Environmental Planning Lead

About the role

The Transportation Group of AECOM is actively seeking a creative, highly talented Environmental Planning Lead for immediate employment in South Carolina. This position offers flexibility to work from any of our four offices located in Columbia, Florence, Greenville, or North Charleston. You’ll be joining a collaborative team with excellent opportunities for professional growth and career advancement.

Responsibilities

• Guides our multidisciplinary environmental team within the Transportation division.
• Manages environmental projects, leads project teams, oversees tasks, and contributes to the development of high-quality environmental content.
• Supports the environmental transportation practice and applies expert knowledge of the SCDOT environmental process, including milestone schedule management for the SCDOT Design Process and environmental documentation.
• Applies this expertise throughout the project timeline—particularly on SCDOT projects—to ensure integration of engineering, agency coordination, and public involvement activities with the environmental process.
• Serves as the environmental lead or provides support as an environmental deputy program/project manager on DOT projects, focusing on the preparation of environmental documentation for project delivery.
• Leads and supports client and agency consultations.
• Schedules project deliverables with engineering and project delivery milestones, and recommends priorities, timelines, and funding sources to support the implementation of public improvement plans.
• Assesses environmental indicators which are incorporated into studies, environmental assessments, and statements that will generally be used to identify, abate, and eliminate sources of pollutants or hazards that affect people, wildlife, and environments; and to propose mitigation measures for the environmental impacts of newly built development or infrastructure.
• Works in program areas relating to natural/water resources planning, NEPA, community development, public outreach, hazard mitigation, noise, and others.
• Prepares basic data and scientific documents to include figures, technical reports, agency coordination, NEPA documents, and supports 404/buffer variance permit applications for authorization by state and federal agencies.
• Conducts research and prepares statistical reports on land use, physical, social and economic issues, and public involvement.
• Prepares and performs QA/QC on environmental deliverables for transportation projects, including managing schedules that require coordination across interdisciplinary teams and ensuring updates based on evolving client or regulatory requirements.
• Guides clients through the permitting and environmental management process to secure necessary environmental clearances.
• Origins and performs technical approach, quality control, data assessments, report reviews, and conducts thorough QA/QC for work prepared by others.
• Gathers data and other information to be used in preparation of environmental reports of investigations; compiles, organizes, and interprets data collected by others to provide data-based recommendations for senior management and clients.
• Demonstrated success in synthesizing relevant data from reports into NEPA documents or permit applications is a must.
• Manages complex planning studies, development applications and reviews and long project timelines, building and executing schedules to meet multiple concurrent timelines.
• Advises team members on best practices, consistency in approach, and consequences of decision making.
• Provides program management support, including project management responsibilities such as overseeing multiple aspects of projects and tasks, managing budgets, staffing, and schedules, and applying team-building practices.
• Conducts meetings and presents reports and other findings to public, agencies, clients, and stakeholders.
• Prepares and distributes meeting minutes.
• Serves as a technical specialist for the office in the application of advanced theories, concepts, principles or processes for an assigned area of responsibility (i.e., subject matter, function, type of facility or industry).
• Responsible for client management addressing questions from the client, understand the environmental/design details and schedule, scope, budget, and risk implications of decisions made at a project/design level.
• Prepare client facing materials and manage meetings, meeting preparation/agendas, minutes with limited to no supervision, while being supported by project team.
• Responsible for environmental permits and evaluating resource delineations.
• May distinguish differences in environmental class of action and provide material client support in the development of options and appropriate project alternatives.
• Aid management with business development activities and mentorship of junior staff.

Qualifications

• BA/BS Environmental, Ecology, Biology, Engineering or related field.
• 8 years of related environmental planning experience or demonstrated equivalency of experience and/or education.
• Experience with SC Department of Transportation and SC state and federal agencies; including 3 years working with SCDOT and state and federal agencies tasked with regulatory requirements for transportation projects in SC.
• Demonstrated experience in environmental delivery for complex transportation projects.
• Proficient technical/scientific writing skills, knowledge of GIS.
• Experience working with SC state agencies and federal agencies to navigate permitting/regulatory requirements to obtain agency environmental clearances and to determine agency jurisdictionality of natural resources;
• Understanding of coastal permitting processes.
• Demonstrated experience working in fast-paced environment with multiple projects, deliverables, schedules and timelines with demonstrated ability to manage time and priorities under limited supervision.
• Demonstrated leadership of interdisciplinary teams to meet deadlines and ensure project delivery; customer service oriented with demonstrated client facing experience.
• Experience providing QAQC for environmental documents for transportation projects (NEPA and supporting materials).