Director of Urban Design & Planning

Salary : $117,502.00 – $152,710.00 Annually

Location : Gresham, OR

Job Type: Full Time

Job Number: 23-77

Department: Urban Design & Planning

Opening Date: 06/13/2023

Closing Date: Continuous

Overview

The City of Gresham is seeking an Urban Design & Planning Director that directs, manages, plans, and organizes urban design and planning functions for the City. From guiding current growth and development to overseeing the community’s future vision for transportation and the built environment, this critical role serves as a dynamic and strategic leader to a department in transition, guiding a shift to even more creative and responsive approaches, as well as an increased focus on equity and impact.

This job announcement will remain open until filled. First review of applications will take place on July 5, 2023.

As Oregon’s fourth-largest city, Gresham is a welcoming community of hardworking people where tradition and heritage meet innovation and opportunity. Gresham is a dynamic and rapidly growing city where families and businesses have a mutual desire and drive to thrive. City of Gresham employees care deeply about the community they serve and go ‘one step beyond’ to deliver services in collaborative, inventive, practical, and nimble ways. Our work is challenging, fast- paced and rewarding.

We believe that to deliver the highest level of service to all Gresham community members, it is crucial we employ a diverse workforce, foster an inclusive working environment, and ensure our policies and systems result in equitable outcomes. The City seeks candidates who will support these values by continuously incorporating equity in their daily work and actively contributing to a workplace culture that respects unique viewpoints, life experiences and cultural perspectives. Come build the future with us.

Position Description

What you will get to do:

• Guide growth and development: Oversee the City’s Comprehensive, Development and Transportation planning areas of the City. It’s an exciting time in Gresham, with several major comprehensive planning initiatives on the horizon like updating our Comprehensive Plan and Transportation System Plan, refreshing our Pleasant Valley Concept Plan and implementation of middle housing as well as new rules related to climate friendly and equitable communities. As the voice and the heart of the department, you’ll lead these efforts in a customer focused, collaborative, solution-oriented approach.
• Lead with empathy and purpose: You’ll support, coach and empower a talented team comprised of 17 planners and administrative staff. We’re looking for a leader with a passion for public service, a high level of emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills with an aptitude for change management to provide stability, clear communication, and inspiration to the team.
• De-mystify and promote the value of the planning process: In your role, you’ll serve as a champion for the department helping to educate, promote and communicate the value for the planning process to City leadership, the Planning Commission and City Council. Your ability to break down complex technical information into clear, easy to understand terms will guide your leadership to make informed policy decisions. As a highly professional expert, you will represent the City well to other agencies, developers and the community.
• Strategically incorporate equity and innovation: You’ll lead the department in reviewing our policies and processes and recommend changes that will position Gresham as a leader in innovative planning practices. You’ll empower the staff to use their experience and knowledge of equitable planning practices to analyze the social impacts of a project and to support community engagement best practices.

For more information about the Director of Urban Design & Planning classification, go to:

Qualities we are looking for:

• Strategic and intentional: Can work with the team to develop a long-term vision and employ a creative problem-solving approach. Able to professionally navigate often complex political environment and community dynamics.
• Collaborative: A skilled relationship-builder who values partnerships and can adapt communication styles to a wide variety of external and internal stakeholders.
• Nimble: Adaptable, flexible and positive, with a “can-do” problem-solving and customer- service oriented attitude when faced with a rapidly changing environment and competing deadlines.
• Organized and responsive: Strong administrative and direct management/supervisor experience demonstrating a strong business and budgetary acumen utilizing critical thinking skills and with a proven track record of responsiveness.
• Change agent: Promote, champion, enable, and support process improvements and a fresh look at the department’s processes, policies and procedures. Ability to thoughtfully listen to employee feedback and incorporate as is appropriate, to bring the team with you along the journey.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in planning, urban design, architecture, or another related field
• Three (3) to six (6) years of related experience in planning related activities and processes, public policy development, supervising or managing of staff, or related work

Or any combination of seven (7) to ten (10) years of related education, training and experience which provides the required knowledge, skills and abilities is qualifying.

Additional requirement:

• A valid driver’s license and good driving record

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working in the public sector.
• Knowledge of local, regional and state issues and best practices related to land use and planning processes.
• Experience managing, administering and monitoring complex regional, state or federal grants
• Experience in policy development, staff development and administrative oversight
• Experience in establishing and leveraging effective working relationships with local, regional and state partners.
• Experience in effectively managing and collaborating with volunteer committees and/or commissions.

Any offer of employment is contingent upon successful completion of a criminal background and driving record checks.
Selection Process
To apply for this position, click ‘Apply’ at the top of this job posting.

Required application materials:

• Complete online application
• Answers to supplemental questions
• Resume
• Cover letter describing interest in the position and summarizing related experience (limited to one page in length)

If you desire a modification of this process to accommodate a disability, please provide your request in writing to HRRecruiting@GreshamOregon.gov,or by phone to 503-618- 2800, upon submitting the required documents.

