Geographic Information Systems Graduate

How long: 2 years

Where: London (Stratford or Southwark)

Up to 50% of time can be spent working from home over a 4-week period. Hybrid working arrangements may alter subject to business requirements. 

Salary: £31,000 rising to £32,250 in year 2

What you'll need

A minimum of a Bachelor's Degree within the field of GIS, Geography, Geomatics, Surveying or a STEM related subject with a grade of 2:2 or higher, or Post-Grad qualification within a relevant field.

What you'll be doing

As a graduate, your 2-year development programme will be made up of 3 mandatory placements rotations of 6 months and 1 flexible placement within 1 of 3 different teams. You will complete at least 1 mandatory 6-month placement before being presented with a flexible placement choice. Within each placement you will be introduced to new projects, datasets, and tools and you will be expected to deliver impactful work while simultaneously learning the skills you will need.  

GIS is embedded within the organisation, and you can expect to work across a wide range of the organisation within the following teams:  

Strategic Analysis (6 Months / Mandatory) 

We provide the objective evidence, analysis and modelling that underpins the planning of London's future. We analyse and interpret multi-modal transport, land-use, economic, environmental, societal and spatial data to understand how and why travel in London is changing. We develop scenarios for London's future and use multi-modal modelling to forecast how people will travel and which schemes and strategies are most effective in meeting MTS goals. We are the analytical arm of the Transport Strategy & Policy Directorate and our GIS team play an important role in this - focussing on advanced spatial analysis and creative visualisations, adding value to data and illustrating trends and patterns to inform decision-making. 

Property Services (6 Months / Mandatory) 

As part of the Business Services Directorate, the Property Services Division provides a full, high quality property consultancy service to clients within both the TfL Group and the wider GLA family. The Property Asset Register Team manages and maintains land ownership for TfL and GLA using GIS and CAD based systems, creates insight and innovation for Property Services and their stakeholders, and supports the wider business with a variety of property matters. You will work alongside GIS Developers, Land Information Managers and GIS/CAD experts to provide advice and support to enable TfL to maximise its estate and get the right land and property to deliver a strong green heartbeat for London. 

Network Management and Resilience (6 Months / Mandatory)  

NMR operates 24/7, 365 days a year to help keep London's streets moving. You will help shape the way TfL responds to daily challenges by supporting TfL Operations with geospatial analysis using network analysis and platforming geospatial data using extract, transform and load techniques. You will work alongside a wider team of Data Scientists, Data Engineers and Business Intelligence specialists to unpick complex challenges and use innovative solutions to deliver insights to stakeholders. You will learn network analysis and map matching techniques amongst other broader GIS subjects.  

Compliance, Policing, Operations and Security (6 Months / Flexible Placement Choice) 

CPOS plays a vital role in achieving TfL's vision. It is our job to protect staff and customers, especially the most vulnerable, and keep them safe from crime, anti-social behaviour, and road danger wherever they work and however they travel. With our partners in the Police, we educate; encourage compliance and enforce the rules and regulations intended to keep everyone safe, secure and which help London to thrive. You will be responsible for providing data and helping build GIS solutions to support front-line teams across TfL and allow intelligent decision making to ensure everyone gets home safe every day.  

Technology and Data (6 Months / Flexible Placement Choice) 

Our Tech & Data team focus on what's behind the millions of daily transactions on London's transport network and support the back-end architecture of our GIS applications. You will help deliver requirements from other GIS teams within an agile environment alongside GIS developers to create powerful and advanced tools to reap the benefit of the technology available to you. You will learn the importance of backend systems and the Python scripting skills to help automate tasks.  

Engineering (6 Months / Flexible Placement Choice) 

TfL Engineering's focus is on the rail assets that form the foundation of our transport system. You will be involved in helping deliver clarity to difficult schematics and data challenges of mapping a 150-year-old rail network. You will support the delivery of GIS to over 2000 users by centralising information within our GIS, RailMapper. You will learn skills how to build robust GIS applications and spatial data management techniques.  

You are expected to complete each of the mandatory placements plus 1 flexible placement outlined above. There is a lot of scope to tailor each placement to your skills and interests due to the breadth of work in each team. You will be expected to learn the fundamentals of applied GIS in line with the scheme competencies. Your placements may become more specialised or focussed in, for example, data science, modelling or data management if your interests move in that direction. 

Where can this career take you

Upon completing the scheme, you are expected to roll-off into one of our GIS teams and be an active participant in those communities. There will continue to be opportunities to grow and explore new areas, and collaboration between teams is encouraged. Equally, you may decide to specialise or progress to managing a small team of GIS Specialists. Transport for London is a large organisation with over 40 GIS professional roles available and many options for future development and projects to maintain your high level of curiosity.