Welcome to CUPPA Careers!

The College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at UIC is the University of Illinois System's home for the study of public policy and contemporary urban challenges. We are CUPPA.

In the heart of Chicago, we offer degrees in fields of study that can change your life and change the world. CUPPA students and alumni are uniquely skilled to build and transform sustainable urban neighborhoods and communities and to address the challenges presented in the 21st century. Find our more about our Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorate degrees at cuppa.uic.edu.

Follow our job postings below and our national job tweets at @CUPPACareers. For student internships and student opportunities, head to the CUPPA Student Opportunities Blog

Have a job or internship to post? Send an email with the title, location, job description, and contact information to cuppa@uic.edu

Geospatial Analyst - GreenInfo Network (Oakland, CA)

Who: At GreenInfo, we work in the unique intersection of technology and nonprofit advocacy, with a large part of our history in support of land conservation. To serve the public good while pushing the edge of new tech is extremely rewarding.

What: We are hiring a new Geospatial Analyst to join our GIS team, which represents about half of our staff. The work we do is collaborative, fun, challenging, and always committed to the public good. GreenInfo's clients are passionate about fair elections, equity in park access, public health, and land conservation, to name a few.

This new position will focus primarily on highly skilled GIS data work. As a Geospatial Analyst with us, you will:

  • Contribute to the editing, documentation, and overall lively maintenance of the California Protected Areas Database, a public dataset GreenInfo has been publishing for over 10 years. Editing CPAD is a major part of this position; find out more on www.calands.org. (50% of project time) 
  • Serve as one of our go-to resources for advanced demographic analysis, which largely supports park access equity and tobacco prevention analyses (20% of project time) 
  • Support large-scale interactive projects that require GIS staff by sourcing authoritative data for clients, organizing and tracking an onslaught of incoming datasets, running complex analyses for use on the web, and more. (30% of project time) The incredible cartography you may know GreenInfo for is not prominent in this job description. We’re a small shop, and the expectation is that staff will remain flexible enough to contribute when and where they can, so chances are good you’ll be making some maps. But your role will focus on data and data management. The type of work you will be producing will most likely include: GIS data resulting from multi-step analysis, metadata, methods documentation, and tabular data. 
Qualities we’re looking for:
  • Strong interest in getting the details right, with help and support from others 
  • A sharp eye for data integrity and validation 
  • An appreciation for the satisfaction of making steady progress chipping away at a large, stable project Ability to thrive as part of a team, standing up for your ideas but listening with respect and an open mind to your colleagues 
  • Willingness to make phone calls to people you don’t know, in the interest of gathering the best information you can 
  • Previous experience in consulting, or customer service, is a plus but not required Technical skills we're interested in: 
  • We expect that someone with 2+ years experience in the GIS field would be the best fit, but less than that won’t disqualify you 
  • Proficiency in ArcMap, particularly in data editing and analysis • Experience analyzing and reporting on census data in GIS 
  • Comfort in either Excel or Google Sheets (pivot tables, vlookups, sure - but also validating or solving problems) • Some experience in ArcGIS Pro is a plus 
  • Familiarity with QGIS will be useful but is not required 
  • Experience with Python, Postgres/Postgis, or other relevant open source tools is a plus. 
Are you missing a few of the technical skills listed, but excited about a data-focused position? We still want to hear from you. These skills fit the nature of the work quite closely, but you may still be the right fit if you are interested in building your experience in these areas. This is a full-time staff position with benefits. Pay is competitive, commensurate with experience. Please send cover letter and resume to jobs4@greeninfo.org. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.