[What the role is]
About Urban Planning & Design Technology Centre of Excellence (URBEX) and Design and Planning Lab (DPLab)
Over the years, URA has spearheaded efforts to strengthen urban planning and design workflows through the application of urban science, geospatial and data analytics, modelling and simulation (M&S), and AI technologies. In 2022, URA was designated as the Whole-of-Government (WOG) Urban Planning & Design Technology Centre of Excellence (URBEX), to lead the planning and design sector in building up these strategic capabilities.
The Design & Planning Lab (DPLab) is a multi-disciplinary team in URA which drives URBEX efforts. In recognition of our work, URA was conferred the Excellence Award for ePlanner at Geospatial World Forum 2026, recognising URBEX’s exemplary usage of geospatial tools and solutions in Smart City and Urban Planning. In 2024, URA received the 2024 Esri Special Achievement in Geographic Information System (GIS) Award for demonstrating vision, leadership and innovation in the use of GIS technology, as well as the Esri Singapore GeoInnovation Award for being amongst Singapore’s most progressive organisations in the use of geospatial solutions to transform the future. Our flagship product, ePlanner (a web-based geospatial platform that brings digital planning tools to WOG) also won the Excellence Award at the Singapore Public Service’s Science, Technology and Engineering Conference 2024.
In DPLab, you will work alongside talented individuals with expertise in wide-ranging domains including data policy, governance, strategy and engineering, product strategy, business analysis, software engineering, cloud engineering, urban design technologies, data science, AI/Machine Learning, and M&S. You will also work closely with planners, architects, and policymakers to co-create digital solutions that contribute to enhancing the liveability, sustainability and resilience of our city-state.
[What you will be working on]
As Data Manager, you will work with government agencies and multi-disciplinary teams within URA to strengthen how planning data is collected, governed, shared and used. You will:
- Proactively engage agencies and stakeholders to map their planning workflows, data systems and pain points, and identify actionable opportunities for improvement.
- Lead business analysis to surface gaps in data quality, governance and end-to-end workflows, and champion solutions across stakeholders.
- Translate planning and user needs into clear data, product and engineering requirements, driving alignment between agencies and technical teams.
- Partner with technical teams to design and deliver improvements to data pipelines, platforms and applications.
- Represent end-user and planning perspectives in product, solution architecture and infrastructure discussions, ensuring solutions are fit for purpose.
- Own and advance metadata, data access, user governance and compliance practices across the organisation.
- Drive the evaluation of emerging data and AI technologies through structured testing and practical use cases and recommend adoption pathways.
- Spearhead cross-agency initiatives and lead the adoption of DPLab's platforms and capabilities.
[What we are looking for]
Knowledge
- Experience in the planning sector with understanding of planning workflows, processes and data requirements.
- Knowledge of data management practices, including data quality, metadata, governance and lifecycle management.
- Understanding of data pipelines, platforms and integration.
- Awareness of data access, security, governance and responsible data-sharing practices.
- Knowledge of geospatial data, urban analytics or cloud data platforms would be advantageous.
Skills
- Strong business analysis, systems thinking and problem-solving abilities.
- Ability to gather and synthesise information from multiple sources and recommend practical solutions.
- Strong stakeholder engagement and facilitation skills.
- Ability to translate between business, planning and technical perspectives.
- Ability to manage concurrent workstreams, dependencies and stakeholders.
- Good written and verbal communication skills.
- Familiarity with geospatial data analytics and the ability to frame data problem statements that clearly define scope, constraints and success criteria.
Attitude
- Passion for applying data and technology to improve urban planning and public-sector outcomes.
- Comfortable working with ambiguity and evolving requirements.
- Proactive in identifying gaps and improving existing processes.
- Collaborative and able to work effectively across organisational boundaries.
- Keen to experiment with emerging technologies and continuously learn and share knowledge.
- Resilient and resourceful — able to navigate obstacles and setbacks without losing momentum, and quick to find alternative approaches when the path forward is unclear.