About Our Job
With competitive pay, great benefits, and endless opportunities, working for the City and County of Denver means seeing yourself working with purpose — for you, and those who benefit from your passion, skills, and expertise. Join our diverse, inclusive, and talented workforce of more than 11,000 team members who are at the heart of what makes Denver, Denver.
Application Deadline and Required Materials
This position is expected to stay open until 11:59PM on Wednesday, March 12. Please submit your application as soon as possible and no later than Wednesday, March 12 at 11:59 PM.
Please submit a resume and cover letter with your application.
What We Offer
The City and County of Denver offers a competitive salary commensurate with education and experience. The salary range for this position is $67,161/year – $88,988/year. We also offer generous benefits for full-time employees which include, but are not limited to:
- A guaranteed life-long monthly pension, once vested after 5 years of service
- 457B Retirement Plan
- 140 hours of PTO earned within first year + 11 paid holidays, 1 personal holiday and 1 volunteer day per year
- Competitive medical, dental, and vision plans effective within 1 month of start date
More information about the perks and benefits we provide to full-time employees to allow them to find balance, thrive, and build a mile high career can be found on our website.
Location
The City and County of Denver supports a hybrid workplace model. Employees work where needed, at a job site several days a week and off-site as needed. Employees must work within the state of Colorado on their off-site days.
In this position, you can expect to work on-site at the Denver Post Building (101 West Colfax Avenue, Denver) three (3) days per week.
About Us and What You’ll Do
As stewards of Denver’s legacy park system, the City and County of Denver’s Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) is committed to delivering exceptional customer service and improving the health of our residents and environment. Through innovative programs and the creation of safe, beautiful, and sustainable spaces, DPR manages a dynamic system of 30 recreation centers and nearly 20,000 acres of urban and mountain parkland, including off-street trails, parkways, and natural areas. This work is made possible by a dedicated team of professionals who design, promote, and preserve these world-class spaces for generations to come.
Denver Parks and Recreation’s Planning, Design and Construction Division’s Urban Ecology and Trails Team is excited to promote the opportunity to join this incredible workforce as an Associate Urban Ecology Planner.
This crucial position will be responsible for managing, coordinating, and monitoring departmental projects from inception to completion, ensuring parks projects make Denver a more livable, resilient, and inclusive city. This position will focus primarily on projects that support Denver Park’s resilience and natural resource restoration goals. including landscape transformations, water conservation, waterway restoration, and ecosystem restoration projects while balancing human access to nature and recreation.
As an Associate Planner with the Urban Ecology Team, you will act on:
Planning and Urban Ecology Subject Matter Expertise: The Associate Planner will advance the mission, vision, and values of DPR’s strategic plan by supporting long-range and short-term strategic plans, concept plans, initiatives, goals, and policies including:
- Coordinate and support limited scope parks planning projects including citywide plans, Landscape Typology, park-specific and ecology focused concept designs.
- Coordinate with internal and external stakeholders. Support the Parks Planning Team as a subject matter expert for other parks plans of all scales. Coordinate with other divisions, departments, and agencies as a subject matter expert on other planning initiatives across the city and region including Large Development Review, Neighborhood Planning, Green Infrastructure Planning, and Rules and Regulations.
- Assist in grant writing, reporting, and compliance for local, state, and federal grants.
Parks Planning Data Management: The Associate Planner will support the Urban Ecology Program’s priorities in day-to-day upkeep of data and metrics. This will include:
- Routine updates of the Landscape Typology data set, conducting overlay analysis on individual parks for the Turfgrass Policy, tracking wildlife habitat certification on parks projects, supporting parks planners and project managers in landscape transformation identification.
- Creating graphics, infographics, maps, reports, dashboards, and other document updates using a variety of software tools.
- Updating project identification layers in GIS.
- Prepare reports and presentations summarizing data and recommendations for future projects.
- Assist with tracking metrics toward the Game Plan for a Healthy City and Legacy Fund 5-year action plans.
