Department: Information Technology / Enterprise GIS
Industry: Transportation and Passenger Rail
Position Summary
We are seeking an experienced GIS Solutions Architect to design, develop, integrate, and manage enterprise geospatial solutions supporting transportation and passenger rail operations. This position requires a combination of GIS architecture, user experience design, accessible front-end development, full-stack software engineering, systems integration, and enterprise IT infrastructure management.
The ideal candidate will have extensive experience building mobile-responsive GIS web applications, developing sophisticated ArcGIS user experiences, and translating complex operational requirements into intuitive interfaces and reliable technical solutions. The architect will work closely with transportation engineers, operations center personnel, dispatch and field teams, application developers, database administrators, cybersecurity teams, infrastructure teams, and business stakeholders.
The position will support mission-critical rail capabilities such as train movement visualization, real-time or near-real-time location streaming, operational alerts, train manifests, manifest dashboards, and applications used within a Consolidated National Operations Center, or CNOC, environment.
Experience supporting train companies, passenger rail organizations, or transportation agencies is strongly preferred. Experience working with Amtrak systems, operations, data, or business processes is highly desirable.
Key Responsibilities
GIS Architecture and Solution Design
Define the technical architecture for secure, scalable, high-availability enterprise GIS solutions.
Design solutions using ArcGIS Enterprise, ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Experience Builder, ArcGIS Dashboards, ArcGIS Pro, feature services, map services, geoprocessing services, and related Esri technologies.
Develop GIS reference architectures, integration patterns, data flows, security models, deployment strategies, and system design documentation.
Evaluate functional and nonfunctional requirements, including availability, performance, scalability, accessibility, maintainability, cybersecurity, and disaster recovery.
Lead technical design reviews and provide architectural guidance to GIS analysts, software developers, database engineers, infrastructure administrators, and integration teams.
Establish reusable frameworks, design standards, development practices, and application templates for enterprise GIS products.
Balance configuration-based ArcGIS solutions with custom application development based on business, technical, and operational requirements.
Front-End Development, UX, and Accessibility
Design and build sophisticated, user-friendly GIS applications for desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.
Create mobile-first, responsive web applications that perform effectively across screen sizes, device types, operating systems, and modern browsers.
Translate complex rail and transportation workflows into clear, efficient, and intuitive user interfaces.
Develop wireframes, prototypes, interaction models, navigation structures, reusable user-interface components, and production-ready application designs.
Apply modern UX and UI design principles to maps, dashboards, forms, alerts, data tables, charts, filtering tools, and operational displays.
Ensure applications conform to applicable accessibility requirements and standards, including:
WCAG 2.1 or later
Section 508
Keyboard accessibility
Screen-reader compatibility
Accessible color contrast
Focus management
Semantic page structure
Responsive text and controls
Accessible forms, maps, charts, dialogs, and notifications
Perform accessibility reviews and work with testing teams to remediate identified issues.
Experience with HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, TypeScript, and modern component-based front-end frameworks is expected.
ArcGIS Experience Builder and Arcade
Build advanced applications using ArcGIS Experience Builder, including custom interactions, responsive layouts, widgets, data actions, and multi-page application experiences.
Configure and manage Experience Builder URL parameters to support:
Deep linking
Bookmarked operational views
Record and asset selection
Map location and extent
Search criteria
Filters
Application state
Navigation between integrated systems
Contextual links from alerts, dashboards, emails, and external applications
Design reusable URL patterns that allow users and external systems to open an application directly to a train, location, route, station, incident, manifest, or operational event.
Develop advanced ArcGIS Arcade expressions for pop-up configuration and display.
Use Arcade to implement conditional formatting, derived values, field transformations, date and time calculations, status indicators, related-record presentation, operational summaries, data validation, and context-sensitive pop-up content.
Create informative, accessible, and operationally useful pop-ups for trains, tracks, stations, routes, assets, alerts, work locations, and incidents.
Troubleshoot Arcade performance, null-value handling, data-type conversion, time zones, related data, and complex business rules.
Full-Stack Application Development
Design and develop full-stack GIS and enterprise applications using technologies such as:
Python
Object-oriented programming
.NET and C#
JavaScript and TypeScript
HTML and CSS
SQL
Web services and APIs
Apply object-oriented analysis, design patterns, modular development, source control, automated testing, and secure coding practices.
Develop Python applications, automation scripts, data-processing services, integration jobs, and GIS workflows.
