TAP Implementation and Advocacy Manager

Please Note: This position operates in a hybrid work environment and requires onsite work in Olympia a minimum of two (2) days a week. Additionally, the Hiring Team may make a hiring decision at any time. It is in your best interest to apply at your earliest convenience.
 
Who We Are
The Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board (Workforce Board) is a tri-partite board (business, labor, and government), and cabinet agency created to provide objective planning, coordination, evaluation, monitoring, policy analysis and advocacy across Washington’s comprehensive workforce development system in support of Washington’s workers, jobseekers, businesses, and communities. The Workforce Board engages a wide range of state, local, and federal agencies, business, labor, community-based organizations, and others representing system customers to inform our work. Board and agency staff maintain a laser focus on the state’s economic strength, the availability of a strong and responsive talent pipeline, and on equitable access to that pipeline for every Washingtonian. For more information about the Workforce Board, you can access the website at www.wtb.wa.gov.
 
Talent and Prosperity for All (TAP) Plan
Board and agency staff work with a broad cross-section of stakeholders, and partners to keep abreast of issues and trends affecting businesses, workers, and communities, and strive to eliminate barriers to and improve outcomes towards economic prosperity and resilience. The Board's stakeholder engagement, policy analysis and research work are extensive and form the foundation for the state’s comprehensive strategic plan for workforce development, Talent and Prosperity for All (TAP). Contained within the TAP plan are the strategic priorities of the system based on identified needs, the activities and objectives of administrative agency partners, as well as of the Workforce Board itself. TAP serves as a navigational tool for all components of the state’s workforce development system, as well as the overarching framework for the Board’s ongoing work. The development and oversight of the plan fall within the administrative responsibilities of the Workforce Board that are required by two federal grant programs (Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act [WIOA] and the Carl D. Perkins Act for Career and Technical Education [Perkins V]), and by the state statutes that authorize the work of the Board (RCW 28C.18). The organization leads using the principles of collective impact and centered on closing economic disparities, ensuring that every Washingtonian can benefit from the state’s economic prosperity. The Vision, Mission, and Values of the organization are:

Vision
Every Washington community is thriving, inclusive, and economically resilient.
 
Mission
We champion strategies and align organizations and stakeholders statewide to enable the future of work, which ensures a successful business climate and livable-wage jobs for all. 
 
Values

• Racial Equity and Inclusiveness: We work to end systemic racism, value differences, and welcome all voices.
• Innovative and Agile: We are nimble and creative in responding to the needs of our customers to revolutionize Washington’s workforce system.
• Collaboration: We value our teamwork, partnerships and proactively engage all stakeholders with open and honest communication.
• Accountability: We are responsible to each other and to the public to ensure the effectiveness of investments in the workforce system.
• Integrity: We hold ourselves to the highest standards of ethics and honesty. Our moral compass aligns to our vision.

TAP Implementation
The TAP Implementation and Advocacy Manager (Manager) will manage the direction and momentum of overall TAP implementation and the work of topic-specific staff leads, working closely with the leadership of the state’s service agencies, Workforce Board sponsors, local workforce development partners, and business and labor organizations. The Manager’s role supports organizational and system effectiveness and transparency. Keeping TAP implementation on track and ensuring that the voices of system stakeholders of all types are heard and considered as critical decisions are made are all essential parts of this role.

Legislative Information and Advocacy
The TAP manager will be a primary communicator about TAP and the workforce system with the Governor, Legislature, and other important policymakers and influencers of the state’s comprehensive workforce development system. An important statutory role of the Board is to identify the needs of the system to be effective, and to help advocate for resources and legislative reform to meet those needs.

Position Objective:
The TAP Implementation and Advocacy Manager (Manager) is a new leadership position designed to support the implementation and ongoing relevance of the TAP plan across the state’s comprehensive workforce development system. TAP has a four-year implementation period to achieve transformational goals. To achieve success, it is critical that programmatic partners are able to work together across their traditional silos to improve and expand service delivery. The Manager will identify and help actualize the policy and practice changes that are required for cross-agency service integration and other systemic improvements.
 
