Backend Geospatial Engineer II

Job Details: Level: Entry, Job Location: Washington DC - Washington, DC, Position Type: Fixed Term, Education Level: 4 Year Degree, Salary Range: $80000.00 - $96000.00Salary, Travel Percentage: Up to 10%, Job Category: Information Technology, Who We Are  The Center for Geospatial Solutions (CGS) is a self-sustaining nonprofit enterprise. Founded to help bridge the gap between policy and practice, our mission is to enable people and the planet to meet the pace of change by expanding access to new technologies that power more sustainable and equitable outcomes.  We are a fully remote team of award-winning professionals with decades of applied expertise and end-to-end GIS capabilities. By embracing whole-system thinking and state-of-the-art technology, we enable partners across public, private, and nonprofit sectors to tackle complex, real-world challenges—like housing affordability, ecosystem conservation, water management, and sustainable infrastructure—with greater clarity.  Our work liberates and connects key information, creates nuanced pictures of complex situations, and makes land, water, and social data easier to use, understand, and act on. We use tools like satellite data and artificial intelligence to deliver insights for impact.  At CGS, we believe that technology can be a tool for positive change. We are dedicated to building a diverse team that represents the communities and systems we live and work in. If you’re excited about this role but don’t meet every listed qualification, we encourage you to apply. We value potential, curiosity, and lived experiences, and know a more inclusive team makes us a stronger organization.  About the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy seeks to improve quality of life through the effective use, taxation, and stewardship of land. A nonprofit, private operating foundation whose origins date to 1946, the Lincoln Institute researches and recommends creative, nonpartisan approaches to land as a solution to economic, social, and environmental challenges. Through education, training, publications, and events, we integrate theory and practice to inform public policy decisions worldwide. We organize our work around three impact areas: land and water; land and fiscal systems; and land and communities. We envision a world where cities and regions prosper and benefit from coordinated land use planning and public finance; where communities thrive from efficient and equitable allocation of limited land resources; and where stewardship of land and water resources ensures a livable future. We work globally, with locations in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Washington, DC; Phoenix, Arizona; and Beijing, China. Position Overview:  The Center for Geospatial Solutions (CGS) is seeking a Backend Geospatial Engineer II, to build and maintain the data pipelines, APIs and services for CGS’ geospatial programs. This role’s primary focus will be a complex, multi-year federal program alongside a second program focused on water reservoir system analysis and data interoperability. Across these projects and future assignments, this role carries a particular focus on evaluating and ensuring the quality, consistency, and defensibility of the datasets, remote sensing products, analytical workflows and AI-generated outputs produced.   Reporting to the Lead Cloud Engineer, this position will split their time between core backend engineering (designing data models, building and maintaining APIs and processing pipelines, and integrating geospatial and cloud services), as well as owning the QA/QC layer of this work: designing validation logic, automating testing, benchmarking datasets, and baking quality-assurance practices into both projects.   The successful candidate will combine solid backend software engineering skills with geospatial domain knowledge and a strong quality mindset. They will work closely with data scientists, AI engineers, cloud engineers, GIS professionals, project managers, and subject-matter experts to build reliable systems and ensure that CGS products are fit for their intended use.     What You Will Do:  Backend Development  Build and maintain production-quality backend services, APIs, data-access layers, workflow services, and reusable software components using Python or another appropriate language.  Develop and optimize data models and storage solutions for raster and vector geospatial data (e.g., PostGIS, cloud-native geospatial formats).  Build and maintain ETL/ELT pipelines that ingest, process, and transform geospatial and remote sensing data at scale.  Integrate cloud services for data storage, compute, and orchestration of geospatial workflows.  Write clean, maintainable, well-tested code and participate in code review and architecture decisions.  Contribute to CI/CD pipelines for infrastructure, backend applications, data workflows and analytical services  QA/QC Specialization  Design and implement automated tests, as well as data validation and data quality checks, as part of the program development cycle.  Build checks for data completeness, consistency, schema conformance, spatial integrity, metadata, and analytical accuracy directly into data pipelines and services.  Conduct accuracy assessments, error analysis, uncertainty analysis, spatial cross-validation, bias checks, and other quantitative evaluations where needed.  Create, curate and maintain benchmark and reference datasets for automated validation and regression testing.   Document validation methods, test results and acceptance decisions.   Identify data gaps, methodological weaknesses, and limitations that could materially affect interpretation or delivery.  Standards, Reproducibility, and Process Improvement  Collaborate with CGS colleagues to establish organization-wide QA and validation standards, templates, checklists, review gates, and documentation practices.  Promote reproducible practices, including versioning of data, code, methods, assumptions, and outputs.  Analyze recurring defects or process failures and recommend/implement improvements that reduce risk and rework.  Stay current with relevant scientific, geospatial, statistical, and data-quality standards.  Communication and Delivery  Communicate validation findings, uncertainty, limitations, and recommendations clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.  Contribute technical and QA documentation to reports, client deliverables, proposals, presentations and publications.  