Junior Planner Jobs

Cornerstone Planning Group is growing and adding a Strategic Planning Consultant to our team! We are looking for a junior consultant who is driven to solve problems, complete quantitative and qualitative analysis, and take a supportive role in client-facing projects with other staff members.

Cornerstone is a boutique consultancy located on Granville Island in a dog friendly office Vancouver, BC, Canada. Specializing in strategic planning for public sector organizations -- typically related to organizational design and infrastructure requirements -- our work emphasizes long-term planning and rigorous research into relevant trends and service demand patterns. Our work spans a wide variety of sectors, and facilities can include hospitals, libraries, community centres, transitional housing, art and culture venues, theatres, schools and universities, clinics, offices, industrial workshops and yards, and more.

Our collaborative team of young, motivated professionals is focused on providing exceptional service and value to our clients, continuously learning while supporting good vibes and overall company health. We provide a flexible and entrepreneurial environment where all team members have the ability to influence long-term, high-value impacts.

Our Consultants work on 2-3 projects at a time (depending on size and scope), applying a logical and methodological approach with curiosity and care. We conduct detailed analysis using large data sets to create informed conclusions, while engaging with multiple stakeholders at user-group interviews, council meetings and other client presentations.

The Junior Planning Consultant will play an important role in supporting projects from proposal through to final delivery and will be a key contributor to the development of complex strategic planning reports. This role will be client-facing, in part.

Responsibilities

Strategic Planning (80%):

• Take comprehensive meeting notes and ask thoughtful questions.
• Recognize errors and outliers in methodology and data sets. Know when something’s not right, and work to fix it.
• Develop agendas and workshop materials to support meetings.
• Coordinate meeting dates and times, internally and externally.
• Create, justify, and accurately communicate reasonable assumptions.
• Communicate regularly with team members effectively to collaborate and update.
• Track schedules, budgets, and scopes as requested, internally and externally.
• Develop well-founded and useful recommendations based on analysis.
• Research best practices through a variety of industries. Keep up to date on innovations in our sectors.
• Writing: Write clear and comprehensive reports to explain situations, process, analytical approach, findings, and conclusions. This includes:
• Converse with clients in a way that is easy and polite.
• Articulate problems and developing comprehensive and effective analytic approaches to solve them, taking into account the quality of available data.
• Analysis: Work with other team members to plan and conduct qualitative and quantitative analysis on large and sometimes abstract data sets in order to understand current state, project potential future states, and reach reliable conclusions. This includes:
• Develop relevant and beautiful graphics to convey key information in the clearest way possible.
• GIS skills an asset
• Coordination and Management: Tasks may include:
• Work to understand the client’s key concerns and aspirations and establish an approach that responds to them.
• Manage and monitor time spent on projects in an online system.

Business Development (20%):

• Support proposal development, including writing thoughtful response sections, compiling resumes and project descriptions, and monitoring progress against timelines.
• Support business development via attending and eventually contributing to conferences, talks, articles, informational meetings, supporting external mentorship programs, etc.
• Clearly comprehend needs as described in public RFP documents.

Requirements

• Experience in report development & presentation skills.
• Experienced in using MS Excel to manipulate and analyze data sets.
• 1-3 years of work experience in consulting, analysis or similar field.
• Bachelor’s Degree required. Preferred analytical background in science, architecture, or engineering; will consider non-technical backgrounds with relevant skills.
• Positive, team player with strong written and verbal communication skills, and high attention to detail.
• Preferred experience with Adobe Suite and development of graphical information.

Benefits

• Growth opportunities within the organization
• Supportive of a Hybrid work environment
• Regular Employee Reviews
• Support for continual learning opportunities (e.g. conferences, talks, courses)
• Direct access to Partners
• Strong commitment to career and knowledge development:
• Annual Holiday and summer social events