Planner/Urban Designer, K-12 Education

DLR Group is an integrated design firm with a promise to elevate the human experience through design. This fuels the work we do around the world and inspires our mission to improve the lives of our clients, our communities, and our planet. If this sparks your interest, you’re in the right place.

DLR Group's Design team has an opening for a Planner/Urban Designer, K-12 Education in our Houston office. We operate within a hybrid work model, supporting flexibility between office time and work from home.

Role Summary
As a Planner/Urban Designer, you will be an important part of our integrated design process and will gain exposure to all elements of the planning and design process.

As a valued member of the planning team, you will be involved in high-impact projects within K-12 Education and other sectors by collaborating with interdisciplinary design teams firm-wide to establish long range plans for clients. You will develop robust planning and urban design analysis, diagrams, and illustrative plans and planning documents.

The ideal candidate will support planning and design projects focused on equity, community engagement, sustainability, resiliency, and innovative learning environments. This is a fantastic opportunity to grow, learn, and contribute your design voice to our brand promise of Elevating the Human Experience.

The success candidate will

• Be responsible for planning, design and/or technical development of projects.
• Develop robust planning and urban design analysis, diagrams, and illustrative plans.
• Write narratives and develop deliverables that explain recommendations and capital planning for facilities, open space, and infrastructure to a variety of audiences.
• Have a comprehensive understanding of and ability to contribute to the design process in developing technical solutions.
• Apply knowledge of design techniques, tools, and sustainable design principles involved in the production of precision technical plans, drawings, reports, models, and other related deliverables.
• Possess a strong conceptual design ability, a solid professional planning acumen, and can meaningfully contribute to projects involving complex sites at a variety of scales and in widely divergent social, environmental, and geographic contexts.
• Provide technical support to planning and urban design pursuits including participation in the submission of proposals, interviews, and preparation of related presentations.
• Integrate interdisciplinary criteria to effectively advance the planning and urban design aspects of complex projects.
• Create reports and presentations that meet client requirements for brand, content, schedule, and budget. Help create illustrative renderings, site plans, and 3-D visualizations.
• Collaborate with integrated design teams in developing, updating, and promoting DLR Group’s firmwide protocols and standards.
• Help coordinate with Project Teams and align with QA/QC, Practice Standards, and DLR Group protocols.
• Regularly communicate with PM, BIM manager, other members of the Integrated Design Teams, and consultants.
• Assist with maintaining project schedule, helps deliver project deliverables.
• Have innate curiosity and continual willingness to learn.
• Willingness to travel and support work outside of region.
• Demonstrate an understanding of planning and urban design concepts, building typologies, critical dimensions, utility and infrastructure systems, land development imperatives and planning /zoning codes, phasing considerations, and implementation techniques.

Required Qualifications

• Design background with a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture or Landscape Architecture
• 6-10 years of professional experience in planning and/or urban design
• Proficient in Revit, GIS, AutoCAD, MS Office Suite, and Adobe Creative Suite
• Possess excellent written, verbal, and graphic communication skills
• Ability to balance high-intensity tasks and competing priorities
• Must be eligible to work in the United States without need for work visa or residency sponsorship

Preferred Qualifications

• A graduate degree in planning, urban design or architecture
• AICP, LEED AP, or other sustainability-related certification
• Bluebeam
• PowerBI experience
• Proficient coding languages (Python, R, etc.)
• Experience with K-12 education and learning environments

DLR Group is an integrated design firm delivering architecture, engineering, interiors, planning, and building optimization for new builds, renovations, and adaptive reuse projects.
We are 100% employee-owned: every employee is literally invested in our clients’ success. At the core of our firm are interdisciplinary teams engaged in every step of project lifecycles. Our teams champion true collaboration, open information sharing, shared risk and reward, value-based decision making, and proficient use of technology to deliver exceptional design. We are pursuing the goals of the 2030 Challenge, the ME2040, and the SE2050, and are an initial signatory of the China Accord and the AIA 2030 Commitment.

Our comprehensive Benefits at DLR Group include medical, dental, vision, disability, wellness programs, flex spending, paid holidays, and paid time off. We also offer 401k, employee stock ownership, and bonus opportunities.

Through our values – commitment, creativity, environmental stewardship, fun, integrity, ownership, sharing, teamwork – we elevate the human experience through design, together.
We are proud to be an EEO/AA employer M/F/D/V

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