Urban Data Applications Developer

University of Waterloo•Waterloo, ON

26d•Onsite

About The Position

At the Future Cities Institute (FCI) at the University of Waterloo, the Urban Data Applications Developer will apply technical skills to projects that make a real difference in communities. This role involves creating tools actively used by municipalities, community partners, and industry to address critical challenges in housing, infrastructure, and mobility. The developer will work in a collaborative environment with researchers and students, seeing their work move quickly from concept to practice. Joining FCI means contributing to meaningful change by building innovative products at the intersection of technology and social impact. The developer will directly contribute to FCI’s mission of shaping sustainable, inclusive, and resilient cities by creating tools that help municipalities make transparent and evidence-based decisions. This involves transforming data into accessible platforms to support community partners, policymakers, and researchers. The role leads the design and delivery of public-facing web tools, interactive maps, dashboards, and digital stories, ensuring urban research is accessible to broad audiences. This position is essential for supporting co-op students and ensuring consistency across the backend and front end of all FCI tools. The developer will work closely with research cluster leads, project leads, and faculty partners to ensure coordinated, reliable, and impactful outputs, and will contribute to developing an FCI Data Visualization Style Guide.

Requirements

At least a Master’s Degree in computer science, software engineering, data science, architecture, GIS, or a related STEM discipline.
Experience in web graphics, full stack development, and architecting and modeling web applications.
Strong programming and analysis skills across three tech stacks: Data analysis (e.g., R, Python), Business intelligence stack (e.g., Excel, PowerPoint, Power BI, Tableau), Web-based data visualization stack (e.g., Node.js or Flask server-side; TypeScript with React, Vue, or Svelte for front-end development).
Proficiency in data visualization libraries and frameworks such as D3.js, Vega/Vega-lite, Plotly, or similar.
Experience working with geospatial tools such as ArcGIS, Mapbox.
Strong design and communication skills, with the ability to create clear, accessible user interfaces.
Proficiency with design and prototyping tools such as Adobe Illustrator and Figma for static visualization and mockups.
Ability to supervise and mentor students, fostering collaboration and skill development.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with modelling and simulation approaches for housing, infrastructure, or transportation systems.
Experience with cloud platforms and containerization (AWS, GCP, Docker).
Familiarity with AI tools for assisting in data cleaning, analysis, and development.
Ideally libraries such as deck.gl for 3D visualization.

Responsibilities

Design and build interactive dashboards, maps, web applications, and visualization tools that communicate urban data and research findings.
Carry out data wrangling, cleaning, and analysis to ensure high-quality inputs for visualization and decision-support systems.
Lead end-to-end development processes including design, coding, deployment, and documentation, ensuring products are reliable, reproducible, and user-friendly.
Develop and maintain data pipelines and back-end systems to integrate geospatial, demographic, and municipal datasets.
Work with faculty, research cluster and project leads, students, and external partners to deliver products addressing real-world housing, infrastructure, and mobility challenges.
Supervise and mentor co-op students engaged in technical projects, providing direction, feedback, and skill-building support.
Lead the creation of an FCI Data Visualization Style Guide to ensure consistency across reports, dashboards, and applications.
Contribute to training and capacity-building workshops for both FCI staff and external stakeholders on the use of developed tools and visualization best practices.
Support grant proposals, technical reports, and research publications through high-quality data visualizations and digital products.
Maintain code repositories, documentation, and open-source contributions to ensure the long-term sustainability and transparency of FCI outputs.