Employment Opportunity

Position: GIS Coordinator
Organization: Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy 
Location: hybrid in Ontario (see below)

Overview

The Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy is the largest Ontario-based charitable land trust. Since 1997, we have permanently protected more than 25,000 acres of ecologically significant forests,  wetlands, alvars, shorelines, and Niagara Escarpment landscapes through acquisition, conservation easements, and long-term stewardship. Our work is entering an exciting new phase. Through the Living Landscapes Campaign, we are seeking to protect 8,000 acres by 2030 while building the conservation and stewardship capacity needed to care for these lands forever.

The GIS Coordinator will work across the organization, supporting land securement, stewardship, conservation planning, fundraising, communications, and senior management. The position will be responsible for maintaining the organization’s spatial data and systems while also developing the analyses and tools needed to understand conservation opportunities at both the property and landscape scale. We are looking for an exceptional GIS professional who wants to help shape how one of Ontario's leading conservation organizations identifies, evaluates, protects, and stewards important landscapes.

Employment type Full-time, 37.5 hrs/week (hybrid), permanent, reporting to the Manager of Land Securement, but providing support to all departments.
Location Remote.

Travel Flexibility: While primarily a hybrid role, this position offers the exciting potential for occasional travel to support specific projects across Ontario. Candidates will have the unique opportunity to visit and work in beautiful regional areas like the Niagara Escarpment, Saugeen Peninsula, and Manitoulin Island as operational needs arise.

What We Offer

• An annual salary of $55,000 to $70,000 depending on qualifications and experience
• A comprehensive health benefits package
• Flexible work arrangements
• Welcoming, uplifting and supportive staff colleagues, volunteers, board members and partners
• Professional development opportunities and a dedication to wellness of staff members
• The opportunity to develop and shape our organization's growing GIS and conservation planning capacity
• The opportunity to work across some of Ontario's most spectacular landscapes
• Meaningful work that directly contributes to the permanent protection of important natural areas

The Opportunity

This is not a traditional GIS technician position.

We are looking for someone who understands that GIS is more than making maps. The successful candidate will help the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy use geographic information to make better conservation decisions, from identifying high-priority landscapes, to evaluating prospective conservation properties, to supporting stewardship of lands already protected.

You will work closely with our land securement, stewardship, conservation planning, and senior management teams. You will help maintain the organization’s spatial data, develop conservation analyses, produce maps and decision-support tools, and build systems that make our conservation work more effective. As the organization continues to grow, the GIS Coordinator will have significant opportunity to shape how geographic information is collected, managed, analyzed, and used across the organization.

Primary Responsibilities

Conservation Planning and GIS Analysis

• Support development and refinement of the organization’s Conservation Geography and land conservation priority mapping
• Analyze natural heritage, ecological, geological, hydrological, landscape, planning, and other spatial information relevant to conservation
• Develop GIS analyses to identify conservation priorities, ecological connectivity, landscape-scale opportunities, and areas of natural heritage significance
• Support development of repeatable and defensible GIS methodologies for conservation decision-making
• Help evaluate prospective conservation properties within their broader landscape context
• Identify data gaps, limitations, inconsistencies, and potential biases in spatial datasets
• Help translate complex spatial analysis into clear recommendations for staff and decision-makers

Land Securement

• Provide GIS support throughout the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy's land securement process
• Prepare property maps and spatial information for prospective conservation projects
• Support preliminary property screening and conservation due diligence
• Analyze property boundaries, natural heritage features, planning designations, adjacent protected lands,
  roads, water features, and other relevant information
• Prepare maps and spatial information for landowner meetings, conservation agreements, Ecological Gifts,
  surveys, appraisals, legal review, and closing processes
• Maintain accurate GIS records of newly protected properties and conservation interests

Stewardship

• Support mapping and spatial analysis for the organization’s nature preserves and conservation easements
• Maintain spatial information relating to conservation boundaries, ecological features, trails, access points, infrastructure, restoration areas, and management activities
• Support field data collection and GPS/GIS workflows
• Prepare maps for stewardship planning, monitoring, restoration, and property management
• Help identify landscape-scale restoration and stewardship opportunities
• Support the Landscape platform implementation to optimize land trust stewardship. Coordinates data
  migration, update layers, problem-shooting support to staff and efficient long-term conservation management.
• Assist in managing and updating the Landscape (Land Conservation Software) database as well as provide
  support to staff in stewardship, monitoring, inventory of work items, trails, etc.

