Backend Geospatial Engineer II

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Arizona, +3 more states.

📋 Description

• Develop and sustain production-quality backend services, APIs, data-access layers, workflow services, and reusable software components.

• Create and enhance data models and storage solutions for raster and vector geospatial data.

• Construct and manage ETL/ELT pipelines that ingest, process, and transform geospatial and remote sensing data on a large scale.

• Integrate cloud services for data storage, computing, and orchestration of geospatial workflows.

• Write clean, maintainable, and well-tested code while participating in code reviews and architectural decisions.

• Contribute to CI/CD pipelines for infrastructure, backend applications, data workflows, and analytical services.

• Design and implement automated tests, data validation, and data quality checks.

• Establish checks for data completeness, consistency, schema conformance, spatial integrity, metadata, and analytical accuracy.

• Perform accuracy assessments, error analysis, uncertainty analysis, spatial cross-validation, bias checks, and other quantitative evaluations.

• Create, curate, and maintain benchmark and reference datasets for automated validation and regression testing.

• Document validation methods, test outcomes, and acceptance criteria.

• Identify data gaps, methodological weaknesses, and limitations impacting interpretation or delivery.

• Set quality assurance and validation standards, templates, checklists, review gates, and documentation protocols.

• Promote reproducible practices through versioning of data, code, methods, assumptions, and outputs.

• Analyze recurring defects or process failures and implement improvements to minimize risk and rework.

• Communicate validation findings, uncertainties, limitations, and recommendations to both technical and non-technical audiences.

• Contribute technical and quality assurance documentation to reports, client deliverables, proposals, presentations, and publications.

• Coordinate development and quality assurance activities with project managers and technical leads.

• Support discussions with clients and partners regarding system reliability, data quality, and suitable usage.

⛳️ Requirements

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in computer science, software engineering, information systems, engineering, geography, environmental science, or a related technical field.

• Over 3 years of professional backend software development experience, including significant work with geospatial data.

• Experience with geospatial APIs and data interoperability standards such as pygeoapi.

• Understanding of geospatial data architecture, including PostGIS, GDAL, raster and vector data, and OGC standards.

• Proficiency in Python for backend development, including API and data pipeline construction.

• Familiarity with geospatial data standards and architecture.

• Experience validating remote sensing, machine learning, deep learning, image classification, segmentation, or predictive modeling outputs.

• Experience with cloud platforms and production operations, including deployment, monitoring, and CI/CD, such as AWS, GCP, or Azure.

• Knowledge of CI/CD practices.

• Experience with Git/GitHub or similar version-control workflows.

• Experience in designing and conducting accuracy assessments, validation studies, sampling strategies, or quantitative quality evaluations.

• Strong understanding of spatial statistics, uncertainty, bias, error metrics, and interpretation of analytical results.

• Excellent documentation skills and experience in maintaining clear, traceable records of methods, findings, and decisions.

• Exceptional attention to detail and ability to conduct independent, objective technical reviews.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical limitations and risks to diverse audiences.

• U.S. Citizenship or legal authorization to work in the U.S. without the need for future sponsorship.

• Helpful: familiarity with ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Enterprise.

• Helpful: experience in wetland science, field delineation, hydrology, geomorphology, ecology, or environmental regulatory applications.

• Helpful: experience in designing or managing field data collection, expert review, or imagery interpretation protocols.

• Helpful: experience with cloud-based data pipelines, automated testing, data contracts, or production quality assurance systems.

• Helpful: familiarity with federal scientific standards, data quality objectives, reproducibility requirements, or formal verification and validation practices.

• Helpful: experience in authoring peer-reviewed publications, validation reports, technical methods, or audit-ready documentation.

• Helpful: experience supporting government, nonprofit, consulting, or mission-driven technical projects.

🏝️ Benefits

• 3x employer contribution towards retirement matching employee contribution up to 15%.

• Health insurance, with the Institute covering 90–95% of medical plan costs.

• Dental insurance, with all dental plan costs paid by the Institute.

• Vision insurance.

• 100% reimbursement of the health care deductible through a health reimbursement account.

• Short-term disability coverage.

• Long-term disability coverage.

• Paid parental leave.

• Voluntary accident insurance.

• Health care flexible spending account.

• Dependent care flexible spending account.

• Paid holidays, vacation, personal, sick, bereavement, and jury duty leave.

• Office closure between December 24 and January 1 each calendar year.

• Flexible schedule.

• Option for a compressed four-day workweek.

• Tuition and staff development reimbursement.

• Pet insurance.

• Employee Assistance Program.