Senior Geospatial Data Engineer - TS/SCI with Poly

Orchard LLC; McLean (VA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 206,000; Full time

Job summary

Orchard LLC is seeking a Senior Geospatial Data Engineer in McLean, VA. The role requires an active TS/SCI with Poly and hands-on development of geospatial data, ArcGIS Portal content, and Tableau-driven dashboards to support government missions.

You’ll bridge two offices—data curation/visualization and data processing/analytics—working independently with mission customers to turn spatial and tabular data into trusted, decision-ready products.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Geography, GIS, Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, or related field.
• 12+ years of professional experience in geospatial technology, software development, data engineering, data analysis, or related field.
• Strong Python experience for geospatial data processing, automation, transformation, analysis, and workflow improvement.
• Hands-on experience with ArcGIS Enterprise, ArcGIS Portal, or ArcGIS Online, including publishing and maintaining hosted content.
• Experience curating geospatial data holdings, metadata, discoverability, and data quality.
• Experience developing dashboards, reports, or analytic visualizations in Tableau or similar BI tools.

Responsibilities

• Support two mission areas: Geospatial data curation/visualization and data processing/Tableau reporting.
• Publish and maintain hosted layers, web maps, dashboards, and geospatial products in ArcGIS Portal.
• Build and maintain Tableau dashboards and visual analytics used by mission stakeholders.
• Develop Python scripts to automate geospatial workflows and data publication.
• Collaborate with mission users to understand data needs and operational workflows.
• Ensure data quality, metadata, and documentation for repeatable workflows.
• Engage with cross-office teams and communicate technical concepts clearly.

Skills

Python

ArcGIS

Tableau

PostgreSQL/PostGIS

Geospatial data processing

Data visualisation

Dashboards

Data governance

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Geography, GIS, Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering

Tools

ArcGIS Portal

ArcGIS Online

ArcGIS Pro

ArcPy

GeoPandas

Shapely

Fiona

Rasterio

GDAL

QGIS

Job description

Senior Geospatial Data Engineer

McLean, VA

Active TS/SCI with Poly Clearance required

Orchard is retained by a top geospatial technology company centered around supporting important operations missions to U.S. Government and Intelligence Community customers. Our client is forging the new frontier of spatial intelligence, helping decision makers and operators navigate what's happening now and shape what's coming next. They are a place for problem solvers, changemakers, and go-getters-where people are working together to help our customers see the world differently, and in doing so, be seen differently. Come be part of a mission, not just a job, where you can: Shape your own future, build the next big thing, and change the world!

We're hiring a Senior Geospatial Data Engineer to join the Services team and to build mission-critical geospatial data and analytics capabilities. This role is built for a cleared geospatial technologist who can bridge two mission offices: one focused on geospatial data curation, ArcGIS Portal products, and operational visualization; the other focused on data processing, analytics, and Tableau-driven reporting.

The ideal candidate is part geospatial programmer, part data librarian, and part visualization developer. You will use Python to process and analyze large geospatial datasets, manage and curate authoritative data holdings, maintain ArcGIS Portal content, and build dashboards, web maps, feature layers, and visual analytics products that help mission users make faster, better-informed decisions. This is a hands-on role for someone who can work independently across offices, engage directly with mission customers, and turn complex spatial and tabular datasets into trusted, discoverable, and decision-ready products.

This position requires an active U.S. Government Security Clearance at the TS/SCI level with Polygraph. Candidates without these will not be able to be considered.

Responsibilities

• You will support two complementary mission areas:
  • Geospatial Data Curation, Portal, and Visualization: Manage, curate, publish, and maintain geospatial datasets, hosted feature layers, web maps, dashboards, and data products in ArcGIS Portal. Ensure mission users have access to accurate, well-organized, current, and usable geospatial information.
  • Data Processing, Analytics, and Tableau Reporting: Use Python, Tableau, ArcGIS, and related tools to process large datasets, automate workflows, prepare data for analysis, and build visual analytics products that reveal patterns, trends, anomalies, and operationally relevant insights.
• Partner with mission users to understand geospatial data needs, analytic questions, visualization requirements, and operational workflows.
• Identify, acquire, clean, transform, validate, curate, and publish large geospatial and tabular datasets from diverse sources.
• Develop Python scripts and tools to automate geospatial data processing, quality control, enrichment, transformation, and publication workflows.
• Manage and update ArcGIS Portal content, including hosted feature layers, map services, web maps, dashboards, data hubs, and related geospatial products.
• Build and maintain Tableau dashboards, reports, and analytic visualizations used by the data processing office and mission stakeholders.
• Apply sound cartographic design, symbology, labeling, layer management, metadata practices, and performance tuning to improve the usability of geospatial products.
• Integrate structured, unstructured, tabular, and spatial datasets into cohesive analytical and visualization environments.
• Support geospatial data library functions, including dataset organization, metadata creation, version management, quality control, discoverability, and lifecycle maintenance.
• Develop documentation, data dictionaries, standard operating procedures, user guidance, and technical recommendations that support repeatable data management and visualization workflows.
• Work independently across two office environments while collaborating with multidisciplinary teams and communicating technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Minimum Qualifications

• U.S. Citizenship and active TS/SCI security clearance with polygraph.
• Bachelor's degree in Geography, GIS, Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 12+ years of professional experience in geospatial technology, software development, data engineering, data analysis, or a related technical field.
• Strong Python experience for geospatial data processing, automation, transformation, analysis, and workflow improvement.
• Demonstrated experience working with large geospatial datasets, including cleaning, formatting, joining, enriching, validating, and preparing data for analysis or publication.
• Hands-on experience with ArcGIS Enterprise, ArcGIS Portal, or ArcGIS Online, including publishing and maintaining hosted feature layers, web maps, dashboards, and geospatial content.
• Experience curating geospatial data holdings, including organizing datasets, maintaining metadata, improving discoverability, and ensuring data quality.
• Experience developing dashboards, reports, or analytic visualizations in Tableau or a comparable business intelligence platform.
• Understanding of geospatial data formats, projections, coordinate systems, spatial joins, geoprocessing workflows, cartographic principles, and spatial data management.
• Experience with relational databases, preferably PostgreSQL/PostGIS, for storing, querying, and managing spatial or tabular data.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, communication, and customer engagement skills.
• Proven ability to work independently with minimal guidance while coordinating effectively across teams, offices, and mission stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced Tableau experience, including dashboard development, calculated fields, filters, data preparation, publishing, and maintaining products for operational users.
• Experience with ArcGIS Pro, ArcPy, GeoPandas, Shapely, Fiona, Rasterio, GDAL, QGIS, or similar geospatial tools and libraries.
• Experience building repeatable data pipelines for geospatial data ingestion, processing, validation, and publication.
• Experience with cloud-hosted datasets, Amazon S3, ArcGIS Hub-style environments, or secure integrations between enterprise data repositories and ArcGIS Portal.
• Experience with PostgreSQL/PostGIS performance tuning, spatial indexing, and geospatial query optimization.
• Experience with Elasticsearch, Kibana, or similar search, analytics, and visualization tools.
• Familiarity with data governance, data stewardship, metadata standards, data quality, Agile practices, Jira, Confluence, DevOps principles, version control, or containerized workflows.
• Background in spatial statistics, predictive analytics, machine learning, or advanced geospatial modeling.

Pay Transparency

For pay transparency the range of base pay for this position within the Washington, DC metropolitan area is: $140,000.00 - $187,000.00 - $205,700.00 annually, based on experience.