Geospatial Jobs - What Are They and How to Get One

By ZipRecruiter Marketplace Research Team

Geospatial jobs are those where you use GPS and GIS technology to gather information to understand spatial relations between objects and locations on Earth. Geospatial jobs include titles such as geospatial manager, project manager, GIS analyst, GIS specialist, geospatial analysis management specialist, GIS developer, geospatial engineer, and GIS coordinator. The responsibilities of these jobs vary. Your duties may be more project management and supervisory related, more focused on technical design and data analysis, or you may be required to provide technical support and maintenance for GIS and GPS technology.

The qualifications to get a geospatial job typically include a bachelor’s degree in information technology, global information systems, computer science, statistics, or a closely related subject. Some geospatial workers have a background in another technical field such as geology or civil engineering as well as a GIS or GPS certification. Most geospatial jobs require good technical and communication skills. If you have a management or project manager role, you should also have strong leadership, time management, and multitasking skills.

Geospatial technology is a broad term that encompasses many different forms of geographic mapping and imagery technology, of which GIS is one form. Other forms of geospatial data include those derived from GPS technology, zip codes or census data, and mapping coordinates. Therefore, it is more useful to think of GIS as a form of geospatial technology rather than a different field of research or technology. Specifically, GIS technology layers geographic data in mapping software, which analysts can use to map the data or compare it to other information loaded into the same program.