Role: Planning Intern at Symbium

Reports to: Associate Product Manager

Revolutionizing Public Access to Information about Properties in the US

At Symbium, we make it easy for the public to interact with and understand the consequences of laws and regulations through our web applications. We are currently focused on streamlining the regulatory review of residential construction projects in the US. Unfortunately, property data is hard to access, and this limits our ability to scale Complaw® web services for the public and local governments.

The public's access to property data is currently mired with bottlenecks.

- Data about properties is not available, not easily accessible, and/or expensive to access.
- A holistic view of a property may only be formed by synthesizing information from multiple sources, with different naming conventions and granularity of information.
- Data obtained from official sources can, often, conflict and there isn't an easy way for users to either understand the provenance of the property information displayed or to request changes.

To alleviate the above bottlenecks, and to make it easy and engaging for the public to access and search property-related information, Symbium is building the first of its kind publicly accessible and free-to-use property information portal for the US.

A big part of this ambitious project involves locating sources for interesting and useful data, organizing the data, and developing a consistent nomenclature for the data across jurisdictions. As an intern, you will work with our Planning team to expand the coverage and quality of the data that powers our Complaw® applications and organize and categorize the data in a way that is easily ingested by our Development team. You may also review planning regulations and draft the rules that underlie one of our Complaw® applications.

Roles & Responsibilities
- Find authoritative sources for data that is useful and interesting to property owners across the U.S.
- Categorize the data to make it more easily navigated by users.
- Draft tooltips to help explain the data.
- Normalize the data, so that similar data (e.g., APN, parcel number, parcel ID) is called by the same name (i.e. parcel number) throughout the web application, regardless of what it is named by the data owner.
- Communicate with government agencies via phone, email, and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to obtain public data.
- Review and analyze land use regulations for select jurisdictions, and then convey the substance of the regulations in a structured, logical format that is easily understood by the Development team.

Experiences & Qualifications

Who you are:
- Urban Planning student with an interest in land use planning and technology. Master’s student preferred.
- Team player who is passionate about being a part of a tight-knit and nimble team.
- Able to meet tight deadlines.
- Resourceful and excited about exploring creative ways of solving problems and learning on the job.
- A strong believer in open data.
- Highly organized and attentive to detail.
- A good and efficient writer.
- Self-directed.

Nice to haves:
- Familiarity with government data sources and types of data that relates to real property.
- Spreadsheet (Google Sheets) skills.
- Experience working with and analyzing datasets.
- Experience reading zoning codes.

This is a paid, part-time position that can be done remotely and around your class schedule.

To apply for this position, send your resume and cover letter to careers@symbium.com. Please include “Planning Intern Job Application” in the subject line.

Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. Symbium does not provide visa sponsorships at this time.

Symbium is an equal opportunity employer.