GIS Specialist/Cartographer

Position: GIS Specialist/Cartographer
Start Date: July 1, 2024
Salary: $46,000-$50,000
Reports to: Cartography Program Manager

Position overview:

Adventure Cycling Association seeks a creative, well-organized, and detail-oriented person to fill the role of GIS Specialist/Cartographer in our Routes Department. This is a unique opportunity for a self-starter with initiative to join the organization to help sustain the Geographic Information System (GIS) component of our bicycle route mapping system. They will also help design and create high quality maps for inclusion in the Adventure Cycling Route Network. This is an extraordinary opportunity to combine your skillset in GIS and cartography with a passion for bicycling and bike travel.

About Adventure Cycling:

As the largest nonprofit cycling organization in the country, Adventure Cycling has an impactful voice in policies and programs that advance the safety and accessibility of cycling. Adventure Cycling serves through its members and the bike travel community. Our cycling community encourages and supports countless cyclists each year as they explore the beauty and history of America while tending to their mental and physical well-being. For nearly half a century, Adventure Cycling has created life-changing experiences that deepen appreciation for our country’s diverse cultures, communities, landscapes, and people. Adventure Cycling headquarters are based in Missoula, MT, and we acknowledge and honor the Indigenous peoples who consider this land their home. The area’s natural abundance was stewarded by many peoples including the Blackfeet, Crow, Shoshone, Cheyenne, Kootenai, Pend d’Oreilles and Salish for millennia before colonization, and continues to be to this day.

Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:

The Staff and Board of Directors of Adventure Cycling Association believes in the power of bicycle travel to open minds and change the way the world explores. We envision a future where this organization draws staff, tour leaders, members, board members, and riders from the whole of our society. For this to occur, bicycle travel has to be available for everyone.

We are committed to listening to BIPOC, LGBTQ, and other marginalized peoples and understanding the systems contributing to oppression while also working to provide more resources and support for these communities.

The Adventure Cycling Association acknowledges its place in this power dynamic. As an organization we have benefitted from white privilege omnipresent in the United States and must use our power to hire, support, empower, and create safe spaces for Black, Indigenous and People of Color, LGBTQIA+, and Femme/Trans/Women communities.

Key Responsibilities:

  • Maintains a working knowledge of the Adventure Cycling Route Network.
  • Communicates with Association members, touring cyclists, government agencies, cycling clubs, and others about various aspects of the Adventure Cycling Route Network.
  • Assists in developing, evaluating and planning new routes and altering existing routes.
  • Creates new and updates existing maps for both print and digital publication, for other departments, and for the website.
  • Adapts and maintains all phases of our cartographic workflow.
  • Responds to customer support inquiries from a variety of channels on topics from route planning to mobile app and data use.

Required Qualifications:

  • Understanding and willingness to engage with issues of institutional and structural racism or bias and their impacts on our organization and community.
  • Commitment to equity and inclusion and to learn and respect differences of race, ethnicity, gender identity or expression, ability, religion and socio-economic circumstances and class.
  • Experience with the ESRI GIS platform and geodatabases, the Adobe Creative Suite, specifically Illustrator and InDesign, and Avenza Mapublisher.
  • Possess a visual sense and have knowledge of map design and layout skills, and knowledge of cartography.
  • Strong interpersonal skills – a person who generates trust and shares knowledge with other staff and the occasional volunteers they will work with.
  • Collaborative team player who enjoys working and communicating with others.
  • Well-organized and able to meet deadlines while working under pressure.

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Experience working with people very different from yourself.
  • Experience with geodatabases and managing spatial data layers; using geoprocessing techniques to convert data between formats, transform data between spatial reference systems, and derive analysis products from data.
  • Familiarity with PostGIS databases and Microsoft Office.
  • Familiarity in production workflows for offset printing.
  • Familiarity with GPS use for mapping data collection.
  • Familiarity with mobile phone apps, gps devices and the use of gpx data, specifically in Ride with GPS.
  • Enthusiastic about the outdoors and outdoor recreation, especially cycling

Physical Requirements:

Elements of job duties may require occasional moving of up to 15 pounds and the ability to occasionally stoop, kneel or crouch; candidates not able to meet such demands can possibly work with staff or others to accommodate.

Compensation, Schedule and Benefits:

This is a full time, exempt position (40 hrs/week). Schedule varies by supervisor, but is generally M-F, 8am-5pm MST. We are located at Adventure Cycling’s headquarters in beautiful and bike-friendly Missoula, Montana, but will consider remote applicants from Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and Idaho. Benefits include paid time off, holidays, an additional fully paid one-week bike vacation (a.k.a. “bike respite”), medical, dental, and vision coverage, life insurance, and retirement plan. We have a wonderful office in downtown Missoula, with plenty of bike racks! Adventure Cycling Association is an equal opportunity employer.

How to apply:

The application period has ended.