Transit Planner Community Specialist

Position Summary:

This Transit Planner will have a strong focus as a community specialist responsible for enhancing community engagement, coordinating Title VI compliance efforts, and conducting outreach activities aimed at improving transit services. This role works closely with the Senior Planner, the Director of Planning, and the broader planning team to ensure that operational decisions are both data-driven and community-centered.

Reporting Relationships:

Position Reports to: Senior Planner

Direct Report by Title: None

Indirect Reports by Title: None

Number of Reports: Direct - 0, Indirect - 0

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform the essential job functions satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential job functions described in this job description. As not every duty associated with this position may be described herein, employees may be required to perform duties not specifically spelled out in this job description, but which may be reasonably considered incidental in the performing of the duties just as though they were actually written out.

Examples of Duties

Essential Job Functions:

1. Route & Service Planning

• Collaborates on service proposals with the Senior Planner and the other Transit Planner to incorporate community feedback into short- and long-term route and schedule recommendations.
• Conducts periodic site visits to observe service operations, identify rider needs, and propose improvements.
• Gathers and interprets data from various sources (CAD/AVL, APC, farebox, community surveys) to inform planning decisions and measure the success of outreach initiatives.

2. Public Engagement:

• Lead public engagement and manage a feedback tracking system.
• Designs and administers community and rider surveys to gather feedback on service quality, accessibility, and overall rider experiences.
• Attends neighborhood association meetings, public open houses, and other local events to share transit information and gather stakeholder input.
• Collaborates with the marketing or communications team to create educational materials, presentations, and social media content for service updates or new initiatives.

3. Data Management:

• Manages Title VI activities by overseeing ongoing compliance, preparing or updating Title VI plans, coordinating the triennial report, and conducting major service change analyses.
• Analyzes demographic and ridership data to recommend adjustments that promote equity and mitigate potentialservice disparities.
• Utilizes Remix software to model route scenarios, assess potential equity impacts, and aid in Title VI compliancedocumentation.
• Assists as needed in providing data for National Transit Database submissions, as well as any local, state, or federal grant requirements.

4. Collaboration:

• Collaborate directly with the Senior Planner on equity analyses by providing qualitative data from public outreach.
• Draft sections of the triennial Title VI program related to public participation.
• Partners with other departments (e.g., Operations, Marketing, Customer Service, Dispatch) to ensure thatcommunity feedback and equity considerations shape decision-making.
• Acts as a liaison between the planning department and community stakeholders, riders, ensuring timelyresponses to questions, comments, and concerns.
• Works with legal, grants, and other teams to ensure alignment with federal civil rights obligations, timely submission of relevant documentation, and successful implementation of initiatives.

5. Other Duties

• Maintain awareness of new trends and developments in the fields related to the area of assignment.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.
• Regular attendance is an essential function of this job.

Typical Qualifications

Physical Requirements & Working Conditions:

Job requires incumbent to sit, talk/listen and use hands to obtain data for planning department matters. Must be able to stand, walk, reach with hands and arms, and lift up to 30 pounds. Work is typically performed indoors but incumbent is occasionally exposed to dust, fumes/odors, working around moving objects. Stress from contacts with the general public, individual citizen contact and deadlines under pressure is common.

Communication & Administrative Skills:

• Ability to aggregate multiple sources of data from large datasets, extract insights, develop recommendations, create visualizations, and support the preparation of technical presentations and documents based on the analysis.
• Ability to apply, develop, and evaluate analytical, quantitative, and statistical tools and their results.
• Ability to use Microsoft Excel and Word proficiently.
• Familiarity with selected job-specific software (including fixed route scheduling software – Hastus and CAD/AVL system – Avail) (preferred).
• Experience with Business Intelligence dashboards (preferred).
• Experience with ArcGIS (preferred).
• Ability to communicate clearly and effectively, both orally and in writing.
• Ability to prepare clear and concise reports, correspondence and other written materials.
• Ability to speak effectively with individuals and small groups, and to respond to questions.
• Ability to organize work, set priorities and meet critical deadlines.

Interpersonal Skills:

• Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts and draw valid conclusions so as to resolve problems.
• Effectively communicates and collaborates within a small team and across departments, ensuring seamless coordination, information sharing, and alignment of goals.
• Knowledge of techniques of effective time management.
• Ability to deal courteously and diplomatically with the general public.

Cognitive Skills:

• Detail-oriented.
• Quick learner and self-starter.
• Ability to verify data integrity, and correct misinformation.
• Ability to recognize strengths, weaknesses and limitations of data.
• Knowledge of general transit service planning process and concepts.
• Ability to make effective decisions and recommendations.
• Knowledge of report generation.
• Ability to demonstrate initiative and independent judgment.
• Knowledge record keeping, report preparation, filing methods, and records management techniques.

Supplemental Information

Experience and/or Educational Requirements:

Bachelor’s degree in Regional/Urban Planning, Geography, Transportation, Economics, Political Science, Environmental Science or related field; valid Ohio driver’s license; 0-3 years of relevant experience; or any combination of education, training and work experience which provides the required skill sets to perform the essential functions of the job.

Core Values:

Teamwork:

• Demonstrating teamwork in and across departments.
• Treating everyone with respect.
• Recognize that the team is greater; much more than the collection of individual efforts.

Safety:

• Ensuring the safety of everyone.
• Believing that every accident can be prevented.
• Having a constant eye to safety in all aspects.

People Centric:

• Celebrating diversity/individual differences.
• Treating everyone fairly.
• Valuing everyone: co-workers, customers, each other, stakeholders.

Service Excellence:

• Providing the best customer service to everyone, both externally and internally.
• Routinely exceeding expectations.
• Serving our customers and each other.

Integrity:

• Always demonstrating honesty, trust, character and fairness without compromising the truth.
• Showing high regard for civility, equity/fairness and human dignity.
• Having the courage to do the right thing.

Action Ready:

• Sharing one goal, one mission.
• Keeping commitments.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $53,000.00 - $67,108.00 per year

Benefits:

• Dental insurance
• Employee assistance program
• Flexible spending account
• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Retirement plan
• Vision insurance

Schedule:

• 8 hour shift

People with a criminal record are encouraged to apply

Work Location: In person

Salary : $53,000 - $67,108