What are the responsibilities and job description for the Junior Land Use Planner position at AKS Engineering & Forestry, LLC?
We're hiring! We're looking for a Junior Land Use Planner to join our Planning team in our Tualatin, Oregon office. If you're eager to grow your career in land use planning and want to learn from experienced professionals in a fast-paced consulting environment, this is an outstanding opportunity to develop your skills alongside a well-respected and talented multi-disciplinary team in a dynamic organization.
What You'll Do- Research: Assist with property, zoning, and utility research to support compliance with municipal land use regulations.
- Application Preparation: Help prepare, organize, and submit required materials for land use applications, including subdivisions, zone changes, conditional use permits, and site plan reviews under the direction of senior planning staff.
- Analysis: Support senior planners in analyzing complex issues affecting property, transportation networks, and utility infrastructure to respond to client inquiries and assess development feasibility.
- Collaboration: Coordinate effectively with in-house engineering, surveying, and landscape architectural co-workers, permitting agency staff, and other project team members.
- Proposal Development: Assist in developing clearly written scopes of work for proposals.
- Client Interaction: Support client coordination on project data and scheduling under the guidance of senior staff.
- Meeting Support: Help set up, organize, and attend neighborhood meetings and public hearings.
- Project Support: Assist with maintaining project schedules, tracking milestone dates, and organizing project files and documentation.
- Relationship Building: Develop and maintain effective positive working relationships with co-workers, clients, permitting agency staff, and other project team members.
- Travel: Able to travel out of town as necessary, occasionally overnight.
- A bachelor's degree in planning, landscape architecture, geography, or a related field - or equivalent coursework and internship experience.
- Foundational understanding of land use planning principles and the land development process.
- Familiarity with City and County Comprehensive Plans and Development Codes. Exposure to Oregon's Statewide Planning System is a plus.
- Strong organizational skills and attention to detail. Proficient with word processing, presentation, spreadsheet, and scheduling software (Microsoft Office Suite, Adobe, etc.).
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Comfortable working in a collaborative, team-oriented environment where you'll receive mentorship and direction from experienced planners and project managers.
- Ability to manage multiple tasks, meet deadlines, and prioritize workload with guidance from senior staff.
- You have a "Do what needs to be done" mindset - you take initiative, ask good questions, and step in wherever needed to keep projects, teams, and customers supported and running smoothly.
- Internship or coursework experience in land use planning, urban planning, or a related field.
- Proficiency in the use of AutoCAD/Civil 3D, Photoshop, and geographic information systems (GIS).
- Familiarity with Microsoft Project or other scheduling tools.