GIS Data and Systems

• Maintain Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy’s organizational GIS database and spatial data infrastructure
• Integrate and manage data from municipal, provincial, federal, conservation authority, Indigenous, and other sources
• Develop standards for data organization, metadata, naming conventions, symbology, and quality control
• Maintain documentation regarding data sources, currency, limitations, and appropriate uses
• Support integration between the GIS system and the organization’s project tracking, securement, and stewardship systems
• Identify opportunities to improve efficiency through automation, web GIS, dashboards, and other tools like Landscape conservation software

Mapping and Communication

• Produce clear, professional maps for Board meetings, landowner discussions, securement projects, stewardship, funding applications, reports, presentations, and public communications
• Develop web maps and other accessible GIS products where appropriate
• Communicate GIS findings clearly to staff, volunteers, Board members, landowners, partners, and other non technical audiences
• Help ensure that the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy’s maps and spatial information are consistent, accurate, and professionally presented

GIS Capacity Building

• Provide GIS support and advice to other staff
• Develop simple procedures and training materials for staff using GIS
• Support appropriate use of mobile GIS and field data-collection tools
• Stay current with relevant GIS technology, conservation planning approaches, and Ontario natural heritage information
• Help build organizational GIS capacity so that spatial information is accessible and useful beyond the GIS function itself

Qualifications

The ideal candidate will possess many of the following:

• Post-secondary education in Geographic Information Systems, Geography, Environmental Science, Natural Resources, Planning, or a related field
• Three or more years of progressively responsible GIS experience
• Strong experience with ArcGIS Pro
• Demonstrated experience with spatial analysis, cartography, and spatial data management
• Experience working with multiple GIS data sources and formats
• Strong understanding of data quality, metadata, coordinate systems, and GIS best practices
• Excellent organizational and project management abilities
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Ability to communicate technical information clearly to non-technical audiences
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously
• A valid driver's licence and willingness to travel throughout Ontario

Assets

Experience in one or more of the following would be considered an asset:

• Conservation organizations or charitable land trusts
• Knowledge of Ontario natural heritage systems and conservation planning frameworks
• Ontario municipal planning and Official Plans
• Niagara Escarpment planning
• Stewardship and ecological monitoring
• ArcGIS Online, Field Maps, Survey123, dashboards, or web GIS
• GPS/GNSS field data collection
• Spatial modelling or multi-criteria decision analysis
• LiDAR, remote sensing, aerial imagery, or other environmental datasets
• GIS automation using Python, SQL, ModelBuilder, Arcade, or similar tools
• Landscape Land Conservation Software
• Experience incorporating Indigenous knowledge, local knowledge, or community-based information into conservation planning

The successful candidate will be:

• Curious and analytical
• Highly organized and detail-oriented
• Conservation-minded
• A strong problem solver
• Comfortable working independently and collaboratively
• Able to explain technical information in practical and accessible ways
• Creative in finding new ways to use GIS to support conservation
• Comfortable working with imperfect or incomplete datasets
• Thoughtful about data limitations, uncertainty, and bias
• Diplomatic and professional
• Excited by the opportunity to help build the systems and capacity of a growing conservation organization

Most importantly, we are looking for someone who understands that good GIS supports good conservation decisions.

Why join us?

This is a rare opportunity to help shape the geographic information and conservation planning capacity of one of Ontario's leading conservation organizations.

The Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy is growing rapidly, with ambitious plans to protect thousands of additional acres, expand stewardship programs, strengthen Indigenous relationships, and build a more strategic approach to landscape-scale conservation.

The GIS Coordinator will play an important role in this next phase of growth. Your work will help the organization understand where conservation matters most, evaluate opportunities to protect important landscapes, support the long-term stewardship of conserved lands, and communicate our conservation impact. You will work alongside a passionate team of conservation professionals and have the opportunity to see firsthand some of Ontario's most important and spectacular natural landscapes. Your work will directly contribute to the enduring protection of these places for future generations.

Application Process

Application deadline: Applications will be received until the position is filled
Start date: Immediate (with some flexibility)

How to apply:

Please email both a cover letter and resume to finance@escarpment.ca . Indicate your name and the position title in the subject line.

Please mention you saw this at GoodWork.ca.

Only applications submitted via email will be accepted; applications submitted through LinkedIn and other online career portals will not be considered. We thank all applicants for their interest in the position, however only the selected candidates will be
contacted for interview.

The Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy welcomes applications from racialized groups, ethnic minorities, women, Indigenous People, people with disabilities, and +2SLGBTQ people. This is an equity employment opportunity and we encourage members of the communities mentioned above to self-identify.