Planning Director – Statewide and Regional Planning

STV is seeking a Planning Director to join our Advisory Services practice and lead the growth of our Statewide and Regional Planning Practice nationally. This senior leadership position offers the opportunity to shape transportation strategies, capital investment programs, and long-range planning initiatives for state departments of transportation, metropolitan planning organizations, transit agencies, and other public-sector clients.

The Planning Director will be responsible for expanding STV’s market presence, strengthening executive-level client relationships, leading major pursuits, developing new service offerings, and mobilizing multidisciplinary teams across the organization. The successful candidate will bring a strong combination of transportation planning expertise, client service, business development, practice leadership, and industry thought leadership.

The ideal candidate will have extensive experience supporting public transportation agencies in areas such as long-range transportation planning, multimodal and modal planning, capital investment planning, performance-based planning, policy development, and program prioritization. This leader will leverage STV’s national transportation experience and capabilities across planning, engineering, economics, digital technology, data analytics, resilience, sustainability, and program management to deliver integrated solutions for clients.

Primary Responsibilities

Practice Leadership and Strategic Growth

• Develop and implement a national Statewide and Regional Planning strategy that aligns with STV’s Advisory Services growth objectives.
• Create and deploy a Statewide and Regional Planning playbook that defines the practice’s priority markets, service offerings, client engagement approach, pursuit strategy, delivery model, and measures of success.
• Develop a compelling value proposition and business plan for STV’s statewide and regional planning services.
• Identify emerging transportation trends, evolving agency priorities, competitive developments, and policy or funding changes that may create new opportunities for STV and its clients.
• Expand STV’s capabilities in long-range planning, multimodal planning, modal planning, capital investment planning, performance-based planning, strategic business planning, and related advisory services.
• Establish measurable practice-growth goals and monitor progress related to client engagement, pipeline development, pursuits, project delivery, revenue growth, and profitability.
• Collaborate with leaders across Transportation, Water, Buildings, Program Management and Construction Management, and other operating groups to develop integrated solutions for clients.

Business Development and Client Leadership

• Build, maintain, and expand executive-level relationships with state DOTs, MPOs, transit agencies, regional authorities, and other public-sector transportation organizations.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to clients by helping them address complex planning, policy, funding, capital investment, performance, technology, and implementation challenges.
• Develop and execute strategic client account plans for established and prospective clients in priority markets.
• Lead the identification, qualification, positioning, and capture of major statewide and regional planning opportunities.
• Direct pursuit strategies, including competitive analysis, teaming decisions, partner engagement, proposal development, interview preparation, pricing coordination, and differentiation of STV’s technical approach.
• Lead the development of high-quality technical proposals, scopes of work, staffing plans, schedules, and commercially sound project delivery strategies.
• Collaborate with STV’s client service teams, regional leaders, technical leaders, and pursuit teams to identify opportunities and develop tailored solutions.
• Establish strategic partnerships with consulting firms, technology providers, academic institutions, research organizations, and specialty partners when those relationships strengthen STV’s market position or client solutions.
• Represent STV at client meetings, industry conferences, professional associations, and other external forums.
• Support negotiations and contracting activities for major planning engagements, with a focus on appropriate scope, risk management, profitability, and successful delivery.

Operational and Team Leadership

• Create a structured operating model that connects Advisory Services with STV’s operating groups, regional leaders, functional teams, and client service teams.
• Identify and mobilize qualified professionals from across STV’s planning, engineering, economics, grants, resilience, sustainability, digital, energy, and program management capabilities.
• Help establish and lead a dedicated network of statewide and regional planning professionals to support business development, pursuits, project delivery, innovation, and knowledge sharing.
• Assess capability gaps and recommend strategic hires, partnerships, investments, or internal development initiatives that strengthen the practice.
• Mentor and develop planning professionals while fostering collaboration, accountability, technical excellence, innovation, and career growth.
• Support recruiting and retention strategies for critical planning, advisory, project management, and business development talent.
• Identify opportunities to improve internal processes, tools, data resources, staffing models, and delivery practices.
• Lead internal forums, training programs, and collaborative working sessions that encourage innovation, share market intelligence, and strengthen consistency across the practice.
• Work with project and business leaders to establish commercially sound project plans and help projects meet or exceed financial and operational expectations.
• Conduct periodic project reviews to support high-quality delivery, effective risk management, and adherence to client commitments.
• Capture and share lessons learned, best practices, technical innovations, and reusable planning approaches to improve future pursuits and project delivery.

