The Flood Resilience Senior Planner works closely with the Flood Resilience Team, various departments within Flood Control, partners throughout Harris County, and consultants to ensure planning, project management, alignment, and progress towards the development and implementation of Harris County's Flood Resilience Plan, resilience strategies, programs and initiatives at the Harris County Flood Control District (District) and at the County.
Essential Functions and Duties:
- Collaboration and Stakeholder Engagement:
- Work closely with a variety of stakeholders involved in Harris County's flood resilience efforts, including:
- Harris County Infrastructure Resilience Team (IRT): A group of inter-departmental resilience experts.
- Community Flood Resilience Task Force (CFRTF): Community members, flood resilience experts, and consultants working on the Harris County Flood Resilience Plan.
- Act as the primary point of contact on behalf of HCFCD for the CFRTF support, review and make recommendations on integrating CFRTF's advice into the Resilience Division's work.
- Represent the Flood Control District in IRT meetings, facilitating discussions and fostering collaboration among team members.
Project Management:
- Manage the CFRTF facilitator contract as the primary contact, including oversight of scope, schedule, budget, and planning.
- Review key deliverables and invoices, providing strategic direction to consultants to build CFRTF capacity.
- Coordinate with District divisions and County procurement for contract renewals and court actions.
Planning and Development:
- Ensure a participatory planning process involving the District, IRT, consultants, CFRTF, and external stakeholders.
- Develop standards, performance metrics, and other planning tools as needed for the Flood Resilience Plan.
- Obtain/validate data from various sources necessary for effective plan-making and executive decision making.
- Create program documents such as plans, guidelines, reports, informational briefs, policy briefs, conceptual visualizations, presentations, and educational materials.
Reporting and Recommendations:
- Provide regular progress updates and recommendations to the Resilience Team and Leadership, as required.
- Additional Responsibilities and Duties:
- Be available for evening and weekend meetings and events as necessary.
- Assist with disaster recovery efforts when the County faces significant challenges, as directed.
- Attend re-certification or other training programs as required.
- Perform other duties as assigned based on changing priorities.
Benefits (offered only to employees in regular full-time positions):
- Medical Coverage
- Dental Coverage
- Vision Coverage
- Wellness Plan
- Life Insurance
- Long-term disability
- Employee Assistance Program
- Ten (10) days of vacation each year for the first five (5) years of service
- Accrual rates increase based on years of service
- Eleven (11) County-observed holidays and one (1) floating holiday
- Professional development opportunities
- Dependent Care Reimbursement Plan
- Healthcare Reimbursement Account
- 457 Deferred Compensation Plan
The following benefits are also available to regular full-time employment and may be available to part-time employees:
- Retirement Pension (TCDRS)
- Flexible schedule (varies by department)
- Transportation Assistance (Metro RideSponsor Program)
Education:
- Master's degree from an accredited college or university in Engineering, Planning, Public Administration, Public Policy, or a related field.
- Five (5) years of relevant professional experience in infrastructure planning, floodplain management, urban planning, environmental planning and/or urban design with a focus on water resources, flood control and drainage, land use, or other closely related systems. Areas of specialization could include but not limited to flood risk management, sustainable water/resource management, system performance and quality control, and multifunctional infrastructure systems.
OR:
- Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in Engineering, Planning, Public Administration, Public Policy, or a related field.
- Five (5) years of relevant professional experience in infrastructure planning, floodplain management, urban planning, environmental planning and/or urban design with a focus on water resources, flood control and drainage, land use, or other closely related systems. Areas of specialization could include but not limited to flood risk management, sustainable water/resource management, system performance and quality control, and multifunctional infrastructure systems.
Licensure:
- Valid Class "C" Texas Driver’s License
Knowledge Skills, and Abilities:
- Strong skills using Microsoft Office applications (Outlook, Word, Excel, SharePoint, and Adobe Pro).
- Strong organizational skills with demonstrated ability in organizing work products, teams, and delivery schedules.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills to advise and consult with various internal and external stakeholders to prepare and present workshops and presentations.
Abilities:
- Strong technical/analytical judgment, and ability to synthesize and present complex information for non-technical audience consumption.
- Strong program and project development and management skills including use of project management tools and systems.
- Effectively work independently, self-prioritize tasks and deliverables, and assume ownership in completing assigned tasks.
- Strong team player with ability to productively contribute to internal and external teams and partnerships.
- Flexible and creative, having a willingness to pursue new ideas, when solving complex challenges.
- Articulate and represent the Flood Resilience Team, the District, and the County well.
- Work well under pressure adhering to tight deadlines and accuracy/quality standards.
Experience:
- Municipal planning and/or local government experience.(preferred)
- Experience creating comprehensive or strategic plans, including but not limited to resilience plans, community development plans, and community outreach plans. (preferred)
- Experience with advanced features of ArcGIS Desktop, ESRI GIS software, and/or Adobe Suite. (preferred)
- Experience developing standards and/or performance metrics for plans, projects, and programs. (preferred)
- The Flood Control District has the mission to reduce the risk of flooding in Harris County, the third most populated county in the United States, with a population in excess of 4.7 million, including the City of Houston, the nation’s fourth largest city. The Flood Control District has jurisdiction over the primary stormwater facilities in the county, which consist of approximately 1,500 channels totaling nearly 2,500 miles in length, as well as more than 60 regional stormwater detention basins, totaling more than 10,000 acres and several wetlands mitigation banks including Greens bayou.
Harris County is an Equal Opportunity Employer