Application Developer (GIS)

  • Full-time

Company Description

With a workforce of over 25,000 people, and opportunities in more than 1,000 different job categories, the City of Philadelphia is the fifth largest city in the United States and one of the largest employers in Southeastern Pennsylvania. As an employer, the City of Philadelphia operates through the guiding principles of service, integrity, respect, accountability, collaboration, diversity and inclusion. Through these principles, we strive to effectively deliver services, to resolve the challenges facing our city, and to make Philadelphia a place where all of our residents have the opportunity to reach their potential.

Job Description

The Office of Innovation & Technology (OIT) is the central IT agency for the City of Philadelphia headed by the Chief Information Officer. This position is within the CityGeo team led by the Chief Geographic Information Officer (GIO).  CityGeo manages enterprise GIS operations for the city including on-prem and cloud services, application development and sophisticated data integrations, large scale technology and data contracts, and governance for geodata sharing and development standards.  The CityGeo team performs some of the most innovative work in municipal government on data analytics, application development and use of spatial data technology as applied to a diverse range of city services and constituencies, including those supporting public safety operations.

CityGeo is seeking a GIS Applications Developer who is motivated to deliver solutions that directly support City initiatives and solve common problems encountered by the City and its Citizens.  

The GIS Applications Developer will connect users with the right information in an engaging and responsive way by developing applications using JavaScript and modern frameworks (e.g. Leaflet, Vue.js).  The applicant should have experience developing web mapping applications, along with knowledge of related geospatial application logic, query, and visualization techniques.

CityGeo aspires to maintain leadership in civic geospatial tech, and the developer will play an influential role in crafting a future vision along with the associated application development roadmap.  This includes designing and documenting solutions in ways that engender re-use by other city departments, as well as developing on platforms commonly used throughout the municipal government space.

This is a growth position potentially leading to a full-stack development role; however, the applicant should possess Python skills and may be expected to write ETL tasks as needed.

Essential Functions
•    Collaborate with stakeholders, developers, and architects to craft solutions that make a difference
•    Contribute to the City’s application strategy by helping to develop CityGeo’s solution roadmap
•    Evolve CityGeo web applications including Atlas.phila.gov and Openmaps.phila.gov
•    Support of full project lifecycle including source control, testing, and agile development methodologies.
•    Ensure the technical feasibility of UI/UX designs
•    Implement identity based access controls as appropriate
•    Prepare and maintain documentation on design and maintenance of projects.
•    Provide application support and maintain good relationships with users.

Competencies, Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
Required:
•    Passion for creating great user experiences
•    Ability to work with stakeholders and drive relationships in a positive direction
•    Strong desire to lead where others can follow by developing solutions that leverage platforms common to the municipal government space
•    Fairly assess architectural trade-offs and develop solutions that maximize ROI for the City and its Citizens
•    Knowledge / adherence to application development best practices
•    Understanding of basic programming concepts such as state, scope, and persistence
•    Fundamental web development skills (HTML, CSS, JavaScript)
•    Knowledge of application architecture patterns (MVVM, Vuex, and/or Flux)
•    Experience working with RESTful APIs, JSON, and GeoJSON
•    Experience working with Esri ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Server REST APIs
•    Knowledge of JavaScript mapping libraries, such as Esri or Leaflet
•    Ability to develop ETL and automate tasks with Python
•    Experience working with identity standards such as OAuth and/or SAML
•    Experience with source control tools such as Git

Preferred:
•    Strong technical design and architecture skills
•    Experience with JavaScript application frameworks, such as Vue.js
•    Experience coding web applications using MVVM, Flux, or like application patterns 
•    Experience working in open DevOps environments using GitHub, Travis, and Rollup.js
•    Experience developing in Cloud environments including AWS or Azure
•    Experience with Carto APIs
•    Familiarity with Linux
•    Experience with front-end web design

Qualifications

Completion of a Bachelor’s Degree program at an accredited college or university, which has included major course work in computer science, GIS, information science, or a closely related field.

Education and experience requirements can be waived by the OIT hiring committee for applicants that are found to be exceptionally strong in the areas of Python, SQL, and GIS applications.

Additional Information

Please submit a resume with cover letter.

Successful candidate must be a City resident within six months of hire. 

The City of Philadelphia is an Equal Opportunity employer and does not permit discrimination based on race, ethnicity, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, ancestry, age,disability, marital status, source of income, familial status, genetic information or domestic or sexual violence victim status. If you believe you were discriminated against, call the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations at 215-686-4670 or send an email to For more information, go to: Human Relations Website at: http://www.phila.gov/humanrelations