Assistant Director, Capital Project Sponsorship, Public Realm

New York City Department of Transportation; New York (NY); On-site; USD 95,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

New York City Department of Transportation seeks a City Planner to lead the public realm capital portfolio, balancing pedestrian, cycling, and transit needs across five boroughs. You will oversee planning, outreach, and project tracking, coordinating with Capital Program Management, Transit Development, and partner agencies.

The position requires advanced degrees or equivalent experience, strong mapping, CAD skills, and excellent communication.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in city planning, urban planning, or related field.
• Bachelor's degree plus one year of satisfactory full-time city planning experience.

Responsibilities

• Support and manage the capital portfolio of citywide public realm projects including pedestrianization and plazas.
• Develop funding requests, grants, and outreach plans; present planning initiatives to senior leadership.
• Coordinate with DOT divisions and partner agencies to ensure design consistency and policy alignment.

Skills

ArcGIS

QGIS

AutoCAD

Adobe Creative Suite

Microsoft 365

Public speaking

Graphic communication

Education

Master's degree in City Planning

Bachelor's degree + 1 year experience

Tools

ArcGIS

QGIS

AutoCAD

Adobe Creative Suite

Microsoft 365

Job description

Transportation Planning and Management (TPM) is responsible for the safe, efficient, and environmentally responsible movement of people and goods on the City's streets, supporting the larger goals of economic and social vitality for people living, working, and doing business in New York City. The Division's responsibilities include planning, street design, curb management, technical analysis, signs, transit development, freight mobility and markings, ensuring the safety of motor vehicle occupants, pedestrians, and cyclists.
The Office of Livable Streets (OLS) is tasked with prioritizing strategic planning, community engagement, research, policy, design, implementation, and long-term management. Their goal is to create streets that are livable, supporting safety, accessibility, inclusion, resiliency, active modes, community cohesion, and economic vitality citywide. Additionally, they aim to enhance New York City's pedestrian, bicycle, and micromobility networks, providing comfortable, connected, green, and reliable transportation options across the five boroughs. They place special emphasis on Priority Investment Areas, mode shift, and reimagining streets. The office also develops innovative new programs, design typologies, project delivery, and analysis tools to meet the demands of a rapidly changing population with evolving needs and technologies.
The Public Realm Unit, working closely with other TPM units, is responsible for engaging New Yorkers to reimagine and utilize their city streets as public space and oversees the development of programs, policies, projects, and management tools to elevate the public realm experience for its primary user - the pedestrian., Through initiatives and programs ranging from the Pedestrian Mobility Plan, Public Space Programming, the Public Space Equity Program, Open Streets, Super Sidewalks, Street Seats, Complex Intersections, Shared Streets and Plazas, the Public Realm Unit creates vibrant and inclusive spaces that improve safety, accessibility, and walkability while enhancing commerce, community, and culture throughout New York City.
Reporting to the Director of Public Realm Design, the Assistant Director of Capital Project Sponsorship will support and manage the unit's capital portfolio of citywide public realm street reconstruction projects that include comprehensive pedestrianization enhancements, shared streets, and plazas. In this role, the candidate will provide vision and direction for the citywide planning, prioritization, outreach, and management of long-term projects, capital project policy and design considerations, and portfolio mapping and tracking at the neighborhood scale citywide. The chosen candidate will also work with other groups at NYC DOT including Capital Program Management and other planning teams with capital portfolios, including Transit Development. The chosen candidate will also work with NYC Department of Design and Construction, NYC Department of Parks & Recreation, and NYC Economic Development Corporation. Responsibilities associated with this role include supervising junior to mid-level staff, managing the capital portfolio and tracking systems; developing funding requests and grant applications, developing outreach plans and conducting outreach including public presentations, and presenting planning initiatives to senior leadership.
The candidate will develop detailed proposed street designs that rebalance existing streets to integrate bicycle facilities, pedestrian improvements, and traffic calming to enhance safety for all street users. The candidate will create comprehensive AutoCAD drawings showing vehicle and bike lane configurations, intersection treatments, curb alignments, roadway dimensions, vertical elements, and pavement markings. The candidate will develop and review Synchro traffic models to evaluate intersection capacity, delay, and level of service, ensuring analyses support safe and efficient multimodal street designs. The candidate will review and quality-check drawings produced by junior staff and consultants. The candidate will manage multiple concurrent design projects and prioritize work to meet critical deadlines. The candidate will coordinate with other DOT divisions, including Geometric Design, Borough Engineering, and Traffic Signals, to ensure design consistency, comfortable advocating for best practices and emerging designs that support micromobility. The candidate will conduct site visits and field measurements to verify existing conditions and inform design decisions. The candidate will prepare design presentations and graphics for community meetings, stakeholder engagement, and internal coordination. The candidate will ensure all designs comply with AASHTO, MUTCD, and NYC DOT standards. The candidate will support junior staff training and technical development.
The Department of Transportation's (DOT) mission is to provide for the safe, efficient, and environmentally responsible movement of people and goods in the City of New York and to maintain and enhance the transportation infrastructure crucial to the economic vitality and quality of life of our primary customers, City residents. DOT is an equal opportunity employer, committed to recruiting and maintaining a diverse workforce in an open and inclusive environment.
CITY PLANNER - 22122

Minimum Qualifications

• 1. A master's degree from an accredited college or university in city planning, urban planning, urban design, architecture, landscape architecture, transportation engineering, public administration, economic development or a related field; or
• 2. A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university and one year of satisfactory full-time experience in city planning such as in the review and
• 3. A satisfactory combination of education and/or experience that is equivalent to "1" above. Graduate education in city planning, urban planning, urban design, architecture, landscape architecture, transportation engineering, public administration, economic development or related fields may be substituted for experience on the basis of 30 graduate semester credits from an accredited college or university for one year of experience. However, all candidates must have a baccalaureate degree.
• 4. To be eligible for placement in Assignment Level III, individuals must have, after meeting the minimum requirements, two additional years of professional experience as described in "2" above.

Preferred Skills

• Professional experience in urban planning, urban design, project management, architecture, or landscape architecture with a practical understanding of pedestrian and transportation related issues, including emerging urban concepts and policies.
• Previous experience with mapping software (ArcGIS or QGIS), traffic analysis, Computer-Aided Design (AutoCAD), Adobe Creative Suite, and Microsoft 365 strongly desired.
• Excellent written, visual, and verbal communication skills, ability to work independently in a highly collaborative environment across multiple teams, respond to and manage against tight timelines, identify and prioritize among competing needs and opportunities, and manage multiple projects at the same time. Strong organizational, administrative, writing and graphic communication skills, with a creative thinking and problem-solving approach.
• Strong communication skills with public speaking experience desired and demonstrated interest in the public realm.

55a Program

This position is also open to qualified persons with a disability who are eligible for the 55-a Program. Please indicate at the top of your resume and cover letter that you would like to be considered for the position through the 55-a Program.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness

As a prospective employee of the City of New York, you may be eligible for federal loan forgiveness programs and state repayment assistance programs. For more information, please visit the U.S. Department of Education's website at https://studentaid.gov/pslf/.

Residency Requirement

New York City residency is generally required within 90 days of appointment. However, City Employees in certain titles who have worked for the City for 2 continuous years may also be eligible to reside in Nassau, Suffolk, Putnam, Westchester, Rockland, or Orange County. To determine if the residency requirement applies to you, please discuss with the agency representative at the time of interview.

Additional Information

The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.