Each plan partner or stakeholder organization, having made commitments towards attaining TAP’s goals, also has its own governance and funding structure, and determines its objectives, actions, and priorities based on its operating context. The Manager’s responsibility is to work within and across the contextual environments of all partners to keep awareness of TAP’s strategic priorities and goals elevated, to understand when the operating environment for partners is shifting, and to facilitate decision-making and consensus-building towards collective goals and continuous improvement of system outcomes.

The Manager will be a primary point of contact on behalf of the Board, and with the principals or executives of partner agencies and their designees. Structured, ongoing relationships with business and labor partners are also critical to the success of this position. Internally, the Manager will work closely with the Leadership Team and staff of the various programmatic and administrative divisions of the agency to ensure ongoing relevance and synergy with the state plan. Ultimately, the Manager serves as a key facilitator and essential channel of communication among the Board, staff, and all partners and stakeholders to ensure that the plan is being implemented effectively, interim and outcome objectives are being met, and when necessary, agreed-upon modifications and corrective actions are undertaken. The Manager is also a lead policy advocate, working closely with the agency’s Deputy Executive Director to maintain and develop connections with the Governor’s Office, legislators, and federal policymakers to communicate and inform on transformative policies and budget resources needed in support of TAP implementation and goals.
 
As the first TAP Implementation and Advocacy Manager, you will help to design a long-term workplan for this position. In the first year, expectations are high for four priority areas of responsibility:

1. Support TAP implementation activities,
2. Advance systemwide integrated service delivery,
3. Increase the engagement of industry partners in the design, delivery, and ongoing evaluation of system services, and
4. Development of and advocacy for TAP-focused policy reform at the state and federal levels.

 An initial set of activities related to these priority areas is outlined in Duties and Tasks.Some of the Duties Include:
1. Supporting TAP implementation activities: The TAP plan is the reflection of a broad collective impact initiative and the culmination of more than a year-long process of stakeholder engagement and collective prioritization. Three guiding principles and five strategic priorities were established, which frame the goals and objectives for the system. TAP-related activities will be occurring within and across the various administrative and programmatic agencies of the comprehensive workforce development system. The TAP Manager will be working with all these organizations to keep the plan on track with an initial focus on the following:

1. Project manage according to the goals and objectives of TAP and the charters of the various work teams supporting TAP implementation,
2. Keep the Board apprised of progress of various TAP-related work streams.
3. Serve as communications conduit between the Board and partner organizations regarding TAP implementation.
4. Work closely with the staff leads and Board sponsors to coordinate and coach the multi-stakeholder, categorical workgroups devoted to TAP implementation. Create processes to help ensure each workgroup can meet agreed-upon objectives within chartered timelines.
5. Support cross-workgroup awareness, learning, and efficiency, and the reduction or elimination of duplication of effort.
   

2. Advancing systemwide integrated service delivery: System services are created to focus on the chief barriers to success for jobseeker and business customers. The services within Washington’s workforce development system are provided across a large group of agencies and organizations. Each service or funding stream is administered according to its own set of statutory and regulatory parameters and performance metrics. For the jobseeker or business customer needing multiple services from two or more organizations, differences among administrative structures creates enormous hurdles to access, participation, and persistence to completion. While some progress has been made by system partners over a number of years, very little has resulted in comprehensive policy reform related to integrated service delivery. This position will have a lead role in supporting the development of policy recommendations towards effective service integration across TAP programs.

1. Work with the Integrated Service Delivery TAP Workgroup and staff leads, as they identify promising practices, continuing service gaps, and other lessons learned.
2. Work closely with the Frontline Worker Subcommittee to gain deeper understanding of what service integration means and the impact it can have at the frontlines. This subcommittee will examine current inter-agency service designs, help develop new service delivery protocols that support effective service integration and seek resources for pilot-testing and evaluating new models, also to aid the development of policy recommendations.
3. Gain awareness of the data and infrastructure issues that impact integrated service delivery from the staff lead for the Integrated Data-Sharing Committee.
4. Coordinate across the above-named workgroups and support the Performance Accountability and Evaluation Committee to create a public-facing data dashboard to transparently track system progress towards full-scale service integration and its impact on customers. Help socialize the dashboard among interested stakeholders.

