Transportation Planning Manager Jobs in Indiana (NOW HIRING)

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Job Description

Leads technical planning, design, and delivery of major transportation projects—highways, bridges, transit facilities, and multimodal corridors.

Serves as a senior transportation engineer and, when assigned, as Project Technical Leader. Establishes and drives the project’s technical vision; coordinates the flow of technical information, decisions, and interfaces across disciplines; confirms that appropriate technical resources are engaged at the correct stages; and is accountable for the technical accuracy and integrated quality of project deliverables.

Works in partnership with the Project Manager to align technical scope, schedule, budget, staffing, risk, quality, and client expectations. Develops corrective technical action plans when delivery challenges arise. Signs and seals engineering designs as required and contributes to the firm’s technical knowledge, staff development, client service, and business-development activities.

Duties and Responsibilities

Project Technical Leadership and Integrated Delivery, 25%

• Establish and communicate the technical vision, design basis, delivery strategy, and expected technical outcomes for assigned projects.
• Translate scope and client requirements into technical work plans, discipline assignments, design criteria, and deliverables.
• Drive the cascading flow of technical information and decisions required to execute project scope across teams with diverse technical skills.
• Define technical roles, responsibilities, decision authorities, review points, and discipline interfaces consistent with the project’s responsibility-assignment structure.
• Lead multidisciplinary technical coordination among roadway, bridge, traffic, transit, drainage, environmental, geotechnical, utility, right-of-way, construction, and other applicable disciplines.
• Verify that assumptions, criteria, calculations, and deliverables are integrated and technically consistent.
• Facilitate timely technical decisions, document significant decisions and their bases, and communicate decisions to affected disciplines.
• Serve as the primary technical counterpart to the Project Manager and as a senior technical contact for clients, partner firms, subconsultants, and agencies when assigned.
• Maintain focus on the quality and suitability of the complete end product, rather than only an individual discipline deliverable.
• Engineering Design and Development, 25%

• Lead or perform transportation planning and engineering design of basic to high complexity for roadway, highway, interchange, bridge, transit, multimodal, pedestrian, and bicycle projects.
• Develop and evaluate design concepts using client requirements, engineering principles, and constructability considerations.
• Direct preparation of design calculations, reports, plans, specifications, quantities, estimates, technical memoranda, and supporting documentation.
• Review designs for compliance with federal, state, and local requirements, client criteria, and engineering standards.
• Integrate roadway geometry, maintenance of traffic, drainage, accessibility, traffic control, utilities, structures, right-of-way, environmental commitments, and other project elements as applicable.
• Use or oversee the use of appropriate design, analysis, CADD, Autodesk, Bentley, GIS, and 3D or intelligent-modeling applications.
• Sign and seal engineering designs when required and when consistent with professional licensure and responsible-charge obligations.
• Quality Management and Technical Accuracy, 15%

• Drive the technical accuracy, completeness, consistency, and constructability of assigned work products.
• Develop or support implementation of the project quality plan, including review levels, reviewer qualifications, checking procedures, interdisciplinary reviews, and documentation requirements.
• Confirm quality-control reviews occur at key milestones and comments are resolved before delivery.
• Review key technical assumptions, calculations, models, design exceptions, reports, plans, specifications, and estimates.
• Verify consistency among disciplines, design files, models, plan sheets, specifications, quantities, and cost estimates.
• Confirm that deliverables follow applicable firm quality-control requirements, client standards, and project production and delivery methods.
• Support independent technical, value, constructability, and readiness reviews.
• Promote early identification and resolution of technical discrepancies rather than relying on late-stage review.
• Technical Risk, Issue Resolution, and Change Management, 10%

• Identify, evaluate, and monitor technical risks throughout project delivery.
• Anticipate design interfaces, resource constraints, approval dependencies, and constructability concerns affecting technical performance.
• Develop risk-response strategies and assign appropriate technical ownership for risk mitigation.
• Elevate significant technical issues promptly and provide clear alternatives, implications, and recommendations to the Project Manager and project leadership.
• Develop corrective action plans with the Project Manager when technical, quality, staffing, schedule, or coordination challenges arise.
• Monitor corrective actions through completion and verify that resulting changes are incorporated across affected disciplines and deliverables.
• Evaluate the technical effects of scope changes, client decisions, regulatory comments, and schedule adjustments.
• Facilitate difficult conversations constructively and resolve disagreements professionally.
• Technical Staffing, Team Coordination, and Mentoring, 10%

