Communications & business development coordinator
About Happy Cities
Happy Cities is an urban planning, design, and engagement consulting firm. We are proud to be a certified B Corp and Living Wage employer.
Our journey began with a question: If we understand the effect that urban design has on people’s feelings and behaviour, can we make cities happier? This question drove more than a decade of research, culminating in our co-founder Charles Montgomery’s bestselling book, Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design.
Happy Cities grew into a planning, design, and research firm that works with clients around the world to create happier, healthier, more inclusive communities. Our approach to urban wellbeing recognizes that people have wide-ranging lived experiences. Community engagement is a core component of our work, and we strive to reach and hear from diverse voices in each of the communities we serve. Our engagement approaches offer fun, educational, inclusive, and meaningful ways for people to give input in city planning processes. We believe that engagement should provide value for participants and not just extract information from them. We also know that equitable engagement requires continual efforts to reach people of all backgrounds.
About the role
This role will support our business development and communications efforts to create happier, healthier, more inclusive communities. We are looking for someone with strong writing, editing, and organization skills—with a sharp eye for detail, clarity, and storytelling. You will apply these skills to produce multimedia content for our website and social media platforms, and to coordinate our proposal submission process. There may also be opportunities to support our planning project work, including strengthening key messages for public engagement, producing communications materials to reach a wide variety of audiences, and copy editing reports.
At Happy Cities, we share evidence and stories that make the case for wellbeing-focused design—whether in project deliverables or corporate communications. Ideally, you will have some familiarity with the principles and research behind urban planning and community wellbeing. If you don’t, tell us why this work excites you and how you are equipped to learn it.
About you
Essential
Undergraduate degree plus 1-3 years experience working in communications, marketing, or a related field.
Strong verbal, written, and visual communication skills.
Strong organization and time management skills, with ability to coordinate and deliver content for multiple projects with fast turnaround.
Ability to write clearly and concisely for a variety of formats, including social media, web pages, and research and engagement reports.
Experience copy editing (Happy Cities follows CP style).
Experience managing and publishing website content.
Experience delivering and producing social media campaigns.
Graphic design skills, including proficiency InDesign and Illustrator.
Knowledge of digital communications and marketing strategy, including for website/SEO, social media, and newsletters.
Familiarity with urban planning principles (and an interest in learning more).
Strong knowledge of equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism.
Beneficial
Experience writing blog posts and/or articles for urbanism or media organizations.
Experience with proposal/grant writing and RFP process, ideally related to urban planning.
Experience writing about complex research and planning topics.
Experience creating clear, creative, and compelling graphic reports and visual materials.
Ability to create short-form video content or reels for social media platforms.
Understanding of accessible communications practices.
Bilingual or fluent in a language other than English.
What you would be doing at Happy Cities
Creating copy, graphics, and videos for various social media platforms (Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.) using Adobe Creative Cloud programs.
Supporting management of the Happy Cities website, including preparing and uploading regular content via Squarespace.
Supporting business development, including coordinating the proposal-writing process, setting up proposal documents, and reviewing for quality control.
Writing blog posts that translate technical insights into compelling stories.
Copy editing reports and written materials, with support from the communications team.
Supporting our planning teams as needed, with graphics, engagement materials, report layouts, and other communications items.
Ensuring brand alignment across Happy Cities’ internal and public-facing work.
Contribute to the development and execution of a digital communications strategy, including content planning, audience engagement, and performance tracking.
Compensation
The proposed annual salary range for this position is $65,000 to $68,000 depending on expertise and skill. This is a full-time position.
This is a hybrid position, based out of our offices in either Vancouver or Halifax. Applicants must be legally able to work in Canada.
Employees are eligible for various benefits, including:
Supportive and inclusive workplace
Extended health benefits, including vision and dental
Flexible schedule and remote work policy
Paid vacation time and health days
Annual profit-sharing pool for full-time, permanent employees
Summer Fridays policy
How to apply
Send an application to careers@happycities.com by Jan. 6, 2026 (end of day Pacific time). Please write “Communications coordinator” as the subject of your email.
Your application should include:
Resume showing your recent employment and relevant skills.
A cover letter of maximum two pages. Please don’t repeat your resume. We want to get to know you. Tell us what drives you to build happier cities, how you approach communications, or even tell us a story. We want to know what makes you a unique fit for this role. And we respect emotional honesty.
A portfolio or samples of your best writing, communications, and design work (e.g. articles, social media campaigns, reports, or other materials). Please include context and state your role in each.
A note about our equity and inclusion policy
Happy Cities is an equal opportunity employer. We are proud to be a diverse team in terms of race, culture, religion, sexual orientation, gender, and professional background. We do not tolerate discrimination and we seek to strengthen inclusion and diversity on our team.
Happy Cities values
Impact: Happy Cities’ work has a positive impact on the lives of people around the world.
Equity and inclusion: We ensure that diverse and underrepresented populations are included in design processes and that city systems and spaces serve everyone, especially equity-seeking groups.
Interdisciplinary excellence: We integrate expertise from complementary disciplines into meaningful solutions. We are recognized as leaders in our industry.
Practical solutions: We create realistic, achievable solutions that are driven by local context, economic realities, and understanding of human behaviour.
Dignity and kindness in relationships: We centre human dignity and kindness in our work, community engagement, and company practices. We build long-term, lasting, and non-transactional relationships.
Trust and accountability: We build trust with clients and communities by being reliable and by following through on our commitments.
Sustainability: We promote decisions that lead to better long-term economic, social, and environmental outcomes for our team, projects, and the communities we serve.
