GIS Sr. Specialist, FEWS NET

Position Description

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) is an integrated set of activities funded by the United States Government (USG) and is intended to provide timely, accurate, evidence-based, and transparent food insecurity early warning information and analysis. Created in 1985 in response to famines in East and West Africa, FEWS NET provides global coverage of acute food insecurity. FEWS NET’s work is implemented across several mechanisms by a team of partners that includes the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the University of California-Santa Barbara’s Climate Hazards Center (UCSB-CHC), University of Maryland’s Department of Geographical Sciences, American Institutes for Research (AIR), and Chemonics International (Chemonics).

Chemonics implements FEWS NET’s Decision Support Team (DST), which is charged with providing integrated monitoring and analyses of current and forecast acute food insecurity in countries worldwide to support the United States Government’s (USG) policy and programmatic decisions. The DST operates through a Washington-based technical office, regional FEWS NET offices, and national staff presence in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and eastern Europe.

FEWS NET’s objective is to produce timely, evidence-based decision support to enable the efficient allocation of humanitarian assistance on the basis of need.

Based on an in-depth understanding of local livelihoods, FEWS NET monitors information and data on factors that affect food security, such as conflict, weather and agroclimatology, crops, pasture, markets and trade, and nutrition. The FEWS NET DST produces regular reports, including Food Security Outlooks and Outlook Updates, emergency alerts, market and price updates, and targeted analyses. FEWS NET makes reports available at  and distributes them globally to governments, relief agencies, and other organizations engaged in humanitarian response and development programs.

The eighth phase of FEWS NET began in 2024. The work of the FEWS NET DST relies on close collaboration with international, regional, and national partners on food security-related data and information gathering and analysis. Major activities include joint monitoring and assessments, data sharing and exchanges, collaborative analysis and reporting, and support of local and regional food security networks.

The FEWS NET DST’s acute food insecurity early warning analysis and decision support products rely on geographic mapping and geospatial analysis tools to inform and visualize analysis of acute food insecurity. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are, therefore, essential to achieving the FEWS NET DST’s core mandate.

The GIS Senior Specialist works under the Data Management Advisor and is responsible for supporting ongoing and new GIS activities across the team’s sectors (Decision Support, Markets and Trade, Livelihoods, Conflict, Nutrition).

The GIS Senior Specialist will assist in the spatial and geographic coding of data and manage the project’s spatial databases. The individual will also support the production of high-quality visual analyses and data visualization tools (including interactive data monitoring products and tools). In addition, the individual will assist with the identification and application of approaches to geo-spatial analysis in support of FEWS NET DST activities and sectors.

The GIS Senior Specialist is a full-time position and is preferred to be based in the Home Office in Washington, D.C. though remote options may be considered for well-qualified candidates. The GIS Senior Specialist will work under the direct supervision of the FEWS NET Data Management Advisor. S/He will also collaborate with the Washington-based technical and management teams and technical staff in FEWS NET country and regional offices, as well as with other FEWS NET implementing partners, as relevant.

The GIS Senior Specialist may be required to travel domestically and internationally,…