Transportation Planning Director - WSP USA

This Opportunity

WSP is initiating a search for a full-time Transportation Planning Director to join our Detroit, MI office. We have an immediate opening for a motivated and highly skilled planner with experience on a multitude of projects: including transit and rail studies, environmental planning/NEPA, corridor studies, jurisdictional transportation plans, and complete streets. The Transportation Planning Director is expected to lead the planning practice in our Detroit office, drive business development, and serve as a project manager, staff mentor, and trusted client advisor on multimodal transportation projects, working closely with planning, environmental, and engineering staff across WSP’s Midwest region.

The successful candidate must be a motivated team player, able to lead staff, deliver on projects, and grow the business across the Detroit and greater Michigan geography. The candidate should have a demonstrated working knowledge of land use and transportation planning issues in Michigan, as they relate to transportation projects, with skills to provide analysis, communication, collaboration, GIS to support transportation projects and ensure regulatory compliance for a variety of client projects related to equitable transportation development, mobility planning, multimodal access, and funding. Ideally, the candidate would have a strong desire to help our clients achieve safe, complete networks for users of all ages, abilities, and identities backed with a demonstrated working knowledge of progressive transportation planning, policy, and design practices such as Complete Streets, Vision Zero, Safe System, and equity-driven practices complemented by a knowledge of the associated funding, planning, and implementation processes for Michigan local, regional and state agencies. Ideally, the candidate would have experience with one or more of the following agencies in response to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA): Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), Federal Transit Administration (FTA), and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

Your Impact

• Lead a team of transportation professional in delivery of existing assignments and guide the future growth of the team
• Develop business growth and client engagement strategies
• Serve as PM on transportation planning studies and lead proposal development
• Work with regional planning lead on strategic planning strategies across Central U.S.
• Perform professional transportation planning work and conduct investigations, inspections, studies, and surveys to gain further information on a particular problem or issue, verify site characteristics, and/or to plan for future needs affecting equitable development, construction, transportation demand management, mobility planning, and multimodal access. 
• Prepare comprehensive plans, corridor plans, and environmental documentation specific/master plans, community plans, zoning codes, comprehensive plans, permitting policies and/or development standards for assigned projects, with a particular emphasis on multimodal transportation.
• Prepare data visualizations (i.e. tables, charts, reports, models, infographics, cross-sections, and 3D illustrations) for the interpretation or presentation of complex data, findings, or analyses.
• Prepare drafts of technical memos, meeting minutes, transmittals, presentations, and other written materials.
• Perform external coordination activities with clients, resource/regulatory agencies, subcontractors, technical, staff, local stakeholders, and the community.
• Prepare, coordinate, and facilitate public involvement and consensus-building meetings in support of client project work, answering public questions on behalf of the client, and assisting with long-range planning efforts on medium- to large-sized projects.
• Prepare drafts of technical memos, meeting minutes, transmittals, presentations, and other written materials summarizing research with findings and conclusions.
• Provide high level oversight for desk-based research and site work, including measurements, data interpretation, demographics, patterns and trends, and computer modeling.
• Perform additional responsibilities as required by business needs.

Who You Are

Required Qualifications:

• Minimum of 10 years of experience in transportation planning
• Bachelor’s Degree in Transportation Planning, Urban Planning, Environmental Planning, Public Policy, Engineering, or a related field
• Knowledge of, and experience with, federal, state, and local transportation planning processes, including the NEPA process
• Knowledge of Detroit-area mobility issues and existing client relationships
• Knowledge of project management and project administration protocols
• Experience working on a variety of public agency environmental analysis and documentation types, with prior FTA and FRA experience preferred
• Knowledge and experience with federal, state and local transit and rail funding programs, including discretionary grant programs

• Strong communication skills and the ability to effectively present and communicate ideas (both orally and in written form)
• Strong computer skills (i.e. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, GIS)
• Ability to work schedules conducive to project-specific requirements that may extend beyond the typical workweek, including occasional travel

Preferred Qualifications:

•        Additional computer skills (i.e. Adobe Creative Suite, AutoCAD)
•        Additional involvement in planning/transportation/environmental-related organizations or societies
•        Experience working in the transportation planning and/or street design field, actively engaging in one or more of the following: street design projects, street design manuals, mobility and active transportation plans, Vision Zero plans, strategic plans, equity analyses, corridor studies, and community engagement.