Deputy Director / T&ES City Operations
OverviewThe Deputy Director will lead a diverse team of the City’s Operations and Maintenance Divisions, focusing on highly visible, front-line service delivery in a customer-focused environment. This position should prioritize providing excellent service to City residents and businesses, creatively and responsively resolving community public infrastructure concerns while balancing the safety and well-being of staff. The position will embody the T&ES Leadership Philosophy, fostering engagement, collaboration, diversity, and decision-making at all levels. It is expected to cultivate a culture that is progressive, equitable, transparent, inclusive, and collaborative. This individual must combine a strategic, high-level perspective with strong management and administrative skills.
Reporting to the Director of Transportation & Environmental Services (T&ES), the Deputy Director is a senior executive on the City’s leadership team who will bring a collaborative, team-oriented, and problem-solver presence. The position’s responsibilities will include providing leadership, management, and strategic direction to the City’s Operation and Maintenance Team, encompassing refuse, street cleaning, fleet, streets, and storm/sewer maintenance, and traffic management.
The Deputy Director should have experience in managing horizontal infrastructure operations and maintenance, possess strong fiscal and business acumen, and demonstrate excellent communication and customer orientation skills. The candidate should also have extensive experience working with people, creatively solving problems, and facilitating the city's transition into collective bargaining. Additionally, the selected candidate should be a public servant and an excellent public speaker capable of connecting with staff and representing the City to elected officials, commissions, and community groups.
The City’s Operations and Maintenance Team plays a central role in responding to day-to-day community needs, delivering high-quality City services while minimizing health and safety impacts on staff. The well-being of T&ES employees is a top priority.
The Opportunity – Examples of Work- Effectively addressing deferred maintenance of storm and sanitary sewers, as well as bridges and roads, while handling a myriad of day-to-day responsibilities, including maximizing the collaboration efforts within the Operations and Maintenance;
- Continued implementation and utilization of technological systems used for managing, assigning, tracking, and reporting departmental maintenance activities, with the goal to maximize operational efficiencies with technology to utilize data in an effort to improve data collection, for purposes of decision making;
- Ongoing emphasis on safety;
- Implementation of the City authorization of collective bargaining under a new state law, the first in Virginia. The City will be transitioning in this direction over the next several years with the goal of achieving organizational excellence through cooperation, ethics, honesty, initiative, and learning;
- Leading the sustainability, development, management, and control of the Operations and Maintenance budget;
- Administering City maintenance contracts with outside parties, managing, and coordinating the work of contractors;
- Continue to implement the recently achieved APWA Reaccreditation and focus on best-practices;
- Leads weather-related event response efforts, particularly in anticipation of severe weather, ensuring timely follow-up procedures are in place and addressing any issues promptly;
- Coordinates with relevant teams and stakeholders to implement proactive measures and strategies during weather-related emergencies, optimizing resource allocation and fostering effective communication and collaboration;
- Continue to transition the City’s fleet through sustainable fleet management guiding principles;
- Performing related work as required.
Essential Knowledge, Skills and Abilities- Comprehensive knowledge of the principles and practices of public works administration; ability to plan, organize, and direct large-scale activities of a number of professional, technical, and other supervisory personnel; ability to actively and effectively plan, organize, and direct large-scale activities of a number of professional, technical and other supervisory assistants working in public works programs; ability to provide direction to division heads in planning and administering diversified activities; ability to exercise good professional judgment; ability to communicate clearly and effectively, both orally and in writing with a wide variety of people within and outside of the City government.
About the DepartmentT&ES is a community partner in shaping a livable, green, and prospering Alexandria. We plan, build, manage and maintain transportation systems and environmental infrastructure that provide people and businesses with mobility and utilities. We help keep Alexandria moving and growing sustainably. We are a vibrant, diverse department that plays a major role in how the City operates day-to-day as well as how it will look in the future. With more than 260 employees including environmental engineers, equipment operators, transit planners, laborers, construction inspectors, financial analysts, and civil engineers; we are an interdisciplinary and committed workforce. We are also an APWA accredited public works agency with award-winning environmental and planning programs such as Eco-City Alexandria and Local Motion.In order to be eligible for this position, an applicant must possess a four (4) year college degree from a university with a degree in public administration, construction management, civil engineering or a related field; Extensive maintenance, operations, and public works experience as it related to public infrastructure, some of which shall have been in management of large work units, including administration of complex programs related to public maintenance and service operations; or any equivalent combination of experience and training which provides the required knowledge, skills and abilities.The ideal candidate will possess a background that includes six (6) or more years of increasingly responsible public maintenance and operations management experience, including at least three years directing the work of or supervising others, and possession of a bachelor’s degree in public administration, construction management, or civil engineering, or a related field. The possession of a PE or an MPA is highly desirable and background in collective bargaining environments is preferred.
This position requires the successful completion of pre-employment background checks.