GIS Analyst

A.I.S., Inc. (AIS) is a national scientific services firm supporting maritime activities requiring certification of compliance with environmental regulations as well as collecting data for use by Federal, State, Municipal, and other government agencies along the US coastline.

Primary Function:

The US Forest Service is a multifaceted agency that manages and protects 154 national forest and 20 grasslands in 43 states and Puerto Rico. The agency’s mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations.

The USDA Forest Service requires support with development, streamlining, and implementation of workflows to prepare and process datasets supporting mission critical goals such as National Forest monitoring, National Forest plan revision and amendment, Emergency Action Determinations (EAD), post-fire rapid assessments, fire suppression operations and other emergency activities, development of National Forest Land Management Plans, and natural resource monitoring and assessments.

Duties/Responsibilities:

• Apply natural resource and geospatial skills to analyze complex resource management challenges and provide the team and management with recommendations.
• Automation of multi-scale (i.e., ecoregion subsection, forest and bioregional scale) analysis of data.
• Compile datasets for natural resource data and download corporate data from the Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW).
• Use cloud-based tools such as Google Earth Engine to process and analyze satellite imagery for use in applications including assessing trends in fire severity and vegetation disturbance and change detection.
• Gather, process, and develop raster surfaces for modeling ecosystem dynamics, disturbance regimes, time-series analysis and other vegetation analytics.
• Develop tabular summaries of information contained in geospatial datasets.
• Develop cartographic products and perform live on-screen presentations to show FS personnel and the public how data sets were created, how to interpret the resultant outputs, and to present preliminary summary statistics.
• Maintain project information in tracking spreadsheets and disseminated monthly updates. Participate in meetings to review, discuss, and revise project information tracking spreadsheets and any associated deadlines and deliverables.
• Validate accuracy of datasets.

Compensation: Candidates will be paid an hourly rate to be negotiated and total compensation will vary depending on candidates’ experience. This is a full–time position. AIS benefits package includes health and dental insurance, vacation, sick and holiday benefits.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Geographic Information Systems, Forestry, Ecology, Wildlife Biology, Soils, Geology, Hydrology, Geography or Earth Science, or related natural resource/science degree and five (5) years of extensive and progressive experience in a field requiring extensive use of GIS and related tools. OR Ten (10) years of intensive and progressive experience in a field requiring extensive use of GIS and related tools accompanied by a High School degree or equivalent.
• Experience working with the Forest Service or other public land management agencies
• Knowledge and ability to work within the ArcGIS Online environment; writing custom scripts for modeling in ArcGIS
• Ability to conduct geospatial analysis and modeling at multiple spatial scales for natural resource management applications
• Awareness of geospatial statistics, especially as they pertain to natural resource management.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s degree from an accredited college or university in GIS or with GIS
• Advanced knowledge of scripting languages such as R, R Studio, Python, etc.
• Knowledge of and demonstrated skill in the use of the following software preferred: ESRI GIS products including ArcGIS dashboard, ArcGIS desktop, ArcSDE for Oracle, ArcGIS Pro, AGOL and associated extensions, ArcGIS Server, Collector, Navigator and Explorer for ArcGIS, PL/SQL Developer, and Microsoft Access databases including numerous other related programs running on a client’s Intra/Extranet servers

Travel:

• Travel may be required to the Regional Office, specific National Forests or Ranger District locations throughout Region 5 in accordance with the needs of specific projects.

Location:

• R5 Regional Office at 1323 Club Dr, Vallejo, CA
• Remote work available.