Position Summary:
This role is a hybrid position built on a strong base of transit planning, with added project management responsibilities to ensure METRO’s priorities move from concept to implementation. The Planner - Project Manager supports route and service planning, capital planning, public engagement, and data-driven decision-making, while at time focusing on maintaining project work plans and schedules, coordinating consultant deliverables, and driving cross-department coordination to keep projects advancing.
Working closely with the Director of Planning and the Senior Planner, this role helps assemble decision-ready material sand implementation packages for major initiatives, including BRT development, Superstop readiness, Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) planning-to-implementation activities, bus stop standards, and related partner coordination. The position strengthens METRO’s ability to deliver projects with clear accountability and organized documentation, while keeping planning decisions grounded in rider needs, equity considerations, and operational reality.
Reporting Relationships:
Position Reports to: Director of Planning
Direct Reports by Title: None
Indirect Reports by Title: None
Number of Reports: Direct - 0, Indirect - 0
Examples of Duties
Essential Job Functions:
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform the essential job functions satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential job functions described in this position description. Since every duty associated with this position may not be described herein, employees may be required to perform duties not specifically spelled out in the job description, but which may be reasonably considered to be incidental in the performance of their duties just as though they were actually written out in this position description.
Job Responsibilities:
Collaborate on service proposals with the Senior Planner and the Director of Planning to incorporate community feedback into short and long-term route and schedule recommendations.
Conduct periodic site visits to observe service operations, identify rider needs, and propose improvements.
Gather and interpret data from various sources (CAD/AVL, APC, farebox, community surveys) to inform planning decisions and measure the success of outreach initiatives.
Lead public engagement and manage a feedback tracking system.
Design and administer community and rider surveys to gather feedback on service quality, accessibility, and overall rider experiences.
Attend neighborhood association meetings, public open houses, and other local events to share transit information and gather stakeholder input.
Collaborate with the marketing or communications team to create educational materials, presentations, and social media content for service updates or new initiatives.
Manage Title VI activities by overseeing ongoing compliance, preparing or updating Title VI plans, coordinating the triennial report, and conducting major service change analyses.
Analyze demographic and ridership data to recommend adjustments that promote equity and mitigate potential service disparities.
Utilize Remix software to model route scenarios, assess potential equity impacts, and aid in Title VI compliance documentation.
Assist as needed in providing data for National Transit Database submissions, as well as any local, state, or federal grant requirements.
Collaborate directly with the Senior Planner on equity analyses by providing qualitative data from public outreach.
Partner with other departments (e.g., Operations, Scheduling, Marketing, Customer Service, Dispatch) to ensure that community feedback and equity considerations shape decision-making.
Act as a liaison between the planning department and community stakeholders and riders, ensuring timely responses to questions, comments, and concerns.
Ensure alignment with federal civil rights and ADA obligations, timely submission of relevant documentation, and successful implementation of initiatives.
- Project Delivery and Project Management Support
Maintain project work plans, schedules, production timelines, and milestone tracking for planning-to-implementation initiatives, flags risks early with recommended mitigation actions.
Coordinate consultant workflows, including scope tracking, deliverable reviews, comment consolidation, redlines, revision tracking, and deliverable acceptance aligned with a clear definition of done.
Support delivery of BRT studies by coordinating assembly of technical memoranda, alternatives evaluation documentation, cost and scope assumptions, and an implementation roadmap.
Support Superstop implementation readiness by tracking site control and right-of-way status, coordinating permitting and utility coordination inputs, and maintaining permit logs through approval, inspection, and closeout.
Assist with the development and maintenance of bus stop design standards, and stop spacing and amenity guidelines, including exception documentation, accessibility requirements.
Develop standardized municipal permitting and right-of-way workflows for stop improvements, including a permit checklist, template submittal package, and tracking log.
