Urban Designer

Urban Designer

The Urban Designer supports the Gwinnett County Department of Planning and Development in preparing visual collateral that advances strategic initiatives of Gwinnett County, which may include long-range planning, zoning, economic development, housing, and placemaking initiatives. The Urban Designer integrates data analysis, policy interpretation, and visual communication best practices to support planning studies, internal coordination, public engagement, and decision making.

Essential duties include:

• Support and manage community planning efforts related to long-range planning, zoning, economic development, housing, and placemaking initiatives
• Prepare conceptual site plans, development scenarios, streetscape concepts, land use diagrams, and illustrative graphics that support policy development implementation of the Unified Plan, Small Area Plans and other County initiatives
• Translate complex technical, regulatory, and planning concepts into clear graphic and written materials for staff, community members and elected officials, including maps, renderings, diagrams, infographics, fact sheets, and digital content to support internal coordination, public engagement, and decision making
• Participate in meetings with staff, community members, consultants, and elected officials to discuss design concepts and implementation strategies
• Maintain a working knowledge of Gwinnett County's Unified Development Ordinance and its relationship to adopted plans and County strategic goals
• Analyze urban design best practices, development trends, and emerging planning approaches relevant to local contexts, to inform policy updates and recommend amendments to the UDO

The grade for this position is 103. Salary will be dependent on education and experience. Effective 4/11/2023, this position is eligible for the Employee Referral Program.

Minimum qualifications include:

• Bachelor's degree in urban design, architecture, landscape architecture, planning, graphic design or a related field AND
• Three years of full-time experience in urban design, architecture, landscape architecture, planning, graphic design, or a related field
• An equivalent combination of education and experience sufficient to successfully perform the essential duties of the job such as those listed above will also be considered
• Fluency in Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop), SketchUp, or comparable urban design and visualization software
• Ability to work collaboratively within multidisciplinary teams and across divisions/departments
• Valid Driver's License from state of residency.

Preferred qualifications in addition to the above minimum qualifications include:

• Master's degree in urban design, architecture, landscape architecture, planning, graphic design or a closely related field AND
• Five years of full-time experience in urban design, architecture, landscape architecture, planning, graphic design, or a related field, producing urban design and planning maps/graphics that communicate complex concepts to a general audience.
• Strong written, verbal, and visual communication skills.
• Demonstrated project management and coordination experience.
• Understanding of community planning issues related to long-range planning, zoning, economic development, housing and placemaking.

Applicants are requested to submit a design portfolio demonstrating urban design, architecture, planning, and graphic communication skills as part of their application.

Positions in this class typically require: talking, hearing, and seeing. Sedentary Work: exerting up to 10 pounds of force occasionally and/or a negligible amount of force frequently or constantly to lift, carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects, including the human body. Sedentary work involves sitting most of the time. Jobs are sedentary if walking and standing are required only occasionally and all other sedentary criteria are met.

Gwinnett County Government is an award-winning employer that believes in investing in its employees by providing corporate level benefits, a wellness program, professional development opportunities, career advancement, and more.

Working for Gwinnett County comes with exceptional benefits, including health coverage, a robust wellness program (Spouses can participate, too!), onsite employee wellness center, longevity pay, tuition reimbursement, and more. The value of Gwinnett County benefits can be up to 49 percent of an individual's total compensation.

Gwinnett County is committed to creating a diverse workforce. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we prohibit discrimination on the basis of genetic information (including sex), race, color, national origin (including ancestry), gender (identity and expression), sexual orientation, age, marital status, familial status (including pregnancy), disability, military or veteran status, religion, political affiliation, immigration status, homeless status, or any other category protected by law.

Reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities may be requested. If you need an accommodation during the application, interview, or testing process, contact Human Resources at 770.822.7915 or HREmployeeRelations@GwinnettCounty.com. For questions related to job postings, use jobs@gwinnettcounty.com.