CHIEF Financial Officer

Department: Charlotte Water Department

Welcome to the City of Charlotte

Charlotte is America’s Queen City, opening her arms to a diverse and inclusive community of residents, businesses and visitors alike. Here you will find a safe, family-oriented city where people work together to help everyone thrive. The mission of the City of Charlotte is to deliver quality public services and promote the safety, health, and quality of life for all residents.

Our guiding principles include:

• Attracting and retaining a skilled and diverse workforce
• Valuing teamwork, openness, accountability, productivity, and employee development
• Providing all customers with courteous, responsive, accessible, and seamless quality services
• Taking initiative to identify, analyze, and solve problems
• Collaborating with stakeholders to make informed decisions

SUMMARY

Charlotte’s local government, with more than 9,000 employees and a total budget of $4.49 billion, works hard to ensure that the community will be a winning city for everyone – a truly remarkable place to live, work, learn, and play

Charlotte Water is an enterprise department of the City of Charlotte and one of the largest public water and sewer service providers in the southeast, with over 330,000 customer accounts and over 1300 employees. Our service area includes the City of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, and the towns of Huntersville, Cornelius, Davidson, Mint Hill, Matthews, and Pineville. Charlotte Water’s FY 27 operating budget is $685.6 million, and a five-year capital program of $2.5 billion.

Salary:

The salary for this position is Negotiable.

Job Summary:

This position provides leadership, strategic direction, planning, and coordination of assigned administration functions for Charlotte Water. Work includes budget, finance, acquisition and compliance, records management, audit, internal financial controls, and ERP systems and control. This position develops partnerships with other stakeholders to support initiatives, ensuring sustainable water resources. This position is a key member of the department’s executive leadership team.

Major Duties and Responsibilities:

• Supervises and coordinates work activities of assigned staff; assigns work, monitors status of work, and inspects completed work; participates and provides input in staffing decisions relative to hiring, firing, discipline, and promotional opportunities; evaluates performance; mentors staff; and aids with career development.
• Participates in the overall management of the department; is a member of the executive leadership team.
• Establishes and maintains internal controls to achieve the objectives of effective and efficient operations; reliable financial reporting; and compliance with federal, state, and local laws and regulations; and assesses internal control effectiveness.
• Manages, mentors, and empowers department staff to perform their jobs at a high level; maintains an inclusive work environment where employees feel empowered to succeed and work toward a common strategic vision.
• Ensures activities, functions, and operations are aligned with the City’s and the department’s purpose, core values, strategic plan, and direction of the leadership team.
• Develops and executes departmental plans to ensure achievement of assigned strategic priorities and projects.
• Oversees the development and administration of the annual operating budgets and capital improvement programs (CIP) and formulates budgetary strategies, procedures, and guidelines to ensure that stakeholder expectations are met.
• Participates in selection of third-party service providers (consultants and contractors); attends monthly status updates and partnering sessions; makes final decisions on schedule, budget, and pricing options as they are presented to City; and plans for optimal use of staff and material resources of the organization.
• Negotiates contracts and agreements related to system expansion, operation, and maintenance; acts a primary negotiator for agreements with partnering municipal governments for water and/or sewer service; works with the City Attorney’s office on agreements for legal review and City Council adoption.
• Partners with the Charlotte Water leadership team on department-wide strategic operational, budgetary, and policy issues.
• Reviews divisional budget requests; reviews updates to financial model; reviews rate increase recommendations; and provides input into overall Charlotte Water budget presentation to City Manager’s office and City Council.
• Reviews, analyzes, and develops recommendations to support actions, policies, management decisions pertaining to complex budget issues; develops alternative methods to costing operational and capital investment strategies that benefit the department.
• Works with the Chief Executive Officer and boards to promote the financial mission, vision, and values of the organization; establishes performance measurements, manages, monitors and reports on the department’s financials.
• Reviews, approves, and defends City Council action requests; attends City Council meetings; and responds to questions from Council members on action request items.
• Attends meetings with City management and provide updates; attends interdepartmental meetings and provides input; and holds regular staff meetings receiving updates affecting operations.
• Represents Charlotte Water in work with elected officials, other City leaders and staff, government agencies, funding agencies, regional partners, consultants, and contractors; coordinates with internal and external service providers to assure support services and other needs are met to establish and sustain efficient, effective operations.
• Negotiates and resolves sensitive, significant, and controversial issues.
• Acts on behalf of the Director in the Director’s absence.
• Performs other related job duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, accounting, management, or related field in from an accredited school. Master’s degree is preferable.
• Ten (10) years of related work experience in utility management, operations, and/or engineering that includes five (5) years in a senior level management experience with significant financial affairs of a complex organization.

