Career Opportunity

DIRECTOR OF POLICY AND GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS - External Affairs - SFPUC (0933) - (137788)

Recruitment: RTF0137787-01114120

Published: October 18, 2023

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About:

• Application Opening: 09/19/2023
• Application Filing Deadline: 10/31/2023
• Location: San Francisco, CA
• Analyst Name: Linda Muir
• Annual Salary: $167,908 to $214,344 Annually 
• Recruitment ID: RTF0137787-01114120 (137788)

The deadline for this job posting has been extended to 10/31/2023. Those who have previously applied will not need to reapply.

This is a Position-Based Test conducted in accordance with CSC Rule 111A. 

WHO ARE WE?
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC)
Headquartered in San Francisco, we have 2,300 employees operating across eight counties serving more than 2.7 million customers in the San Francisco Bay Area – 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.

Our Mission: To provide our customers with high quality, efficient, and reliable water, power, and wastewater services in a manner that values environmental and community interests and sustains the resources entrusted to our care.

Our Vision: We are an innovative utility leader, recognized for excellent results in service, safety, stewardship, and inclusiveness.

We are an award-winning and industry-leading utilities organization committed to our customers, community interests, and the environment. To learn more about our organization, please visit our website at https://www.sfpuc.org/.

We are proud of our infrastructure and programs, but most importantly, we value our highly qualified and dedicated workforce which ensures that this vision becomes a reality.

To learn more about working at the SFPUC, visit our career site at https://www.sfpuc.org/about-us/careers-sfpuc

About the Policy & Government Affairs Division of the External Affairs Bureau:

SFPUC is supported by the Business Services, Infrastructure, and External Affairs Bureaus. The External Affairs Division includes Strategy, Planning and Innovation, Policy and Government Affairs, Communications, and Community Benefits.  The Policy and Government Affairs Team is responsible for SFPUC's public policy and advocacy strategy at the local, state and federal level around water, wastewater, energy, infrastructure, climate change, and related issues. We work effectively in a fast-paced environment, often managing complex and impactful policy issues and projects with multiple moving parts.

Role description

Ideally the Director of Policy & Government Affairs is a highly experienced government affairs professional with extensive local, regional, state and federal relationships and legislative track record. In addition to having deep relationships and knowledge of legislative processes, this person will have the acumen to build new relationships, facilitate complex and sometimes contentious policy debates and develop "win-win" legislative compromises with sound judgement and integrity. 

Additionally, the Director will be able to skillfully lead:

• a team of five staff;
• internal collaboration with executive members and managerial staff of SFPUC's Water, Wastewater, and Power Enterprises to translate technical analysis and operational impacts into a strategy that forwards the agency’s legislative agenda;
• strategic, cross-sector partnerships to advance policy and legislative priorities.

Essential Responsibilities Under Your Leadership

Under the direction of the External Affairs Assistant General Manager and Deputy Assistant General Manager, the Director of Policy and Government Affairs will perform a broad range of managerial, professional, and analytical work. The Director of Policy and Government Affairs will be responsible for:

• Crafting the PUC's public policy agenda and strategy for achieving that agenda including providing timely and strategic recommendations to refine advocacy strategies in response to frequent shifts on the legislative and regulatory policy landscape;         
• Directing the development and execution of legislative and advocacy strategies and policies that advance the SFPUC's core objectives, goals, and plans at the local, regional, state and federal levels;     
• Building and strengthening external relationships with elected officials, government agencies, industry associations, environmental justice and environmental organizations and others to advance SFPUC policy priorities. Building and leading strategic, cross-sector partnerships to advance policy and legislative priorities;              
• Maintaining strong internal working relationships with the SFPUC staff. Briefing them of relevant policy proposals, legislation, regulation or trends including frequent communication and collaboration with Executive Management. Collaborating with the Mayor's Office and other City departments to advance complimentary policy and legislative positions;
• Directing and managing the analyzing, tracking and monitoring of federal, state, and local legislation as well as emerging legislative, policy or regulatory issues and proposals;
• Writing positions statements, talking points, issue briefs, comment letters and other appropriate responses to bills, regulations, and policies proposed by legislators;       
• Manage daily activities of state and federal lobbyists from multiple lobbying firms. Manage lobbyist contracts and reporting;                
• Supervise daily work of direct reports. Coach direct reports to improve performance and achieve professional development goals. Recruit and retain high-performing direct reports;      
• Collaborate with External Affairs Bureau leadership to develop and achieve the Bureau’s goals and priorities.            

The 0933 Manager V, Director of Policy and Government Affairs will perform other related duties and responsibilities as assigned.

How to qualify

Education: Possession of a baccalaureate degree or higher from an accredited university or college AND

Experience: Eight (8) years of professional experience developing and/or implementing policy, advocacy, or government affairs; including, three (3) years of supervisory experience.

Education Substitution: Additional years of experience as listed above may substitute for up to two years of the required degree on a year for year basis. One year of full-time employment is equivalent to 2000 hours. (2000 hours of qualifying work experience is based on a 40-hour work week.)

Applicants must meet the minimum qualification requirement by the final filing date unless otherwise noted.

Desirable Qualifications:

• Extensive experience developing or implementing legislative proposals and policies especially with high level officials.                                                     
• Extensive relationships at the local, regional, state and federal level with elected officials and their staff.                                                                
• Extensive experience facilitating and negotiating complex legislative and policy development.
• Exceptional communication skills especially to simplify technical and operational impacts of legislation to policy makers.
• Ability to handle a high volume of priorities and issues in a changing and fast paced environment.
• Experiencing managing and developing teams.

The stated desirable qualifications may be considered at the end of the selection process when candidates are referred for hiring.

