Peatland Action - GIS & Database Officer - D Grade Job Inverness area,Scotland UK,Science

Position: 1012-398 Peatland Action - GIS & Database Officer - D Grade - August 2026

We are looking for a skilled technical person to play a key role in managing the flow of data and information created by Peatland ACTION.

You must be excited to share your knowledge, be interested in the work of Peatland ACTION and keen to apply data management and analytics to the important issue of peatland restoration.

You must be an expert in GIS, with a minimum Masters or equivalent experience. You will be comfortable using and adapting to a range of GIS applications and tools. Competency with databases, preferably PostgreSQL/PostGIS, for spatial data management and analysis is essential for this role. Communication and willingness to help are also key to supporting and training others.

You will sit within the Peatland ACTION Data & Evidence Team and work closely with others using our data to restore degraded peatland across Scotland. We are looking for someone who is open to challenges, flexible enough to adapt within their post, enjoys supportive and collaborative working whilst also able to work independently. As part of the Data & Evidence Team, you will be encouraged to reflect and contribute to strategic development and innovation.

Data sources include: surveys and monitoring of hydrology, species surveys, water quality, vegetation and peat depth; aerial imagery; ground photography; and information about restoration activities and land management practices.

Context

Nature Scot's Peatland programme delivers actions to care for Scotland's peatlands. It is integral to the government's determination for peatland protection, restoration and management to reduce carbon emissions and contribute wider benefits for biodiversity, water management and green growth. The Peatland Programme covers the requirements under the Scottish Government ring-fenced Peatland ACTION support for restoration and the wider Nature Scot work on valuing, protecting and managing peatlands.

Nature Scot has dual role on Peatland ACTION:

providing leadership on shared services/business solutions across all five Peatland ACTION delivery partners (Nature Scot, the two National Parks, Forestry & Land Scotland and Scottish Water); and,
increasing the pace/scale of peatland restoration projects on the ground.

The Nature Scot Peatland ACTION role is expanding in support of the government's 10 year, £250m, commitment for restoration. It has an annual budget of ~ £20m and comprises over 60 posts employed/supported by Nature Scot.

The main duties and responsibilities are:

Contribute to the development of a PostGIS Peatland ACTION database.
Work with the rest of the Data & Evidence team to collate, manage, analyse, report on and disseminate Peatland ACTION data.
Provide expert advice, training and support for Peatland ACTION staff on issues related to data capture and best practice data management.
Developing infrastructure to make spatial data accessible internally, the Scottish Government and to the public.
Develop our online application portal for Peatland ACTION and the Nature Scot online grant management system for Peatland ACTION restoration and monitoring grants.
Prepare responses to data requests from a wide range of sources including the media and Scottish Government.
Liaise and collaborate with Nature Scot's GIS, Cyber Security, Developer and Information Management teams.

Skills required (please address these in your Supporting Statement):

Expert in use of desktop and field-based GIS tools (preferably QGIS) to support data collection.
Excellent experience of administering databases, preferably PostgreSQL/PostGIS, for spatial data management and analysis, with some exposure to web mapping.
Ability to process and analyse spatial data using any of R, Python or GDAL tools.
Strong organisational skills, particularly to manage a reactive workload alongside driving forward existing and future long term projects using appropriate project management skills.
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