GIS Analyst

Job summary

Forest Services as part of Forestry Commission are the Government’s forestry experts. We advise nationally and locally on how to unlock the full potential of woodlands and support the forestry sector to protect, improve and expand England’s valuable woodland assets, ensuring that they continue to provide benefits to people, the environment and the economy.

Never has there been a more important time for trees and forests to help tackle the climate emergency and provide a much-needed sanctuary for people and wildlife.

We aim to at least treble tree planting rates in England by the end of this Parliament, reflecting England’s contribution to meeting the UK’s overall target of planting 30,000 hectares per year by the end of this Parliament. This acceleration in current planting rates in England will contribute to meeting the net-zero by 2050 ambitions, and to government’s wider environmental targets. These include protecting the existing woodland resource from the threat of pests and disease. The Farming and Countryside Programme funds a grant to trial new ways of tackling specific pests and diseases through the Tree Health Pilot.

By joining the Forestry Commission, you will become part of a team of passionate, committed colleagues, and be able to build on a wealth of expertise to take this ambitious work forward. You will be able to make your mark by helping the Forestry Commission to transform how we work together and reach new stakeholders.

If you are passionate about the role of forestry in creating a better future for England, and want to play a key part in that, we want to hear from you.

Job description

The Plant Health Forestry team supports the health of trees, woods, and forests. This team works together to prevent the entry of, provide early detection of, and minimise the impacts of harmful tree pests and diseases, and to ensure traceability of forestry planting material. The role in this team is responsible for managing Plant Health Forestry datasets and delivering bespoke geospatial solutions to support both operational work and policy related to the statutory control of tree pest and diseases. The team is geographically dispersed with individuals based in a variety of locations nationally. The post holder for this post can work from any Forest Services office in England.

Due to the expansion of the Plant Health Forestry team, we are seeking to recruit an enthusiastic GIS Analyst to deliver and advise on geospatial data, statistics, maps, and data visualisation across Forest Services.

The successful candidate for the post of GIS Analyst will be competent working with geospatial data, delivering high quality maps and statistics, and will be well able to communicate relevant, sound and timely geospatial evidence, and to learn quickly. An element of self-reliance will be necessary to help define and set work targets, and in building strong relationships with both FS colleagues and a wide range of partners, customers and stakeholders, including other teams within the Forestry Commission in Forest Research and Forestry England, in Defra, the Devolved Governments of Wales and Scotland, and other government departments and agencies.

The post holder will be experienced in collating, computing, analysing, and presenting geospatial and statistical evidence using principally geographical information systems (GIS), databases and spreadsheets. They will enjoy working with a wide variety of internal and external colleagues.

Key work areas:

1. Developing bespoke desktop GIS and statistical analyses for customers of the Plant Health Forestry team, using GIS software (ESRI ArcGIS Pro), MS Office software and delivering maps, tables and narrative reports to agreed timescales and professional standards.
2. Contributing to the reporting, development and refinement of Forestry Commission Official Statistics and management information, as needed, including collating, validating and communicating data such as for dashboards.
3. Assisting others in the team to provide rapid response information gathering and mapping for periodic national incidents such as tree pest outbreaks.
4. Supporting the creation of mobile working solutions using the ESRI platform and providing guidance and support to wider FS staff on how to use GIS systems.
5. Assisting with the management of FS data and metadata, e.g., preparing & loading data to the corporate geospatial data store and mapping systems and publishing as Open Data.

Person specification

Essential:

1. Demonstrable ability to identify, define and meet customers geospatial requirements to time and professional standards.
2. Experience in successful production of maps and statistics using desktop geographical information systems (ideally ESRI ArcGIS Pro) and experience of at least one other GIS platform, such as for example ArcGIS online, Survey123 or Field Maps.
3. Experience of successful analysis and presentation of geospatial and statistical data.
4. Experience of data management, manipulation and quality assurance using tools for example, MS PowerBI or MS Excel.
5. Experience in using natural environment and/or socioeconomic data.
6. A degree in a Geographical Information Systems, or a related field, and/or equivalent relevant experience.

Desirable:

1. Experience of successful management and/or analysis of satellite remote sensing data.
2. Working knowledge of programming languages such as Python, SQL or Arcade.