Geospatial Data Engineer

Overview

The Department of Innovation and Technology is looking for a Geospatial Data Engineer to join our growing Analytics Team. 

As part of a highly collaborative group using data to improve all aspects of city government, the Geospatial Data Engineer will work on expanding our geospatial data infrastructure, developing ETL pipelines and open datasets involving geospatial data in coordination with other data engineers, and connecting our analysts to the data they need. Successful candidates will be able to work closely with other technical staff, project managers, and external partners across City government. They will have a strong understanding of geospatial data and tools, as well as data engineering principles and processes, and be able to work on a wide range of projects and with a variety of tools.

Responsibilities

• Sets up automated extract, transforms, and loads (ETL) workflows involving geospatial data.
• Coordinates building and maintenance of geospatial web applications and tools for different department users.
• Manages GIS infrastructure, maintaining GIS servers and enterprise geodatabases.
• Works closely with other members of the team to support their geospatial data needs and assist users in interacting with and connecting to databases.
• Independently researches and implements new tools and techniques to improve GIS infrastructure and geospatial data pipelines and processes.
• Analyzes existing code and makes suggestions for optimizing and migrating existing processes.
• Writes scripts to automate manual processes, improve existing ones, and troubleshoot problems as they occur.
• Works closely with data analysts and other staff to build geospatial data integrations that quickly and effectively solve reporting needs.
• Performs related work as required.

Minimum Entrance Qualifications

• Applicant must have at least four (4) years of full-time, or equivalent part-time, experience using databases to manage and process datasets (both geospatial and non-spatial) for reporting and analytics as part of a large organization.
• A bachelor's degree in computer science, mathematics, engineering, GIS, or another STEM field is preferred and may be substituted for two (2) years of the required experience.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills, including mapping of business needs or issues to technical solutions.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate technical nuances in plain language with partners of varying technical backgrounds.
• Excellent problem solving and critical thinking skills, as well as experience troubleshooting and debugging software and hardware issues.
• Extensive experience with Esri tools, including ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Enterprise, and ArcGIS Online.
• Experience with QGIS, Mapbox, and other open-source geospatial tools is strongly preferred.
• Advanced SQL query and data transformation skills, preferably using PostgreSQL and/or Transactional SQL (T-SQL).
• Familiarity with PostGIS preferred.
• Experience with lightweight scripting languages such as Python or Bash and with version control using Git.
• Familiarity with managing and supporting automated ETL and data synchronization.
• Familiarity with Amazon Web Services cloud computing ecosystem preferred.
• Experience in the public sector (especially local government) is desirable but not required.
• Must be able to exercise good judgment and focus on detail as required by the job.

BOSTON RESIDENCY REQUIRED

Terms:

Union/Salary Plan/Grade: SENA/MM1-9

Hours per week: 35