A review of application materials submitted will determine which candidates will be invited to an interview. Communication with candidates will be done primarily through email. Sometimes these messages may land in a spam or junk mail folder. We encourage you to monitor your inbox as well as the inbox within the governmentjobs.com portal for important updates related to this process.

Veteran’s Preference
The City of Gresham provides qualifying veterans and disabled veterans with preference in employment in accordance with state law. Any candidate wishing to have their qualifying veteran’s preference applied to the process must submit a qualifying document (DD Form 214 or 215) at the time of application providing proof of eligibility that includes discharge status. Disabled veterans must also submit a copy of their Veteran’s disability preference letter from the US Department of Veteran Affairs at the time of application, unless the information is included in the DD Form 214 or 215.

Our Commitment
The City of Gresham is committed to providing equal employment opportunity to all qualified employees and applicants without unlawful regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, mental or physical disability, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, familial status, or any other status protected by applicable federal, Oregon, or local law.

Please direct questions about this position to 503-618-2800 or

If you need assistance with the online application, please contact NEOGOV directly at 1-855- 524- 5627.

The City provides full family, comprehensive medical and dental insurance. Vision and prescription coverages are included in the medical plans. Most limited term and regular status employees who work at least 30 hours per week pay nothing for their medical and dental coverage.

Medical Insurance Options:

• City of Gresham Core Plan- UnitedHealthcare Options PPO Network
• Kaiser Permanente Traditional HMO

Dental Insurance Options:

• Delta Dental PPO Plan
• Willamette Dental Insurance
• Kaiser Permanente

Additional benefits include: Employer paid life insurance and long term disability, an employer sponsored deferred compensation plan, flexible spending accounts (medical, child care), Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) retirement (City picks up the 6% employee’s contribution), an employer contribution to a HRA/VEBA medical savings account, paid time off (PTO) accrual at a minimum of 12.66 hours per month, and 4 hours of sick leave, in additional to nine paid holidays and 3.5 paid floating holidays per year.

For more detailed information, please visit our Employee Benefits page at:

01

What best describes your highest level of education?

• High School/ GED
• Some College
• Associates Degree
• Bachelor’s Degree
• Master’s Degree
• None of the above

02

What best describes your related experience directing, managing, planning and organizing planning related activities and processes, public policy development, supervising or managing of staff, or related work?

• No Experience
• Less than 1 year
• 1 year or more but less than 2 years
• 2 years or more but less than 3 years
• 3 years or more but less than 4 years
• 4 years or more but less than 5 years
• 5 years or more but less than 6 years
• 7 years or more

03

How many years direct experience do you have working in Oregon land use?

• Less than one year
• One to Two years
• Two to Three years
• Three to Four years
• Four to Five years
• Five to Six years
• More than Six years

04

What best describes your directly related work experience supervising/managing responsibilities of staff?

• No Experience
• Less than 1 year
• 1 year or more but less than 2 years
• 2 years or more but less than 3 years
• 3 years or more but less than 4 years
• 4 years or more but less than 5 years
• 5 years or more but less than 6 years
• 6 years or more but less than 7 years
• 7 years or more but less than 8 years
• 8 years or more

05

How many years of direct experience do you have working in public sector?

• No Experience
• Less than 1 year
• 1 year or more but less than 2 years
• 2 years or more but less than 3 years
• 3 years or more but less than 4 years
• 4 years or more but less than 5 years
• 5 years or more

06

Which one of the following best describes your highest level of Microsoft Word proficiency?

• I do not have enough skills to meet the definition of the Basic level below.
• BASIC: basic formatting, editing, printing functions, and understands the document page setup. This level of skill is sufficient to perform daily word processing tasks such as: routine letters, memorandums, and informal reports.
• INTERMEDIATE: Ability to customize toolbars, import and insert graphs, embed Excel data, and elaborate reports. Skill to use and create a variety of templates, complex tables, merges; manage table data, sort and filter merges, and perform basic work with existing Macros.
• ADVANCED: Ability to use and create a wide range of graphic effects and has full mastery of Macro commands. Skill level to product very large, complex formal documents that require a table of contents, footnotes, endnotes, bookmarks, and other special elements.

07

Which one of the following best describes your highest level of Microsoft Excel (or equivalent spreadsheet program) proficiency?

• I do not have enough skills to meet the definition of the Basic level below.
• BASIC: Create basic worksheets; create basic formulas; use basic functions; modify and format a worksheet; print workbooks.
• INTERMEDIATE: Use advanced formulas; organize tables and worksheets; create and modify charts; analyze data using Pivot tables and Pivot Charts; insert and modify graphic objects in a worksheet
• ADVANCED: Create and edit macros; conditional formatting; apply data validation criteria; able to protect, share and merge files; trace cells and troubleshoot formula errors; uses data list outline; consolidate data and link workbooks; export and import text files and XML data; import data from the Web and create Web queries; analyze data using trend lines, Sparklines and scenarios.

08

Do you have a valid driver’s license?

• Yes
• No

Required Question