Build .NET services and applications that integrate with GIS, operational, and enterprise platforms.
Create backend services that support mapping, operational dashboards, reporting, alerts, system integrations, and scheduled data processing.
Participate throughout the software development lifecycle, including requirements analysis, design, development, testing, release, monitoring, maintenance, and production support.
Conduct code reviews and mentor developers on architecture, performance, maintainability, accessibility, and security.
Database Engineering and Data Management
Design and optimize relational and spatial database solutions.
Write complex SQL queries and support data access patterns for high-volume operational applications.
Develop and maintain:
Database views
Materialized views, where applicable
Stored procedures
Triggers
User-defined functions
Indexing strategies
Data-validation logic
Data-transformation processes
Work with enterprise geodatabases and relational database platforms such as Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, or PostgreSQL/PostGIS.
Analyze and improve query performance, spatial query performance, locking behavior, indexing, data integrity, and transaction reliability.
Design data models for trains, consists, manifests, routes, tracks, stations, locations, alerts, incidents, schedules, assets, and operational events.
Support temporal and historical data used for train movement analysis, playback, reporting, and operational investigation.
Enterprise GIS Platform and Infrastructure Management
Provide architectural leadership and hands-on support for enterprise GIS platform infrastructure.
Install, configure, administer, monitor, upgrade, patch, and troubleshoot ArcGIS Enterprise environments.
Support ArcGIS Enterprise components such as Portal for ArcGIS, ArcGIS Server, ArcGIS Data Store, web adaptors, enterprise geodatabases, federated servers, and supporting services.
Design and operate highly available, scalable, secure, and recoverable GIS environments.
Work with infrastructure and cloud teams on:
Servers and virtual machines
Cloud platforms
Storage
Load balancing
Reverse proxies
DNS
Certificates
Firewalls
Network connectivity
Identity and access management
Logging and monitoring
Backup and recovery
Business continuity
Disaster recovery
Manage GIS platform capacity, system performance, service utilization, publishing standards, application dependencies, and lifecycle activities.
Establish separate development, testing, staging, and production environments with controlled deployment processes.
Support authentication and authorization technologies such as Active Directory, SAML, OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, and role-based access control.
Coordinate platform changes using formal IT service management and change-control processes.
Participate in incident response, root-cause analysis, problem management, and production support for business-critical GIS services.
Enterprise System Integration
Architect and implement integrations between GIS, transportation operations, scheduling, asset management, customer information, alerting, reporting, and enterprise systems.
Develop and consume both REST and SOAP APIs.
Work with JSON, XML, GeoJSON, webhooks, message queues, scheduled interfaces, batch processes, and event-driven integration patterns.
Implement secure API authentication using applicable approaches such as OAuth, tokens, certificates, API keys, and service accounts.
Develop resilient integrations with appropriate validation, retry handling, error management, observability, auditing, and operational support.
Document interface contracts, data mappings, dependencies, security requirements, service-level expectations, and failure-recovery procedures.
Support integrations that allow external systems, train alerts, and operational notifications to launch GIS applications using contextual Experience Builder URL parameters.
Transportation and Passenger Rail Solutions
Work directly with transportation engineers, rail operations personnel, dispatchers, controllers, planners, field teams, and technology stakeholders.
Develop solutions that represent and analyze transportation networks, train routes, rail corridors, stations, tracks, signals, operational territories, and infrastructure assets.
Support applications used by a CNOC or comparable rail operations center.
Develop map-based tools that provide operational awareness of current train activity and network conditions.
Integrate streaming train location data to visualize and track train movement in real time or near real time.
Design solutions that account for latency, stale data, missing positions, GPS accuracy, duplicate events, time zones, update frequency, and communication outages.
Present train direction, speed, route, last reported location, event time, current status, estimated arrival information, and other operational attributes when available.
Build mechanisms for train-location history, movement trails, last-known-position analysis, and historical playback.
Work with train alert mechanisms involving events such as:
Delays
Stops
Route deviations
Service disruptions
Geofence entry or exit
Stale location data
Missing updates
Threshold conditions
Operational exceptions
Manifest-related conditions
Build train manifest dashboards that present operationally relevant information, potentially including train identifiers, consist information, equipment, origin, destination, route, stations, schedules, status, assignments, passenger or crew-related operational data, and exception conditions.
Apply appropriate privacy, security, and least-privilege controls to sensitive manifest and operational information.
Create role-based operational views so CNOC personnel, transportation engineers, executives, field teams, and support staff receive information appropriate to their responsibilities.