3. Increasing the engagement of industry partners in the design, delivery, and ongoing evaluation of system services: An important facet of the TAP plan is the ability of the workforce development system to respond to industry’s workforce needs as they arise. There have been tremendous changes in the skill needs of industry over the past 20 years. More change is expected with rapid advancements in technology and automation, security and environmental policy shifts, and changes in workplace practices, many as a result of the pandemic. Core components of the workforce development system were designed between 75 and 100 years ago, for a different economy and different societal norms. System partners and stakeholders determined that transformation is required of the policy frameworks that direct system services, and that employers and workers must be engaged as co-creators of the next generation system. The TAP Manager plays a lead role in bringing industry—business and labor—to the table for this important work, with the following responsibilities:

1. Lead the newly created Industry Advisory Council (Council), to be represented by business and other employer associations, labor unions, and professional organizations. The TAP manager will recruit members and work with members and the Board sponsor to establish the Council as an ongoing advisory body for the Board and the system.
2. Work with Council members to identify critical workforce issues affecting current and projected business success and develop policy and practice recommendations to address those issues.
3. Convene system service providers with Council members to discuss current resources available, potential solutions within existing resources, and impediments to fully addressing identified issues.
4. Socialize and attain multi-stakeholder buy-in on recommendations to be considered by the Board.

4. Development of and advocacy for policy reform at the state and federal levels: The Board has a core responsibility, articulated in state statute, to advise the Governor and Legislature on the current status of the system and recommendations to improve system performance. The intent of the establishment of the Board was further modified by the Legislature (1995) to “clarify the preeminent role intended for the workforce training and education coordinating board in coordination and policy development of the state's workforce development efforts.” The first two functions of the Board listed in statute (RCW 28C.18) prioritize these functions:
(1) Concentrate its major efforts on planning, coordination evaluation, policy analysis, and recommending improvements to the state's training system.
2) Advocate for the state training system and for meeting the needs of employers and the workforce for workforce education and training.
The TAP plan is the Board’s vehicle that drives the work of these two functions. Therefore, the TAP Manager is best situated to take a leadership role in developing and implementing the Board’s advocacy strategy. The Manager will work closely with the Deputy Executive Director, who oversees policy advocacy and legislative relations for the agency. Some of the related activities for this work include, but are not limited to:

1. Becoming knowledgeable about the core tenets of the TAP plan, the current TAP legislative agenda, and historical details and initiatives that led to the development of the agenda. Maintaining an awareness of local, state and national issues impacting workforce development generally and the TAP plan and legislative agenda specifically.
2. Work with Leadership and Communications staff to develop and oversee a communications portfolio to promote the TAP legislative agenda. Portfolio may contain, but is not limited to presentation materials, one-pagers or other briefing materials, articles and editorial drafts, web-based resources, social media, and other distribution information. 
3. Create and oversee a plan for establishing legislative support for the TAP agenda, including, but not limited to, in-person or remote meetings with legislators and key legislative staff, identifying opportunities for legislative work sessions on all or part of the agenda, coordinating testimony or sign-ins for proposed legislation that relates to the TAP agenda or the goals of the TAP plan.
4. Support the Deputy Executive Director in managing a legislative program that includes monitoring legislation impacting the workforce development system, maintaining a bill tracking system for legislative team members, ensuring posts of regular bill status updates to the agency website, tracking relevant work sessions and committee hearings on legislation, and reviewing legislative proposals.
5. Maintain relationships with a network of stakeholders and contacts who support and understand workforce development and its value to the state and its citizens.
6. Work with and support staff, Board members, and partners to help socialize and advocate for the TAP agenda, including training and preparation on legislative etiquette and protocols when necessary for direct communication with legislators and policymakers.
7. Support executive leadership with the creation of requested fiscal notes and annual agency decision package items.
8. Draft and secure approval of the Workforce Board on a yearly TAP legislative agenda that supports the workforce development system’s budget requests, as well as any necessary policy initiatives. 
9. Co-Lead efforts with the Communications unit to prepare and distribute to the legislature statutorily mandated and other important reports related to TAP and the workforce system, such as, but not limited to the Youth Unemployment Report, Workforce Training Results and Net Impact Analysis, Workforce System Matrix, and other topical reports.
10. Create opportunities in the legislative interim for legislative engagement and education about the workforce development system by designing and coordinating workforce tours, information sessions, and briefings about best practices locally and nationwide.
11. Prepare and present to the Workforce Board on topics relating to the Legislature or other relevant policy initiatives, at the direction of the executive leadership.

