Transportation Engineer II or III

The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG or simply COG) is an independent, nonprofit association that brings area leaders together to address major regional issues in the District of Columbia, suburban Maryland, and Northern Virginia. The National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (NCRTPB or simply TPB) is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The TPB is also one of three policy boards that operate at COG. COG is the administrative agent for the TPB, and the TPB is staffed by COG’s Department of Transportation Planning (DTP). COG has a staff of about 120 employees, half of whom work in the DTP. COG was founded in 1957. The TPB was created in 1965 and became associated with COG in 1966.

TEAM

COG’s DTP is divided into five teams. The largest of these teams is the Travel Forecasting and Emissions Analysis team, which currently has 16 people and whose mission is to provide technical services to both TPB and COG in the areas of 1) regional travel demand forecasting and 2) the estimation of and planning for air pollution from motor vehicles, known as mobile emissions.

The team is divided into two groups: the Model Development Group (MDG) and the Model Application Group (MAG).

• The mission of the MDG is to develop, maintain, and improve the TPB’s regional travel demand forecasting models. At any given time, the COG/TPB staff maintains at least two travel demand models: 1) one or more production-use travel models; 2) one or more developmental travel models. Specifically, TPB staff currently maintains an aggregate, trip-based regional travel demand model, known as Generation 2, or Gen2, Model, for production use. Staff are also evaluating the usability of the TPB’s next-generation, activity-based travel demand model, known as the Generation 3, or Gen3, Model. The Gen3 Model is built upon the open-source ActivitySim software package, whose development is guided by the ActivitySim Consortium, a group of 13 public-sector agencies.[1] Since COG is a member of the consortium, the development and improvement of ActivitySim constitutes a third line of model development conducted by COG/TPB staff. Transportation networks are an important input to the regional model, and both groups support network development.
• The mission of the MAG is to apply the production-use travel model to regional and corridor studies, including the development of the region’s Long-Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) and an assessment of air quality impacts of the LRTP, using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) MOtor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES) model.

Job Offer

COG/TPB is seeking a talented and passionate Transportation Engineer/Data Scientist to join its Model Development Group (MDG) at either the Transportation Engineer 2 (Grade 7) or Transportation Engineer 3 (Grade 8) level, depending on qualifications (see below). The successful candidate will work closely with one or more higher-level transportation engineers on a diverse range of technical tasks.

This is a technical position requiring strong quantitative skills and a solid understanding of travel demand forecasting processes, transportation planning networks, computer programming, and transportation planning principles. This person should be passionate about learning, improving technical skills, public service, and making significant contributions that will improve the agency and the region. This individual will need to be able to work with higher-level transportation engineers, but the candidate should exhibit a certain degree of independence and self-direction.

Responsibilities may include:

Model development

• Assist in running, developing, maintaining, and/or improving the regional travel models.
• Create, update, and maintain data associated with inputs to the regional travel demand model, such as transportation planning networks and land use/demographic data.
• Execute and develop computer scripts that are used to summarize and analyze model outputs data.
• Prepare analyses of key data sets for model estimation/calibration/validation, such as the household travel survey, on-board transit surveys, or Big Data.

Network development

• Learn and assist in the application, maintenance, and/or improvement of a customized ArcGIS add-in tool, called COGTools, that is used to edit and manage the transportation planning networks used as inputs to the travel demand forecasting model. COGTools is currently implemented in Visual Basic.NET (VB.NET).

Other

• Prepare reports, technical memoranda, charts, graphics and create geographic information system (GIS) maps.
• Support the staffing and running of a technical subcommittee, such as the Travel Forecasting Subcommittee (TFS).

Minimum Qualifications

• Transportation Engineer 2: Either 1) Master’s degree in transportation engineering, civil engineering, transportation planning, urban planning, computer science, data science, or a related field. OR 2) Bachelor's degree in a related field and two years of applicable work experience. OR 3) Any combination of education, experience, and training that is equivalent to one of the two preceding qualifications, as demonstrated by college-level courses in areas such as mathematics, operations research, quantitative analysis, statistics, data sciences, or computer modeling.
• Transportation Engineer 3: Either 1) Master’s degree in transportation engineering, civil engineering, transportation planning, urban planning, computer science, data science, or a related field and two years of applicable work experience. OR 2) Bachelor's degree in a related field and three years of applicable work experience. OR 3) Any combination of education, experience, and training that is equivalent to one of the two preceding qualifications, as demonstrated by college-level courses in areas such as mathematics, operations research, quantitative analysis, statistics, computer science, or computer modeling.
• Experience with computer programming or data analysis.
• Interest in travel demand modeling and computer programming.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with an ability to interpret technical findings and share them with general audiences.
• Solid verbal and written communications skills.
• Strong familiarity with standard business software (Excel, Word, and PowerPoint).
• Ability to work cooperatively in a team environment.

Ideal Candidate (one or more of these)

• Passion for continual learning, improving technical skills, and making significant contributions to benefit the agency and the region.
• Ability to be a change agent, particularly regarding technical methods.
• Experience with one or more computer programming languages, such as with R, Python, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), and C#.
• Knowledge of database management systems (DBMSs).
• Familiarity with activity-based and trip-based travel demand forecasting models.
• Experience with geographic information system (GIS) software, such as ArcGIS or QGIS.
• Experience with travel demand forecasting software, such as Cube Voyager.
• Experience with version control software and/or bug-tracking software, such as Git and GitHub.
• Knowledge of software development principles.
• Experience with statistical estimation software, such as R, SAS, Alogit, NLOGIT, Biogeme, and/or Larch.

COG/TPB Offers:

• Starting Salary Ranges:
  1. Transportation Engineer 2 (Grade 7): $73,728.89 to $85,000, depending on qualifications
  2. Transportation Engineer 3 (Grade 8): $84,037.53 to $97,000, depending on qualifications
• Competitive total rewards packages comprised of compensation, rewards and recognition, benefits for your health and wellness, learning opportunities, such as:
  1. Hybrid work schedule
  2. Defined-benefit pension plan
  3. Public transit subsidy
  4. Group health insurance
  5. Vision and dental plans
  6. Life insurance
• A friendly, collaborative, and healthy work environment.

Prior to applying, you will want to prepare the following items:

• Cover letter
• Resume
• Salary requirements
• Answers to the supplemental questions within the career center

MWCOG is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation or any other class protected by state or federal laws in admission or access to our programs, services, activities, hiring, and employment practices.

Identification/Right to Work

MWCOG does not sponsor Visas of any type.

MWCOG is committed to compliance with federal and state laws requiring that MWCOG only hires workers who are lawfully entitled to work in the United States (U.S. citizens or nationals and non-citizens with valid work authorization) without discrimination. All persons employed by MWCOG are required to comply with the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 by presenting documents to verify identity and authorization to work in the United States.

Acceptable forms of identification are listed by the Department of Homeland Security / U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification.