Assistant City Manager

Assistant City Manager

The City of Asheville is seeking the position of Assistant City Manager. The Assistant City Manager (ACM) provides high-level leadership and strategic counsel to the City Manager, serving as a vital link between the City Council's vision and operational execution. The ACM is responsible for empowering department heads to reach performance benchmarks, ensuring rigorous fiscal and administrative accountability, and spearheading complex, high-priority initiatives. This role requires a sophisticated ability to navigate the competing interests of community stakeholders while maintaining a commitment to organizational excellence and sustainable municipal growth.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

The following duties are normal for this position. The omission of specific statements of the duties does not exclude them from the classification if the work is similar, related, or a logical assignment for this classification. Other duties may be required and assigned.

1. Serve as an executive liaison between the City Council and municipal operations, translating City Council priorities into actionable strategies while preserving organizational stability and operational integrity.
2. Communicate critical operational updates to the City Manager and Council to facilitate data-driven decision-making.
3. Provide executive leadership and strategic coordination across complex municipal operations and critical initiatives, including city-wide emergency response and continuity of government functions.
4. Evaluate existing administrative policies to identify gaps in oversight and implement necessary structural improvements.
5. Direct cross-departmental operations to ensure all municipal services align with established city-wide goals and legal standards.
6. Manage large-scale municipal projects by coordinating resources across various functional areas to ensure on-time completion.
7. Monitor departmental performance metrics to maintain high-quality service delivery while minimizing operational waste.
8. Resolve complex organizational conflicts by identifying root causes and implementing sustainable, policy and data driven solutions.
9. Mentor department directors and emerging leaders to build a high-capacity, resilient internal management structure.
10. Oversee the development of the annual budget to ensure long-term fiscal stability and strategic resource allocation.
11. Enforce organizational accountability standards to maintain a consistent and transparent professional environment for all staff.

Education and Experience

Minimum Qualifications: Bachelor's Degree in Public Administration or a related field required; supplemented by ten years of progressively responsible experience in municipal government management, to include lead or supervisory experience; or any equivalent combination of education, training, and experience which provides the requisite knowledge, skills, and abilities for this job. Specific License or Certification Required: Must possess and maintain a valid North Carolina driver's license. Residency Requirement: This position requires the successful candidate to maintain a primary residence within Buncombe County, North Carolina, throughout the duration of their employment. Specific Knowledge, Skills, or Abilities: Must be able to demonstrate proficiency in performance of the essential functions and learn, comprehend, and apply all City or departmental policies, practices, and procedures necessary to function effectively in the position. Performance Aptitudes: Data Utilization: Requires the ability to synthesize and integrate data for predicting, anticipating, and planning for future events impacting the organization. Includes determining strategic and tactical decisions at the highest organizational levels of authority and responsibility. Human Interaction: Requires the ability to function in a director capacity for a major organizational unit requiring significant internal and external interaction. Equipment, Machinery, Tools, and Materials Utilization: Requires the ability to operate, maneuver and/or control the actions of equipment, machinery, tools, and/or materials used in performing essential functions. Verbal Aptitude: Requires the ability to utilize consulting and advisory data and information, as well as reference, descriptive and/or design data and information as applicable. Mathematical Aptitude: Requires the ability to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division; ability to calculate decimals and percentages; may include ability to perform mathematical operations with fractions; may include ability to compute discount, interest, and ratios; may include ability to calculate surface areas, volumes, weights, and measures. Functional Reasoning: Requires the ability to apply principles of logical or scientific thinking to implement both intellectual and practical relationships; involves responsibility for consideration and analysis of complex organizational problems of major conceptual functions. Situational Reasoning: Requires the ability to exercise judgment, decisiveness, and creativity in critical and/or unexpected situations involving moderate risk to the organization.