Scott Owens is a Geographer with the US Geological Survey – National Technical Operations Center (USGS-NGTOC). Scott’s been with the USGS since June 2015 and serves as the technical lead and project manager for a team of software developers providing business systems support to The National Map (TNM) and business intelligence support to the National Geospatial Program (NGP).

Scott applies the Agile Methodology towards leading his team of developers in researching, analyzing and creating technology solutions for requirements related to transactional data exchange, change management, data validation, inventory management, geospatial visualization of existing and future inventories, and user interfaces to facilitate Program decision making. He works directly with product owners and stakeholders to identify and understand systems requirements and long term developmental goals in order to ensure software and systems developers deliver the desired capabilities.

Prior to joining the USGS Scott served in the US Army until his retirement in 2015 after 31+ years of service, retiring at the rank of Chief Warrant Officer Five. Warrant Officers are the Army’s technical experts in their chosen specialties and Scott’s specialty was in Geospatial Information Systems. Throughout his Army career Scott served in a variety of stateside and overseas assignments leading teams of Soldiers providing geospatial support to plans and operations.

His later assignments were at the United States Army Engineer School at Fort Leonard Wood, MO. There he served as Training Developer and Writer for Warrant Officer technical courses, worked on defining system requirements and developing solutions to geospatial interoperability issues across the Army and its Coalition partners, and finally was chosen by the Commandant of the US Army Engineer School to become the Engineer School and Regiment’s 2nd Regimental Chief Warrant Officer.