GIS data trainee

The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission – Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) is an intergovernmental organization (Denmark, Estonia, the European Union, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Sweden) with its headquarters (Secretariat) in Helsinki, Finland, working to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea. At present, we are around 50 staff members at the HELCOM Secretariat, and our working language is English. We offer an open, friendly, dynamic and energetic, often fast-paced, international working environment offering all staff members the opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to achieving our common goals. For more information about HELCOM, please visit our home page: www.helcom.fi.

We are currently seeking to recruit an enthusiastic GIS data trainee for the EU-funded PROTECT BALTIC project (PROTECT BALTIC | Preserve, revive, thrive).

PROTECT BALTIC is a Horizon Europe funded project, aligned with the EUs Restore our Ocean and Water Mission. The project aims for a healthy Baltic Sea environment by improving and increasing spatial protection to 30% by 2030, through the development of a protection optimization framework. The framework will be the first of its kind, co-created with Baltic Sea countries, and will serve as a blueprint for the planning, executing, governing, managing and monitoring of Baltic Sea protection and restoration initiatives.

Responsibilities and main tasks:

– Support the planned assessments and analyses in the project through the production of spatial data layers, statistics calculations, performing GIS data analysis and data visualisations on maps and diagrams;

– Support the automation of the above tasks and other project tool development, using Python or other programming languages.

Qualifications and experience:

The tasks require a person who is meticulous and has a high attention to detail. An interest in diverse and interdisciplinary work is an asset in this position.

The successful candidate shall have:

– A university degree (minimum Bachelors degree or equivalent) in geographic information systems/computer science/geography/environmental science or related field;

– Programming (scripting) skills, preferably in Python programming language, to automate data analysis and processing;

– Familiarity and experience in several of the following:
GIS data analysis and processing with GIS desktop software,
Automate workflows with programming or scripting,
GIS programming libraries, like: Arcpy, Geopandas, GDAL/OGR, NumPy.
ArcGIS Pro or QGIS software;

– Excellent organizational skills;

– Ability to work independently, take responsibility and initiative;

– Be comfortable with taking on tasks across wide range of topics under or associated with the theme of marine protection

– Excellent social and team skills;

– Thorough knowledge of the English language as well as high competence in IT skills.

Experience in the following will be considered an asset:

-Working in multinational projects,

-Projects related to the marine environment/Baltic Sea/marine protection.

Terms of appointment:

The appointment is planned to be full time for five months, starting mid-May 2026, with the potential of an extension to a project researcher position at the end of the trainee period. The salary for a trainee position is 1.800 € per month. Please note that the HELCOM salaries are exempt from Finnish income tax.

Employee benefits include occupational health care, flexible working hours, hybrid working, generous leave allowance, recreational activities, and professional development opportunities.

While we operate in a hybrid working model, the intern will be expected to reside in Finland and regularly commute to our office in Katajanokka, Helsinki.

Tagged as: Natural resources & environment industry