Senior Associate: Environmental Planning & Engagement

Cascadia Partners is a multidisciplinary consulting firm headquartered in Portland, OR, with a team of over 20 staff who work in-person, hybrid, or remotely. We work on 40-50 projects across the country annually, focusing on actionable plans that get built and solutions rooted in equitable community engagement.

About the role

Cascadia Partners seeks a visionary Senior Associate to serve as a high-impact project manager and strategic leader within our growing multidisciplinary practice. This role sits at the intersection of transformative environmental planning and dynamic public engagement.

You will lead high-profile projects addressing pressing environmental challenges, including parks master plans, urban forest plans, and climate action plans. You will help clients navigate complex public processes by designing engagement strategies, facilitating community conversations, and delivering accessible visual storytelling.

Responsibilities

• Spearhead visionary parks master plans that build community health, promote equity, and connect people to nature.
• Design strategic urban forest plans to expand canopy coverage, enhance biodiversity, and build urban climate resilience.
• Develop actionable, data-driven climate action and resilience plans to help cities mitigate carbon footprints and adapt to climate impacts.
• Lead strategic engagement work, including designing community involvement trajectories, guiding stakeholders through complex trade-offs, and resolving high-stakes challenges.
• Manage 3–5 concurrent planning projects, directing multidisciplinary teams to deliver work on time, on budget, and within scope.
• Author robust community engagement plans, design outreach materials, and facilitate high-stakes public workshops and meetings.
• Synthesize complex spatial, demographic, and environmental data to inform land use, urban canopy, parks, and climate policies.
• Use InDesign, Illustrator, and GIS tools to produce polished, client-ready reports, infographics, and public presentations.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for municipal clients, steering committees, and community partners, managing scope and budgets.

Requirements

• Minimum of 5+ years of professional experience in urban planning, environmental planning, public policy, communications, or a related field.
• Master's Degree in Urban Planning, Environmental Studies, Landscape Architecture, Public Administration, or related fields.
• Demonstrated success in managing projects and people, maintaining budgets, leading client meetings, and ensuring deliverables are on time and within scope.
• Experience designing planning processes and comprehensive engagement strategies, with a willingness to champion this expertise within the firm.
• Proven ability to facilitate complex, multi-stakeholder meetings and public workshops, moving groups toward consensus.
• Skilled in layout design, graphic design, and visual storytelling, with the ability to translate complex planning concepts into polished public materials.
• Practical knowledge of frameworks related to environmental planning, climate action, urban forestry, sustainability, or parks and recreation master planning.

Desirable Qualifications

• Experience blending engagement strategy into long-range environmental initiatives like climate resilience blueprints, urban forest plans, and parks master plans.
• Experience working directly with or within municipal governments (e.g., parks departments, sustainability offices, or environmental planning divisions).

Work Location

Preference for candidates based in or willing to relocate to Oregon or southwest Washington. If based in the Portland metro area, must work 2 days per week in our office in the Pearl District. Travel to client locations required (once every 1-3 months).

Benefits

• Every other Friday off (36-hour average work week).
• Gold-level health insurance, dental, life insurance, 401(k) with 3% employer match.
• Professional development stipend for training, conferences, and skill-building.
• 4 weeks PTO in year one (prorated to hire date); 1 additional week per year of tenure, up to 8 weeks.

Pay

$85,000-$100,000