GIS Technical Advisor

The GIS Technical Advisor is a senior, hands-on role responsible for providing technical leadership and advisory support to a multi-disciplinary project team delivering a modern Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) and Geographic Information System (GIS) solution. This role will play a critical part in replacing and modernizing legacy GIS platforms, ensuring that geospatial requirements are well-defined, technically sound, and aligned with enterprise architecture and public-sector standards. The GIS Technical Advisor contributes across the full project lifecycle—from discovery and solution design through implementation, migration, testing, and transition to operations. This is an advisory and delivery-focused role, emphasizing practical implementation guidance, risk mitigation, and knowledge transfer rather than ongoing system operations. ### **Key Responsibilities** * Provide expert GIS architecture and technical input during project initiation and planning, including scope, risks, dependencies, and constraints * Support the development and review of key project artefacts, including technical approaches, architecture designs, implementation strategies, and migration plans * Advise on options for modernizing and replacing legacy GIS systems, including platform selection, integration considerations, and technical feasibility * Guide the design and configuration of the target GIS solution to align with business needs and enterprise standards * Define GIS data models, layers, metadata standards, and data quality requirements * Provide recommendations on out-of-the-box configuration vs. customization, ensuring sustainable and maintainable solutions * Review vendor deliverables and technical designs to ensure alignment with project requirements and spatial analysis needs * Advise on geospatial data migration strategies, including data cleansing, transformation, validation, and quality assurance * Identify risks related to legacy data structures and recommend mitigation strategies * Support testing and validation of migrated data to ensure accuracy, completeness, and usability * Perform or advise on spatial analysis and mapping requirements to validate solution capabilities * Translate complex GIS concepts into clear, actionable guidance for both technical and non-technical stakeholders * Contribute to technical documentation, standards, and knowledge transfer materials * Ensure alignment with data governance, security, and quality standards within a public-sector environment * Support the establishment of GIS best practices, processes, and controls to minimize technical debt and operational risk. ### **Qualifications & Experience** * Degree or diploma in GIS, Geography, Geomatics, Spatial Sciences, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field * GISP (Geographic Information Systems Professional) designation is considered an asset * Up to 10 years of experience as a GIS Architect or GIS Developer with hands-on involvement in GIS/SDI implementations or major system upgrades * Demonstrated experience supporting large-scale SDI initiatives, particularly involving legacy system replacement * Strong knowledge of commercial and/or open-source GIS platforms (e.g., ESRI ArcGIS or equivalent) * Experience designing GIS and SDI architectures using ArcGIS Enterprise within secure, regulated environments * Experience building GIS services and SDI components for high-demand, scalable environments * Strong programming skills in Python, including experience with ArcGIS API for Python * Experience designing and implementing metadata strategies to support SDI governance * Proven ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to diverse stakeholders * Experience working in public sector or large enterprise environments with multiple stakeholders * Strong analytical, documentation, and problem-solving capabilities