About Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA)
The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is Singapore’s land use planning and conservation authority. Our mission is to make Singapore a great city to live, work and play. We plan and facilitate the physical development of Singapore, in partnership with agencies and the community, to create a vibrant, sustainable and cosmopolitan city of distinction.
URA has undergone a digitalisation journey to harness urban science, geospatial and data analytics, modelling and simulation, and AI technologies in urban planning and design. In 2022, URA was appointed as the Whole-of-Government “Urban Planning & Design Technology Centre of Excellence” (URBEX) to digitalise and cohere the urban planning and design ecosystem in its use of data, tools and models. The team has received various awards, including the 2024 Public Service Science, Technology and Engineering Conference Excellence Award, 2024 International Special Achievement in GIS Award from ESRI, 2019 Business Transformation Award from PSD, and the 2017 Asia Pacific Regional DX Leader in Talent Acceleration by IDC.
About Design and Planning Lab (DPLab)
Be part of URA’s DPLab, which spearheads URBEX efforts in the experimentation and development of smart planning technologies through Policy-Ops-Tech collaborations. Our teams, with capabilities in data policy, governance, strategy, and engineering, product strategy, business analysis, software engineering, cloud engineering, urban design technologies, data science, AI/ML, and modelling and simulation, collaborate with planners, architects, and policymakers to create insights and digital solutions for Singapore’s urban planning challenges.

Environmental Modelling Specialist/Analyst/Engineer
Urban Redevelopment Authority
Permanent/Contract
Closing on 28 Feb 2025
What the role is
What you will be working on
You will collaborate closely with Urban Planners and Designers on strategic projects, conducting advanced environmental modelling to support urban planning and design. This includes performing Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) wind flow modelling to inform and optimise urban plans and layouts, with a focus on improving outdoor thermal comfort and mitigating the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect.
You will work closely alongside in-house software developers in developing and integrating environmental modelling tools on to a web-based 3D GIS platform. You will help to design standard environmental model workflows and analytical tools to enable urban planners to conduct simple environmental models and make informed decisions across the urban planning lifecycle.
You will also take the lead in development of district carbon accounting and modelling initiatives. This involves developing and spearheading new methodologies and tools to inform urban planning and design regarding carbon footprint and achieving Singapore's sustainability goals. As this is an emerging field, you are expected to be independent and engage in self-study or participate in research collaborations with academic or industry partners.
You will also be responsible for scoping, planning and managing research projects to advance the science and practice of using environmental models to support sustainable urban development. This aims to improve the robustness of existing modelling methodologies and enhance Singapore's climate resilience through innovative urban planning and design approaches.
What we are looking for
Required Qualifications:
• Have a keen interest in cities and in applying expert knowledge and expertise to apply new and advanced environmental modelling tools and techniques that will enable Urban Planners to make Singapore an even more liveable, sustainable and economically competitive city.
• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Environmental Science, Urban Planning, Architectural or a related field.
• Experience in environmental modelling, particularly in use of either commercial or open sourced CFD models to support urban planning and design studies.
• Ability to work well in cross-functional and interdisciplinary teams, e.g with software engineers and business analysts to develop web-based applications for urban planning.
• Proficient in use of GIS and 3D CAD modelling software.
• Experience with carbon accounting and sustainability metrics in urban environments.
• Excellent project management skills.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
About Urban Redevelopment Authority
The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is Singapore's national land use planning authority. URA prepares long term strategic plans, as well as detailed local area plans, for physical development, and then co-ordinates and guides efforts to bring these plans to reality. Prudent land use planning has enabled Singapore to enjoy strong economic growth and social cohesion, and ensures that sufficient land is safeguarded to support continued economic progress and future development.