Race and Social Equity Officer

An Overview
Is your professional purpose aligned with leading an organization in achieving the goal of racial equity and advancement opportunities for all?

Does growing a leading diversity and inclusion infrastructure of a city, and the workforce that serves it, invigorate you?

If you are the transformational leader that the above describes, The City of Alexandria welcomes you to apply to be our first Race and Social Equity Officer.

The Race and Social Equity Officer directs, administers, and facilitates City-wide race and social equity programs; works to build an infrastructure to ensure policy decisions are evaluated to create fair access to opportunity; and collaborates with City departments, employees, community members, and other stakeholders to make meaningful movement towards a more equitable city.

This executive position will be a member of our City Manager's Office senior leadership team; and will directly report to our Deputy City Manager whose portfolio oversees the City's Public Safety Agencies, Department of Human Resources, as well as the Department of Community and Human Services.

The Opportunity
The Race and Social Equity Officer will exercise broad direction over equity work across the City of Alexandria, providing leadership and vision to ensure the development and management of innovative and effective strategies to achieve racial and social equity for City residents and employees. In detail, the leader in this role will:

• Act as SME for the City providing insight, expertise and recommendations specific to race and social equity/ diversity and inclusion initiatives;
• Educate internal and community stakeholders by developing and providing Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) driven strategic race and social equity training initiatives for all staff, and targeted development activities for underrepresented staff and county groups;
• Review, monitor, and provide guidance of City government policies and practices that have resulted in a negative impact on certain populations of residents;
• Create and execute targeted strategies to improve engagement, communication, and spur invigoration of under-associated communities within the City, in addition to managing and design various civic engagement initiatives;
• Identify institutional barriers to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and working with leadership to remove those barriers to ensure full and equitable participation for existing and future staff;
• Develop strong and collaborative relationships with external stakeholders (community groups, elected officials, non-profits, etc.) to advance shared goals;
• Lead the development of a City-wide strategy for diversity and inclusion, including creation of a dashboard to use data to monitor and measure the impact of initiatives quantitatively and qualitatively on a consistent basis;
• Establish and maintains an internal auditing and reporting system to allow for effective monitoring, measurement and reporting of organizational program effectiveness;
• Oversee the development and implementation of a City-wide race and social equity guidelines, updates and communicates current City diversity and inclusion objectives, establishes performance expectations, and ensures full adherence to federal, state, and local EEO/EO laws, policies, and directives that impact City workforce and community;
• Assist with the development of policies and programs to attract, retain, develop and promote diverse talent for the organization.

The Ideal Candidate
To be minimally qualified all applicants must possess a Bachelors degree; and five years of experience; or an equivalent combination of education, experience and training which provides the required knowledge, skills and abilities.

About the City Manager's Office
The City Manager's Office carries out the policy directives of the City Council and manages the daily operations of City government including oversees the preparation of the annual operating and capital budgets, appoints heads of departments and employees of the City , and its administrative staff oversees the preparation and review of all City Council docket items, requests, and Council meeting materials. If you are curious for a broader view of our City government click here , or for a broader view of the City of Alexandria click here .