Senior Climate Resilience Specialist

Description

Join one of the transportation sector's most diverse and innovative engineering teams. The Port Authority's airports, ports, ferries, tunnels, bridges, bus terminals, and rail transportation systems are among the region's most important transportation facilities. As the first U.S. transportation agency to set a net-zero target for all greenhouse gas emissions, the Port Authority is pursuing a variety of ambitious decarbonization and climate resilience initiatives.

The Senior Climate Resilience Specialist ("Specialist") is responsible for coordinating with internal and external engineering and architectural teams to implement the agency's Climate Resilience Design Guidelines (CRG), and for advancing Engineering's contributions to the agency's Sustainability and Safety & Security priorities by providing subject‑matter expertise in climate resilience. The Specialist will coordinate engineering-based climate risk investigations at multiple scales and represent Engineering on agency-wide resilience initiatives and plans.

Responsibilities

The Specialist's duties include:

• Coordinate with teams across the agency for the successful and efficient delivery of studies, designs, and construction projects in accordance with PA CRG.
• Interface directly with multi-disciplinary design teams on a variety of building and infrastructure projects to ensure that the PA CRG are properly interpreted and incorporated into agency projects and programs
  • Identify potential current and future climate-related hazards, including sea level rise, storm surge, stormwater, and extreme heat
  • Interpret relevant climate/ hydrometeorological information and/or flood maps/models
  • Review and adapt scopes of work to incorporate project-specific resilience standards
  • Develop climate-risk-adjusted project design criteria
  • Collaborate on the analysis of mitigation alternatives
  • Analyze the cost-effectiveness of preferred alternatives
  • Contribute to conceptual design-level reports for climate resilience
  • Review and comment on design deliverables (e.g., design reports, drawings, specifications, submittals) to ensure compliance with CRG.
• Support the ongoing evolution of the PA Climate Resilience Design Guidelines, standards, and resources to achieve alignment with scientific, industry, and code advancements
• As directed, coordinate with design teams to ensure that climate resilience standards are properly incorporated into redevelopment projects and Tenant Alteration Applications
• Analyze, review, and prepare comments on relevant reports, drawings, calculations, specifications, flood models and maps, GIS maps, climate/ hydrometeorological studies, and other documents for compliance with standards
• Support the development and ongoing maintenance of tools and resources that enable multi‑disciplinary design teams to access and effectively use robust climate and asset data generated through the Climate Risk Assessment (CRA)
• Provide guidance for successfully documenting holistic resilient design solutions and track project status
• Facilitate the cross-departmental Human Health in Extreme Ambient Temperatures (HHEAT) initiative to analyze and mitigate heat-related impacts to customers, employees, equipment, and materials
• Support management of RSD's call-in consultant program, including initiation, administration, tracking, and closeout of task orders
• Develop staff training and awareness programs pertaining to climate resilience
• Serve as technical liaison to partner agencies, the engineering community, and academia on the topic of climate resilience
• Manage periodic short-term staff on resilience-related research tasks
• As directed, assist PA's Line Departments, Media, Enterprise Risk Management, Treasury, and Law, and PA leadership in the development of communications related to climate resilience
• Support sustainable design program, especially where there are synergies with resilience
• Manage and proactively forecast staff workload

• Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, Architecture or related Environmental / Sustainability areas relevant to climate risk management from an accredited college or university.
• Minimum 6 years of relevant industry experience (10+ preferred) in the climate resilience/adaptation field performing technical analyses and coordinating with engineering, architectural, and urban design teams. Experience with urban climate risk assessments and multi-hazard resilience, strong knowledge of local/regional/national climate resilience initiatives, with complementary expertise in multi-modal transportation planning, engineering, and/or operations.
• Ability to work independently; well-developed time management skills, especially the ability to complete high-quality, detail-oriented deliverables on tight timelines amid competing deadlines.
• Superior writing, presentation, and meeting management skills. Must be able to present complex ideas to technical and non-technical client groups, as well as upper management staff.
• Strong facility with Microsoft: Word, Excel, PowerPoint.

• Master's degree in a related subject.
• Licensed as a Professional Engineer or Registered Architect in either New York or New Jersey.
• Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM)
• LEED accreditation and/or Envision SP accreditation; applied sustainable design experience.
• Experience managing consultants and performing technical reviews of consultant deliverables.
• Knowledge of visual mapping tools (GIS), including the ability to utilize data and analytical tools and applications. General knowledge of CAD.
• Knowledge of coastal and stormwater flood models.
• Experience applying climate risk and hazard modeling to engineering projects.
• Experience developing staff awareness, training, and outreach programs on climate risk.
• Demonstrated team building, problem solving, negotiation, and conflict resolution skills, as well as the demonstrated ability to be self-motivated and function in a team environment.