Project Management: The Associate Planner assumes a support role in the development, coordination, and implementation of a wide variety of parks planning and design projects of all scales. Project scopes may include planning, environmental assessment, environmental research, permit requirements, public engagement, and data analysis. Project management tasks will include:
- Management of scope, schedule, and budget for several concurrent small to moderate scale projects, including management of procurement, invoicing, and coordinating the work of consultants assigned to specific projects.
- Provide technical guidance on projects to meet goals, standards, processes, environmental regulations and requirements, and track metrics.
- Coordinating intra- and inter-departmental reviews with stakeholders.
- Report on project progress to leadership and stakeholders.
- Utilize a systematic and responsive methodology in managing projects and collaboration to accomplish goals.
Partnerships: DPR’s goal is for Denver to become a highly resilient City through the application of DPR and city-wide policies. The Associate Planner will
- Support strong relationships with a variety of internal and external partners.
- Coordinate and support meetings and presentations to interested partners and stakeholders to discuss proposed planning initiatives, project designs, and urban ecology program goals and policies.
- Refine best practices driven by innovation and the input of experts inside and outside the City.
Communications: The Associate Planner will successfully collaborate in the exchange of information between city staff, consultants, stakeholders, and the public, through clear and effective written, graphic, and verbal communication. The Associate Planner will:
- Build strong relationships across Denver Parks and Recreation divisions.
- Build consensus and support for DPR efforts and participate in events and outreach with diverse neighborhood residents, neighborhood groups, stakeholders, partner agencies, and city leadership.
- Cultivate and contribute to positive public relations for the Department.
- Support Marketing and Communications Teams on city-wide Urban Ecology focused programs and outreach.
- Attend occasional weekend and after-hours community events and board meetings.
Other duties, as assigned.
DPR recognizes the importance of diversity in the representation of our organization to best serve our customers and community. To that end, DPR is committed to:
- Examining department policies and processes that value diverse perspectives and eliminate barriers to inclusion.
- Identifying where inequities exist and implementing strategies to ensure equitable outcomes.
- Strengthening diversity in Parks and Recreation services by transforming policies to institutionalize equity.
- Reinvesting in resources aimed at ensuring DPR is an equitable and just organization.
We value diversity of ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status, sexual identity, gender, religion, language, ability, and experience and exemplify this through the makeup of our team at all levels. You’ll be right at home here if you cultivate strong relationships and push yourself, your work, the people around you and Denver to the next level.
What You’ll Bring
We are looking for an accomplished professional with a passion for parks and open space projects that positively impact communities. Our ideal candidate will have strong technical knowledge of best practices for planning and design, demonstrated communication and collaboration skills, and the ability to work independently and as part of a team under time constrained and highly visible situations. We are looking for someone with good writing skills, particularly in planning documents, public communications, and correspondence.
Additionally, our ideal candidate will possess a combination of the following:
- Professional experience with parks, open space, waterway, ecosystem restoration, or natural resources planning and design.
- Technical knowledge of planning methods and project administration.
- Working understanding of ecological planning, design principles and landscape transformation from bluegrass to native shortgrass prairie in the arid west.
- Bilingual skills (Spanish) preferred but not required.
- Comfortability with Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office, and ArcGIS
- Strong communication skills, both oral and written, to achieve positive outcomes in working with diverse groups.
Required Minimum Qualifications
- Education requirement: Bachelor’s Degree in City or Regional Planning, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Historic Preservation, Engineering, or a related field.
- Experience Requirement: Three (3) years of entry-level professional planning experience which includes participating and assisting in developing planning projects, goals, and guidelines and conducting planning studies and research in a variety of social, economic, and physical areas.
- Education/Experience Equivalency: One (1) year of the appropriate type and level of experience may be substituted for each required year of post-high school education. Additional appropriate education may be substituted for the minimum experience requirements.
- License/Certifications: Requires a valid Driver’s License at the time of application. Licenses and certifications must be kept current as a condition of employment.
