AECOM Advisory is seeking an Associate Director to help support and expand our urban policy, real estate and economic service offering. The selected candidate will join our growing Advisory business line, a team of 400 staff globally comprised of business and policy analysts, economists, commercial strategists, technology architects, sustainability and resilience planners, and human capital and change management practitioners. We integrate strategic consulting with policy and technical expertise to help cities, regional, and other public agencies tackle challenges and better serve their constituents. We are recruiting for this role in the following locations: Los Angeles, CA; San Francisco, CA; Oakland, CA.
Building off AECOM’s considerable expertise in infrastructure design and implementation, AECOM Advisory is a trusted adviser to senior level clients and executive teams on their most pressing enterprise and strategic needs. We serve the full value chain of clients active in infrastructure, the built environment, and community vibrancy, including: national governments, regulatory entities, city agencies, utilities, transit agencies, infrastructure operators and investors.
This position would focus primarily on our real estate, economic, and public policy services. The successful candidate can lead quantitative and qualitative analysis to develop and/or evaluate strategies that address policy, design, and social challenges. Projects may cover market analysis, financial feasibility and affordability studies, funding and financing strategy (including prioritizing relevant incentives or evaluating value capture opportunity), economic and fiscal impact analysis, and program/policy evaluation to address economic and demographic disparities.
Past related projects range from supporting the City of LA to adopt their Citywide Housing Incentive Program (CHIP) Ordinance, working with the County of San Diego on their Inclusionary Housing Policy, conducting assessment of value capture strategies for transit agencies including LA Metro, MTA, and MBTA, and testing the feasibility of adaptive reuse prototypes with LA City Planning.
In addition to technical proficiency, the candidate will be expected to effectively participate in business development activities and to direct project teams to ensure quality and timely work products that satisfy clients’ needs. The position requires the ability to manage a project team while working closely with other disciplines and balancing multiple projects and deadlines, delegating and mentoring staff, and communicating clearly with both clients and other team members. Business development expectations include responding to requests for proposals and representing our team internally and externally for opportunities.
You will join as a leader in a fast-paced and supportive team of diverse consulting professionals. We pride ourselves on our strong culture of mentorship and collaborative problem-solving and our mission of addressing our client’s most complex and impactful problems, paired with career pathways that nurture professional development and personal growth.
Role:
As an Associate Director in AECOM Advisory’s US West Region , your day-to-day role will include driving business development, overseeing engagement delivery and supporting practice development. These tasks will include, but not be limited to:
Directing multiple delivery teams comprised of 5-8 team members across various and inter-dependent workstreams. Project types may include:
Adaptive reuse and neighborhood revitalization studies
Site feasibility studies
Funding and financing strategies, including value capture and special assessment districts
Economic and fiscal impact analysis
Pro forma modeling to determine financial feasibility
Evaluation of pro-housing policies such as density bonuses and inclusionary zoning
Leading client interactions
Delivering highly-polished deliverable production to meet client expectations and firm standards
Meeting project financial performance and supporting overall practice area operational performance improvement
Being present in industry conversations and professional networks to identify and originate business development opportunities
Managing all aspects of proposal responses as Capture Manager, including: narrative development, coordination across multiple teams to develop technical solutions, pricing, team definition, subcontractor engagement, internal risk review, and compliance procedures
Coaching and mentoring junior staff on developing core skills
Required competencies include:
Strong interpersonal skills, client-service mindset and ability to act as a trusted adviser to clients
Ability to maintain poise, maturity and work well in a high-tempo, client-facing environment
Strong technical foundation in economics and real estate, including comfort working with economic and land use data, developing data-driven and appropriately contextualized assumptions, and an ability to both conduct and review technical analysis
Ability to be self-directed, anticipatory and comfortable working across a highly matrixed consulting organization
Solid communication skills, with the ability to summarize and convey key technical insights in a digestible manner to executive and senior management audiences
Collegial team-player who can work within a small, motivated team of diverse consulting professionals