Senior Associate - Urban Planner (Spatial Planner)

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There has never been a better time to be at AECOM. With accelerating infrastructure investment worldwide, our services are in great demand. We invite you to bring your bold ideas and big dreams and become part of a global team of over 50,000 planners, designers, engineers, scientists, digital innovators, program and construction managers and other professionals delivering projects that create a positive and tangible impact around the world.

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Senior Associate – Urban Planner role sits within the Urban Planning of the Urbanism + Planning practice line and leads the implementation of strategy for teams or units within a business, function or geographic operation, including projects and achievement of result. 

The position requires to lead, develop and produce quality product and implement practice plans and project requirements and will develop and implement a business development plan and marketing activities to cultivate a presence and client base in the market and secure future planning and design projects for the practice.

Job Duties

• Manages and delivers high value complex multi-disciplinary projects with project management skills, working directly with the Associate Director and Director levels.
• Leads showcase complex proposals and ensures high quality output including innovative ways to present.
• Independently manages client expectations and deliverables to ensure alignment with contracted scopes by leading client and project meetings, articulating and defending the work undertaken.
• Ability to operate as a technical lead for multiple projects at various scale of master planning projects with a sound understanding of all relevant planning workstreams.
• Provide specific technical expertise in spatial planning, regional planning, developing governance and implementation strategies.
• Has strong capabilities to coordinate, challenge, and manage multiple disciplines for complex projects and communicate project objectives/deliverables to drive the best outcome.
• Has strong people management skills and provides professional urban/environmental planning mentorship/guidance to junior staff members.
• Seeks out ways to improve planning/environmental analysis processes and ensures critical thinking is conducted throughout the planning team.
• Has excellent written and presentation skills in English/Arabic (preferred) with an ability to coordinate and develop a deliverable (report) as well as create a presentation and summary to support the deliverable.  
• Leads more than one specialty topic / interests in urban planning e.g., wellness planning / placemaking.
• Strong understanding of planning / environmental governance and policy and can communicate planning / environmental governance and policy and make recommendations to clients where relevant.
• Can structure and manage tailored planning guidelines and controls as per client requirements.
• Strong ability to communicate differences between planning stages and drive outcomes of report structure and content.
• Communicates and coordinates with clients and project teams to enable creation of project briefs to set out project objectives.
• Prepare and deliver presentations to clients and government (approving agencies) to advance approvals of development, Master Plans, Development Guidelines and policies.
• Liaise with government agencies and other authorities as may be required regarding development objectives, policies and procedures.

Qualification

• A Bachelor’s Degree in Urban Planning, Design, or Town Planning. Masters in one of these disciplines would be preferred.
• RTPI (or any other planning association membership) would be advantageous.

Experience

• 14+ years’ experience in the Urban Planning field, candidates would ideally have worked on government and private sector projects. Management experience is required as the successful candidate would lead a multi-disciplinary team.

Specific Skills Required

• Expertise in providing technical guidance for developing regional plans, city or national spatial strategies, comprehensive city plans and governance and implementation frameworks and action plans.
• Exceptional experience in preparing high-quality, multi-disciplinary written and illustrative planning principles, concepts, strategies, controls and guidelines.
• Strong ability to write, refine and deliver final reports with regard to planning, urban design and development projects.
• Ability to structure, lead and participate in planning, urban design and development workshops as required
• Ability to lead and manage complex, multi-disciplinary projects to successful delivery of outcomes within budget and programme.
• Proven track record in seeking, securing, maintaining and managing positive and successful liaison with clients.
• Strong ability to work either in a team, or alone with positive results from either scenario.
• Ability to mentor and train more junior staff, either in the course of a project or through a separate programme.

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About AECOM

AECOM is the world’s trusted infrastructure consulting firm, delivering professional services throughout the project lifecycle – from advisory, planning, design and engineering to program and construction management. On projects spanning transportation, buildings, water, new energy and the environment, our public- and private-sector clients trust us to solve their most complex challenges. Our teams are driven by a common purpose to deliver a better world through our unrivaled technical and digital expertise, a culture of equity, diversity and inclusion, and a commitment to environmental, social and governance priorities. AECOM is a Fortune 500 firm and its Professional Services business had revenue of $14.4 billion in fiscal year 2023. See how we are delivering sustainable legacies for generations to come at aecom.com and @AECOM.

Freedom to Grow in a World of Opportunity 

You will have the flexibility you need to do your best work with hybrid work options. Whether you’re working from an AECOM office, remote location or at a client site, you will be working in a dynamic environment where your integrity, entrepreneurial spirit and pioneering mindset are championed.

You will help us foster a culture of equity, diversity and inclusion – a safe and respectful workplace, where we invite everyone to bring their whole selves to work using their unique talents, backgrounds and expertise to create transformational outcomes for our clients.

AECOM provides a wide array of compensation and benefits programs to meet the diverse needs of our employees and their families. We also provide a robust global well-being program. We’re the world’s trusted global infrastructure firm, and we’re in this together – your growth and success are ours too.

Join us, and you’ll get all the benefits of being a part of a global, publicly traded firm – access to industry-leading technology and thinking and transformational work with big impact and work flexibility. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we believe in each person’s potential, and we’ll help you reach yours.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.