Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) provides essential utility services to a rapidly growing and increasingly complex city and region. With more people living in Seattle than ever before, we face a range of new challenges, requirements and responsibilities. This is an exciting time for us, as we embrace the challenge of balancing environmental enhancement, service excellence and compliance with affordability. We are exploring and sharing approaches to meeting new and future demands.
 
SPU strives to be a Community Centered Utility working to make Seattle the best place to live for everyone. We deliver high quality, vital services, across four major lines of business:  providing water, solid waste, drainage and wastewater services for Seattle residents and businesses.  We also provide drinking water for 1.4 million regional customers in Seattle and other municipalities. Our customers depend on us to deliver high quality, reliable utility services and to achieve the highest benefits possible for every investment we make. With those goals in mind, we focus on the following in all we do:

• Achieve Excellence in Core Service Delivery
• Increase Affordability and Accountability
• Improve Investment Value
• Enhance Public Health and Environment
• Ensure Equity and Inclusion
• Expand our Impact through Strong Partnerships

Seattle Public Utilities has an exciting opportunity for a Deputy Director of Drainage and Wastewater who has demonstrated vision and a track record for delivering exceptional outcomes within a large utility with multiple lines of business. The Drainage and Wastewater (DWW) Deputy Director ensures the work of the DWW line of business is aligned with Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) Strategic Business Plan, is appropriately resourced, achieves the best value for customers and Seattle and identifies opportunities to develop the capacity and capabilities of DWW line of business. The DWW Deputy Director reports to the SPU General Manager and collaborates as part of the utility's executive team and leads a branch with over 200 employees. The position is directly accountable for setting DWW line of business strategy, policy and planning; establishing and meeting service levels; shaping the capital program, developing effective and efficient initiatives, programs and projects, managing and developing staff, meeting regulatory requirements; and conducting outstanding work in the field.

PRIORITIES

The top priorities for the DWW Deputy Director are:

1. Collaborating as an ethical creative and knowledgeable colleague within SPU's Executive Team, interdepartmental teams and internal teams; to achieve affordable equitable and effective solutions and a positive community-centered culture.
2. Managing staff, developing their capabilities and supporting their needs while strategically aligning them to achieve operational and planning excellence.  
3. Creating approaches for the DWW line of business which dovetail with the vision, mission, and strategic plan of the utility, establishing key departmental priorities and communicating them effectively to the DWW staff.
4. Meeting DWW budgets and SPU goals, including ensuring the success of the DWW Capital Improvement Program through effective planning and fund management.
5. Ensuring that Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) planning programs and projects fulfill consent decree requirements in a sustainable progressive path as possible
6. Developing an integrated wastewater and drainage plan that integrates sustainable system performance, regulatory requirements, and expressed community outcomes.
7. Participating in the development, implementation and reporting on SPU's Strategic Business Plan.
8. Ensuring affordability and fiscal oversight in the work and management of the DWW line of business. Participating in rate making, budgeting and reporting processes of the line of business and the utility.

Job Responsibilities:

• Leading the efficient and forward-looking operation and maintenance of SPU's drainage and wastewater systems. 
• Ensuring reliable delivery of drainage and wastewater services and safe sewage transport to King County Treatment plants that meets, or exceeds, SPU service levels and regulatory requirements.
• Directing the support of the Joint Operations and System Optimization Plan ensuring SPU and King County Drainage and Wastewater systems are operating compatibly and at optimal levels.
• Prioritizing the achievement of SPU's Capacity, Management, Operations and Maintenance (CMOM) Roadmap in order to provide wastewater collection service levels as required by the Consent Decree with the US Department of Justice and Washington State Department of Ecology, and the City's NPDES permits. 
• Initiating and facilitating comprehensive planning that identifies current and anticipated future DWW-LOB resource needs to ensure system resiliency to meet operational service levels, regulatory compliance, population growth, development needs and environmental impacts of climate change and seismic resiliency.
• Developing an equitable culture that reflects outstanding team work where leaders and staff are connected and collaborative and effectively seek out and apply diversity of knowledge, skills, and perspectives.
• Financial knowledge and performance for the DWW-LOB. Management to the DWW-LOB Capital Improvement Program (CIP), operation budget and rates targets. Allocates DWW-LOB resources and assures utilization to achieve the best value for SPU customers.
• Developing and implementing strategic asset management plans for all DWW-LOB major asset classifications, including risk assessment, asset management hierarchies, asset condition reporting, and asset renewal plans per corporate methods and standards.
• Planning and defining DWW-LOB CIP priorities, scope and budget allocation within the DWW Fund. Establishing general scope of DWW-LOB CIP projects identifying the problem, performance requirements, opportunity, funding availability and time frames for solutions to be in place. Approving significant changes in scope or budget of DWW-LOB projects.
• Ensuring service equity and advance environmental justice in the utility's investments.
• Championing and facilitating a safe, un-biased and inclusive workplace that supports employee engagement, innovation, productivity and diversity. 
• Maintaining and enhancing positive relationships with customers and stakeholders; ensuring responsiveness to complaints and inquiries; and proactively planning DWW initiatives, operations, needs, and projects with SPU partners, stakeholders, employees and customers. 
• Directing the Continuity of Operations (COOP) planning to insure adequate DWW services under a broad range of circumstances including all-hazard emergencies; natural, man-made, and technological threats; and national security emergencies.
• Ensuring the Department's responsiveness to identified customer values, service equity and regulatory compliance in the planning and management of t of DWW services. Actively ensuring that all communities and customer groups have equitable access, service delivery and ability to use DWW services.
• Participating as an effective and collaborative member of SPU's Executive Team, prioritizing the interests of customers and community.