Collaborate with operations teams to ensure alert thresholds and dashboard indicators are accurate, actionable, understandable, and resistant to alert fatigue.
Required Qualifications
Significant professional experience designing and delivering enterprise GIS applications and platforms.
Demonstrated experience serving as a GIS architect, solution architect, technical lead, or senior full-stack GIS developer.
Advanced experience with Esri technologies, particularly ArcGIS Enterprise and ArcGIS Experience Builder.
Strong experience building responsive, mobile-friendly web applications.
Demonstrated front-end development experience with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript, and modern web-development practices.
Strong understanding of UX design, UI design, responsive layouts, usability, and accessible application development.
Practical knowledge of WCAG and Section 508 accessibility requirements.
Experience using Experience Builder URL parameters for deep linking, state management, filtering, record selection, and system integration.
Advanced ArcGIS Arcade experience, particularly for pop-ups, formatting, calculations, related records, and business rules.
Strong Python development and automation experience.
Strong understanding of object-oriented programming and software design principles.
Experience developing applications or services using .NET and C#.
Advanced SQL skills and experience with relational and spatial databases.
Experience creating and maintaining database views, triggers, functions, stored procedures, and performance-optimized queries.
Experience developing and consuming REST APIs and SOAP web services.
Strong knowledge of enterprise authentication, authorization, networking, security, monitoring, backup, and disaster-recovery concepts.
Experience managing or supporting highly available enterprise GIS infrastructure.
Ability to produce architecture diagrams, technical specifications, interface documentation, deployment plans, data models, and operational runbooks.
Strong troubleshooting, communication, leadership, and stakeholder-management skills.
Ability to support mission-critical applications and participate in scheduled after-hours maintenance or incident response when required.
Preferred Qualifications
Esri technical certifications or comparable GIS platform credentials.
Cloud certification in Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, or another relevant platform.
Experience with ArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScript and custom Experience Builder widgets.
Experience with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, infrastructure as code, containerization, and DevSecOps practices.
Experience with real-time GIS technologies, event processing, message brokers, streaming services, or ArcGIS Velocity.
Experience integrating GPS, positive train control, dispatch, scheduling, telemetry, automatic vehicle location, or comparable operational data.
Knowledge of linear referencing systems, transportation networks, rail mileposts, routes, subdivisions, stations, and track geometry.
Experience working for a passenger railroad, freight railroad, transit agency, transportation authority, or transportation consulting organization.
Direct experience with Amtrak, passenger rail operations, or Amtrak-related technology systems.
Experience supporting a CNOC, network operations center, transportation operations center, or other 24-by-7 operational environment.
Familiarity with train manifests, train consists, equipment movements, crew or operational assignments, train-status reporting, and rail alert workflows.
Experience building executive, operational, and field dashboards using ArcGIS Dashboards, Experience Builder, or comparable business‑intelligence technologies.
Understanding of data governance, records retention, personally identifiable information, cybersecurity, and access controls in transportation environments.
Core Competencies
Enterprise GIS architecture
Advanced front-end engineering
User experience and interface design
Digital accessibility
Mobile-responsive application development
Full-stack software engineering
Enterprise platform administration
Spatial and relational database engineering
Real-time and near-real-time data integration
API and web-service integration
Transportation domain understanding
Technical leadership
Operational problem solving
Cross-functional collaboration
Clear technical documentation
Measures of Success
The successful candidate will:
Deliver accessible and mobile-responsive GIS applications that meet operational user needs.
Improve the reliability, security, scalability, and maintainability of the enterprise GIS platform.
Provide accurate and timely visualization of train movement and operational conditions.
Build useful manifest dashboards and contextual train-alert experiences.
Reduce the time required for CNOC and transportation personnel to identify and respond to operational events.
Establish reusable architecture and integration patterns that accelerate future GIS development.
Improve application performance, data quality, system observability, and production support.
Promote consistent development, accessibility, security, and deployment standards across GIS solutions.
Working Conditions
This role may support systems used in continuous transportation operations.
Periodic after-hours work may be required for platform maintenance, production deployments, system upgrades, critical incidents, or operational events.
Occasional travel to offices, stations, operation centers, data centers, or other transportation facilities may be required.
The employee must be able to work effectively with both technical and nontechnical stakeholders in high-priority operational environments.
Job Types: Full-time, Contract
Pay: $50.00 - $70.00 per hour
Work Location: Remote
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