Job Title: Design Associate
Start Date: April/May 2018
Salary: Commensurate with experience
Location: New York City (Midtown Manhattan)

The National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) is seeking a creative, talented visual communicator to join our team as a full-time Design Associate, reporting to the Director of Programs. The ideal candidate excels at translating complex policy or street design topics into compelling, intuitive graphics. She or he will have exceptional visual storytelling skills and a knack for layout design. This position is an opportunity to elevate the state of the practice for visual communication in city transportation, helping NACTO cities make change and disseminating NACTO’s messages more broadly.

Who we are
NACTO is a nonprofit association of 67 major North American cities and transit agencies formed to exchange transportation ideas, insights, and practices and cooperatively approach national transportation issues. Our members include cities such as Denver, Los Angeles, Cambridge, and San Antonio, and transit agencies such as Portland Tri-Met and New York MTA. Our mission is to build cities as places for people, with safe, sustainable, accessible, and equitable transportation choices that support a strong economy and vibrant quality of life. Our staff team is nimble, passionate, results-oriented, and committed to challenging the status quo in transportation and raising the bar for city streets.

What you’ll do
Your job will be to ensure that we meet an extremely high bar for visual communications, from high-quality street design renderings, to intuitive infographics, to polished, eye-catching reports and materials. You will coordinate internally with NACTO staff to balance deadlines and shepherd design products to completion. More specifically, you will do things like:

Graphic Design
• Create graphic design and branding concepts for all NACTO publications and materials, including reports, brochures, and event agendas/programs
• Create compelling infographics and data visualizations using our statistics and white papers
• Create and maintain standard templates for NACTO slide decks, letterhead, membership map, and other standard materials
Street Design Renderings and Image Library
• Using Rhino, Sketchup, Illustrator, and other tools, generate publication-ready street design renderings for NACTO street design guidance
• Build and maintain a robust image library of street design and transportation projects from NACTO member cities
Document Layout
• Layout and production for all NACTO publications and materials (reports, flyers, etc)

Who you are
We’re looking for an outstanding visual storyteller and graphic designer with an understanding of street design principles. To be successful in this job, you will excel in seven areas:

• Creative storytelling through visuals: able to think creatively and produce compelling visual materials; ability to translate dense concepts into concise, legible, compelling infographics
• High bar: strives for and exceeds a high standard of excellence (in both quality of work and efficiency of production)
• Listening: able to quickly absorb ideas and information, ask questions to seek clarity and confirm comprehension, and transform concepts into visual products
• Time management: able to juggle competing priorities with 100% follow-through in a fast-paced work environment, occasionally delivering on short timelines
• Attention to detail: sharp eye for consistency and accuracy in layout, producing error-free documents through multiple rounds of revision
• Design software expertise: high level of proficiency with InDesign, Illustrator, Sketchup, Rhino, Powerpoint
• Understanding of urban design: ability to generate visual renderings and representations of urban design; eager to learn and apply NACTO’s principles of street design; experience in street geometry is a plus but not a requirement

How to Apply
Send a resume and graphic design sample as one PDF file to hr@nacto.org with subject “Design Associate” by March 16, 2018. We will consider applications on a rolling basis, and may not wait until the deadline to interview and extend offers, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible. No calls please.

NACTO is committed to workplace diversity and inclusion. We are equal opportunity employers and do not discriminate in hiring or employment on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, gender identity, marital status, sexual orientation, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. We offer competitive salaries, excellent benefits, and a passionate working environment. Salary is based on a nonprofit scale and commensurate with experience.