Technical Leadership and Thought Leadership

• Provide senior technical and strategic oversight for complex statewide, regional, multimodal, and capital planning engagements.
• Guide the development of innovative planning approaches that incorporate data analytics, scenario planning, technology, performance measures, policy analysis, and implementation strategies.
• Ensure that proposed solutions are technically credible, responsive to client needs, commercially viable, and aligned with applicable planning requirements.
• Develop and promote differentiated service offerings that respond to emerging client needs and changes within the transportation industry.
• Strengthen STV’s industry visibility by speaking at conferences, participating in professional organizations, contributing to research and policy discussions, and developing articles, white papers, and other thought-leadership content.
• Position STV as a recognized national advisor in statewide and regional transportation planning, capital programming, and strategic investment decision-making.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in urban planning, transportation planning, civil engineering, public policy, public administration, geography, economics, or a related field.
• A minimum of 15 years of progressively responsible experience in transportation planning, consulting, public-sector planning, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience leading statewide, regional, metropolitan, multimodal, or long-range transportation planning programs.
• Extensive experience working with state DOTs, MPOs, transit agencies, regional transportation authorities, or comparable public-sector clients.
• Demonstrated success developing and expanding client relationships at the executive, agency leadership, or program leadership level.
• Proven experience identifying, shaping, and winning significant transportation planning or advisory engagements.
• Experience directing capture strategies, proposals, interviews, teaming arrangements, scopes of work, staffing plans, and fee development.
• Strong understanding of long-range transportation planning, modal and multimodal planning, capital investment planning, performance-based planning, strategic planning, and implementation strategies.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary teams and coordinating professionals across multiple offices, regions, technical disciplines, or business units.
• Demonstrated ability to translate complex transportation, policy, funding, technical, and organizational challenges into practical client solutions.
• Experience managing the financial and commercial aspects of consulting engagements, including project budgeting, risk management, profitability, and performance.
• Strong written, verbal, presentation, facilitation, negotiation, and executive communication skills.
• Ability to travel as needed to support clients, pursuits, projects, industry events, and internal collaboration.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in urban planning, transportation planning, civil engineering, public policy, public administration, business administration, or a related field.
• American Institute of Certified Planners certification or other relevant professional certification.
• Professional Engineer licensure, where applicable to the candidate’s professional background.
• Nationally recognized experience in statewide, regional, metropolitan, multimodal, or capital investment planning.
• Established executive-level relationships with state DOTs, MPOs, transit agencies, regional authorities, or other transportation organizations.
• Experience developing a national or multiregional transportation planning practice, service line, or center of excellence.
• Experience leading strategic business planning, market development, annual planning, revenue forecasting, and practice-performance monitoring.
• Demonstrated thought leadership through conference presentations, professional association participation, publications, research, policy development, or industry committee involvement.
• Experience integrating planning with data analytics, digital technology, economics, grants, resilience, sustainability, energy, or capital program development.
• Familiarity with federal transportation planning requirements, funding programs, performance-management frameworks, and public-sector decision-making processes.

Compensation Range:

STV offers the following benefits • Health insurance, including an option with a Health Savings Account • Dental insurance • Vision insurance • Flexible Spending Accounts (Healthcare, Dependent Care and Transit and Parking where applicable) • Disability insurance • Life Insurance and Accidental Death & Dismemberment • 401(k) Plan • Retirement Counseling • Employee Assistance Program • Paid Time Off • Paid Holidays • Back-Up Dependent Care • Parental Leave • Continuing Education Program • Professional Licensure and Society Memberships

STV is committed to paying all of its employees in a fair, equitable, and transparent manner. The listed pay range is STV’s good-faith salary estimate for this position. Please note that the final salary offered for this position may be outside of this published range based on many factors, including but not limited to geography, education, experience, and/or certifications.

Not sure this role is the perfect match? We encourage you to apply if STV’s work and values resonate with you. We know great candidates don’t always meet every qualification, and research shows women and people of color are less likely to apply unless they do. At STV, we believe strong talent comes from a wide range of backgrounds, and your skills and experience may align with this or another opportunity as we continue to grow.

Originally posted on Himalayas