David Carttar

Senior Director, Geospatial Development @ RMS

About

I am a problem-solving geographer with 30 years of experience designing and developing solutions for property-data management, and a forward-thinking leader oriented toward constant improvement and optimization of systems and organizations. I practice inclusive management that delivers excellence through diverse, distributed teams with a global reach. I apply a professional foundation of geographic education and practice, refined by strategic planning and client service. As an urban geographer, GIS expert, and cartographer who specializes in global geocoding development for business applications in the catastrophic-risk space, I have led software and GIS developers to design and implement geocoding functionality at scale for every country in the world, and to build and maintain global base maps for multiple business applications. I also have collaborated with scientists across multiple domains — e.g. hydrology, geophysics, and meteorology — as well as with engineers and economists who model structural and financial characteristics of the built environment. I approach street addresses as a means of organizing local space, and geocoding as a method for prioritizing and accessing salient geographic information. In my work, I aim to build a bridge between environmental and cultural data, opening often unexpected paths to other business solutions. I am fluent in Spanish and German, in addition to English. I have been awarded two patents through my work at Moody’s RMS. I hold Bachelor of Arts degrees in Geography and Architectural Studies from the University of Kansas, and a Master of City Planning degree from the University of California, Berkeley. Specialties: Geocoding, address modeling, GIS for catastrophe risk management, cartography

Country

United States

City

Lawrence

Industry

Management Consulting

Skill

Team Leadership, Geography, Geocoding, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Geospatial Data, Spatial Analysis, Management, Mentoring, Supervisory Skills, Agile Project Management, Program Management, Customer Support, Product Support, Cartography, GIS, ArcGIS, Database Design, Data Analysis, Data Modeling, Data Management

Experience

Senior Director, Geospatial Development

RMS

2017-1 - 2025-10 · 8 yrs 10 mos

United States

Led 20-person development team to build, enhance, and maintain address-geocoding products for 250+ regions around the world. Key accomplishments include: • Guided software and data development to align global geocoding behavior with 70+ catastrophe-risk models • Designed future-oriented systems to ensure error-free release of revenue-critical products • Coordinated timely changes like migration to SaaS architecture and AI-based data modeling • Managed on-budget development and on-time release of global geo-hazard projects in an agile environment

Senior Director, Geospatial Model Development

RMS

2012-9 - 2017-1 · 4 yrs 5 mos

Developed new methods for quantifying geocoding uncertainty, forging mathematical parity with hazard models. Led design of a geospatial platform to improve quality by sharing essential base data across multiple teams. Designed cross-team workflows for complex geospatial models, empowering teams to make critical deliverables.

Director, Geospatial Data Applications

RMS

2008 - 2012-9 · 4 yrs

Responsible for enhancing organizational and technical efficiency in adapting new geospatial technologies. Led the design of a relational database schema – still used today – which revolutionized expansion into new countries and resolutions, future-proofing development by enabling new capabilities with minimal change to data or software code.

Senior Developer, Spatial Data Applications

RMS

2004 - 2008 · 4 yrs

Responsible for expanding geocoding capabilities globally. Coordinated the adaptation, integration, and redesign of a new enterprise geocoder.

Geocoding Developer, Models and Infrastructure

RMS

1999-1 - 2004 · 5 yrs

Invented the Variable Resolution Grid, the geographic framework for model-hazard data patented and still used by RMS and Moody’s Insurance Solutions. Developed methods to automate and standardize calculation of geocoding and model-hazard attributes

Data Manager, Government Services

RMS

1997-7 - 1999-1 · 1 yr 7 mos

Menlo Park, CA

Responsible for adapting geocoding capabilities to projects for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Institute for Building Sciences (NIBS). Published a 7-volume series for FEMA on Disaster-Resistant Communities, later renamed Project Impact.

GIS Analyst, Model Development

RMS

1994-7 - 1997-7 · 3 yrs 1 mo

Menlo Park, CA

Responsible for streamlining address-geocoding designs to meet the pace of model development. Pioneered geocoding logic to improve productivity and reduce development cost.