Assistant Vice President, Transportation Planning

Overview

This Opportunity is for a locally based Assistant Vice President, Transportation Planning who provides technical planning support and leadership for the WSP New England Planning team in helping win and deliver planning projects across the transportation, environmental, regional, and urban planning disciplines. A successful candidate will have working knowledge of consultant capture planning processes, experience engaging clients about potential work, and a strong grounding in typical planning processes and project development.

This position is a leadership role helping the Senior Vice President of New England Planning manage a growing team of 7 to 10 people, guiding and mentoring in coordinating capture planning for projects and demonstrating strong proposal development skills. This position will also support projects at various levels as subject matter expert, project manager, task lead, or other needs as available, ensuring planning-related elements are delivered with high quality and compliance to address impact, long-term risks, and future-ready solutions by applying transportation, environmental, urban, and regional planning.

Guidance to project managers and managers will be provided to ensure responsibilities meet or exceed industry standards.

• Identify and position for project opportunities early to create a winning strategy for the award of work for the New England Planning team.
• Mentor a team in best practices for developing winning proposals and provide support and review to help team members draft winning proposals.
• Collaborate across WSP business lines to identify project opportunities and potential work on existing projects or contracts, including collaboration with Transportation & Infrastructure, Earth and Environment, Property & Buildings, Energy, and other groups within Advisory and Planning.
• Provide oversight of data collection efforts for identifying and compiling observational, spatial, and data related to various matrices for projects, research, and surveys.
• Prepare, complete, and/or review general plans, specific/master plans, community plans, zoning codes, comprehensive plans, permitting policies, and/or development standards for assigned projects, with emphasis on transportation and multimodal accommodation. Ensure technical reports and presentations explain research, findings, and recommendations to address planning challenges and complex problems.
• Perform professional transportation, environmental, regional, and/or urban planning work and conduct investigations, inspections, studies, and surveys to gain information on problems or issues, verify site characteristics, and plan for future needs.
• Prepare data and visualizations such as tables, charts, reports, models, infographics, cross-sections, and 3D illustrations for interpretation or presentation of complex data, findings, or analyses.
• Prepare applications and represent clients in the approval process with local and regional jurisdictions.
• Coordinate and facilitate public involvement and consensus-building meetings, answer public questions on behalf of the client, and assist with planning efforts on larger or more complex projects.
• Read, interpret, compose, and review planning reports, studies, and other technical documents.
• Oversee and monitor cross-functional teams in executing project work, including project budgets, tracking hours and expenses, and task completion.
• Provide high-level oversight for desk-based and on-site study efforts, including measurements, data interpretation, demographics, patterns and trends, and computer modeling.
• Provide analysis and interpretation of facts and data from field and site investigations, contributing to action plans for significant challenges and development activities to minimize impacts on community, population, local economy, and environment.
• Coordinate with clients, resource agencies, and planning and technical staff, providing strategic advice, consultancy, and subject matter expertise.
• Develop a client base for high-level transportation planning services, including identifying additional business development opportunities and engaging in proposal writing and submission.
• Mentor staff to support their growth and professional development.
• Collaborate with professionals from various disciplines to provide future-ready solutions for clients.
• Remain current in the latest transportation planning subject matter, practices, regulations, and techniques.
• Exercise responsible and ethical decision-making regarding company funds, resources, and conduct, and adhere to WSP’s Code of Conduct and related policies.
• Perform additional responsibilities as required by business needs.

• Bachelor’s Degree in Transportation Planning, Regional Planning, Urban Planning, Environmental Planning, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• 10+ years of experience in the planning field, actively engaging in projects or pursuit development across transportation,…