GIS Coordinator

Job Title: GIS Coordinator

Location: Remote

Terms: Full Time 37.5 Hours Per Week

Reports to: GIS Analyst III

About Us:

The American Forest Foundation (AFF) unlocks the power of family forests as a climate solution while helping thousands of landowners care for their land and improve forest health. Through its Family Forest Carbon Program, AFF expands access to the voluntary carbon market for family forest owners from all walks of life while producing high quality forest carbon credits to help companies reach their net zero goals. The organization's strategic direction seeks to enable family forests to capture and store one billion tonnes of carbon by 2050.

We do not do this alone. AFF works across a broad coalition of conservation partners, corporations, and policymakers to equip family forest owners with financial and technical support to implement sustainable forest management practices on their lands and activate their forests as a critical tool in the fight against climate change.

AFF is in a mode of complex problem solving and rapid iteration. All teams at AFF are working to discover solutions to the planet's most pressing climate issues through developing and iterating viable and scalable models for impact. AFF is driven by values of our shared purpose, measurable and verifiable results, and learning for continuous improvement to tackle big conservation challenges.

About the Role:

We're seeking a GIS Coordinator to support the FFCP team with geospatial data management, automation, and analysis while growing their technical skills. This role will play a critical role in maintaining the Family Forest Carbon Program's internal data, including sensitive landowner enrollment data ensuring data accuracy, integrity, and scalability. Reports based on analysis of such data will also aid in programmatic decision making. Your work will directly support program verification, reporting, and decision-making, while contributing to improvements in efficiency and automation.

Responsibilities:

• Conduct spatial analysis and data manipulation to identify areas with cost-effective climate benefits.
• Creates, updates, and maintains GIS data layers within GIS databases with detailed metadata.
• Create and edit maps to support internal and external communications.
• Manage sensitive landowner data, ensuring completeness, quality, and adherence to data safeguards.
• Utilization of Standard Operating Procedures to ensure data integrity, ensuring compliance and verification.
• Use ModelBuilder and Python scripting (Arcpy) to automate routine GIS tasks.
• Participate in trainings and skill-building opportunities to enhance GIS capabilities.
• Support special projects and cross-functional initiatives as needed.

Candidate Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Geographic Information Science, or equivalent coursework.
• Experience with GIS software, ideally ArcGIS Pro or QGIS.
• Experience with geodatabases, shapefiles, and metadata documentation; ability to organize and maintain spatial datasets.
• Proficiency in Geoprocessing tools, spatial data analysis, map projections, coordinate systems and map creation
• Proficient skills with the Microsoft Office suite of programs, particularly Excel.
• Comfortable working with cross-functional teams, presenting findings, and communicating with non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong attention to detail and commitment to data quality.
• Organizational skills to manage multiple tasks, meet deadlines, and support project workflows.
• Ability to troubleshoot data issues, ensure accuracy, and provide practical solutions to project challenges.
• Quick to learn new tools, methods, and technologies in the evolving GIS field.
• Interest in climate solutions, conservation, and working with landowners.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a fast-paced environment. Must be comfortable with working remotely.
• Time management skills, with the ability to prioritize, coordinate, and manage multiple priorities
• Professional or Academic experience with ArcGIS Pro, ArcMap, or QGIS for map creation, editing, and analysis.
• Basic SQL or Python scripting for data queries and automation.

Core Competencies:

• Agility - Thriving in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environments by anticipating and responding to changes with swift, focused and flexible actions.
• Collaborating with Others - Working together with others in a cooperative and supportive manner to achieve shared goals.
• Ensuring Accountability - Holding yourself and others to high standards of accountability, creating an infrastructure and transparent organization culture that supports and measures personal and organizational responsibility and accountability.
• Problem Solving - Identifying problems and the solutions to them. Your contributions and leadership will be appreciated. Our staff is passionate, dedicated and good at what they do, and will be deeply grateful for your efforts to create and preserve an environment that is both fun and fair.

Job Function Competencies:

• Data Visualization and Presentation - Creates clear, accurate maps using standard GIS tools. Applies basic cartographic principles to produce simple, well-structured visual products for technical and non-technical audiences.
• Attention to Detail - Maintains accuracy in spatial data, and documentation by carefully reviewing datasets, identifying inconsistencies, and ensuring all GIS products are usable by stakeholders.
• Analytical Thinking - Breaks down spatial problems and questions into actionable steps with appropriate GIS methods. Uses geoprocessing, spatial queries, and basic statistics to identify patterns and validate results.
• Information Gathering and Processing - Collects, verifies, and organizes spatial and tabular data from multiple sources. Performs data cleaning, formatting, and transformation while maintaining metadata and data integrity.
• Data Literacy - Understands core data concepts, including projections, coordinate systems, and data types. Interprets metadata and uses GIS tools to manipulate datasets effectively.

What's attractive to the candidate?:

• You have the unique and exciting opportunity to work with amazing colleagues, partners and landowners to help connect forest landowners with technical and financial assistance to better steward their land and achieve vital landscape-scale conservation impacts.
• Your contributions and leadership will be appreciated. Our staff is passionate, dedicated and good at what they do, and will be deeply grateful for your efforts to create and preserve an environment that is both fun and fair.
• We offer a flexible work environment that respects your life outside of work.
• Salary is commensurate with experience.
• AFF offers a comprehensive and competitive benefits package.

Contact us to apply

We know there are great candidates who may not check all these boxes, and we also know you might bring important skills that we haven't considered. If that applies to you, don't hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself.

https://www.forestfoundation.org/who-we-are/careers/

We are committed to creating a diverse work environment and proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status or any other basis protected by law.