Transportation Engineer II or Engineer III

COG/TPB seeks to hire a transportation engineer to work in its Model Development Group (MDG), to be filled at one of two levels, Transportation Engineer II (Grade 7) or Transportation Engineer III (Grade 8), depending on qualifications (see below). The Transportation Engineer position will serve under the direction of a Senior Engineer or Principal Engineer and will focus on a variety of challenging technical tasks. While 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 developing the TPB’s next-generation, activity-based travel demand model, known as the Generation 3, or Gen3, Model, with consultant assistance. Additionally, a third line of development occurs because of COG’s affiliation with the ActivitySim Consortium, a group of 11 public-sector agencies, which guides the development of the open-source ActivitySim software, which is a major component of COG/TPB’s Gen3 Travel Model.

COG/TPB is seeking someone who can perform professional-level work in support of activities such as running, developing, maintaining, and/or improving the TPB’s regional travel demand forecasting models. This is a technical position requiring strong quantitative skills and a solid understanding of travel demand forecasting processes, 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. Work is performed under the general supervision of a higher-level transportation engineer/program manager, but the candidate should exhibit a certain degree of independence and self-direction. COG/TPB offers a friendly, collegial work environment, challenging technical work, with competitive pay and benefits in the Nation’s Capital.

Minimum Qualifications

• Transportation Engineer 2:  Either 1) Master’s degree in transportation engineering, civil engineering, transportation planning, urban planning, computer science, or a related field. OR 2) Bachelor's degree in a related or non-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, and Computer Modeling.
• Transportation Engineer 3:  Either 1) Master’s degree in transportation engineering, civil engineering, transportation planning, urban planning, computer science, or a related field and two years of applicable work experience. OR 2) Bachelor's degree in a related or non-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, and Computer Modeling.
• Ability to work cooperatively in a team environment within and between COG departments.
• 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).
• Experience with the standard four-step urban transportation planning process and theory.
• Familiarity with emissions modeling (EPA’s Mobile or MOVES mobile emissions models) and theory.
• Interest in regional planning, air quality planning and travel demand modeling.

Ideal Candidate (one or more of these)

• Passionate about learning, improving technical skills, public service, and making significant contributions that will improve the agency and the region.
• Ability to be a change agent, particularly regarding technical methods.
• Familiarity with both trip-based and activity-based travel demand forecasting models.
• Experience with travel demand forecasting software, such as Cube Voyager.
• Experience with statistical estimation software, such as R, SAS, Alogit, NLOGIT, Biogeme, and/or Larch.
• Experience with geographic information system (GIS) software, such as ArcGIS or QGIS.
• Experience with one or more computer programming languages, such as with R, Python, and Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET)
• Experience with software development principles
• Experience with version control software and/or bug-tracking software
• Knowledge of database management systems (DBMSs).
• Experience with scenario planning and greenhouse gas estimation tools (e.g., VisionEval). 
• Experience with EPA’s MOVES model. 

Starting Salary Ranges (FY 23)

• Transportation Engineer II (Grade 7): $71,581 to $104,007, depending on qualifications
• Transportation Engineer III (Grade 8): $81,589 to $115,448, depending on qualifications