Marine Spatial Data Analyst (Maternity Cover)

Role Overview

You will take ownership of the spatial data systems that underpin Blue Ventures’ community-based fisheries management programmes, ensuring that reliable, well-structured data flows from field teams into dashboards and analytical tools used for real-world decisions. Day to day, you will balance database administration, spatial data quality control, and the development of intuitive visualisations, working closely with ecologists and data scientists to turn raw marine data into actionable insight. Your work is central to keeping the organisation’s spatial infrastructure responsive, documented, and aligned with the needs of coastal communities and conservation partners across multiple regions.

Key Responsibilities

• Administer and maintain spatial databases, ensuring data integrity, versioning, and secure access for internal and external users.
• Develop and document streamlined workflows for importing, cleaning, and validating marine spatial data from field surveys, fisheries monitoring, and remote sensing sources.
• Build and maintain interactive dashboards and mapping tools that present spatial data clearly to non-technical stakeholders, including community partners and programme teams.
• Support marine spatial planning analyses, including habitat mapping, fishing pressure assessments, and zoning scenarios, using reproducible methods.
• Collaborate with the Head of Spatial Ecology and the Data Science team to prioritise infrastructure improvements and respond to emerging programme needs.
• Provide user engagement and technical support, training colleagues and partners on data entry standards, spatial tool usage, and best practices for data handling.
• Create and update metadata, data dictionaries, and standard operating procedures to keep the spatial data system transparent and easy to navigate.
• Proactively identify risks or inefficiencies in data flows and propose practical solutions that balance technical rigour with field realities.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Strong background in spatial data management and analysis, with hands-on experience using GIS software such as QGIS or ArcGIS and spatial database systems such as PostgreSQL/PostGIS.
• Proficiency in scripting or programming for geospatial workflows, ideally in R or Python, with a track record of producing reproducible analyses.
• Demonstrated experience building data visualisations or dashboards (for example with R Shiny, Plotly, Tableau, or similar tools) and tailoring them to different audiences.
• Solid understanding of marine or fisheries data, including survey design, fisheries catch monitoring, and common challenges of field data collection in coastal environments.
• Ability to work both independently and within a small, highly interdependent team, managing your own tasks while staying responsive to wider team priorities.
• Excellent communication and cross-cultural coordination skills, with genuine sensitivity to differing working styles, communication norms, and paces of work across distributed teams.
• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field such as marine science, geography, environmental data science, or similar; advanced degree is welcome but not required when equivalent experience is strong.
• Willingness to travel internationally occasionally to work with colleagues, partners, field teams, and coastal communities.

What We Offer / Why Join

This is a full-time remote role, giving you the flexibility to work from a location that suits you while collaborating with a globally distributed team. You will join a mission-driven organisation where your technical expertise directly supports community-led conservation, and you will have the opportunity to shape a critical data infrastructure used by diverse teams across regions and cultures. In this small, collaborative team, your contributions will be visible and meaningful, with a genuine chance to influence how spatial data drives marine stewardship.