Job Summary

The Senior Environmental Planner contributes to the conception of creative, contextually responsive and sustainable urban planning strategies and solutions, working within the studio team to provide technical support on allocated city scale strategic planning, spatial planning, master planning and urban design projects from environmental planning perspective. The Senior Environmental Planner will be required coordinate environmental permitting processes, establish environmental baseline conditions and adopt a sustainability design philosophy and approach in line with current local sustainability initiatives and international best practice standards, while considering client requirements and expectations. The Senior Environmental Planner will contribute technical expertise on planning and design projects by providing social, environmental and economically viable sustainability strategies and solutions.

The Senior Environmental Planner will work with colleagues within Urbanism + Planning including planners, urban designers, architects, economists, environmental planners, landscape architects, graphic designers and other disciplines, as well as colleagues across the Building and Places group and all of AECOM, to deliver integrated services on a range of projects. This role requires flexibility to be able to participate in a range of projects (type and scale). This role may also require input to proposals to assist in winning future work.

The role includes the application of analytical skills in environmental planning, environmental impact and mitigation measures identification, sustainability strategy development as an integral part of spatial planning, strategic planning and master planning and public realm design projects. Experience and/or qualifications in environmental planning, ecology, ecological mapping, sustainable development, climate change mitigation and adaptation, resilience and low carbon design solutions are highly preferred.

Job Duties:

• Provide support in terms of technical environmental and sustainability expertise and administration including sustainable land-use planning, sustainable urban and infrastructure design

• Support Environment & Sustainability Lead in sustainability and environmental elements of projects and bids with the broader Urbanism + Planning team.

• Develop existing environmental conditions / environmental baselining and environmental opportunities and constraints sections of the planning and design project reports.

• Develop sustainability vision, objectives, framework and strategies and sustainability key performance indicators for planning and design projects, produce plot and community level sustainable design development guidelines, sustainability certification strategies and outline sustainability implementation plans.

• Prepare presentations for ultimate delivery to clients, stakeholders and government (approving agencies) to advance understanding of environmental and sustainability aspects of projects, approvals for: development, master plans, development guidelines and policies.

• Provide environmental and sustainability input into urban design, spatial planning, statutory planning, stakeholder liaison, preparation of reports and presentations. This will include the co-ordination and management of environmental planning and sustainable design meetings, workshops and presentations with authorities, clients and staff as appropriate.

• Generate written and illustrative environmental and sustainable planning principles, concepts, strategies, controls and guidelines in line with local and international regulations and standards.

• Liaise with local government and regulatory planning and environmental authorities such as DMT Estidama, EAD, Mostadam, NCECC, USGBC etc. to support environmental permit and sustainability certification approvals for master planning projects.

• Ensure compliance with the company’s Quality Assurance policies and procedures.

• Provide such further assistance to senior colleagues as may be required from time to time.

• Prepare and present submissions/reports to support projects and ensure quality deliverables.

• Provide effective representation for the organisation.

• Contribute to the team environment, practicing open communication, a participative approach to meetings and work commitment to projects;

• Other duties may be assigned; this document is not intended to be an exhaustive list of duties and responsibilities.

Specific Skills Required:

• Very good understanding of local environmental planning and permitting regulatory requirements and the green community certification rating systems.

• Experience working on a range of urban planning projects.

• Experience on planning, development and design projects at different scales.

• Ability to work on multi-disciplinary projects to successful delivery of outcomes within budget and programme.

• Understanding of environmental and sustainability requirements in different scales and stages of urban planning, urban design and landscape design projects.

• Proven ability to deliver high-quality input to planning and master planning projects.

• Strong analytical skills and ability to develop practical options and solutions.

• Strong ability to write, refine and deliver final reports

• Ability to work either in a team, or alone with proven positive results from either scenario.

• Strong oral, graphic and written communication skills.

• Skills in Adobe Suite InDesign, ArcGIS, MS Powerpoint and llustrator and other packages will be advantageous.

Minimum Requirements

• The ideal candidate should have minimum of 6 years’ experience in Planning and/or Environmental Planning and Sustainability; applicants would ideally have a mixture of private sector and some government experience

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in environmental planning or equivalent is essential.

• Master’s level degree or at least 3 years of relevant work experience in sustainability in urban planning and urban design projects is essential.

• Estidama PQP, LEED AP, CEEQUAL or BREEAM Assessor or Mostadam AP is preferable.