Senior Planner - Strategic Advisor, Public + Private Infrastructure and Development

STV's Transportation South team is seeking a Senior Planner to serve as a strategic advisor across and at the intersection of public infrastructure, private development, community benefits, economic development and environmental stewardship. This role is ideal for an experienced planner who can prepare plans and create projects, which then move into project development, design and delivery. In doing so, you will lead intensive charrettes and other forms of engagement to translate stakeholder input into clear, actionable concepts, alternatives, and implementation pathways, similarly guided by technical inputs.

You will guide clients through high-stakes decisions by facilitating inclusive collaboration, structuring complex conversations, incorporating technical inputs for feasibility and helping teams evaluate strategic alternatives with clarity. In this role, your understanding of technical practices across multiple disciplines and engagement methodologies from experiences with the public sector, private sector, partners, stakeholders and community is needed to maximize opportunities and resolve issues.

What You'll Do

1) Engagement, Facilitation and Collaboration

• Facilitate workshops and charrette meetings, capturing decisions, themes, and action items.

• Lead the development of collateral to align staff and the consultant team on goals, context, and constraints, including graphic standards to ensure quality and consistency across outputs.

• Guide teams from inputs to multiple design alternatives/concepts and facilitate refinement toward a preferred direction.

• Convert workshop/charrette outputs into compelling, client-ready deliverables.

• Apply facilitative leadership skills to create productive, inclusive discussions-especially where perspectives conflict or priorities compete.

2) Strategic Advisory Across Public + Private Infrastructure and Development

• Serve as a trusted advisor to clients and partners-helping them frame the right questions, assess tradeoffs, and make informed decisions.

• Coordinate with multidisciplinary teams (planning, engineering, urban design, environmental, PM/CM) to connect strategy to implementable solutions.

3) Planning and Project Development

• Lead policy or project initiatives from inception, inclusive of preparing a policy or project definition, vision, goals and plan.

• Guide a preferred plan into project development while managing or supporting teams.

4) Business and Industry Leadership

• Collaborate within the firm to identify and advance cross-selling opportunities.

• Develop and sustain client relationships.

• Demonstrate thought leadership and firm excellence through industry events, publications and advisor activities as a subject matter expert.

• Diversify into markets that align with the business strategy of the firm.

• Support the professional development of staff.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor's degree in Urban/Regional Planning, Community Development, Public Policy, Civil Engineering (planning focus), Architecture/Urban Design, or related field.

• 8+ years of progressive experience in planning, community development, infrastructure advisory, or related consulting/client environments.

• Demonstrated experience leading or co-leading charrettes and/or high-intensity public workshops with senior stakeholders.

• Strong facilitation capability-able to guide groups through brainstorming, alternative development, and decision-making.

• Excellent writing and presentation skills; comfort translating complex inputs into crisp, executive-ready narratives and plans.

Preferred

• AICP (or ability to obtain within a defined period).

• Master's degree in Urban/Regional Planning, Community Development, Public Policy, Civil Engineering (planning focus), Architecture/Urban Design, or related field.

• Experience developing plans and related briefing materials/standards that improve quality and consistency across multi-contributor deliverables.

• Background working with both public agencies and private sector partners on place-based development and infrastructure outcomes.

• Experience across multiple geographies and markets; willingness to frequently travel.

Competencies That Matter in This Role

• Facilitative Leader: actively listens, participates in discussions, encourages creative thinking, and structures decision support.

• Strategic Framing: shapes better questions, clarifies objectives, and helps teams evaluate alternatives.

• Composure Under Pressure: thrives in energetic style charrette environments with tight timelines and high expectations.

• Output-Driven: ensures team or charrette ideation becomes documented concepts, refined alternatives, and next-step implementation.

• Technical Understanding: understands and can deploy the technical inputs that influence policy and project initiatives during the planning, project development, design and delivery lifecycle steps.

Compensation Range:

STV offers the following benefits * Health insurance, including an option with a Health Savings Account * Dental insurance * Vision insurance * Flexible Spending Accounts (Healthcare, Dependent Care and Transit and Parking where applicable) * Disability insurance * Life Insurance and Accidental Death & Dismemberment * 401(k) Plan * Retirement Counseling * Employee Assistance Program * Paid Time Off (starting at 16 days) * Paid Holidays (9 days) * Back-Up Dependent Care (up to 10 days per year) * Parental Leave (up to 80 hours) * Continuing Education Program * Professional Licensure and Society Memberships

STV is committed to paying all of its employees in a fair, equitable, and transparent manner. The listed pay range is STV's good-faith salary estimate for this position. Please note that the final salary offered for this position may be outside of this published range based on many factors, including but not limited to geography, education, experience, and/or certifications.

Not sure this role is the perfect match? We encourage you to apply if STV's work and values resonate with you. We know great candidates don't always meet every qualification, and research shows women and people of color are less likely to apply unless they do. At STV, we believe strong talent comes from a wide range of backgrounds, and your skills and experience may align with this or another opportunity as we continue to grow.