The Lead Cartographer enables The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to maximize the value of the organization’s investment in geospatial technologies (GIS, EO, data science) by supporting an emerging conservation map brand and guidelines as well as being a map production focal point for our highly skilled geospatial workforce. The Lead Cartographer advances the conservation map brand to align with TNC’s visual identity by promoting specific cartographic elements and working with a large and diverse group of conservation, geospatial, and marketing professionals to implement the guidelines across the organization. Working closely with the Director of Conservation & Geospatial Systems, this position helps ensure TNC continues to be regarded as a leader in geospatial science and technologies in the field of conservation. They collaborate primarily with other functions within the Conservation & Geospatial Systems group in IT as well as the Global Digital team, working groups, and individuals across business units on workflows related to mapping, art direction, creative design, UIUX, web GIS, and processes around marketing content development. This position manages staff and contributes to the growth of a Cartography & Design team within the Conservation & Geospatial Systems group through strategic planning while maintaining current systems and developing new technology workflows and solutions according to system requirements following TNC’s methodology and best practices. The Lead Cartographer provides leadership and coordinates with over one thousand geospatial-related staff members at TNC. They support geospatial reporting and mapping of project areas that contribute to global conservation goals. In addition, they act as lead in managing technology application maintenance projects related to application upgrades, conversions, and modifications that enhance cartographic workflows. This includes performing tasks assigned as required to complete projects in design, development, running specific programs, generating reports, and analyzing and communicating results. They support production and maintenance problems related to cartography and act as a final quality assurance analyst in conducting and coordinating peer reviews before map and/or web application release in all phases of the project life cycle. They act as program management lead on cartography enterprise projects as well as project management lead on pilot or R&D projects. They analyze changing business and market circumstances and industry trends to evaluate alternatives and develop/implement/adapt different cartography technology solutions related to conservation science, planning, and action. The Lead Cartographer also contributes to web platform style guides that support various mapping tools and applications across TNC’s digital presence.

• Advancement of existing cartography guidelines aligned with custom TNC cartography elements and Global Marketing’s visual identity.
• Develop cartographic design vision and map production for the Geospatial Annual Report and Map Book and Geospatial Conservation Atlas, working with programs, projects and individual contributors in implementing the organization’s cartographic, UIUX and marketing guidelines.
• Lead and point of contact for Global Board and Executive cartography support, including maps and visualizations for high-profile projects (e.g., nature.org, scientific publications).
• Serve as the point of contact for Global Marketing on map-related design requests, both paper and digital, to ensure guidelines and developing standards are met across the organization.
• Establish a global network for cartographers to support the organization’s map and web application needs.
• Develop and support software-based workflows to allow geospatial and marketing staff to effectively collaborate.
• Support and update existing standards for specific map types (e.g., protection projects, federal appropriations requests).
• Work collaboratively with the Marketing department to develop standard symbology and templates for maps at TNC preserves and work with individual business units on implementation.
• Curate examples of outstanding TNC cartography and communicate these examples to internal and external audiences.
• Work with external vendors to ensure geospatial staff align with TNC’s cartographic guidelines and visual identity.
• Create a knowledge base around when to use what cartographic software package and any integrations between them (i.e., Esri ArcGIS Pro, Adobe Creative Cloud, Mapbox).
• Advance TNC’s Conservation GeoCloud by designing and implementing collaborative cartography workspaces and map production workflows.
• Enable geospatial field staff to contribute and manage geospatial data for map production on TNC’s cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, Esri ArcGIS Online).
• Coordinate TNC’s participation in the Map Gallery at the Esri User Conference and/or other meetings/events.
• Create how-to/training resources for TNC’s geospatial and marketing communities.
• Develop accurate and adaptable project plans and provide technical expertise to team members and users to help resolve complex project-related issues.
• Analyze changing business and market circumstances and industry trends and re-engineer TNC geospatial business practices as necessary.
• Assist technical support staff, Project and Product Managers and users as needed by providing support for applications, including diagnosing problems that require extensive analysis and troubleshooting.
• Manage a small team.