• Work with the Project Manager and appropriate resource leaders to identify the technical skills, experience, and level of effort required for each phase of the project.
• Confirm that the correct technical skill sets are engaged at the appropriate time.
• Communicate anticipated technical staffing needs, workload conflicts, and specialized expertise requirements early enough to support project delivery.
• Provide technical direction and mentoring to engineering staff.
• Mentor staff in engineering judgment, quality procedures, interdisciplinary coordination, client requirements, and technical decision-making.
• Delegate technical responsibility with clearly defined expectations, authority, interfaces, and review requirements.
• Foster an environment where team members raise concerns early, contribute perspectives, and understand how assignments support the final product.
• Support the development of future task leaders, discipline leads, quality reviewers, and Project Technical Leaders.
• Project Management and Delivery Support, 5%

• Assist the Project Manager in developing and maintaining technically sound scope, schedule, budget, staffing, and delivery assumptions.
• Provide technical input to work breakdown structures, project execution plans, staffing plans, delivery schedules, and progress assessments.
• Monitor the technical progress of disciplines and tasks against planned milestones.
• Identify technical conditions that may affect cost, schedule, quality, or client commitments and communicate them promptly.
• Support change management by defining the technical basis, level of effort, affected deliverables, and implications of proposed changes.
• Coordinate technical deliverables with prime consultants, subconsultants, teaming partners, and client review teams.
• Distinguish PTL accountability for technical delivery from Project Manager accountability for overall contractual, commercial, and administrative project management, while maintaining close coordination between the roles.
• Client Service and Sales Support, 5%

• Collaborate on proposals, scopes, technical approaches, staffing plans, and fee estimates.
• Evaluate proposed delivery strategies for technical feasibility, risk, quality requirements, and resource needs.
• Participate in client meetings, presentations, interviews, workshops, and technical discussions.
• Communicate complex technical matters clearly to technical and nontechnical audiences.
• Support client relationships by providing responsive, practical, and technically defensible recommendations.
• Help identify follow-on opportunities based on documented client needs and project delivery experience.
• Technical Knowledge Management and Professional Visibility, 5%

• Develop technical guidance, lessons learned, and case studies.
• Share project knowledge and best practices across the organization.
• Participate in conferences, symposia, professional associations, client workshops, or similar technical activities.
• Support continuous improvement in transportation project production, multidisciplinary coordination, quality, digital delivery, and technical leadership.
• Contribute to the visibility of the firm’s transportation services in coordination with technical and sales leadership.
• Site Reviews and Other Duties, as required

• Perform site reviews, field investigations, constructability observations, and studies necessary to confirm existing conditions and support design decisions.
• Review existing and newly constructed transportation facilities as appropriate to the assignment.
• Update design requirements or recommendations based on documented field conditions.
• Perform other duties consistent with the position.

Skills & Abilities

• Demonstrated task-management experience.
• Demonstrated experience coordinating or delivering multidisciplinary transportation projects.
• Demonstrated understanding of engineering design for the applicable project type.
• Demonstrated understanding of technical quality-control requirements.
• Demonstrated experience providing technical guidance or mentoring to engineering staff.

Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Civil, Transportation, or Structural Engineering or related discipline. Professional engineering (PE) license. 10 years of related experience. Domestic and/or international travel may be required. The frequency of travel is contingent on specific duties, responsibilities, and the essential functions of the position, which may vary depending on workload and project demands. Equivalent additional directly related experience will be considered in lieu of a degree.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience serving as a Project Technical Leader, multidisciplinary design lead, design manager, task manager, or comparable technical-delivery role.
• Project Management Professional certification.
• Experience with roadway, interchange, bridge, transit, BRT, complete-streets, pedestrian, bicycle, or multimodal-corridor projects.
• Experience delivering projects for state departments of transportation, municipalities, transit agencies, or similar public-sector clients.
• Experience coordinating prime consultants, subconsultants, partner firms, public stakeholders, and regulatory or review agencies.
• Experience with accelerated schedules, complex stakeholder environments, alternative development, public involvement, or innovative transportation technology.
• Experience leading milestone reviews, interdisciplinary reviews, final quality reviews, or corrective technical action planning.

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Amount of Travel Required
10% or less
EEO Statement
We attract the best people in the industry, supporting their efforts to learn and grow. We strive to create a challenging and progressive work environment. We provide career opportunities that span a variety of disciplines and geographic locations, with projects that our employees plan, design, build and operate as diverse as the needs of our clients. CDM Smith Inc. and its divisions and subsidiaries are an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, pregnancy related conditions, childbirth and related medical conditions, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression), national origin, age, marital status, physical or mental disability, veteran status, citizenship status, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
Background Check and Drug Testing Information
CDM Smith Inc. and its divisions and subsidiaries (hereafter collectively referred to as "CDM Smith") reserves the right to require background checks including criminal, employment, education, licensure, etc. as well as credit and motor vehicle when applicable for certain positions. In addition, CDM Smith may conduct drug testing for designated positions. Background checks are conducted after an offer of employment has been made in the United States. The timing of when background checks will be conducted on candidates for positions outside the United States will vary based on country statutory l...