Job Category: Local Planning Intern – Local Technical Assistance (LTA)
Experience Required: Current Enrollment in Graduate Program
Salary Range: $15.00 per hour

The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) is seeking to hire an intern in the Local Planning Division. The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) is our region’s official comprehensive planning organization. The agency and its partners are developing ON TO 2050, a new comprehensive regional plan to help the seven counties and 284 communities of northeastern Illinois implement strategies that address transportation, housing, economic development, open space, the environment, and other quality-of-life issues. See www.cmap.illinois.gov for more information. For more information on the LTA program, visit http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/lta.

Local Planning Intern Position Description
The Intern will participate in planning and GIS activities for CMAP’s Local Technical Assistance (LTA) program, providing planning assistance to local communities across the Chicago metropolitan region. All interns should have a solid understanding of transportation and land use planning topics.

The intern will assist in CMAP’s work to provide technical assistance and local plans to municipalities and non-profit partners throughout the Chicago region. Work will include comprehensive plans, zoning updates, and subarea plans related to natural resources, economic development, housing, and transportation.

Essential Functions

The intern’s primarily responsibilities will include:

• Research and writing. The intern will assist project managers and project teams with conducting research and contributing to written products. This may include tasks to assist in the development of existing conditions reports, such as reviewing past plans and ordinances and providing written summaries of prior planning work in a community. It may also include researching plans, programs, and policies of other planning entities and organizations and surveying best practices in relevant topic areas. The intern should be able to convey research findings in a clear and concise manner.

• Mapping. The intern will extract data, derive findings through GIS analysis, and prepare maps to appear in interim and final documents related to the LTA program and the next regional comprehensive plan. The intern is required to have a high degree of familiarity with GIS and be comfortable working with large regional datasets.

• Data collection. The intern will help with community-focused research including data collection and analysis. This will most frequently include research using the Census or other datasets to gather data related to issues of particular importance to communities being assisted through the LTA program and data related to plan topics of the next regional comprehensive plan. Familiarity with data sources, ability to analyze data, and ability to communicate the results of this analysis are important skills.

• Public meetings. LTA projects include a large number of public meetings, each of which need to be staffed. The intern will assist with elements of this including table facilitation, registration, and note-taking.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
Applicants should have strong research, analysis (both qualitative and quantitative), and communication skills. Experience with GIS is necessary, and basic office computer skills are required.

Education and Experience
Applicants for all positions should be enrolled in a graduate degree program in urban planning or a related field.

Internship Timeframe
The internship will begin in fall 2016 and extend through spring 2017, with a possible extension through summer 2017.

Contact Information
Please submit cover letter and resume via our website at: http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/about/careers. Please refer to Job Code (LTA82016).

Posting End Date
This posting will close on September 23, 2016, at 5:00pm CST. All applications must be completed and submitted within the 30-day timeframe.

Position will remain open until filled (The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning is an Equal Opportunity Employer).

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Job Category: Performance Based Programming Intern
Experience Required: Current Enrollment in a Graduate Program
Salary Range: $15.00 per hour

The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) is seeking to hire a research intern to perform analyses to support transportation programming decisions. CMAP is our region’s official comprehensive planning organization. The agency and its partners are developing ON TO 2050, a new comprehensive regional plan to help the seven counties and 284 communities of northeastern Illinois implement strategies that address transportation, housing, economic development, open space, the environment, and other quality-of-life issues. See www.cmap.illinois.gov for more information.

Position Description
The intern will assist in evaluating transportation system investment needs by developing datasets on safety, congestion, transit usage, and calculating performance measures. The ideal candidate for this internship will have strengths in quantitative analysis, geographic information systems (GIS), and basic coding applied to large databases.

Responsibilities
• Assist with research that enhances the agency’s capacity to evaluate the safety, reliability, congestion reduction, economic impact, livability, and other benefits of transportation projects.
• Assist with data collection and processing of arterial speed data, incident and crash data, and other large datasets.
• Write issue briefs that explain findings.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
• Excellent data management skills and the ability to collect, manipulate, and analyze data in spreadsheets and large databases, as well as the ability to generate findings from these data and present results.
• GIS, database skills, and spreadsheet skills are required. Experience with PostgreSQL is a plus, but not required.
• Demonstrated ability to independently complete research projects and produce reports and issue briefs that are factual, original, compelling, and persuasive.

Education and/or Experience
• Applicants should be enrolled in a Master’s program in Data Science or Analytics, Planning, Engineering, Economics, Computer Science, or a related field.
• Prior work experience with large databases is a plus.

While interns will be supervised by CMAP staff, they will be expected to take a high level of responsibility for their own work, and should be self-motivated.

Internship Timeframe
This is a part-time internship position beginning around fall 2016 and will continue until mid-May 2017. Minor start and end-date accommodations may be made upon request.

Contact Information
Please submit cover letter and resume via our website at: http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/about/careers. Please refer to Job Code (PBP72016).

Posting End Date
This posting will close on September 21, 2016 at 5:00pm CST. All applications must be completed and submitted within the 60-day timeframe.

The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning is an Equal Opportunity Employer.