The National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) is seeking a new Project Director for its Designing Cities initiative, a multi-year initiative that aims to dramatically transform how cities around the United States design streets and public spaces. Desired applicants should have experience and a strong knowledge base in public street design, with general knowledge of transportation, land use, urban development, and other city issues. For this position, NACTO is looking for a strong communicator with a keen eye for understanding the design of city streets at a fine-grained scale.

The Project Director for the Designing Cities initiative is charged with overseeing the day-to-day operations, content development, and strategic vision of the initiative. The position works closely with NACTO’s Executive Director and member steering committees to ensure the effective implementation and dissemination of the initiative’s core goals.

NACTO’s Project Director of the Designing Cities initiative must be highly self-directed, and willing to accommodate a schedule with significant travel to national conferences, trainings, and other meetings.

Core activities for the Project Director include:

• Project management and development of new guideline material, including written and graphic content production. This includes streetscape renderings, imagery, presentations, and layout.
• Coordination of national training series and presentations for the NACTO Urban Design Guidelines.
• Coordination of NACTO member steering committees and peer-to-peer activities, including national steering committees for the Urban Street Design Guide and the Urban Bikeway Design Guide.
• Production and hosting of NACTO’s webinar series, including selection of key themes, topics, and speakers.
• Leadership, production, and development of NACTO’s Digital Design Charrette Series, a project-based learning method that focuses on individual retrofits.
• Support for fundraising and grant management, including grant proposals, program budgets, and working with grant-making partners.
• Fostering relationships with member city staff, leadership, and partners at the national level, including FHWA and USDOT.

The Project Director of the Designing Cities initiative is expected to work closely with NACTO’s member cities to forge a common vision on street design, offering guidance and leadership to a multi-disciplinary, national network of cities striving to transform entrenched street design and transportation engineering practices. The position is based in New York, NY.

Minimum Qualifications: Master’s Degree in Urban Planning, Transportation Engineering, Urban Design or a related field and 2 years of experience, or a Bachelor’s Degree and an equivalent amount of experience.

Additional Desired Qualifications: Experience working with new or modified national, state or city standards in street design. Proficiency in Adobe design suite and Google Sketchup.

Salary Range: $70,000 – $95,000

To apply, send a resume and cover letter to Linda Bailey, NACTO Executive Director, at nacto@nacto.org by 5pm on July 15, 2014.