Chief Administrative and Public Affairs Officer

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Description

The Chief Administrative and Public Affairs Officer is a member of the senior leadership team at SANDAG focused on operational excellence, transparency, and effective communications and engagement. This role oversees administrative functions including facilities operations. The Chief Administrative and Public Affairs Officer is dedicated to improving organizational efficiency, fostering accountability, and enhancing community engagement. They will strengthen internal collaboration and alignment across departments, ensuring that SANDAG continues to deliver exceptional value and service to the residents of the San Diego region. The Chief Administrative and Public Affairs Officer may act in the absence of the Chief Executive Officer.

Job Responsibilities

Examples of Essential Duties

The following duties are typical for the Senior Director classification. Incumbents may not perform all the listed duties and/or may be required to perform additional or different duties to address organizational needs and changing practices.

Organizational Excellence:

• Promote lean government principles to streamline and improve processes while preserving high standards of service delivery.
• Ensure that SANDAG's programs and services remain aligned with the region's needs and agency priorities.
• Collaborate with departments to avoid duplication, address gaps, and further enhance quality control in existing processes.

• Use data to monitor performance, measure outputs, and support evidence-based decision-making that improves transparency.

• Determine the need for new or updated policies that assure the agency's programs operate in a prudent, transparent, efficient, ethical, and accountable manner.
• Lead continuous improvement and change initiatives. Make informed decisions that consider financial impact to ensure SANDAG's long-term fiscal health.
• Create a safe and productive work environment for all staff. Ensure SANDAG facilities are well maintained and the operations of the building meets the agency's needs
• Provide expert advice to the Board of Directors, Chief Executive Officer, and Executive Staff on complex, sensitive and critical operational issues.

External Communications and Engagement

• Lead strategic communications and ensure that information on SANDAG services, programs, projects, and events is easily accessible.
• Develop SANDAG messaging and branding. Identify and mitigate reputational and organizational risks.
• Foster opportunities for the region's residents to provide input and share ideas with SANDAG. Facilitate ongoing dialogue with the public.
• Provide training and coaching to help all SANDAG staff communicate effectively.
• Provide communication support to elected officials carrying out SANDAG duties
• Use advanced communication techniques to ensure transparency and accessibility in reporting performance and project milestones.
• Ensure departments across the agency convey consistent messaging that reflect SANDAG's commitment to excellence.
• Create and maintain dashboards and other visual tracking tools that enhance transparency and inform the Board of Directors, the public, and employees on how SANDAG is delivering on priorities.

• Represent the agency to a wide variety of external parties, including the legislature, federal and state agencies, compliance agencies, business and community partners, constituent groups, and other stakeholders

Internal Communications and Engagement

• Ensure staff have timely information on SANDAG programs, projects, and events, and that staff across the agency understand SANDAG's priorities and values.
• Support internal alignment by enhancing staff understanding of how their roles contribute to SANDAG's priorities and values.
• Create opportunities for employees to share ideas that further improve efficiency and service delivery.
• Provide tools for staff to align their work with organizational goals.
• Create alignment across departments around the agency's values of customer service, fiscal responsibility, teamwork and professionalism.
• Promote a positive work culture that motivates staff and drives productivity.

Knowledge and Abilities

• Knowledge of all aspects of administration and business operations of the organization including facilities operations; laws and policies governing and administered by the organization; principles of policy formulation; strategic planning, project management, performance measurement, and best practices for complex organizations; leadership techniques and principles and practices of supervision.

• Ability to direct all aspects of the business operations for the organization; direct the work of multi-disciplinary staff engaged in business operations, facilities management, administrative functions, communications and public relations.

• Provide oversight of the organization's strategic initiatives; envision, develop and deploy new programs and product offerings to meet evolving needs of the region; analyze problems, evaluate alternative solutions, and provide actionable recommendations that support the agency's goals.

• Think strategically and proactively taking into consideration industry trends, future needs, challenges and opportunities for the organization; formulate, establish and implement policies, procedures and standards for all operational and administrative functions; actively identify and resolve issues.

• Anticipate and address problems quickly: provide guidance to the Board and Chief Executive Officer; inspire confidence and establish credibility with the Board, Chief Executive Officer, staff, legislators, government officials, and stakeholders; gather and analyze a broad range of business related information and synthesize it into concise and coherent conclusions and recommendations.

• Decipher, analyze, and rationally communicate complex concepts related to the organization's business activities; maintain up-to-date knowledge of issues and trends affecting the organization's programs and use that knowledge to develop innovative strategies.

• Select, manage, and evaluate the work of external consultants; interact with public and private sector entities to carry out operational and administrative activities of the organization; establish and maintain cooperative relationships with those contacted in the course of work.

• Communicate effectively with individuals across a broad spectrum of disciplines and promote cross-functional collaboration efforts; interact with individuals at all levels, including board members, staff at a variety of levels, and political and public officials and gain their confidence; appear before various committees and boards; lead and motivate staff; represent the organization with a variety of internal and external stakeholders.

Typical Qualifications

• A bachelor's degree with major course work in business, communication, public administration, public policy or a related field is desirable.

• At least eight years of increasingly responsible professional experience in a metropolitan planning organization or government environment including four years of supervisory and management experience.

The candidate selected for this position must successfully pass a pre-employment criminal background investigation and credit history verification; periodic re-checking of criminal background and credit history will be a condition of employment.