Geospatial Frontend Engineer (TypeScript)

orcristtechnologies; United States; Remote; USD 81,000 - 138,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote-first work in Germany

30 days of vacation

Equipment and learning support

Ownership of components used across平台

Job summary

orcristtechnologies is seeking a skilled GIS frontend engineer to build a TypeScript/React web interface for spatial analysis. You will extend a map platform with MapLibre and deck.gl, implement drawing, filtering, and temporal tools, and ensure responsive interactions across complex geospatial data sources.

The role emphasizes performance profiling, WebGL concepts, and building reusable visualization components beyond a standard map, with remote-first work in Germany and strong collaboration

Qualifications

• Several years building sophisticated production interfaces with TypeScript and React.
• Experience with web mapping or geospatial visualization using MapLibre, deck.gl, Mapbox GL, OpenLayers, CesiumJS, or comparable tools.
• Experience extending mapping libraries or building reusable visualization components beyond embedding a standard map.
• Strong understanding of frontend state, asynchronous data loading, browser rendering, and performance profiling.
• Familiarity with WebGL concepts and the practical costs of geometry processing, GPU buffers, large textures, and frequent layer updates.
• Good geospatial fundamentals including projections, coordinate systems, vector tiles, raster imagery, scale, and spatial accuracy, plus eligibility to work in Germany.

Responsibilities

• Develop a reusable map canvas and layer system covering raster imagery, vector features, terrain, and analytical overlays.
• Build layer discovery, grouping, ordering, visibility, opacity, legends, styling, and persistent workspace state, including behavior when sources refresh or fail.
• Implement GIS interactions such as drawing, measurement, spatial selection, feature inspection, coordinate readouts, filtering, and map export.
• Create temporal exploration tools, imagery comparison views, and linked map/table interactions for complex analytical results.
• Extend mapping libraries with custom layers, controls, picking behavior, and rendering logic, working below the React component layer when performance demands it.
• Integrate COGs, PMTiles, GeoParquet, and Arrow-based data sources with viewport-aware loading, cancellation, caching, and progressive feedback.
• Profile CPU, GPU, network, and memory usage, and keep panning, zooming, and interaction responsive through LO.D level-of-detail strategies and controlled layer updates.

Skills

TypeScript

React

Geospatial visualization

WebGL concepts

Performance profiling

Tools

MapLibre

deck.gl

Mapbox GL

OpenLayers

CesiumJS

Job description

Role overview

Build the web-based GIS interface that analysts rely on to explore imagery, combine layers, and reason about spatial and temporal relationships. The work centers on TypeScript and React, extending a highly customised map platform built on MapLibre and deck.gl, and bringing capabilities familiar from desktop GIS tools into the browser while keeping interactions coherent and responsive.

Responsibilities

• Develop a reusable map canvas and layer system covering raster imagery, vector features, terrain, and analytical overlays.
• Build layer discovery, grouping, ordering, visibility, opacity, legends, styling, and persistent workspace state, including predictable behavior when sources refresh or fail.
• Implement GIS interactions such as drawing, measurement, spatial selection, feature inspection, coordinate readouts, filtering, and map export.
• Create temporal exploration tools, imagery comparison views, and linked map/table interactions for complex analytical results.
• Extend mapping libraries with custom layers, controls, picking behavior, and rendering logic, working below the React component layer when performance or interaction quality demands it.
• Integrate COGs, PMTiles, GeoParquet, and Arrow-based data sources with viewport-aware loading, cancellation, caching, and progressive feedback.
• Profile CPU, GPU, network, and memory usage, and keep panning, zooming, and interaction responsive through sensible level-of-detail strategies and controlled layer updates.

Requirements

• Several years building sophisticated production interfaces with TypeScript and React.
• Substantial experience with web mapping or geospatial visualization using MapLibre, deck.gl, Mapbox GL, OpenLayers, CesiumJS, or comparable tools.
• Experience extending mapping libraries or building reusable visualization components beyond embedding a standard map.
• Strong understanding of frontend state, asynchronous data loading, browser rendering, and performance profiling.
• Familiarity with WebGL concepts and the practical costs of geometry processing, GPU buffers, large textures, and frequent layer updates.
• Good geospatial fundamentals including projections, coordinate systems, vector tiles, raster imagery, scale, and spatial accuracy, plus eligibility to work in Germany.

Nice to have

• Custom deck.gl layers, shaders/GLSL, luma.gl, or WebGPU experience; GeoArrow, loaders.gl, DuckDB-WASM, or Web Workers for large geospatial datasets.
• Experience with kepler.gl, CARTO, or comparable spatial analytics interfaces, and translating their patterns into reusable components.
• TanStack Query/Store/Router, Tailwind CSS, Storybook, and Playwright.
• Terrain and 3D visualization, imagery band controls, temporal animation, or experience building professional GIS tools.
• Familiarity with military mapping conventions and interoperability standards such as MGRS, NATO APP-6 symbology, and relevant STANAG requirements.

Benefits and work setup

• Remote-first work in Germany with regular team sessions in Berlin and occasional sessions in Frankfurt and Munich, 30 days of vacation, equipment and learning support, and ownership of components used across the platform.