Deputy Director of Operations

Overview
The Deputy Director of Operations will lead a diverse branch of the City’s public works department that focuses on highly visible, front-line service delivery in a customer focused environment. This position should be focused on providing excellent service to City residents and businesses. This will mean creatively and responsively resolving community public works’ concerns while balancing the safety and well-being of staff.

Reporting to the Director of T&ES, the Deputy Director of Operations is a senior executive on the City’s leadership team who will bring a collaborative, team-oriented presence. The position’s responsibilities will include providing leadership and strategic direction to the Operations Branch of T&ES: traffic operations, street and sewer maintenance, refuse, recycling, and street cleaning.

The position will exemplify the T&ES Leadership Philosophy of creating an environment that fosters engagement, collaboration, diversity, and decision making at all levels. This position is expected to build and support a culture that is progressive, equitable, transparent, inclusive and collaborative. This individual will need to combine strategic, big-picture perspective with strong management and administrative skills. The Deputy Director will have experience managing public works services, strong fiscal and business acumen, and excellent communication and customer orientation skills. The candidate will also have deep experience with people, working creatively to solve problems and the ability to help the city transition smoothly into collective bargaining. Finally, the selected candidate will be an excellent relationship builder and public speaker who connects with staff but can also represent the City to elected officials, commissions, and community groups.

The Operations Branch of T&ES was a central player in the City’s COVID-19 response. The team continued to provide high quality City services with minimal health and safety impacts to staff. The well-being of T&ES employees is a chief consideration.

In 2020, the Operations Branch Divisions responded to more than 4,700 service requests through the city’s customer service initiative, 311. The Operations divisions have also been central to recent City flash flooding responses, including serving in an emergency response capacity and as a key player as the City accelerates and expands its storm sewer maintenance program.

Others recent achievements include:

• The formal launch and expansion of the City’s purple bin glass collection program.
• Collected nearly 3 million carts full of refuse, recycling, and yard waste, which improved the City’s waste diversion rate to 50%.
• Completed more than 1,000 parking meter repair/maintenance activities.

The Opportunity

• Effectively addressing deferred maintenance in storm and sanitary sewers, as well as bridges and roads, while handling a myriad of day-to-day responsibilities, including some associated with the City’s continual recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic;
• 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;
• Implementing 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 development, management, and control of the Operations branch budget;
• Administering City maintenance contracts with outside parties, and managing and coordinating the work of contractors;
• Achieving APWA Reaccreditation by Summer 2022;
• Performing related work as required.

About the Department
T&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 250 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.

Minimum & Additional Requirements

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 civil engineering or a related field; Extensive public works experience, some of which shall have been in management of large work units, including administration of complex programs relating to public works and service operations; or any equivalent combination of experience and training which provides the required knowledge, skills and abilities.

Preferred Qualifications

The ideal candidate will possess a background that includes six (6) or more years of increasingly responsible public works management experience, including at least three years directing the work of or supervising others, and possession of a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration, 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.

The Ideal Candidate will also:

• Be adept at vendor management including issuing RFPs, selecting contractors, and ensuring work standards are met;
• Incorporate best practices from localities engaged in collective bargaining;
• Bring an entrepreneurial approach to local government;
• Be politically savvy to appropriately address complex issues in a public setting;
• Promote a customer-oriented approach towards meeting client needs;
• Work collaboratively cross-departmentally and with other community organizations;
• Build trust, and demonstrate transparency, strong work ethic, and integrity;

Notes

*This position will be open until filled.

This position requires the successful completion of pre-employment background checks.