Applicants may be required to submit verification of qualifying education and experience at any point during the recruitment and selection process. Education verification information on verifying foreign education credits or degree equivalency, can be found at https://sfdhr.org/how-verify-education-requirements

Note: Falsifying one’s education, training, or work experience or attempted deception on the application may result in disqualification for this and future job opportunities with the City and County of San Francisco.

All work experience, education, training and other information substantiating how you meet the minimum qualifications must be included on your application by the filing deadline. Information submitted after the filing deadline will not be considered in determining whether you meet the minimum qualifications. Applications completed improperly may be cause for ineligibility, disqualification or may lead to lower scores.

Selection Procedures:

Minimum Qualification Supplemental Questionnaire (MQSQ): Candidates will be required to complete a MQSQ as part of the employment application. This MQSQ is designed to obtain specific information regarding an applicant's experience in relation to the Minimum Qualifications (MQ) for this position. The MQSQ will be used to evaluate if the applicant possesses the required minimum qualifications.

Behavioral Consistency Questionnaire (BCQ) (Weight: 100%)
Candidates will be prompted to complete a BCQ as part of the recruitment process. The BCQ is designed to measure applicant’s relative knowledge, skills and abilities in job-related areas, identified as critical for successful performance. These may include but are not limited to: the ability to develop and implement public policy or legislative advocacy, provide policy recommendations on a variety of complex issues impacting the SFPUC including drafting position statements, talking points, etc; the ability to analyze, evaluate and address issues, removes obstacles, makes operational decisions, weighs pros and cons, and understands the impact of decisions, identifies and leverages resources and makes recommendations through appropriate channels; the ability to work effectively with high level public officials, work tactfully and effectively with other SFPUC divisions, membership organizations, legislators, and other external groups; and the ability to alter approach to best address different people and situations; react appropriately to changing conditions or priorities; respond positively to change. 

All responses to the BCQ are subject to verification and must be consistent with the information provided in your application.

Passing Score: Candidates must obtain a passing score on the Behavioral Consistency Questionnaire in order to be placed on the score report for positions in this job class.

Notices to Candidates: Qualified candidates will be sent notices via email for completion prior to the creation of the score report ("eligible list"). Each notice will include the date by which responses must be received. Failure to complete these steps by the established deadlines will result in disqualification.

Certification: The certification rule for the eligible list resulting from this examination will be Rule of the List. Additional selection processes may be conducted by the hiring department prior to making final hiring decisions.

Eligible List/Score Report: A confidential eligible list of applicant names that have passed the civil service examination process will be created, and used for certification purposes only. An examination score report will be established, so applicants can view the ranks, final scores and number of eligible candidates. Applicant information, including names of applicants on the eligible list, shall not be made public unless required by law. However, an eligible list shall be made available for public inspection, upon request, once the eligible list is exhausted or expired and referrals resolved. The eligible list/score report resulting from this civil service examination process is subject to change after adoption (e.g., as a result of appeals), as directed by the Human Resources Director or the Civil Service Commission.

The duration of the eligible list resulting from this examination process will be of six (6) months, and may be extended with the approval of the Human Resources Director.

Terms of Announcement and Appeal Rights:

Applicants must be guided solely by the provisions of this announcement, including requirements, time periods and other particulars, except when superseded by federal, state or local laws, rules or regulations. Clerical errors may be corrected by the posting the correction on the Department of Human Resources website at https://careers.smartrecruiters.com/CityAndCountyOfSanFrancisco1/ .

The terms of this announcement may be appealed under Civil Service Rule 111A.35.1. The standard for the review of such appeals is ‘abuse of discretion’ or ‘no rational basis’ for establishing the position description, the minimum qualifications and/or the certification rule. Appeals must include a written statement of the item(s) being contested and the specific reason(s) why the cited item(s) constitute(s) abuse of discretion by the Human Resources Director. Appeals must be submitted directly to the Executive Officer of the Civil Service Commission within five business days of the announcement issuance date.

What else should I know?

• Information About The Hiring Process
• Conviction History
• Employee Benefits Overview  
• Equal Employment Opportunity 
• Disaster Service Worker
• ADA Accommodation
• Veterans Preference
• Seniority Credit in Promotional Exams 
• Right to Work
• Copies of Application Documents
• Diversity Statement

HOW TO APPLY

Applications for City and County of San Francisco jobs are only accepted through an online process. Visit https://careers.smartrecruiters.com/CityAndCountyOfSanFrancisco1/ and begin the application process.

• Select the “Apply Now” button and follow instructions on the screen

Applicants may be contacted by email about this recruitment and, therefore, it is their responsibility to ensure that their registered email address is accurate and updated. Also, applicants must ensure that email from CCSF is not blocked on their computer by a spam filter. To prevent blocking, applicants should set up their email to accept CCSF mail from the following addresses (@sfgov.org, @sfdpw.org, @sfport.com, @flysfo.com, @sfwater.org, @sfdph.org, @asianart.org, @sfmta.com, @sfpl.org, @dcyf.org, @first5sf.org, @famsf.org, @ccsf.edu, @smartalerts.info, and @smartrecruiters.com).

Applicants will receive a confirmation email that their online application has been received in response to every announcement for which they file. Applicants should retain this confirmation email for their records. Failure to receive this email means that the online application was not submitted or received.

Exam Analyst Information: If you have any questions regarding this recruitment or application process, please contact the exam analyst Linda Muir at LMuir@sfwater.org.

The City and County of San Francisco encourages women, minorities and persons with disabilities to apply. Applicants will be considered regardless of their sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition (associated with cancer, a history of cancer, or genetic characteristics), HIV/AIDS status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, military and veteran status, or other protected category under the law.