Vihiga County whose headquarters is in Mbale is Located in the Western Region of Kenya. It boarders Nandi to the East, Kisumu County to the South, Siaya County to the West and KAKAMEGA County to the North. It is one of the four Counties in the former Western Province. Vihiga County has five Constituencies; Luanda, Emuhaya, Hamisi, Sabatia and Vihiga.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead a team of remote sensing and geospatial professionals in the design, development and implementation of imaging and GIS solutions that support local and global spatial decisions;
• Provide technical expertise in satellite imagery, GIS, statistics and programming to develop novel software imaging solutions that provide non-subjective, quantitative data to growers;
• Develop temporal solutions and models using satellite images for informed decision making;
• Perform data mining activities for the spatial and temporal datasets available on e-platforms;
• Lead collaborations with external stakeholders and organizations where remote sensing and Geospatial technology is a key stakeholder;
• Provide views on remote sensing competence in reviews of academia institutions and companies;
• Stay up to date with the latest developments in remote sensing technology and develop new methods to improve the accuracy and efficiency of image analysis;
• Lead research in remote sensing and GIS technologies by developing proposals for donor funding:
• Provide remote sensing techniques on crop suitability mapping, early warning models, weather pattern analysis and other services as required;
• Recommend needs and inform spatial and temporal mapping tools and other services as required;
• Recommend needs and inform spatial and temporal mapping tools and products. Work closely with DTM and Information Management (IM) departments to identify needs and produce the relevant products and maps; plan, develop and provide training and develop skills for IM and GIS activities;
• Participate in the development of data collection tools and training of field staff to facilitate the inclusion of GIS- related requirements and indicators in other departments;
• Update and produce online maps (with ArcGIS Server for data review and analysis) and printable maps (with ArcGIS and Adobe Illustrator/InDesign), as well as Dashboards, Graphs, Profiles,
• Shapefiles and KMZ files for reporting while ensuring accurate representation of spatial features with the most updated common operation datasets (CODs);
• Improve geo-referencing/Global Positioning System (GPS) cleaning and documentation of geo-coordinates;
• Coordinate creation of the county atlas and regularly update base maps in line with identified requirements.

Requirements for Appointment

• Master’s degree related to Geo-information Science and Earth observation, Remote Sensing or Natural Resource Management from an accredited academic institution with two years of relevant professional experience; and
• Have a Bachelors degree or related qualifications in Cartography Photogrammetry and remote sensing, Geo-informatics, Natural Resource Management, Land Resources Planning and Geography or any other related field from a recognized institution of higher learning;.
• High analytical thinking to effectively analyze information database;
• Skilled in managing Geo-databases and Relational Database Management System;
• Good oral and written communication and interpersonal skills;
• Profound GIS and remote sensing knowledge as a GIS/RS specialist expected to work with raster and vector GIS tools;
• Ability to pay particular attention to details to work with databases, analyze information and prepare reports.