20726 - Environmental Project Specialist Senior

To provide leadership and environmental engineering guidance. Serve as expert in natural resource assessments and environmental project delivery. Responsible for assessing and compensating for potential environmental impacts of highway and VDOT facility construction, operations and maintenance projects. Assist and coordinate interdisciplinary teams producing restoration and design projects. Provide technical assistance in consultant contract management. Monitor construction projects for permit compliance. Prepare permit applications and provide assistance to districts on restoration issues. Represent VDOT in various public involvement programs. To provide leadership, environmental expertise and guidance for assigned area(s) of responsibility. Plan, organize and coordinate program responsibilities to include assisting with assessment, training and compliance with state and federal rules and regulations governing assigned programs. Provide analysis to ensure liabilities potentially incurred by VDOT are minimized through engineering feasibility, cost-benefit, and risk management analyses and decision-making. Communicate policies and procedures related to program areas and coordinate with applicable parties. Provide guidance, training, direction and assistance to internal and external customers.

How you will contribute:

Communication: Represent VDOT in interactions with public, federal, state and local agencies to fulfill program commitments. Attend public hearings, citizen informational meetings, field inspections, citizen informational meetings and provide technical guidance to districts, as needed. Clearly communicate regulations related to assigned program area(s), policies, and science. Provide expert testimony and assistance to the attorney general related to litigation of transportation projects. Prepare technical briefings and position papers on complex, sensitive issues and provide expert advice on assigned program area designs that may have significant implications.

Compensatory Mitigation: Perform site screening and site selection studies. Evaluate practicable compensatory mitigation alternatives. Develop conceptual and final plans based on goals and objectives. Apply engineering principles to produce and edit technical reports. Conduct field reviews during construction ensuring that plan specifications are being addressed and plans are being constructed properly.

Program Assessment and Guidance: Provide guidance, support, and assistance for assigned program area(s) and communicate with appropriate stakeholders. Determine process improvements and policy changes or impacts, update the appropriate documentation and communicate changes. Monitor compliance to determine areas of improvement needed.

Programmatic Goals: Assist in development of guidance to support districts across the agency. Partner with local resources to determine best protocols and programs to utilize and interface with additional subject-matter experts as needed.

Programmatic Goals: Perform mitigation market analysis to assist in project development. Update impact and mitigation tracking database and enter data to meet project specific reporting requirements. Maintain mitigation files for each mitigation site.

Project Management Support: Lead team project management effort. Serve as expert consultant and provide technical support for the statewide compensatory environmental restoration program. Provide quality control of engineering applications relating to stream design and restoration on a state level. Develop or assist in the development of restoration and design policy, standards, and specifications to be implemented statewide and used by other state and federal agencies. Serve as a technical expert for Permit, Consultant Services and Natural Resources program areas. Apply project management approach to implement work plans to ensure delivery of water quality permits and compensatory mitigation on schedule and within budget. Facilitate resolution of aquatic resource issues by advocating for avoidance, minimization and compensation for unavoidable impacts to aquatic resources.

Resource Documentation and Monitoring: Conduct field studies to evaluate and compile a database of reference resources as needed for individual projects. Incorporate sites and or data from other sources and ensure that minimum data needs have been addressed. Maintain records of stream gauges used in stream restoration projects. Conduct routine monitoring on structures not requiring annual monitoring to track success. Maintain detailed records on monitoring events for each structure and recommend corrective action.

Training and Technical Expertise: Serve as technical expert for assigned program area(s). Prepare and conduct periodic training. Communicate information and updates to policies and procedures to all applicable stakeholders in a timely manner.

Training