Information Systems Specialist 5 (Area GIS Coordinator) w/ Oregon Department of Forestry

Description
There is currently one permanent, full-time position open with the Oregon Department of Forestry. This position's location can be at one of the following District/Unit offices: Forest Grove, Tillamook or Astoria. Location negotiated at time of hiring.  This recruitment will be used to fill this current ISS 5 vacancy and may be used to fill future ISS 5 vacancies as they occur.  For specific questions regarding this position, please contact Michael Wilson, Acting Information Unit Manager, at (503) 945-7374.

The Oregon Department of Forestry's (ODF) Mission is – To serve the people of Oregon through the protection, management, and promotion of a healthy forest environment, which will enhance Oregon's livability and economy for today and tomorrow.  ODF is a multi-programmed, multi-funded public agency chartered and structured to administer the forest laws and policies of the State of Oregon, within the framework of sustainable forests, for the benefit of all Oregonians.

This position serves the Department of Forestry's Astoria, Tillamook and Forest Grove Districts, supporting the agency's State Forests, Protection, and Private Forest Divisions.  The State Forests Division manages 502,000 acres on these Districts, and revenues received from management activities are distributed to the counties and Common School Fund, along with offsets to the costs of operation.  The Protection Division coordinates and implements fire protection, detection, and suppression on 2,103,000 acres of state, private, federal, and municipal lands on these Districts. The Private Forests Division develops and administers regional rules designed to assure sustainable harvesting of forest tree species while protecting other resources and to assist landowners in the management of their forest resources.
 
The primary purpose of this position is to administer and manage the Geographic Information System (GIS) architecture and data for the Astoria, Tillamook and Forest Grove Districts, NWOA Biologists and Geotechnical Specialist, Tillamook Forest Center, and South Fork Forest Camp.   It requires working across three agency operational Divisions and the agency IT Program.  This position requires expert knowledge of Esri ArcGIS desktop software at all license levels (Basic, Standard, and Advanced), numerous agency-specific software programs and other "off-the-shelf" software.  It also requires knowledge of computer hardware and agency IT security protocols, as they relate to the function of ArcGIS software.

This position defines and enforces workflows and QA/QC standards for GIS data for Astoria, Tillamook and Forest Grove Districts. It coordinates with the State Forests Division's Information Management Specialist and Information Unit Manager, and the agency's GIS Coordinator, GIS Data Administrator and Database Administrator in the IT Program to ensure that these workflows and standards integrate with enterprise datasets.
 
This position develops and provides support, training and specific advice to Astoria, Tillamook and Forest Grove District GIS Coordinators and technical specialists as needed to support planning, analysis and operations. This includes creating and maintaining local Microsoft SQL Server Express (SQL Server) and Esri Spatial Database Engine (SDE) instances, creating workflows for district users, providing intermediate products for those workflows (e.g. SDE "checkout" file geodatabase replicas) and troubleshooting problems within  workflows.
 
This position will provide enhanced support to Astoria, Tillamook and Forest Grove Districts where there is no GIS coordinator or other specialist with high-level GIS skills. This support will cover a broad range of topics, including tasks associated with viewing, editing, analysis and best practices for local (e.g. project-specific) data management. ODF GIS users have a wide range of key skills and abilities, and it is imperative that this position provide support for tasks ranging from simple to complex across all three districts.
 
This position will administer and enforce local GIS library structures to provide standardized methods of accessing data for users on the Astoria, Tillamook and Forest Grove Districts and coordinating data transfer with the agency's GIS Unit in the IT Program and the State Forests Division's Information Management Specialist.
 
The district support functions of this position will require frequent travel across the Astoria, Tillamook and Forest Grove Districts, especially where robust local GIS expertise is lacking. Up to three days of travel per week from the position's home office to other districts may be required.
 
It is anticipated that there will be a transition period for this position, associated with restructuring of GIS workforce within the Astoria, Tillamook and Forest Grove Districts, as well as across ODF generally.  For at least the first two years, this position will provide enhanced support specifically to the Tillamook District office, requiring a significant amount of on-site time.
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https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/oregon/jobs/2023562/information-systems-specialist-5-area-gis-coordinator