Environmental Planning Manager

ABOUT THE POSITION

VHB is seeking an Environmental Planning Manager to join our Atlanta, Georgia office. Our environmental planning team strives for a culture in which team members are excited about their work, supported professionally and personally, encouraged to be creative and innovative, and have opportunities to contribute to and learn about the diverse markets in which we work. Consistently named among the “Best Civil Engineering Firms to Work For” by CE News magazine, VHB is committed to providing a challenging, dynamic, and rewarding work environment. Our staff enjoy opportunities to grow professionally and work on interesting projects.

VHB provides environmental services to state and federal departments of transportation, transit and rail agencies, airport owners/operators, municipalities, energy clients, institutions, building developers, and other entities. VHB offers our clients strong project management support, technical analyses, and short and long-term planning solutions to meet environmental regulatory requirements, identify and achieve sustainability goals, and to understand the effects of our built environment.

VHB is hiring a senior professional with experience in leading a team of environmental planning staff.  The Environmental Planning Manager would provide leadership and mentorship to senior environmental planners in the preparation of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documentation for State and Federal agencies, with a particular emphasis on the Georgia Department of Transportation.  VHB’s Atlanta-based environmental team includes 40 staff with a broad range of integrated experience, including environmental planning, ecological studies, cultural resource studies, air/noise studies, and others. We are looking for applicants that have a strong understanding of our full range of environmental services to foster our cross-collaborative culture and support our growing backlog.

Responsibilities:

• Provide strong coaching, mentoring, and everyday feedback to senior planning staff
• Provide quality assurance and quality control for NEPA documents produced by other staff
• Track project deliverable progress in multiple systems and coordinate completion across teams
• Support multi-disciplinary environmental projects in transportation, and manage multiple ongoing environmental planning tasks and projects
• Build relationships with clients, project managers, colleagues, and sub‑consultants through project work and active industry engagement
• Lead and support business development activities as needed, including preparing proposals/qualifications, project approaches, scopes of work, fee estimates, and schedules
• Support senior management team with strategic insight, including Environmental Services Director and roadway design team
• Independently prepare and review National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documentation
• Facilitate stakeholder meetings, public workshops, and public hearings, as needed

Skills and abilities:

• Demonstrated leadership and mentoring skills required
• Active engagement and visibility within the industry required
• Excellent verbal, written and interpersonal communication skills
• Team-oriented with strong capability to motivate others
• Capable of coordinating and performing multiple tasks among teams, including setting priorities for other team members
• Detail-oriented and highly organized
• Ability to provide systems, processes, and structure to support the continuous improvement of operations and workflows
• Must demonstrate an ability in collaborative problem-solving with stakeholders, clients, and teammates
• Thorough understanding of technical environmental impact analysis methods
• Must be a highly motivated self-starter 
• Experience with broad range of environmental studies and regulations, including environmental justice and Title VI, Section 4(f), Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, and Section 106
• Ability to travel, if required

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant environmental discipline (environmental science, environmental biology, ecology, wildlife management, cultural resources, NEPA, and related disciplines)
• 8+ years of experience in environmental consulting, including strong project management skills
• Extensive experience with NEPA Regulations, state of Georgia rules and regulations (including GEPA and Buffer Variance Regulations), Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, National Historic Preservation Act
• Extensive experience with client and business development activities, including client management, proposals/qualifications, fee estimates, and schedules
• Demonstrated leadership in mentoring and managing senior-level staff
• Writing samples required

We are VHB! We’re an inspired and innovative team of engineers, scientists, planners, and designers who partner with clients in the transportation, real estate, institutional, and energy industries, as well as federal, state, and local governments. Our work helps improve mobility, enhance communities, and contribute to economic vitality. We do this while balancing development and infrastructure needs with stewardship of our environment. 

Our people make us great! VHB provides a differentiating employee experience, which includes: 

• Diverse and inclusive culture of collaboration and innovation
• Opportunity to work on complex, transformational projects
• Community and social responsibility as sustainable stewards
• Focus on learning, development, and career growth
• Best-in-class benefits, including flexible, hybrid workplace  

We are consistently rated one of the top AEC firms to work for across our 30+ offices on the East Coast. We’re growing, and we hope you’ll join us! 

VHB is a proud Equal Opportunity Employer. Since our founding, we have intentionally fostered a culture of inclusion and belonging, supported by deep-rooted core values, one of which is diversity. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or other characteristics protected by law.

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