GIS Job at RPA

Regional Plan Association is looking for a Geographic Information System (GIS) Specialist to work in our New York office.

Regional Plan Association (http://www.rpa.org/) is an independent, not-for-profit regional planning organization that improves the quality of life and the economic competitiveness of the 31-county New York-New Jersey-Connecticut region through research, planning, and advocacy. For more than 80 years, RPA has been shaping transportation systems, protecting open spaces, and promoting better community design for the region's continued growth. We anticipate the challenges the region will face in the years to come, and we mobilize the region's civic, business, and government sectors to take action.

The nation's most influential independent regional planning organization since 1922, RPA has a storied history but is more relevant than ever in the 21st Century. RPA's First Plan in 1929 provided the blueprint for the transportation and open space networks that we take for granted
today. The Second Plan, completed in 1968, was instrumental in restoring our deteriorated mass transit system, preserving threatened natural resources and revitalizing our urban centers. Released in 1996, RPA's Third Regional Plan, "A Region at Risk," warned that new global trends
had fundamentally altered New York's national and global position. The plan called for building a seamless 21st century mass transit system, creating a three-million acre Greensward network of protected natural resource systems, maintaining half the region's employment in urban centers, and assisting minority and immigrant communities to fully participate in the economic mainstream.

RPA's current work is aimed largely at implementing the ideas put forth in the Third Regional Plan, with efforts focused in five project areas: community design, open space, transportation, workforce and the economy, and housing.

TYPICAL WORK ACTIVITIES
* Responsible for collecting, creating, analyzing, storing and maintaining regional spatial data, maps, and metadata.
* Responsible for the design and maintenance of the GIS hardware and software
* Develops a strategic workplan addressing user needs and projecting future system enhancements.
* Serves as a liaison with project managers.
* Provides technical advice to project managers, analyzes project requests, better defines user needs and develops solutions based on those needs.
* Prepares maps and other graphic products. Handles requests from the public for maps and GIS data.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, ABILITIES
Thorough knowledge of
o ESRI software, specifically ArcGIS ArcView and ArcInfo products.
o GIS principles such as projections, coordinate systems, scale, etc.
o GIS as a tool in reaching solutions to municipal and regional planning problems.

Good knowledge of
o Cartographic principles and utilizing maps for storyboards/storytelling.
o Database management, application, design, implementation and maintenance.
o Statistics, photogrammetry, surveying, commuter aided drafting and design (CADD), and remote sensing.

Ability to
o communicate effectively with project managers as well as outside agencies.
o coordinate multiple projects simultaneously and streamline quick requests.
o integrate and Geo-statistical Software (SPSS/GEODA), Google Earth, Sketch-up, and other programs with GIS.

Excellent oral and written communication skills and strong project management skills

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
B.A. in Geography, Urban Planning, or a closely related field must have fifteen (15) credit hours in GIS.
OR
Five (5) years of professional level work experience using ESRI products including creating and modifying GIS data.

A PLUS
1 year experience using ArcGIS Extensions, ArcSDE, and ArcServer, Microsoft Access, Adobe Creative Suite.

TO APPLY FOR THIS POSITION:
Submit a cover letter, resume and written GIS project sample to resumes@rpa.org.