Intern - Regional Planning

Role
The experience is substantive. If selected for an internship, you would be fully integrated into your team and given project responsibilities that are both learning opportunities and a chance for you to contribute to the overall success of the agency. You will enhance your technical knowledge and refine your abilities to collaborate, contribute to high-performing teams, and communicate – skills that are the essence of a successful professional!

Overview of the Regional Planning Department

The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) has various teams that support our Regional Planning Department. These teams include Environmental Compliance, Mobility, and Sustainable Communities. Interns have a unique opportunity to experience the many areas of regional planning, receive guidance and mentoring from senior staff, while building their network, gaining real-life work experience, all while increasing the quality of life for the residents in the San Diego region.

The Regional Planning Department is hiring up to 6 (six) intern roles across all three teams. Below are brief descriptions of each intern role:

• Mobility Planning | Project Development: Supports various mobility planning studies including Rapid bus and rail corridor studies through research, data collection, and analysis, while also assisting with project coordination, technical documentation, and preparation of presentations and reports.
• Environmental Planning | Climate Planning:Supports several regional climate action and resilience efforts such as climate action data collection and monitoring, binational border resilience planning, electric vehicle charger planning, and launching a climate action planning assistance program. This role also supports coordination and collaboration with member agencies and regional climate stakeholders, and other duties as needed.

• Environmental Planning | Environmental Mitigation: Supports environmental mitigation and shoreline resilience programs in addition to assistance on environmental compliance issues on capital improvement projects. This role supports coordination and collaboration with member agencies and environmental stakeholders, and other duties as needed.

• Sustainable Communities | Grants Program:Supports the Grants Distribution Team in administering and tracking competitive SANDAG grant programs. Roles and responsibilities will include administrative support for team activities such as invoicing and project tracking; research; assisting with the preparation of reports and presentations; helping with the coordination of outreach events; and other duties as needed.

• Sustainable Communities | Long-Range Transportation: Support the Long-Range Transportation Team across a portfolio of innovative projects, including the Freight Resilience Plan, Last Mile Freight Delivery Plan, Regional Infrastructure Accelerator and several anticipated grant initiatives spanning Tribal Advanced Air Mobility and corridor planning. The role offers hands-on experience contributing to near-term deliverables, and other duties as needed, on an ambitious project schedule.

• Sustainable Communities | 2029 Regional Plan: Supports development of the 2029 Regional Plan and the State Route (SR-94) Comprehensive Multimodal Corridor Plan (CMCP), in addition to supporting tribal task force collaboration and rural corridors planning.

• Contribute as a team member to various research projects and planning studies; participate in meetings and liaise with project partners; assist with coordinating activities; support grant programs.
• Provide support for formal working groups, committee meetings, and public outreach; record and summarize minutes and actions for distribution to committees, working groups, and the public; assist with specific follow-up requests that arise from meetings.
• Assist with the review and verification of consultant and grantee invoices.
• Prepare tables, charts, and diagrams to display information for written reports and presentations.
• Contribute to the preparation of various types of reports, summaries, correspondence, and presentations; develop and maintain content for web and social media.
• Participate and assist with project-related events.

• Graduate and/or undergraduate level coursework in urban or regional planning, public policy, business or public administration, environmental studies, or a related field.
• Knowledge of current issues and trends related to regional planning and collaboration.
• Ability to complete assignments that involve researching, analyzing, and synthesizing information into written summaries, reports, or recommendations.
• Proficient Microsoft Office skills, including MS Outlook, MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, SharePoint, and Internet research.
• Ability to communicate with various audiences using exceptional interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills; Spanish language or multi-lingual skills are a plus.
• Flexibility and willingness to perform a variety of tasks typical of an entry-level planning position.

Intern Salaries

Pursuing Undergraduate Degree: $20.00/hour

Bachelor’s degree or higher: $23.00/hour.

One-year opportunity working 25-29 hours per week, Monday – Friday during regular business hours.

Expected Start Date: June 2026