Practice Lead - Engineering & Planning

Toole Design; Columbus (OH); Hybrid; USD 129,000 - 197,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid schedule

8 paid holidays

24 days PTO annually

Competitive salary and benefits

Transportation perks

Job summary

Toole Design seeks a seasoned transportation professional to lead our integrated transportation engineering and multimodal planning practice in Columbus, OH, with flexible location options across our offices. The role blends practice leadership with active project delivery, reporting to the Engineering Director and collaborating with Design and Planning Directors.

The candidate should have 15+ years of transportation engineering and multimodal planning leadership, strong business development

Qualifications

• Desire to lead a practice—not just a project, developing the next generation of engineers and planners.
• Strategic thinking for guiding the practice's direction and growth.
• Commitment to technical excellence and to being a trusted senior voice on complex projects.

Responsibilities

• Lead business development and practice planning to support annual growth.
• Ensure financial health through effective project delivery and staffing.
• Collaborate with leadership to advance practice priorities and growth.
• Recruit and advise on hiring to support local and firmwide goals.
• Mentor staff and drive training, innovation, and quality control.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic thinking

Technical excellence

Communication

Mentoring

Business development

Team building

Education

PE preferred

PTOE credential a plus

AICP credential a plus

Job description

Design streets that move people-not just cars.

At Toole Design, we're leading the way in creating safer, more connected communities through sustainable multimodal transportation design. We're looking for an experienced transportation professional to lead Toole Design's integrated transportation engineering and multimodal planning practice to join us in Columbus, OH. This firmwide leadership role combines practice leadership with active project delivery. This position can be located in any of our offices, including: Atlanta, GA; Austin, TX; Boston, MA; Los Angeles, CA; Minneapolis, MN; Oakland, CA; Philadelphia, PA; Portland, OR; Raleigh, NC; Seattle, WA; Silver Spring, MD. We are making one hire.

Why You'll Love Working Here

We're not just another firm, we're a purpose-driven team of engineers, planners, landscape architects, and urban designers who believe streets should work for everyone. At Toole Design, you'll work alongside thought leaders and industry experts who are committed to mentoring and helping you grow your expertise. We offer:

• A collaborative, inclusive culture that supports your growth and advancement
• Hybrid schedule with in-office team days (Tuesday–Thursday)
• 8 paid holidays; and 24 days of PTO accrued annually
• Competitive salary, excellent benefits, and transportation perks: Benefits and Support
• Projects that truly improve lives through safe, inclusive design rooted in ethics, empathy, and equity

What You'll Do

We design streets as public places, with engineers, planners, landscape architects, and urban designers working side by side. Your leadership style should support and encourage that collaboration.

Leading the Practice

As our Practice Lead, you'll mentor a talented team of engineers and planners, guide business development, help shape the firm's technical direction, and stay active on major projects that strengthen client relationships and grow the practice. You will report to our Engineering Director while collaborating closely with our Design and Planning Directors.

• Lead business development and practice business planning in support of annual growth targets, in partnership with regional leadership
• Support the practice's financial health through effective project delivery, workload management, staff development, and quality control
• Collaborate with local, regional, and corporate leadership to advance practice priorities
• Help recruit and advise on hiring decisions to support local and firmwide growth goals
• Advance training, innovation, and quality control to keep our technical work at the forefront of the industry mentoring staff through project work
• Support marketing and raise the practice's local and national visibility
• Guide subject matter resource groups that support practice delivery, including traffic engineering, multimodal planning, transportation design and related specialties

Leading Projects

Serve as Principal-in-Charge, Project Director, Senior Technical Advisor, or Project Manager on major transportation planning and engineering efforts. You will provide leadership on transportation planning projects including:

• Comprehensive plans, long range transportation plans, city- or area-wide mobility plans and corridor studies
• Multimodal traffic impact analysis, traffic operations analysis, and safety analysis
• Parking, curbside management, and transportation demand management strategies
• Public engagement, policy development, and implementation strategies

You will provide leadership on transportation engineering and design projects including:

• Multimodal street design that balances safety, mobility, access, and placemaking objectives applying safe systems principles
• Conceptual geometric design for corridor and intersection reconfigurations, with hand-off to civil engineering for final design
• Traffic signal design, retiming, and timing optimization
• Signing, pavement marking, maintenance of traffic, and rapid-implementation design projects
• Road safety audits, crash analysis, and countermeasure selection

What You'll Bring:

• Desire to lead a practice - not just a project. You're energized by developing the next generation of engineers and planners to see your impact through what they deliver
• Strategic thinking for where the practice should go, what work to pursue, and how to position the firm for what's next
• Commitment to technical excellence as a personal standard and to remain a trusted senior voice on signature, complex projects
• Excitement to craft and communicate a vision that bridges planning and engineering
• 15+ years of success on the types of transportation engineering and multimodal planning projects described above
• Demonstrated success building and leading teams, programs, practices and projects
• Experience in business development, proposal strategy, client development
• A belief that strong engineering makes great planning real - and that streets are public places where engineering rigor and urban design strengthen one another
• A commitment to creating safer, more equitable, and more sustainable transportation systems for the communities we serve

A PE is preferred. PTOE and/or AICP credentials are a plus. We welcome candidates whose careers have been rooted in either transportation engineering or multimodal transportation planning, provided they have demonstrated success leading integrated teams, delivering complex projects, and growing a transportation practice.

Join Us. Make an Impact.

We're targeting a range of $147,000-$196,500 for individuals with a PE and $129,000-$178,500 without.

Questions, assistance or accommodations? Contact [e-mail] or call 301-927-1900, press 5.

At Toole Design, we foster a collaborative culture and welcome people of all backgrounds to help build more inclusive communities. We strongly encourage women and applicants from underrepresented communities – people of color, LGBTQIA+, immigrants, first-generation college students/graduates, those with disabilities and people at all the intersections in between – to apply. We're proud that about half our managers are women and we are committed to diverse leadership that reflects the communities we serve. Toole Design is a woman-owned, equal opportunity employer (EO/AA/VEV/Disabled employer).

For more information about Toole Design, visit our website and follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook.