Eian Ray — GIS Consultant & Systems Builder

About

The Short Version

I'm a Certified GIS Professional based in the Pacific Northwest. I've spent nearly two decades helping organizations — from tribal governments to engineering firms to county agencies — build, maintain, and get value out of their geospatial data.

My work spans the practical and the extraordinary. On a typical day, I'm implementing GIS systems for water and sewer districts. On an atypical one, I'm publishing an atlas of Mars or navigating the Arctic in a Porsche Cayenne.

I believe the best GIS work is invisible — infrastructure that just works. The systems I build are meant to outlast the projects that created them.

GISP Certified MBA, Sustainable Development FAA Remote Pilot Published Author Esri UC Featured

Years in GIS

Sectors served

Published atlases

25+

GIS tools built

Experience

Where I've Worked

Jun 2021 — Present · Contract

GIS Lead

PACE Engineers, Inc. · Kirkland, WA

Leading GIS department delivering client solutions across the full project lifecycle. Agentic AI for GIS, system implementation, web mapping apps, data management, cartography, needs assessments, and client training. Previously full-time (Jan 2019–Jun 2021).

Aug 2016 — Feb 2019

GIS Director

Columbia County, WA · Dayton, WA

Directed countywide GIS strategy. Led historical ROW digitization, NG911 GIS implementation, pavement management inventory, seasonal traffic counts. UAV pilot for aerial imagery and bridge inspections. Census Bureau liaison. Managed ArcGIS across five county departments.

May 2012 — Aug 2016

GIS Specialist

Makah Tribe · Neah Bay, WA

GIS for tribal resource management — realty, land use, natural resources, wildlife monitoring, hydrology, and municipal planning. Project lead for the Makah Solar Farm Feasibility Study and Makah Marine Spatial Plan. Coordinated land survey contracts.

2008 — 2012

GIS Specialist

Bureau of Land Management · Vale, OR

GIS support for federal land management operations in the Vale District. Data management, cartography, spatial analysis, and field data collection in support of resource management and land use planning.

Projects

Things I've Built

A mix of professional tools, personal passion projects, and proof that GIS people don't only make maps of parcels.

GIS Product

DrawBridge

Convert scanned construction drawings (as-builts, plats, utility plans) directly into GIS-ready data. Upload a PDF, digitize features, export as File Geodatabase, Shapefile, GeoJSON, or KML. Built for engineers and GIS professionals who need to get paper into the system.

drawbridgegis.com

nodeapi.ai

API / Developer Tool

Node API

Machine-native GIS processing for AI agents and automated pipelines. 25 geoprocessing operations — convert, reproject, validate, buffer, dissolve, clip, tile — accessible via REST or MCP. Pay-per-operation, no API key required.

nodeapi.ai

Planetary Cartography

RedMapper

Interactive planetary cartography platform and publisher of The Mars Atlas and The Moon Atlas. Featured in Jack Dangermond's 2021 Esri UC Plenary Session. Winner of the ICA Mars Exploration Zone Mapping Competition (2016).

redmapper.com

Field Mapping

Mapping Lake Crescent Bathymetry

Bathymetric and shoreline mapping of Lake Crescent, one of the deepest and clearest lakes in the Pacific Northwest. An early project that cemented a love for field GIS in some of the most beautiful terrain on earth.

GIS Analysis

Sea Level Rise Modeling — Makah Tribe

GIS analysis identifying lands within the Makah Usual & Accustomed area projected to be lost to sea level rise between now and 2100. Applied to treaty boundary and resource management planning.

Expedition / Adventure

Team Panamera

Adventure driving expeditions across the most remote roads in North America. The Diamond Dust Rally to Nunavut, Arctic drives to Tuktoyaktuk, and the Lost Coast Drive from the Pacific Northwest to Belize. Cartography meets exploration.

teampanamera.com

Services

How I Can Help

I work primarily with water and sewer districts, engineering firms, and public agencies. Whether you're starting from scratch or untangling a legacy system, I've probably seen your problem before.

GIS System Implementation

Full setup from needs assessment through deployment. ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Enterprise, QGIS, and custom solutions.

Data Management & Cleanup

Migrating, organizing, and fixing GIS data. Schema design, attribute domains, topology rules, QA/QC.

Web Mapping & Field Apps

Custom web maps and data collection apps for field crews. ArcGIS Field Maps, Survey123, Experience Builder, and custom JavaScript.

Cartography & Map Production

Publication-quality maps, atlases, and visualizations. From utility system maps to planetary cartography.

AI-Powered GIS

Integrating AI agents into GIS workflows. Automated data processing, intelligent extraction, and machine-native geospatial APIs.

Training & Needs Assessment

Remote and in-person training for your team. GIS needs assessments to right-size your investment.

UAV / Drone Services

FAA Part 107 certified. Orthoimagery capture, bridge inspections, site surveys, and photogrammetric processing.

Data Conversion

CAD to GIS, paper to digital, legacy format migration. DrawBridge for as-built conversion.

Recognition

Publications & Awards

The Mars Atlas

RedMapper · October 2019

A comprehensive atlas of Martian places and topography, co-developed with an interactive Mars web map. Over 2,000 named features including mountains, craters, valleys, and plains rendered in elevation relief with topographic lines.
The Moon Atlas

RedMapper

A cartographic atlas of Earth's Moon, featuring over 9,000 named places, 47 human landing artifacts, and full-bleed imagery rendered in the RedMapper cartographic tradition. Map F-10 was featured in Jack Dangermond's 2021 Esri UC Plenary Session.
The Mercury Atlas

RedMapper

An atlas of Mercury's surface using high-resolution geological overlay and MESSENGER satellite imagery, charting named places and the only known human artifact on the planet.
Mapping Mars's Eastern Valles Marineris

Copernicus Publications / International Cartographic Association · July 2019

Cartographic representation of an Exploration Zone at the Eastern Valles Marineris, demonstrating that existing data and traditional cartographic methods can produce meaningful geographic discoveries on extraterrestrial surfaces.

Esri UC Plenary Session Feature

Esri · July 2021

Map F-10 from The Moon Atlas was featured in Jack Dangermond's Plenary Session video at the 2021 Esri User Conference.

1st Place — Mars Mapping Competition

ICA Commission on Planetary Cartography · 2016

Mapped a potential Martian landing site, envisioning cartographic products for future astronaut surface operations. Awarded travel to the 2017 International Cartographic Conference.

Testimonial

What People Say

"Any company seeking a committed, professional employee who is innovative and always looking for ways to make his organization flourish should hire Eian Ray. You will not be disappointed. Eian embraced the challenge of learning all aspects which required his attention to bring Columbia County 911 into the Next Generation platform of call delivery. He used his strong organizational skills and became the resident expert for the county."

Lisa Caldwell

Columbia County Emergency Manager/911 Director (Retired)

Eian Ray, MBA, GISP