Senior Planner/Urban Designer

DLR Group is an integrated design firm with a promise to elevate the human experience through design. This fuels the work we do around the world and inspires our mission to improve the lives of our clients, our communities, and our planet. If this sparks your interest, you’re in the right place.

DLR Group's Design team has an opening for a Senior Planner/Urban Designer . We operate within a hybrid work model, supporting flexibility between office time and work from home.

Considering this model, this role could be based in the following cities:

• Chicago, IL
• Minneapolis, MN

Position Summary

As a Senior Planner/Urban Designer , you will be an important part of our integrated design process and will gain exposure to all elements of the planning and design process.

As a valued member of the planning team, you will be responsible for leading and growing our planning and urban design practice within the region and nationally. The role will work closely with our from business development and practice leaders across sectors and disciplines.

This is also an opportunity to be involved in high-impact planning and urban design projects in various sectors by collaborating with interdisciplinary design teams' firm-wide to establish long range plans for clients. The ideal candidate will support planning and design projects focused on equity, community engagement, sustainability, resiliency, and innovative learning environments. This is a fantastic opportunity to grow, learn, and contribute your design voice to our brand promise of Elevating the Human Experience.

The successful candidate will:

• Act as a growth agent for DLR Group within planning and urban design community, visible in speaking events, writing, and other activities to amplify DLR Group’s planning and design voice.
• Attend industry events, business development events, interviews, and client meetings.
• Participate and provide technical support to planning and urban design pursuits including interviews, and presentations.
• Lead project teams for planning, design and/or technical development of planning and urban design projects.
• Write narratives and develop deliverables that explain recommendations and capital planning for facilities, open space, and infrastructure to a variety of audiences.
• Possess a strong conceptual design ability, a solid professional planning acumen, and can meaningfully contribute to projects involving complex sites at a variety of scales and in widely divergent social, environmental, and geographic contexts.
• Be a leader who champions equity for a wide spectrum of individuals within the region and across our planning and design practice.
• Coordinate with project teams and align with QA/QC, practice standards, and DLR Group protocols.

Required Qualifications:

• Design background with a bachelor's degree in architecture or landscape architecture
• 10+ years of professional experience in planning and/or urban design
• Proficient in Revit, GIS, AutoCAD, MS Office Suite, and Adobe Creative Suite
• Possess excellent written, verbal, and graphic communication skills
• Ability to balance high-intensity tasks and competing priorities
• Must be eligible to work in the United States without need for work visa or residency sponsorship
• Innate curiosity and continual willingness to learn
• Ability and willingness to travel and support work outside of region

Preferred Qualifications:

• A graduate degree in Planning or Urban Design
• AICP, LEED AP, or other sustainability-related certification
• PowerBI experience

*TO BE CONSIDERED, PLEASE SUBMIT CURRENT PORTFOLIO/WORK SAMPLES IN PDF FORMAT*

DLR Group is an integrated design firm delivering architecture, engineering, interiors, planning, and building optimization for new builds, renovations, and adaptive reuse projects.

We are 100% employee-owned: every employee is literally invested in our clients’ success. At the core of our firm are interdisciplinary teams engaged in every step of project lifecycles. Our teams champion true collaboration, open information sharing, shared risk and reward, value-based decision making, and proficient use of technology to deliver exceptional design. We are pursuing the goals of the 2030 Challenge, the ME2040, and the SE2050, and are an initial signatory of the China Accord and the AIA 2030 Commitment.

Our ambition is to use our collective design voice to bring about a better society and create stronger communities by recognizing and addressing longstanding inequities in our nation. Leading this change – to deliver a more equitable culture – aligns with DLR Group’s Core Values and our brand promise to elevate the human experience through design. By exploring, discovering, sharing, and ultimately resolving inequities identified within our firm and the broader A/E/C industry, we can develop a more diverse and inclusive design culture to better fulfill our brand promise.

Our comprehensive Benefits at DLR Group include medical, dental, vision, disability, wellness programs, flex spending, paid holidays, and paid time off. We also offer a 401(k) plan, employee stock ownership, and bonus opportunities. Compensation considerations are based on location, experience, and skills.

Through our values – commitment, creativity, environmental stewardship, fun, integrity, ownership, sharing, teamwork – we elevate the human experience through design, together.

We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action/M/F/Veteran/Disabled employer.

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