Geospatial Supervisor (Program Admin Officer 4)

About Us

Nova Scotia is rich in natural resources – including biodiversity, forests, provincial parks and the land we manage. Natural Resources is responsible for the development, management, conservation and protection of forests, parks and wildlife resources and the administration of the province’s Crown land. Together we are working with Nova Scotians to build a better future through sustainable natural resource management.

About Our Opportunity

The Program Lead is responsible for providing advanced specialized program administrative or management work for programs with province-wide impacts. Responsibilities include overall program administration and coordination of programs. The incumbent will be responsible for identifying and designing future programs as well as developing, reviewing and evaluating proposals requiring government support.

Specifically, the incumbent of this position will provide leadership and coordination for GIS, integrated resource planning, and spatial analysis activities that are currently dispersed across multiple groups.

Primary Accountabilities

• Supervises GIS staff.
• Manages and delivers required outcomes for one or more programs.
• Administers Act(s) and/or its regulations in the province, and may perform and exercise any of the powers, privileges, duties, and functions of the Minister as specified in the legislation and the designation.
• Identifies and designs programs to assist with the evaluation and planning for future direction of programs and policies for municipal and provincial organizations. Activities include program(s) development, business analysis, providing advice and policy recommendations, and may include the resource and capacity management of direct and indirect program resources.
• Acts as a consultant within government and with provincial and national organizations through the development of training programs and developing, reviewing and evaluating proposals requiring government support.
• Develops and/or delivers a plan for significant aspects of internal and external communications with guidance from senior colleagues. This includes ongoing monitoring and reporting of programs and providing processes and tools to provide the required information for inclusion on reports.
• Identifies shortcomings and suggests improvements to existing processes, systems and procedures, then delivers a plan for a small element of a change management program in collaboration with senior colleagues and project team.
• Delivers a prescribed budget for the program and conducts complex analyses on budget progress while working within established procedures. Allocates resources to appropriate places and develops strategies to ensure program management capacity meets the requirements.
• Delivers prescribed outcomes for a designated area of financial control. Develops action plans to address budget and/or operational business plan deviations as they occur throughout the fiscal year.
• Delivers on the established outcomes by managing day-to-day relationships with clients, contract service providers, and team while working within an established contract management plan.

Qualifications and Experience

This may be the right opportunity for you if you have a bachelor's degree, along with six years of related experience or an equivalent combination of training and experience. Relevant experience would include: experience supervising or providing technical leadership to GIS, geospatial, modelling, or other technical professionals; and/or experience applying geospatial information to natural resource management.

As the successful candidate, you also have previous experience managing projects and/or programs within the desired cost, time, and quality parameters. You are focused on continuous improvement as you focus on assessing, measuring, and improving performance. You have strong analytical skills which allow you to synthesize data from multiple sources to draw appropriate conclusions and make suitable recommendations.

You also have strong relationship building and interpersonal skills which allow you to develop extensive contacts and working relationships with various internal and external stakeholders. Your expertise will assist in facilitating the integration of analysis into program development, legislation, policy, and planning. You work with a high degree of independent judgement and initiative, with the ability to develop concepts and communicate effectively (written and verbally) with industry, government, and the community.

You thrive on engaging with others, getting buy-in to deliver results, and skillfully influencing to build results.

*Assets would include: experience with advanced geospatial analysis and spatial modelling, experience supervising or providing technical leadership to GIS, geospatial, modelling, or other technical professionals; and experience applying geospatial information to integrated resource planning, land-use planning, or environmental decision-making. Experience with remote sensing, LiDAR, geospatial data management, automation or scripting, and the development or implementation of enterprise GIS tools and solutions would also be considered assets.

We will assess the above qualifications and competencies using one or more of the following tools: written examination, standardized tests, oral presentations, interview(s), and reference checks.

Equivalency

An equivalent combination of training, education, and experience will be considered. Equivalencies may include, but are not limited to:

• A completed master's degree and 4 years of related experience.

Applicants relying on education and experience equivalencies must demonstrate such equivalencies in their application.

Benefits

Based on the employment status and union agreement, the Government of Nova Scotia offers its employees a wide range of benefits such as a Defined Benefit Pension Plan, Health, Dental, Life Insurance, General illness, Short and Long Term Disability, Vacation and Employee and Family Assistance Programs. For information on all our Benefit program offerings, click here: Benefits for government employees.

Additional Information

This competition is being leveraged to fill a permanent, full-time position. The location of the position is flexible and work may be conducted at one of the Department of Natural Resources offices across the province of Nova Scotia.

What We Offer

• Career Development where you have access to career guidance, tools, resources, and ongoing training for every stage of your career.
• Engaging workplace. Our Employees feel valued, respected, connected, and tuned in. We have forward-thinking policies and strategies.
• Countless Career Paths.
• A Dynamic, client-focused office environment where service excellence and teamwork are our focus.