Geospatial Analyst

Position: Geospatial Analyst (Program Associate) 

Start Date: August 2025 

Hours: Full time 

Location: Portland, Oregon or remote (US) – preference for Pacific Northwest 

About Us: CAPA (Climate Adaptation Planning & Analytics) is a multi-hazard climate adaptation consultancy based out of Portland, Oregon that generates data, develops tools, and designs actionable strategies to accelerate community adaptation to climate change. We support primarily governmental practitioners with integrated social and environmental research methods, community engagement, and innovative analysis. CAPA’s staff of social and environmental scientists are deeply committed to creating more sustainable, equitable, and resilient places to live.

Position Overview: CAPA seeks a Geospatial Analyst to support the operation of CAPA’s climate hazard monitoring products and resilience assessment services. The Analyst should be familiar with in-situ data collection, specifically with low-cost sensors deployed in community climate science efforts focused on urban heat and air quality, as well as remote sensing data products. This role will be responsible for managing, analyzing, and modeling field data while improving procedures and outputs. The Analyst may also be asked to retrieve, process, analyze, and/or visualize other types of datasets as needed to support CAPA projects, such as socio-demographic, public health, and energy use datasets. Products generated by the Analyst will be used to inform climate risk assessments that drive local adaptation and mitigation actions; the Analyst should be familiar with these concepts. As part of a small team in a rapidly expanding field, the Analyst must be communicative, self-starting, highly organized, and able to anticipate project needs and next steps. 

The ideal candidate will be familiar with mobile and stationary monitoring methods for urban heat and air quality, and experienced in the design of field experiments and physical science concepts. As CAPA’s monitoring programs are deployed in dozens of instances each year, the Analyst should be effective in data management, processing, and modeling, and able to use coding to efficiently inspect data and model outputs and troubleshoot potential issues (requiring very strong skills in R and Python). The ability to generate meaningful information using code, statistics, and data visualization techniques are essential to this role. 

Responsibilities

• Support spatial data analysis needs with effective data management, analysis, and delivery of final datasets in a timely and accurate manner;
• Build, evaluate, operate and maintain analysis pipelines and geostatistical models; 
• Integrate environmental datasets from in-situ sensor networks, satellites, and downscaled global climate models to characterize spatial and temporal patterns;
• Write and troubleshoot effective code in both R and Python (very strong proficiency required) and perform common data science tasks (filtering, aggregating, etc.) and spatial tasks (vector processing, raster processing, etc.) in both languages; 
• Support the development of new data products and services by collaborating with the CAPA team; 
• Additional responsibilities may include data analysis and visualization tasks for assorted climate resilience projects including vulnerability assessment, adaptation planning, multi-hazard analysis, climate risk assessment, and further supporting unique consulting projects in climate adaptation. 

Minimum Requirements

• Regular availability during business hours (9-5 PT, M-F) Pacific Time;
• Strong fluency in both R and Python;
• 3 years of related professional working experience;
• Master’s Degree in field such as Geography, Environmental Science, Engineering, Urban Planning, Public Health, or other spatial sciences-related field; or, equivalent Bachelor’s Degree with 5 years of professional working experience;
• Strong skills in spatial analysis, statistics and math, coding, and problem solving; 
• Strong understanding in theory and methods of hazard mapping and modeling, meteorology, climate adaptation, urban heat, and geography;
• Familiar with applications of data to urban planning and public health fields; 
• Experience in Remote Sensing, particularly with Sentinel (Copernicus) products; 
• Ability to lead projects and efficiently produce high-quality deliverables for clients on a frequent basis; 
• Comfortability working with a multi-disciplinary team in a fast-paced environment;
• Ability to manage multiple timelines and projects at once;
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail; 
• Strong verbal and written communication skills; 
• Willingness to contribute to a growing, mission-based team.

Preferred Requirements

• Fluency in ESRI/ArcGIS Pro;
• Experience with cloud-native geospatial processing, multi-dimensional array data (netCDF/zarr);
• Experience with front-end web development (JavaScript, HTML, CSS) to support the creation of decision support tools;
• Proficiency in Cartography, Data Visualization and Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat) for supporting the creation of client deliverables.

Compensation and Benefits

• Salary range based on experience
• Benefits include Health Reimbursement Account, 3% Non-Elective 401k contributions, paid vacation and sick leave;
• Small stipend for home office setup.

To Apply: Please send resume and cover letter to info@capastrategies.com. Review of applications will begin immediately. 

Equal Employment Opportunity: All qualified persons will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, familial status, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability for which a reasonable accommodation can be made or any other status protected by law. Assistance will be gladly provided upon request for any applicant with sensory or non-sensory disabilities.