My Stantec Story: Building a career in transport planning with Ruby Stringer
June 24, 2024
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Ruby, a principal transport planner, shares her passion for working within Stantec’s Active Travel team in Scotland
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In the My Stantec Story series, our designers, engineers, marketers, project managers, and leaders come together to share how their career journeys at Stantec have shaped their lives and moved them closer to their goals.
Tell us about your role…
I’m a principal transport planner with Stantec’s Active Travel team in Scotland, which sits within the wider Transport team. I mostly manage projects with one or two other people working for me—my previous experience isn’t really in the actual design of roads, so I work quite closely with other colleagues who know more about it. Our projects range across the whole of Scotland, so the work I’ve done since I joined Stantec has covered Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Argyll, and even Shetland!
What attracted you to a career at Stantec?
I joined Stantec about two and a half years ago when I moved to Glasgow. I used to live in London and during the pandemic I left my job and walked from John o’ Groats to Land’s End—from one end of Britain to the other. I walked about 1,200 miles over four months! After that, I wanted to find somewhere new to live. Glasgow was on my shortlist because it’s such a cool city and an amazing base for exploring the rest of Scotland. When this job with Stantec’s Active Travel team came up, it was pretty much my dream job, so I jumped at the chance to apply. At the time, we were one of the only dedicated active travel focused teams in the UK. I joined the team at the beginning of a period of real growth both within Stantec and in Scotland in general, so it was a great time to step into this role.
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What do you enjoy most about your role?
I love the variety! I work on a really wide range of active travel projects across different geographical contexts, client objectives, problems to solve, and people to work with. One of my recent projects has been shortlisted for a Scottish Transport Award, and I’m really excited to see where my work takes me in the next couple of years!
How has your personal and professional development been supported at Stantec?
Recently, I attended a workshop at our internal development centre aimed at supporting people at around my level to grow into leadership roles. I received some targeted career coaching, and explored what my goals are in terms of my career (and life really!). I’d never done that before, and I don’t think I would have sought it out myself—it was quite affirming to be selected and offered that support.
I’ve also been a board director for the Transport Planning Society during my time at Stantec. This involves helping facilitate events, which has been really positive for my professional development and for initiating project opportunities for Stantec. I’ve been grateful to be supported in that role as it’s been really impactful for me.
What has been the standout project for you during your time at Stantec?
I’ve worked recently on a project in Dundee City Centre where we created concept designs for a city centre network linking to a proposed mobility hub that’s a converted multi-storey car park. This was supported by Levelling Up Fund (LUF) funding. We worked on the LUF bid, the concept design project, and we’ve been asked to support on the detailed designs. It’s a dream project in a way that brings together many elements of urban regeneration and city centre connectivity, together with a fantastic and really ambitious client. We’ve recently found out this project has also been shortlisted for a Scottish Transport Award so we’re now also looking forward to attending that awards ceremony!
" }I work on a really wide range of active travel projects across different geographical contexts, client objectives, problems to solve, and people to work with.
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What are your ambitions for your future at Stantec?
I genuinely love the role I’m currently in. In thinking about where I’d like to head in the future, I’d like to develop my technical skills a bit more and get more urban regeneration and small network design projects under my belt. I also have quite a bit of experience from my previous job in gender and wider equalities in relation to transport—I would like to bring this more directly into my day-to-day work and learn more about child-friendly design.
What are your passions outside of work?
I love being outside! I love walking, particularly multi-day walking and wild camping—it feels amazing to be so self-sufficient. I also love cycling and have done various cycle tours and long bike rides. Coming up soon is a Ride to the Sun which is an overnight 100-mile bike ride from coast to coast on one of the shortest nights of the year, which I’m hoping to do for the second time.
Why should others join the Stantec team?
In my role I’ve always had great levels of autonomy—I’m trusted to do a good job. I’ve been supported in everything I’ve wanted to pursue, and I feel really proud of the team that I work in.
For me, working at Stantec has been whatever I’ve wanted it to be, and I think that’s a fantastic thing to have at such a large and complex company.
At Stantec, we put people first. For Ruby, that means growing a career she loves in transport planning with a supportive team behind her.
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