5. Other activities may be assigned to help advance the work of the organization, including, but not limited to, grant development, report-writing, competitive procurement, Board development, presentations for a wide range of audiences, and representing the agency on various boards, commissions and workgroups.Required Qualifications:

• History of increasingly responsible positions, including at least two (2) years of senior management experience or four (4) years of policy development and legislative experience, or a combination of both over a six (6) year period.
• Three (3) or more years of senior project management experience.
• Experience working with industry or industry associations on projects or activities connected in whole or in part to workforce issues.
• Experience working in or with workforce development, education, or human service agencies.
• Demonstrated ability to cultivate and maintain close working relationships with executive leaders from a wide array of organizations, such as local workforce development councils (LWDCs), K-12 and postsecondary education (both public and private), state agencies, business and labor groups, community- and faith-based organizations, advocacy groups, tribal organizations, the Governor’s office, and the Legislature. Cultural competence, with the ability to appreciate, understand, and effectively interact with people from different cultures is a must. 
• Sensitivity to cultural, socioeconomic, and geographic factors that impact diversity, equity and inclusion, and ability to design inclusive programs and policies.
• Demonstrated excellent communication, report-writing, and public speaking skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in one or more C-Suite positions, preferably with decision-making authority on workforce issues.
• Track record solving complex problems involving multiple stakeholders.
• Demonstrated skills in facilitation, negotiations, consensus-building, and/or dispute resolution.
• Experience working with both business and labor organizations, with an understanding of their practices, policies, and perspectives.
• Awareness and understanding of the comprehensive workforce development system.
• High level of comfort working with data, including program evaluation, performance accountability, and policy implementation.
• Prior experience with one or more industry associations.
• Familiarity with statutes, policy issues, regulations, and legislation at the state and federal levels.

Please provide the following documents to be considered for the position. Failure to do so may result in you not being considered for the position:

• A letter of interest, no longer than two (2) pages, detailing how you have prepared yourself for this position.
• A current resume or CV detailing your experience and education.
• A current list of at least three (3) professional references, including current contact information.

Note: By submitting these materials, you are indicating that all information is true and correct. The state may verify information. Any untruthful or misleading information is cause for removal from the applicant pool or dismissal if employed. A resume will not substitute for completing the “duties summary” section of the application. Please do not refer to resume for detail, or your application may be disqualified.

Opportunity for All:
The Washington Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board celebrates our differences and we are committed to a workplace that supports equal opportunity employment and inclusion regardless of race, creed, color, national origin, citizenship or immigration status, marital status, families with children (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sex, sexual orientation, gender identity diversity, age, status as a protected veteran, honorably discharged veteran or military status, status as an individual with the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal by a person with disabilities or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We will also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws.
 
You are welcome to include the name and pronoun you would like to be referred to in your materials and we will honor this as you interact with our organization.

Contact Information:
For questions about this recruitment or to request a reasonable accommodation in the application process, contact Aggie Swanson via email at jobs@des.wa.gov. Applicants who are deaf or hard of hearing may call through the Washington Relay Service by dialing 7-1-1 or 1-800-833-6388.

Salary : $66,936 - $122,844