Early Career Environmental Planner

About the position

WSP is currently initiating a search for fulltime Early Career Environmental Planner for our Sacramento, CA office to support our highly-regarded Hazard Mitigation and Emergency Management (HM & EM) program and climate change, resiliency, and environmental planning services for federal, state, and local governments and other clients. Our ideal candidate must have strong organizational skills to support our project managers and a broad understanding of planning, climate change science, outreach and engagement tools, and the ability to lead work independently and collaboratively with a team. We are looking for someone that is passionate about helping improve resiliency, adaptation, and sustainability in communities in California and throughout the Western US. After initial onboarding and training, there may be the opportunity to work a hybrid office and home schedule, but the candidate must be able to travel to remote job sites to support field work, planning meetings, and stakeholder workshops.

Responsibilities

• Support the development and update of Hazard Mitigation Plans (HMPs) that meet Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 (DMA 2000) standards.
• Perform research and statistical risk assessment analyses on hazard and climate-related data and write significant portions of vulnerability assessments and planning documents.
• Data collection, organization, and documentation to support a variety of planning efforts.
• Assist with other emergency management plans in preparedness, response and recovery.
• Provide research and writing tasks as necessary to support a wide range of planning tasks and overall plan development.
• Strong verbal communication skills and excellent writing, formatting, and proofreading skills.
• Effectively review and translate technical reports and analyses into widely-accessible reports, plans, policies, graphics, and maps.
• Comfortable working with large reports, datasets, and spreadsheets.
• Assist with preparing deliverables for publication and/or presentation.
• Understand land use, environmental, and climate change regulatory frameworks applicable to local governments in California.
• Support authentic engagement with diverse stakeholder groups and communities by leading and supporting outreach efforts using virtual tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Slido and attending in-person workshops and meeting events.
• Ability to attend and travel to client meetings and community workshops that may occur on weekday evenings and weekends.
• Complete training on assigned tasks.
• Exercise responsible and ethical decision-making regarding company funds, resources and conduct, and adhere to WSP's Code of Conduct and related policies and procedures.
• Perform additional responsibilities as required by business needs.

Requirements

• BS in Planning, GIS, Emergency Management, Civil/Environmental Engineering, Geography, Environmental Science or related field. MS preferred.
• 0-1 year experience, or any equivalent education and experience.
• Understand California land use and environmental regulatory frameworks.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office software.
• Strong work ethic, self-motivated, and capable of independent work, but demonstrated ability to work on project teams.
• Strong writing and document skills, particularly related to organizing and formatting planning documents.
• Good organizational and communication skills.
• Excellent analytical / problem-solving skills.
• Attention to detail and experience with quality assurance/quality control and data analysis.
• This role is subject to a client-mandated drug/alcohol testing policy.
• Must successfully complete and pass WSP's Motor Vehicle screening.
• Requires ability to travel to remote job sites, which may involve attendance at project planning meetings or stakeholder workshops. Overtime and overnight stays may be required.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience developing or reviewing DMA 2000 HMPs preferred.
• Knowledge of HAZUS, FEMA Benefit Cost software, EMAP, NFIP, CRS, and Cal-Adapt a plus.
• Familiarity with FEMA RiskMAP program a plus.
• Familiarity or experience with ESRI's ArcGIS software.
• Experience with one or more of the following is a plus: land use planning, recovery planning, climate change adaptation planning, resiliency planning, emergency operations plans, drought mitigation and response plans, energy assurance plans, wildfire strategy development, and Community Wildfire Protection Plans.

Benefits

• Coverage related to medical, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance.
• Retirement savings.
• Paid sick leave.
• Paid vacation (or other personal time).
• Paid parental leave.
• Paid time off for purposes of bereavement, voting, and/or attendance at naturalization proceedings.