Engineering Trainees assist others within PBOT in designing and operating streets within Portland. This is a great opportunity for students of a Civil/Transportation Engineering or Planning program to learn how to apply transportation engineering principles to improve the safety of City of Portland’s transportation system. Trainees will apply technical engineering knowledge to the solution of design, maintenance, improvement, and construction problems pertaining to the City’s infrastructure and private development. They will work under the supervision of professional engineers who serve as resource experts and routinely review work in progress or upon completion for accuracy and quality.
What you’ll get to do:
There are four (4) positions available:
- Two (2) within the Signals & Street Lighting Division in the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) section.
- Two (2) in the Traffic Operations (TRO) section.
Objectives of Trainee job experience:
- Learn and experience transportation engineering in a real-world environment.
- Be part of a team that delivers services and infrastructure to City of Portland residents, visitors, and business.
- Contribute to PBOT Strategic Plan core goals of Safety, Moving People and Goods and Asset Management
Possible Duties in Signals, Street Lighting, and Intelligent Transportation System section:
- Assist with upgrade of PBOT’s traffic signal controllers by converting signal timing, testing, and field deployment.
- Create traffic signal intersection diagrams for intersections configured in PBOT’S new central traffic signal system.
- Update traffic signals and ITS roadside devices on GIS Map and Microsoft Visio Diagram.
- Help evaluate accuracy of various bicycle, pedestrian, and vehicle detection system.
- Assist with evaluation of red light running and fixed speed cameras.
- Assist with evaluation of street lighting needs with night drives.
- Use Bluebeam and MicroStation for design, edits, and measurement calculations.
- Assist with review of fiber optic test results on construction projects.
- Assist with field evaluation of pole conditions on aerial fiber optic communication projects.
Possible Duties in Traffic Operations Section
- Evaluate, make recommendations for potential changes and respond to traffic engineering requests from constituents.
- Conduct field and office review of potential traffic safety issues.
- Collect, analyze, and interpret data for projects and determine potential traffic impacts.
- Under the supervision of a professional engineer, design traffic improvements.
- Support development of contract plan sets and work orders to install traffic control devices and streetscape elements.
- Use Bluebeam, MicroStation and Visio for design, edits, and measurement calculations.
- Field inspect installed signing and pavement markings changes.
- As a member of our continuous improvement driven team, offer suggestions for how we can do things better and improve effectiveness in our work.
To Qualify
The following minimum qualifications are required for this position:
Applicants must also possess:
- Ability to follow written and verbal instructions.
- Knowledge of geometry and algebra math.
- Current student in a Civil/Transportation Engineering or Planning program (proof of student status required.)
- Ability to drive on City business on a project-by-project basis. Incumbents must possess a valid driver’s license.
Additional desired qualifications (not required)
- Interest in transportation/civil engineering
- Experience working with Computer-Aided Design software such as: MicroStation, InRoads/OpenRoads, and/or ArcMap.
- Strong analytical skillset using excel and other geo-spatial tools.
- General productivity suite (Microsoft Office, Google Workspace)