Principal GIS Consultant - GeoAI & Spatial Intelligence

As a Principal Geospatial Consultant with WSP, you'll support multi-disciplinary projects within the Geospatial team as part of the Transformation & Digital Insights service line, with a particular focus on supporting complex infrastructure and land projects. Reporting to an Associate / Associate Director and collaborating with GIS, Geospatial, Data Science Data Engineering, AI and Technical Specialist teams, you'll help the team grow both personally and technically to maintain top-tier client service. As a Principal Geospatial Consultant specialising in GeoAI and Spatial Intelligence, you will sit at the intersection of GIS engineering and applied artificial intelligence—designing, building, and deploying advanced geospatial solutions across infrastructure, utilities, land and property, water, and environmental sectors. This is a hands-on technical role. You will develop production-grade Python workflows, design and optimise spatial data pipelines, and integrate AI and machine learning frameworks into GIS environments to deliver scalable, data-driven insights. You will act as a subject matter expert for both internal teams and clients, translating emerging GeoAI capabilities into practical, real-world applications. You will play a key role in shaping our GeoAI approach within the practice—defining methodologies, driving innovation, and embedding automation and intelligence across project delivery. Alongside this, you will mentor and support junior colleagues, fostering technical excellence and helping to grow our geospatial capability in line with market demand. Join WSP at a time of growth and transformation, where you will play a key role in delivering geospatial solutions across major infrastructure schemes, supporting projects across sectors such as land management, property and planning, energy and transportation.

What we will be looking for you to demonstrate…

Strong technical skills in Esri platforms, scripting (preferably Python), FME, SQL, data management, and data science workflows along with a proactive, resilient mindset and exceptional problem-solving abilities are required. The ideal candidate will have a customer focused mindset to deliver exceptional outcomes for our clients.

• Design and develop GeoAI solutions — including object detection, feature extraction, change detection, and predictive spatial modelling — using both Esri tools and open-source AI frameworks.
• Write production-grade Python toolboxes, automation scripts, and spatial data pipelines for ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Enterprise, and SDE environments.
• Integrate deep learning frameworks (e.g. PyTorch or TensorFlow) and ML libraries (such as scikit-learn or Hugging Face) into geospatial workflows to solve clientspecific problems at scale.
• Lead technical delivery on GeoAI project workstreams across utilities network analysis, land ownership and registry data, and water / environmental constraint modelling.
• Collaborating with project managers and sector leads to scope, estimate, and quality-assure GIS and GeoAI deliverables.
• Provide technical assurance and peer review of GeoAI and GIS outputs to ensure quality, robustness, and compliance with agreed standards.
• Produce clear technical documentation and methodology reports, and present findings to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Mentor and support junior GIS analysts and developers, reviewing code and promoting best practices in spatial data science.
• Stay current with Esri platform releases, emerging GeoAI tools, and relevant academic or industry research, contributing to internal capability development.

Essentials - you will need skills and experience in these areas to be successful in the role:
• Strong professional experience in GIS, with a clear focus on Python development and automation.
• Strong Python skills: ArcPy, ArcGIS API for Python, geopandas, shapely, rasterio, GDAL.
• Practical experience applying AI/ML to geospatial problems (e.g. object detection, image classification, feature extraction, or spatial prediction).
• Working knowledge of at least one deep learning framework (PyTorch or TensorFlow).
• Experience with ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Enterprise, and File or SDE geodatabases.
• Ability to communicate technical outputs clearly to non-GIS audiences.

Desirable skills:
• Experience with Esri ArcGIS Image Analyst or ArcGIS GeoAI tools.
• Familiarity with Hugging Face Transformers or ONNX model deployment.
• Exposure to cloud GIS environments: Azure, AWS, or GCP.
• Knowledge of FME for geospatial data transformation workflows.
• Familiarity with remote sensing data: satellite imagery, LiDAR, SAR, or aerial photography.
• Exposure to Power BI or analytics dashboards.

Degree in Engineering, GIS, Geography, Computer Science, or a closely related discipline.
• 10+ years of experience in GIS / GeoAI / spatial technologies
• Experience working with international clients (preferably UK-based projects)

BGV:
• Employment with WSP India is subject to the successful completion of a background verification (“BGV”) check conducted by a third-party agency appointed by WSP India.
• Candidates are advised to ensure that all information provided during the recruitment process — including documents uploaded — is accurate and complete, both to WSP India and its BGV partner”.