Freelance Gis Data Scientist Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Description

Fervo's mission is to use innovation in geoscience to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy. The company has developed the world's most successful commercial enhanced geothermal system, completed in 2023, and has raised substantial capital from leading investors and public markets to build a multi-billion-dollar project pipeline delivering 24/7 carbon-free energy.

The GIS Data Administrator owns the integrity, architecture, and governance of Fervo's enterprise geodatabase and spatial data ecosystem. This role sits on the data infrastructure side of Fervo's GIS program - administering the geodatabase, building data pipelines, and maintaining the authoritative land status, project boundary, and operational spatial datasets that GIS analysis, applications, and field operations all depend on.

The GIS Data Administrator works closely with the GIS Developer and GIS team to ensure that data is accurate, well-organized, and reliably accessible across the organization. 

Requirements

Responsibilities

Enterprise Geodatabase Administration

• Design, build, and administer Fervo's enterprise geodatabase environment (ArcGIS Enterprise/Portal and ArcGIS Online), including schema design, version management, replica management, and database maintenance.
• Define and enforce geodatabase data models, feature class schemas, relationship classes, domains, and topology rules in alignment with project and regulatory requirements.
• Manage geodatabase versioning workflows to support concurrent editing by GIS analysts, developers, and field data collection systems.
• Monitor geodatabase performance, conduct routine maintenance (compress, rebuild indexes, analyze), and plan for storage and capacity needs.
• Administer back-end spatial database infrastructure (PostgreSQL/PostGIS or SQL Server Spatial) in coordination with IT.

Data Pipelines & Integration

• Develop and maintain ETL (extract, transform, load) pipelines to ingest, validate, and publish spatial and tabular data from land, engineering, permitting, and operational sources into the enterprise geodatabase.
• Build automated data update workflows using Python (ArcPy, arcgis module, pandas) and FME or similar integration tools.
• Integrate authoritative external data sources including BLM LR2000, state GIS portals, county assessors, USGS, and FEMA into Fervo's data environment on defined refresh schedules.
• Coordinate with the GIS Developer on feature layer publication, web service schema, and hosted layer update automation.
• Support CAD-to-GIS data conversion workflows in partnership with the CAD Manager, ensuring geometric and attribute accuracy upon ingestion.

Data Governance & Quality Control

• Establish and enforce spatial data standards, metadata conventions, naming schemas, and coordinate reference system policies across the GIS program.
• Develop and implement automated data validation rules and QA/QC workflows to detect and flag data quality issues before publication.
• Conduct periodic audits of GIS datasets for currency, completeness, and accuracy; document findings and coordinate corrections with data owners.
• Maintain authoritative GIS datasets for land status, federal and state ownership, lease areas, project boundaries, well locations, infrastructure, and operational features across the Western U.S.
• Develop and maintain a GIS data catalog and metadata documentation to support discoverability and reuse across teams.

Organizational Support & Collaboration

• Serve as the internal subject-matter expert on spatial data infrastructure; advise project teams on data sourcing, schema design, and best practices.
• Coordinate with Land, Legal, Environmental, Permitting, and Engineering teams to understand data requirements and ensure GIS datasets support permitting, title diligence, and construction workflows.
• Support due diligence activities for land acquisitions and project financings by preparing accurate spatial data packages and summaries.
• Contribute to internal GIS documentation, data management training materials, and onboarding resources for new team members.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in GIS, Geography, Information Systems, Computer Science, or a related field; or equivalent professional experience.
• 4+ years of professional experience in GIS data management, geodatabase administration, or spatial data engineering.
• Expert proficiency in ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Enterprise/Portal geodatabase administration.
• Hands-on experience with enterprise relational spatial databases (PostgreSQL/PostGIS or SQL Server Spatial).
• Demonstrated experience building and maintaining automated spatial data pipelines using Python.
• Strong understanding of GIS data quality principles, metadata standards, and spatial data governance practices.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Western U.S. federal and state land data sources (BLM, USFS, state trust land offices, county assessors) strongly preferred.
• Familiarity with FME (Feature Manipulation Engine) or similar ETL platforms a plus.
• Background in energy, natural resources, environmental consulting, or land development preferred.
• Strong organizational and documentation skills; able to manage a complex data environment with disciplined structure.
• Collaborative with a track record of working effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders to define and meet data needs.
• Self-directed with the ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced, multi-project environment.

Location

Fervo Energy is headquartered in Houston, TX with growing offices in Oakland, CA, Golden, CO, Reno, NV, and Salt Lake City, UT. This position will be eligible for some hybrid work flexibility, but regular in-office presence at a Fervo office location will be required.