Description

Westwood Professional Services, Inc. is seeking a Planner responsible for performing an active role in delivering planning projects focused on building community development and resilience, developing materials for product deliverables, and identifying strategic solutions to community challenges. This technical role serves Westwood clients by transforming their challenges into opportunities by developing the plans and projects and the associated competitive funding proposals to implement them. The Planner works closely with team members across Westwood’s disciplines to meet project deadlines and lead planning activities for our clients. 

Requirements

• Establishes and maintains primary contacts and positive relationships with clients and stakeholders.
• Delivers content and provides guidance and perspective for a variety of planning and resilience initiatives for the firm.
• Attends, participates, and/or facilitates public meetings and community engagement activities, in support of projects.
• Assists in the development of and/or revisions to land use and zoning ordinances in support of community goals. 
• Manages production of project deliverables, including data analysis, and data integration to support grants and plans, projects, and reports.
• Conducts research and analysis on the history, structure, objectives, programs and financial needs of clients.
• Assists in spatial data acquisition, data conversion, and spatial/data analysis.
• Assists in data creation, georeferencing, editing, integration, and distribution to support communities’ planning and grants application activities.
• Assist in a variety of map making/data-related tasks to support community planning and grant application activities.
• Performs GIS analysis and assists in the review of more advanced geo-spatial analysis.
• Supports the content development for grant proposal efforts if/when needed.
• Shares knowledge and information with team members to improve processes and services for the betterment of the team and our clients.
• Provides strategic advice to clients on successful approaches and problem resolution methodologies. 
• Support team efforts to deliver quick turn arounds on nationally competitive grant submissions which could include: NOFO compliance, preliminary scoping, engineering, mapping and data analysis, benefit cost analysis, narrative development, state and federal agency engagement, desktop environmental reviews and other relevant items.
• Other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in urban planning, Public Policy, Landscape Architecture, Architecture, or related field. A master’s degree in related fields is desired.
• Experience: 5+ years of experience in urban planning, master planning, resilience planning, grant writing, project management, or related field. AICP and/or ASLA certification is preferred.
• Additional Requirements: If the candidate is not already AICP certified, must be committed to become certified as a Planner through the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP).

Core Competencies

• Ability to accurately prepare plan documents and reports within a project deadline.
• Ability to communicate clearly in writing and verbally.
• Ability to work effectively with peers and in a team setting as well as independently.
• Ability to review and understand, draft, and revise land use and zoning ordinances.
• Ability to define and produce deliverables and execute initiatives on a range of planning projects (i.e., comprehensive, land use, parks and recreation, capital (infrastructure and facilities, downtown, historic preservation, etc.)
• Ability to define and execute a range of public processes to inform planning goals, objectives and deliverables
• Thorough understanding of diverse community and regional planning theories and practice

Technical Skills

• Working knowledge to proficient knowledge of current planning and rendering software, such as ArcGIS, Civil 3D in AutoCAD, Photoshop, InDesign, SketchUp, or others
• Proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook)