Associate GIS Specialist

Note: This position is temporary funded for two years with the possibility of further extension

THE AGENCY
The Department of City Planning (DCP) plans for the strategic growth and development of the City through ground-up planning with communities, the development of land use policies and zoning regulations applicable citywide and sharing its perspectives on growth and community needs with sister agencies in collaboration with the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

DCP is a great place to work – cultivating intellectual inspiration, professional development, and creativity. Visit our website at www.nyc.gov/planning to access the full listing of job opportunities and to learn more about our great agency.


THE DIVISION
Information Technology Division (ITD) is responsible for supporting the agency’s technology footprint, including technology infrastructure across five boroughs, as well as workflow applications and databases for analytics and decision-making. The division is comprised of 50+ inter-disciplinary staff with specialties in desktop support, server engineering, telecom, application development, database maintenance, data processing, data visualization and mapping, amongst many others. The division provides technology support for agency staff across five boroughs.

Within ITD, the Geographic Information and Systems (GIS) team is responsible for managing the agency’s extensive geographic data warehouse, collaborating on the agency’s data strategy, and promoting good data practices amongst data users throughout the agency. They are tasked with updating and maintaining core citywide data sets in support of the operations of city agencies; and improving the creation, use, and availability of geospatial data sets and tools within the agency.


THE ROLE
ITD’s GIS team is seeking a skilled and highly motivated Associate GIS Specialist. The Associate GIS Specialist will work to improve GIS and data users’ experiences by understanding their use cases and devising solutions to meet their needs; providing guidance on the use of ArcGIS Pro and other GIS software; planning for and deploying a modern ArcGIS Enterprise system; expanding data offerings; and building spatial tools to automate tasks. The new hire will have a role in building tools to improve how the GIS team completes regular tasks and processes, re-envisioning the GIS technologies used by the agency’s 100+ GIS users, collaborating on the modernization of the Citywide Street Centerline (CSCL) maintenance system, and documenting processes and procedures. The ideal candidate will be passionate about data literacy, quality, and accessibility, and excited about advancing the adoption of new technologies in DCP and City government.

Under limited supervision, the Associate GIS Specialist’s primary areas of responsibility include, but are not limited to:

- Collaborating on the administration, improvement, maintenance, and modernization of DCP’s GIS and data management infrastructure and tools with guidance from leadership

- Collaborating with agency GIS users to understand their use cases for geospatial data, spatial analysis, web mapping, and work processes, to improve, automate, and increase efficiency of planner’s routine tasks.

- Researching and promoting new ways to leverage GIS technologies within the agency

- Providing GIS technical assistance and support for internal users

- Promoting good data and documentation practices amongst data users throughout the agency, ensuring that users can find the data they need, understand the appropriate uses of the data, and follow best practices for creating data sets within their areas of expertise

- Assisting the Open Data Coordinator in maintaining and expanding the agency’s open data offerings and responding to questions about agency data from the public

- Developing strong understanding of data sets produced by City Planning, and both how planners, the public, and public-facing applications use or consume agency data

- Sharing accomplishments and lessons learned via blog posts, presentations, or other mediums

1. A baccalaureate degree in computer science, engineering or a related field from an accredited college and four years of satisfactory full-time experience related to IT automation engineering, monitoring engineering, management of infrastructure; or

2. Eight years of satisfactory full-time experience related to IT automation engineering, monitoring engineering, management of infrastructure;

3. Education and/or experience which is equivalent to "1" or "2" above.

The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.