GIS Developer (remote within EU) – European Commission

1. CONTEXT/INTRODUCTION

Unit D.6 - Nature Conservation and Observations - of the JRC Directorate D, in partnership with other Commission services and stakeholders, provides high quality corporate information systems for the processing and visualization of geo-spatial data for environmental and climate monitoring.

Amongst the solutions provided, JRC D6 has implemented the eStation 3.0 platform, a highly customized web-based GIS application, distributed to the beneficiaries of the GMES&Africa-2 program funded by DG-INTPA (2022-2025). Similarly, the eStation version customized for climate applications (‘Climate Station’) was delivered to the beneficiaries of the ‘intra-ACP Climate Service and Related Applications’ EU funded project (a.k.a. ClimSA). This Climate Station represent a significant evolution of the  eStation toward the implementation of climate services, and required a significant re-design, in order to link to additional data providers (e.g. from C3S-CDS and IRI-DL) and to include functionalities that are not yet implemented in the system (e.g. season forecast models at regional level, input of meteorological in-situ data, among others).

Both GMES&Africa-2 and ClimSA programs end in Q4/2025, and their follow up is represented by the Africa Regional Centres of Excellence program (ArcX), which includes Work Packages on Climate Change Resilience (WP6) and, specifically in the Administrative Arrangement with the JRC, a budget to support the EU Africa Space Partnership Program. In this context, the JRC is mandated to make the eStation evolve, in the direction of additional tools and features, e.g. for Impact Based Forecast (IBF), regional downscaling of seasonal forecast, and provide continues support to the Users. Additionally, it will be essential to ensure the integration with the Africa Knowledge Platform (AKP), which represents the technological backbone of the ArcX program.

The solution assignment may change over time, according to the project and service needs.

2. DESCRIPTION OF THE TASKS

The overall goal of the current Specific Contract is to provide technical support to the D.6 Unit in the continuous development of the database and the front-end component of the eStation/Climate Station, for the African Regional Centres of Excellence User’s communities. The support includes the websites, hosted by JRC, to propose the tools online.

The following tasks will be performed by external service provider:

1. Development and delivery of all web-based interfaces for the eStation 3.0 and Climate Station, following the needs retrieved from the ArcX community, consolidated by JRC D.6.

2. Contribute to the generation of the packages for installing and upgrading the applications, and to their validation, with particular focus on the database update.

3. Preparation of the relevant components of the User Documentation, namely the description of the GUI in the Administration and User Manual.

4. Support the preparation of the training material for the web-based interfaces of the eStation 3.0/Climate Station. This includes screenshots, diagrams, description test and videos for tutorials. Help desk activity will include to answer to User questions. Training sessions with Users are also foreseen.

5. Upgrade and maintenance of the dedicated eStation website on the JRC Science Hub, including the publication of the relevant News as agreed with D6 Staff.

6. Maintenance of the eStation 3.0 and Climate Station installations on JRC servers (development Virtual Machines, production servers, MESA Reference Station) and of the online web-client.

3. LEVEL OF EDUCATION

As stated in the Article 2.6.3.1. of DIGIT-TM II Service requirements, a minimum educational qualification for Lot 2 is: Level of education corresponding to Level 7 of the European Qualification Framework which typically corresponds to a master’s degree of 5 years.

4. KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

Following skills and knowledge are required for the performance of the above listed tasks:

• In depth knowledge of application design, modelling tools, developing web applications and geographical information systems (GIS).

• Good knowledge of DBMS administration and database development (namely PostgreSQL and PostGIS).

• Good knowledge of Web GIS (i.e. Openlayers, Leaflet) OGC Web Services (i.e. WMS, WCS, WPS), GIS Servers (i.e. Mapserver and Geoserver), EXT JS, Javascript, HTML5, CSS3, Drupal and PHP.

• Knowledge of basics of Earth Observation data processing, GDAL, Google Earth Engine and Python.

• Knowledge of and familiarity in the use of the operating systems MS Windows and Linux, and on how to implement Docker-based applications.

• Knowledge of standard frameworks for code functional testing (e.g. Unittest for python) would be an asset.

• Knowledge of IDEs software and version control tools for the software development (Git, GitHub).

• Knowledge of Docker software framework would be an asset.

• Experience and ability to give presentations and trainings would be an asset.

Due to the nature of a large international organisation such as the European Commission,

candidates should also have the following non-technical skills:

• Capability of integration in an international/multicultural environment, rapid self-starting

capability and experience in working in team.

• Ability to participate in multilingual technical meetings.

• Ability to work in multi-cultural environment, on multiple large projects.

• Excellent Team Player.

• Ability to understand, speak and write in English (B1), will be necessary.

5. SPECIFIC EXPERTISE

Following specific expertise is mandatory for the performance of tasks:

• At least 3 years of specific expertise with ExtJs (minimum competence level 5).

• At least 3 years of specific expertise with PostgreSQL (minimum competence level 5).