Community Outreach Specialist

HNTB Corporation•New York, NY

1d•Onsite

About The Position

HNTB is seeking motivated, community driven, and highly talented individuals to serve as Community Outreach Specialists for Port Authority’s Midtown Bus Terminal Replacement (MBTR) Program, a truly transformative public infrastructure initiative. This role will place you at the center of one of the most significant transportation redevelopment efforts in the region. Community Outreach Specialists will support the Major Capital Projects Department (MCP), Government and Community Relations Offices for New York and New Jersey (GOCOR NY/NJ), and other Port Authority departments as part of the MBTR Program Management Team. Reporting to the Port Authority’s GOCOR NY/NJ teams, and MCP department, these professionals will serve as key public facing representatives for the Program. The selected candidates will oversee daily operations of the Community Outreach Office and function as liaisons between the MBTR Program and a wide range of stakeholders — residents, commuters, bus terminal users, elected officials, local businesses, community boards, advocacy groups, and partner agencies. Their work will help ensure that community voices are heard, concerns are addressed, while supporting the project’s goals and schedules, and engagement remains strong during Phase 1 of the project (with the potential to be extended through Phase 2). We are looking for outreach professionals who thrive in fast paced public infrastructure environments and bring a proactive, solutions-oriented approach to communication, issue resolution, stakeholder coordination, and measurable community engagement. This position may require attendance at evening or weekend community meetings and events with varying weekday hours as needed to ensure proper community engagement Local travel will also be required throughout Manhattan and parts of New Jersey.

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent relevant work experience
Demonstrated experience managing public outreach, stakeholder engagement, or community relations initiatives, preferably for large-scale construction, infrastructure, transportation, public-sector projects or similar front-facing experience representing organization’s goals, agendas, and deliverables.
Familiarity with communities and stakeholders throughout Manhattan and Northern New Jersey
Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, including PowerPoint, Word, Excel, and Outlook, Teams, Forms, as well as Constant Contact and Salesforce

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with public meeting facilitation and stakeholder coordination
Ability to manage multiple priorities and respond effectively in a fast-paced public-facing environment.
Self-motivated with the ability to work independently and collaboratively.
Strong written, verbal, organizational, and presentation skills.
Ability to prepare presentations, outreach materials, flyers, newsletters, and meeting documentation.
Bilingual candidates, particularly Spanish-speaking candidates, are preferred.
Experience developing and implementing outreach and engagement strategies.
Experience managing community complaint response and issue resolution processes.
Understanding of public-sector ethics standards and professional conduct expectations
Experience working with government agencies, elected officials, and public-sector leadership, consultants, and contractors.

Responsibilities

Manage daily engagement operations of the Community Outreach Office, including walk-in engagement and response coordination for community inquiries and complaints, increasing community and commuter engagement participation and outreach visibility and ensuring timely responses and follow-up to public complaints and stakeholder inquiries.
Field and track incoming concerns received through the project desk line, email correspondence, public meetings, and in-person interactions and coordinate concerns with the project’s logistics team.
Maintain and regularly update stakeholder contact databases, complaint logs, outreach metrics, and engagement tracking reports.
Prepare weekly and monthly reports summarizing stakeholder engagement, community concerns, complaint resolution, outreach activities, participation metrics, and upcoming initiatives.
Maintain stakeholder databases and tracking systems and measure the effectiveness of outreach efforts in supporting project schedules, construction milestones, and key deliverables.
Capture meeting minutes and action items for quarterly Port Authority Bus Terminal Advisory Council Meetings, monthly MBTR Community Construction Task Force Meetings, and other stakeholder meetings.
Serve as a visible “boots on the ground” representative for the Midtown Bus Terminal Replacement Program and support issue identification and resolution in the field.
Conduct recurring outreach activities within impacted residential buildings, local businesses, commuters, bus terminal users, bus carriers, community organizations, and advocacy groups impacted by Program activities.
Develop and implement outreach initiatives designed to increase stakeholder engagement and outreach participation with goal of advancing the project’s schedule and deliverables.
Organize and staff monthly mobile outreach office hours within elected officials’ offices, public libraries, community boards, local businesses, advocacy organizations and other public-facing locations throughout Manhattan and New Jersey communities, as well as in the current Bus Terminal to build and strengthen relationships.
Coordinate and support public meetings, stakeholder briefings, community information sessions, and outreach events.
Prepare outreach materials including flyers, notifications, newsletters, presentations, handouts, displays, and digital communications.
Publish routine community and commuter updates, construction notifications, and public information materials through print and electronic communication channels to community residents, businesses, elected officials, commuters, and other interested parties.
Coordinate outreach activities with Port Authority departments including MCP, TB&T, Office of Media Relations, and Office of Diversity Equity and Inclusion (ODEI), as well as consultants, contractors, and bus operators.
Support workforce development and community opportunity initiatives, including coordination of job fairs and community resource events.
Assist MCP Department’s Logistics Office to monitor site stipulations and adherence to permit requirements as well as overall coordination on a multitude of activities within the Logistics office as they intersect with public facing activities.
Work with MCP to provide support in updating the MBTR Project website by uploading advisories, presentation decks, outreach materials, and other relevant public‑facing content to ensure timely and accurate information is available to stakeholders.
Perform other related outreach and stakeholder engagement duties as assigned.