and reporting high quality data.
  
  

Create Geospatial Maps, Apps and Products: 20%

• Develop ArcGIS out-of-the-box web applications that that support programs’ work, and that showcase data, imagery, and geo-tagged photos to support organizational goals and data-driven decision making needs. Experience with ArcGIS Hub, Experience Builder, Dashboards, Storymaps, ArcGIS Survey123 and Field Maps suite of applications, , ArcGIS Business Analyst, and Location Tracking is necessary.
• Collaborate with various teams within the organization to assist in the creation of compelling storytelling maps and products using geospatial data and techniques.
• Create internal products and tools to facilitate data collection, processing, and analysis, and support efforts to improve the organization's understanding and insights into monitoring data and donor and grants management.
• Develop organization branded map templates and support GIS and team needs across the organization.
• Create process documents and thorough metadata
• Provide technical support and training to internal and external users.
  
  

Perform Geospatial Analysis and Modeling: 20%

• Perform spatial analysis with National Forest Foundation and other datasets to produce insights into the data at the country, regional, local, and other geographic scales.
• Perform spatial analysis, modeling, and data enrichment using external data sources available through Esri’s Living Atlas and through partners, government agencies and other sources to produce derived data layers for impact and donor reporting, apps, maps, statistics, and other insight products.
• Create process documents and thorough metadata
• Provide technical support and training to internal and external users
  
  

Education and Qualifications: NFF expects the Geospatial Analyst to possess the following educational and experiential qualifications:

• Minimum of an undergraduate degree in computer science, information systems, geography, environmental science, forestry, or another related field (or equivalent experience).
• A minimum of two (2) years of experience. Must demonstrate relevant experience in a related role in a highly successful and functioning environment.?
• Experience with non-profit organizations and remote GIS environments is a plus.
• Must be authorized to work in the United States.?
  
  

Abilities and Skills: NFF expects the Geospatial Analyst to possess the following proven abilities and skills:

• Ability to work independently, attend meetings, and manage geospatial work with minimal oversight.?
• Ability to be agile and excel at working in an environment with shifting priorities
• Ability to be a team player and collaborate effectively
• Ability to be innovative, engaged, proactive, and embrace growth
• Ability to manage multiple projects and tasks effectively and simultaneously to successful completion.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, both oral and written, with the ability to work effectively and with flexibility in a team environment, and with the ability to translate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong time management and project management skills.
• Excellent analytical skills with strong attention to detail.
• Experience working in an organization ArcGIS software solution stack in a cloud-based environment (ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Hub, ArcGIS Enterprise, and associated applications).
• Experience managing AGOL and ArcGIS Hub groups, creating out of the box geospatial applications including Experience Builder, Dashboards, Storymaps, and Esri’s Survey123 and Field Maps suite of products, and managing data in ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Hub.
• Expert proficiency in ArcGIS Pro software and be able to use it to perform various spatial analysis tasks.
• Knowledge of geospatial data formats: Understanding of common geospatial data formats such as shapefiles, geodatabases, and KML files is important for the Geospatial Analyst to be able to ingest and manage geospatial data.?
• Experience working with geospatial data schemas and models for vector, raster, and geo-tagged multimedia data types.
• Experience transforming both spatial and non-spatial data types to support National Forest Foundation workflows, systems integrations, and GIS-based applications.
• Integration of data from multiple sources to ensure accurate tracking of data flowing into the organization.
• Experience with spatial analysis and modeling.
• Experience with custom coding using Python, R and other languages to support data integration across applications and into the National Forest Foundation website a plus.
• Understanding of database management principles and proficiency with SQL and other database query languages is a plus.
• Knowledge of drone and satellite imagery analytics and AI/ML predictive modeling is a plus.
• Experience with cloud-based Microsoft Azure environments and working with data in Microsoft Azure Dynamics 365 SQL databases is a plus.
  
  

Location: The location for this position is flexible throughout the lower 48 states, in the United States. This position is a remote/work-from-home position and requires reliable internet access and a dedicated workspace.

Compensation: The NFF offers competitive compensation and benefits. The salary for this position is $72,600 with the ability to grow to $99,000 and above.

Benefits: NFF is proud to offer our staff:

• Medical and dental insurance paid at 75% by the organization for you and any dependents.
• Vision insurance paid 50% by the organization for you and any dependents.
• Health savings account (HSA) with employer contributions between $1,878-$3,750 per year, predicated on coverage type.
• Generous paid time off ranging from 35-45 days of combined vacation, sick, personal leave, and holidays.
• Family & medical leave for up to sixteen (16) weeks with up to four (4) weeks paid.
• 403(b) retirement plan with a 5% employer match after one (1) year of service.
• Healthcare and dependent care flexible spending accounts (FSA).
• Basic life and AD&D insurance at no cost, with voluntary life insurance options.
• Short-term and long-term disability insurance at no cost.
• Employee assistance program (EAP) at no cost.
• Professional development reimbursement for up to $1,000 per year.
  
  

To Apply: Applications must include both a cover letter and resume. Incomplete packages will not be considered. Please apply by June 15th. Please visit our careers site to apply online.

The National Forest Foundation is an equal opportunity employer – meaning we provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to any characteristic protected by applicable law. Further, we prohibit discrimination, harassment, and retaliation in all aspects of employment, including recruitment, hiring, promotion, compensation, benefits, training, and termination. We strive to foster a work environment where every individual is respected, valued, and treated fairly. This statement reflects our unwavering dedication to fairness, respect, and equality in employment practices and sets the foundation for a positive work environment.