Location
Description
Position and Duties
The City Manager’s Office is recruiting for an Assistant to the City Manager position to serve as an Operating Budget Coordinator to help guide and facilitate the development of the City’s Operating Budget. This is an unclassified, salaried position, which means that the position is not part of the Civil Service system. This management position is not represented by a bargaining unit. This at-will position reporting to the Assistant Budget Director is limit-dated through June 30, 2023, and is anticipated to be considered for further extension into the 2023-2024 fiscal year.
The Operating Budget Coordinator will play a key role in developing and managing issues related to the City’s annual operating budget. Serving as one of two Operating Budget Coordinators, the ideal candidate for this new position to the Budget Office’s senior leadership team possesses the technical budgeting and strategic management skills necessary to provide additional capacity within the Budget Office for complex budgetary development and problem-solving activities while simultaneously ensuring accuracy of budget recommendations and publications.
In support of the Budget Director, the incumbent will help coordinate key aspects of the operating budget development and modification processes, and will be responsible for the accuracy and issue management of significant portions of the City’s budget. The position is expected to self-initiate, design, and implement projects to improve budgeting processes and outcomes, and will often be called upon to craft effective written communication of complex financial, budgetary, and operational information in a manner clear and accessible to the City Council and members of the public.
Key Responsibilities
This position is responsible for the following:
- Shares responsibility with another Assistant to the City Manager in facilitating operating budget development and adjustment processes, with anticipated oversight of all non-personnel expenditure budgeting.
- Manages and ensures accurate implementation of the General and Special Fund budget balancing strategy for each budgeting process, including the Proposed Budget, Mid-Year Budget Review, Year-End Clean-up Actions, and Annual Report.
- Leverages the analytical and reporting functionality of the Hyperion budgeting platform to improve budgeting processes, monitoring and outcomes, and conducts regular training of departmental staff.
- Working collaboratively with City departments and Budget Office senior leadership, solves complex operating budget issues, mindful that competent and quick resolutions positively impact service delivery to the community.
- Coordinates memorandum review activities and provides staff support for budget/fiscal implications for all City Council memoranda.
- Monitors economically-sensitive information affecting various City funds.
- Effectively supervises and motivates a team of Budget Office staff to ensure timely and accurate completion of assignments.
- Ensures alignment of the Capital Program with City Council priorities, policies, and budget principles and City Manager directives and budget guidelines.
- Authors, reviews, and edits budget documents, reports, memoranda and briefing materials for the capital budget.
- Studies City organizations, operations and services to make recommendations to improve quality and effectiveness of service delivery.
- Resolves and facilitates major issues which are confidential, controversial or of major significance to the organization.
- Represents the Budget Office or City Manager’s Office as assigned at public events including community groups, City Council sessions, and Committee meetings.
Ideal Candidate
Minimum Qualifications:
Any combination of training and experience equivalent to the following:
- Education: A baccalaureate degree in business, public administration or a related field from an accredited college or university. A master’s degree is preferred.
- Experience: Six years of increasingly responsible management and/or administrative experience in government or private business/industry. Two or more years of experience supervising professional staff is highly desirable.
- Employment Eligibility: Federal law requires all employees to provide verification of their eligibility to work in this country. Please be informed that the City of San José will not prepare or file a labor condition application with the Department of Labor.
Desired Qualifications:
The successful candidate is a seasoned budgeting professional that has developed strong analytical, organizational, writing and verbal skills, excels handling multiple assignments simultaneously, works well under pressure within tight deadlines, and is comfortable with budgetary data at a granular level and applying that technical expertise at a strategic level to resolve policy and programmatic issues. During certain portions of the year, long hours will be required to meet budget document publication deadlines. The ideal candidate will possess the most desirable combination of training, skills, and experience, as demonstrated in past and current employment history. Desirable experience, knowledge and skills for this position include:
- Knowledge of the theory, principles and practices of governmental budgeting and finance as well as supervision and personnel management
- Ability to understand and quickly identify key issues related to decisions and recommendations, to make recommendations in difficult and complex situations, and to develop consensus
- Ability to understand the principles of the City’s Hyperion budgeting platform and how the system’s attributes can be best leveraged to serve the needs of the City of San Jose’s budgeting practices
- Ability and willingness to dig into the details, both financial and policy-related, to ensure recommendations and work products are delivered with a high degree of accuracy
- Ability to manage multiple projects with short deadlines, while preserving a high quality of work
- Knowledge of City of San José’s policies and procedures, including very complex laws, regulations, rules and practices pertaining to the City’s administrative processes, or the ability to quickly acquire this knowledge
- Ability to leverage software, particularly MS Excel, to analyze large volumes of data to identify problems and develop solutions
- Ability to work under pressure in a fast-paced environment
- Effective communicator and presenter who is persuasive, straightforward, and proactive in addressing and responding to sensitive issues
- Ability to stimulate and motivate individuals and groups to achieve desired goals
- Politically astute with a commitment to the City organization and community
- High energy and enthusiastic individual who displays a positive can-do attitude and is committed to high customer service standards
Selection Process
The selection process will consist of an evaluation of the applicant’s training and experience based on the application, resume and answers to the job-specific questions. Only the most qualified candidates will be forwarded to the next phase of the selection process.
You will be prompted to answer the following job-specific questions in the online application process:
- Describe your experience working in local government(s), including your level of experience working with Executive Management, government bodies and/or City Councils, and the community.
- Describe your experience with developing and monitoring capital and operating budgets as well as revenue forecasting.
- Describe a complex project and/or public policy that you were involved with, your specific role, and the outcome.
- Describe your level of experience with overseeing the development of major work products that require coordination amongst various individuals, departments, and/or outside agencies.
- Describe your experience with direct and/or indirect employee supervision, including the approaches used to train, motivate, and inspire staff, while ensuring accurate work products and robust customer service levels.
You must answer all job-specific questions in order to be considered for this vacancy or your application will be deemed incomplete and withheld from further consideration.
If you have questions, comments or concerns about the recruitment, selection or hiring process, please contact Kate Handford at kate.handford@sanjoseca.gov.