Coordinate development and QA activities with project managers and technical leads to deliver on scope and schedule  Support client and partner discussions regarding system reliability, data quality and appropriate use  Qualifications: What You Will Need:  Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in computer science, software engineering, information systems, engineering, geography, environmental science, or related technical field.  3+ years of professional backend software development experience, including meaningful work in geospatial data.  Experience working with geospatial APIs and data interoperability standards such as pygeoapi.  Knowledge of geospatial data architecture (e.g., PostGIS, GDAL, raster and vector data) and accompanying standards (e.g., OGC)   Proficiency in Python for backend development, including building APIs and data pipelines.  Working knowledge of geospatial data standards and architecture (e.g., OGC standards) and how they inform system design Experience validating remote sensing, machine learning, deep learning, image classification, segmentation, or predictive modeling outputs.  Experience with cloud platforms and production operations (deployment, monitoring, CI/CD) for cloud-based data and compute services, such as AWS, GCP or Azure.   Familiarity with CI/CD practices.  Experience with Git/GitHub or comparable version-control workflows.  Experience designing and conducting accuracy assessments, validation studies, sampling strategies, or quantitative quality evaluations.  Strong knowledge of spatial statistics, uncertainty, bias, error metrics, and appropriate interpretation of analytical results.  Strong documentation skills and experience maintaining clear, traceable records of methods, findings, and decisions.  Exceptional attention to detail and the ability to perform independent, objective technical review  Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical limitations and risk to varied audiences.  U.S. Citizen, or legally authorized to work in the U.S. with no need for future sponsorship.  Helpful Experience (Nice to Have):  Familiarity with proprietary geospatial software, such as Esri’s ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Enterprise.  Experience with wetland science, field delineation, hydrology, geomorphology, ecology, or environmental regulatory applications.  Experience designing or managing field data collection, expert review, or imagery interpretation protocols.  Experience with cloud-based data pipelines, automated testing, data contracts, or production QA systems.  Familiarity with federal scientific standards, data-quality objectives, reproducibility requirements, or formal verification and validation practices.  Experience authoring peer-reviewed publications, validation reports, technical methods, or audit-ready documentation.  Experience supporting government, nonprofit, consulting, or mission-driven technical projects.    Compensation Overview  The salary market range for this role is $80,000- $96,000.00 depending on the level of education, years of experience, and other relevant qualifications. Please be sure to review our benefits overview below as the four-day workweek, 3x match up to 15% retirement plan, the Institute paying 90-95% of the medical plan costs and all of the dental plan costs create a total compensation package for this role between $103,000 - $129,000 roughly. A member of HR would be happy to do a side-by-side comparison of your benefits to help with your assessment of this opportunity compared to others.  How to Apply  Please submit a cover letter and resume directly on the Lincoln Institute’s website. The cover letter should succinctly describe your interest in joining the CGS team; why you are qualified for the role; and what relevant expertise and experience you offer. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis until the position is filled.  Our Benefits Include but are not limited to (a) 3x employer contribution towards retirement matching your employee contribution up to 15%, (b) health insurance, (c) dental insurance, (d) vision insurance, (e) 100% reimbursement of the health care deductible through a health reimbursement account, (f) short-term disability coverage, (g) long term disability coverage, (h) paid parental leave, (i) voluntary insurances such as accident insurance, (j) health care flexible spending, (k) dependent care flexible spending, (l) paid time off for holidays, vacation, personal, sick, bereavement, and jury duty, (m) office closure between December 24 – Jan 1 each calendar year, (n) flexible schedule and option for a compressed 4 day workweek, (o) tuition and staff development reimbursement, (p) pet insurance, and (q) Employee Assistance Program.  Our Values Cooperation and Teamwork, Forthright Feedback, Initiative, Acceptance of Responsibility, Multicultural Sensitivity Equal Opportunity Employer The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is dedicated to creating an inclusive work environment by hiring, training, promoting, and carrying out personnel procedures with respect to compensation, benefits, transfers, layoffs, or terminations, on the basis of individual merit, experience, and ability without regard to race (including traits historically associated with race such as hair texture, length of hair, protective hairstyles or cultural or religious headdresses), color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), ancestry, citizenship status, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital or domestic/civil partnership status, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, military service, serious medical condition, expunged juvenile record, personal appearance, family responsibilities, matriculation, political affiliation, status as a victim, credit information, homelessness status, reproductive health decision making, or any other characteristic protected by law or otherwise. Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination Provision Lincoln Institute of Land Policy will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information. Non-Smoking Organization Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is a Non-Smoking organization. Smoking and the use of tobacco products are prohibited at all times and on all property owned, leased, or under the control of Lincoln Institute of Land Policy at all times, including, but not limited to indoor and outdoor grounds, walkways and sidewalks, parking lots, company vehicles, and private vehicles parked on Lincoln Institute of Land Policy property. MA Polygraph Statement It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.