Geographic Information Systems Administrator (GIS Administrator)
Geographic Information Systems Technologists and TechniciansDescription
Plan, implement, and administer enterprise GIS platforms, databases, and services. Manage system architecture, security, performance, and integrations; oversee upgrades, backups, licensing, and governance; provide advanced support to ensure reliable, scalable GIS operations for the organization.
- • Administer and optimize enterprise GIS servers, portals, and services.
- • Configure and maintain enterprise geodatabases, versioning, and indexing.
- • Design and document GIS system architecture for on-prem and cloud environments.
- • Implement and manage security, roles, permissions, SSO, and SSL certificates.
- • Monitor performance, availability, and capacity; tune services and databases.
- • Plan and execute GIS software upgrades, patches, and migrations.
- • Establish and enforce data standards, metadata, and governance policies.
- • Publish, manage, and cache map, feature, imagery, and OGC services.
- • Automate administration and deployments using Python, PowerShell, or CI/CD.
- • Develop and test backup, recovery, and disaster-recovery procedures.
- • Manage GIS software licensing, entitlements, and named users.
- • Provide Tier 2/3 support; troubleshoot system and integration issues.
- • Integrate GIS with enterprise applications and APIs.
- • Coordinate change management, release schedules, and maintenance windows.
- • Build and maintain ETL/ELT workflows for data ingestion and synchronization.
- • Provision users, groups, and content lifecycle in Portal/ArcGIS Online.
- • Create and maintain SOPs, runbooks, and architecture documentation.
- • Ensure compliance with security, privacy, and audit requirements.
- • Plan capacity and budgets for servers, storage, and cloud resources.
- • Manage dev/test/prod environments and promote configurations across tiers.
- • Support developers with service endpoints, authentication, and performance testing.
- • Configure and manage imagery, elevation, and tile cache repositories.
- • Set up monitoring dashboards and reports for health, usage, and SLAs.
- • Coordinate vendor support and escalate critical incidents as needed.
- • Review and approve schema changes and service configurations.
- • Train power users and staff on GIS platform administration and best practices.
- • Evaluate emerging GIS technologies and recommend upgrades or enhancements.
- • Maintain data quality processes, QA/QC checks, and validation routines.
- • Implement high-availability, load balancing, and failover configurations.
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Last reviewed: Jan 2026