Licenses, Certifications or Registrations:

• Requires a valid Driver’s License
• Must obtain and maintain a City Driver’s Permit.
• Certified Public Manager (preferred), Certified Public Accountant (preferred), North Carolina Government Finance Officer Certification or similar (preferred).

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Knowledge of water/sewer system management, operation, maintenance, or engineering principles and practices.
• Knowledge of leadership and management techniques.
• Knowledge of operations, services, and activities of a comprehensive Finance and Procurement Division in a complex, customer service organization.
• Knowledge of Principles and practices of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), with an emphasis on governmental and fund accounting, including methods of financial reporting and financial statement preparation.
• Skill in managing financial and procurement operations in a large, complex organization
• Skill in communicating and making presentations.
• Skill in developing, reviewing, and monitoring operating and capital budgets
• Skill in interpersonal communications.
• Skill in workforce management and work leadership of an organization employing large numbers of diverse professional and technical personnel.
• Ability to supervise staff.
• Ability to administer programs.
• Ability to analyze and solve problems.
• Ability to apply critical thinking skills.
• Ability to deal effectively with and include persons of diverse backgrounds.

Physical Demands:

The work is light work and requires applying 10 pounds of force frequently exerting up to 20 pounds of force occasionally to move objects. Additionally, the following physical abilities are required: climbing, manual dexterity, grasping, handling, distinguishing among sounds, mental acuity, speaking, standing, talking, visual acuity in equipment, and walking.

Work Environment:

Work is performed regularly where decisions are made that could lead to major community or organizational consequences if there is a failure to make the appropriate decision at the time.

Additional Information:

This job description is not intended to be and should not be construed as an inclusive list of all the responsibilities, skills, or working conditions associated with the position. While it is intended to accurately reflect the position, activities, and requirements, management reserves the right to modify, add, or remove duties and assign other duties at any time. This job description does not constitute a written or implied contract of employment.

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform the essential job functions satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the primary job functions herein described. Since every duty associated with this position may not be described herein, employees may be required to perform duties not specifically spelled out in the job description, but which may be reasonably considered to be incidental in the performing of their duties just as though they were written out in this job description.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

The City’s Background Check Policy requires background checks to be conducted on final internal or external candidate(s) applying for any position with the City of Charlotte. The type of information that will be collected as part of a background check includes, but is not limited to: reference checks, social security verification, education verification, criminal conviction record check, and, if applicable, a credit history check, sex offender registry and motor vehicle records check.

Background checks must be in compliance with all federal and state statutes, such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The checks must be consistent with the guidelines set forth by these laws requiring organizations to obtain a candidate’s written authorization before obtaining a criminal background report, motor vehicle records check or credit report; and to properly store and dispose of information derived from such reports.

Final candidates must pass a pre-employment drug-screening test and physical examination. During the selection process, candidates may be asked to take a skills test, and/or participate in other assessments.

The City of Charlotte is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, national origin, marital status, age, disability, sexual orientation, political affiliation or on the basis of actual or perceived gender as expressed through dress, appearance, or behavior.

Our culture is to serve the community honorably.

BENEEFITS

The City of Charlotte provides a comprehensive benefits package to eligible employees.

Click here to learn more about the City of Charlotte’s benefits.

The City of Charlotte is a drug and alcohol-free workplace.