Support Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) project delivery by coordinating scope, schedule, budget tracking, and consultant deliverables under the Director’s direction, prepare decision-ready materials as needed
Facilitate cross-functional coordination with Operations, Scheduling, Facilities and Maintenance, Customer Service, Marketing and PR, IT, Finance, and external partners (municipalities, ODOT, MPO, utilities) to ensure projects are implementable and partner-ready.
Maintain organized project documentation including decision logs, issue tracking, meeting notes, status updates, and approvals tracking.
Maintain awareness of new trends and developments in the fields related to the area of assignment.
Performs other related duties as assigned.
Regular attendance is an essential function of this job.
Physical Requirements & Working Conditions:
Job requires incumbent to sit, talk/listen and use hands to obtain data for planning department matters. Must be able to stand, walk, reach with hands and arms, and lift up to 30 pounds. Work is typically performed indoors but incumbent is occasionally exposed to dust, fumes/odors, and moving objects. Stress from contacts with the general public, individual citizen contact and deadlines under pressure is common.
Communication & Administrative Skills:
- Ability to aggregate multiple sources of data from large datasets, extract insights, develop recommendations, create visualizations, and support the preparation of technical presentations and documents based on the analysis.
- Ability to use Microsoft Excel and Word proficiently
- Experience with Business Intelligence dashboards (preferred)
- Experience with ArcGIS (preferred)
- Ability to communicate clearly and effectively, both orally and in writing
- Ability to prepare clear and concise reports, correspondence, and other written materials
- Ability to speak effectively with individuals and small groups, and to respond to questions
- Ability to organize work, set priorities and meet critical deadlines
- Ability to develop and deliver clear, professional presentations to internal and external audiences, translating technical information into concise, decision-ready materials
- Ability to apply, develop, and evaluate analytical, quantitative, and statistical tools and their results.
Interpersonal Skills:
- Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts and draw valid conclusions so as to resolve problems
- Effectively communicates and collaborates within a small team and across departments, ensuring seamless coordination, information sharing, and alignment of goals
- Knowledge of techniques of effective time management
- Ability to deal courteously and diplomatically with the general public
Cognitive Skills:
- Detail-oriented
- Quick learner and self-starter
- Ability to verify data integrity, and correct misinformation
- Ability to recognize strengths, weaknesses and limitations of data
- Knowledge of general transit service planning process and concepts
- Ability to make effective decisions and recommendations
- Knowledge of report generation
- Ability to demonstrate initiative and independent judgment
- Knowledge of record keeping, report preparation, filing methods, and records management techniques
Experience and/or Educational Requirements:
Bachelor’s degree in regional or urban planning, geography, engineering, environmental science, or a closely related field, a valid Ohio driver’s license, and three to five years of relevant experience, or an equivalent combination of education, training, and work experience that provides the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to perform the essential functions of the position. AICP certification is preferred and considered a plus.
Core Values:
Teamwork:
- Demonstrating teamwork in and across departments.
- Treating everyone with respect.
- Recognize that the team is greater; much more than the collection of individual efforts.
Safety:
- Ensuring the safety of everyone.
- Believing that every accident can be prevented.
- Having a constant eye to safety in all aspects.
People Centric:
- Treating everyone fairly.
- Valuing everyone: co-workers, customers, each other, stakeholders.
Service Excellence:
- Providing the best customer service to everyone, both externally and internally.
- Routinely exceeding expectations.
- Serving our customers and each other.
Integrity:
- Always demonstrating honesty, trust, character and fairness without compromising the truth.
- Showing high regard for civility, equity/fairness and human dignity.
- Having the courage to do the right thing.
Action Ready:
- Sharing one goal, one mission.
- Keeping commitments.
- Giving more than is expected, willingly, without hesitation and without direction.
When applying, please provide any previous employer's contact information for up to the past 12 years.
Employer Address
METRO Regional Transit Authority
416 Kenmore Blvd
Akron, OH 44301
Phone
3307620341
Website
METRO Careers - Akron Metro
