GIS Specialist

Allegan County has much to offer, with 24 Townships, 9 Cities, and 2 Villages across nearly 900 square miles. The landscapes range from the lakeshore to beautifully wooded lands, our County’s natural resources are a gift to be treasured. Allegan County businesses, citizens, and employees are world-class, and we remain a welcoming, closely-knit community. We are one of the fastest-growing counties in Michigan.

Allegan County Government places high importance on our core values: Respect, Integrity, Commitment and Honesty. A common thread among our leadership, employees and volunteers is a strong desire to serve and be part of something meaningful. We have been recognized by Gallagher as “Best in Class Winner” among mid-size companies for our excellence in optimizing employee and organizational well-being for three years in a row (2023-2025). We have also received the “Impact Award” from M.E.R.S. for excellence in educating our employees about their retirement plans and overall financial wellness. We are looking for dedicated, caring, energetic people to join our team!

Job Summary

This position works to integrate GIS into county and other business processes, enhances GIS functionality through programming, and analyzes GIS data to aid decision making. Manages and supports special projects, research, field work, and program implementations as needed. Provides land information products, services, education, and outreach to other county departments, levels of government, the private sector, and the general public.

Starting Wage: $26.41 per hour, full-time

Excellent Benefits Plan: Health benefits begin on the first of the month after your hire date

• Medical, Dental & Vision (3 medical plans to choose from, 2 of which have a $0 premium)
• County-funded Health Savings Account with our two high-deductible medical plans
• County-paid employee life insurance coverage
• County-paid short-term disability coverage, up to 52 weeks
• Generous retirement plan, including a county contribution of 7% of your annual earnings
• Tuition Reimbursement Program for college degree courses
• Generous PTO plan, including front-loaded hours into PTO bank at hire, and annually on January 1.
• 13 paid holidays, in addition to PTO
• FREE use of Allegan County government's two fitness centers
  
  

Responsibilities And Duties

• Identifies county business processes with a geographical context that would benefit from integration with the county's Geographic Information System (GIS). Works with other county departments to take advantage of the Allegan County Geographic Framework (ACGF) and related geospatial data in the county's GIS.
• Programs GIS applications, interfaces, and tools to maximize the utility of GIS among end-users. Automates repetitive tasks and functions and analyses through programming.
• Programs internal routines to facilitate the creation, maintenance, quality assurance, and overall management of the county's GIS data.
• Uses GIS and spatial data handling tools to import, manipulate, process, analyze, and export vector and raster images and tabular and text data to develop, maintain, ad enhance the county's GIS.
• Uses analytic skills and GIS tools to conduct complex spatial and statistical analysis on GIS data to support the decision-making needs of other departments, local units of government, and the private sector.
• Manages and supports geo-spatial research, analysis, and mapping projects as needed. This may include activities such as evaluating geographic data management policies and processes, performing site selection studies using geographic criteria, statistically analyzing spatial distributions to look for patterns of events, conducts site-specific investigations, and helps produce the county parcel atlas and road map.
• Supports the addition of geospatial data elements to the county website.
• Conducts field work to collect geospatial data through the use of GPS and/or on-site digitizing.
• Provides training to users of geospatial data and GIS software in other county departments and local units of government of the county's GIS program.
• Produces maps, reports, address labels, Acrobat, PDF, and other digital and hard-copy products to satisfy GIS related information and data requests from other departments, levels of government, the private sector, and the general public using plotters, printers, scanners, and the internet. Assesses charges, writes invoices, and collects fees for services rendered.
  
  

Required Education And Experience

• Bachelor's Degree in Geography or related field with a concentration in handling of geospatial data, statistical analysis and/or computer science.
• Two (2) years of experience in GIS development and integration, preferably in County Government.
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience using ESRI and at least one (1) GIS programming language and one (1) non-GIS programming language required.
  
  

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Allegan County is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer. A copy of our EEO Utilization report is available on our website:

https://www.allegancounty.org/home/showpublisheddocument/2802/637974740005930000