Northwest Region Manager, Exempt

About the role

The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) seeks a Region Manager for the Northwest Region. This position operates as the chief representative of the Commissioner within the geographic boundaries of the region, leading a team of 140 permanent and 49 seasonal employees.

Responsibilities

• Operate as the chief representative of the Commissioner within the geographic boundaries of the region.
• Ensure that the Commissioner and DNR’s executive management team are promptly informed of emergent issues or events with the potential to impact the agency or the region.
• Provide oversight for the management of approximately 431,000 acres of state forest, agriculture, urban, and conservation lands.
• Implement a proactive safety program to improve employee safety awareness and reduce accidents and injuries.
• Establish and maintain excellent working relationships and communications with local governments, tribes, regional offices of other state agencies, landowners, and other partner groups.
• Sustainably manage state trust lands to generate income for public schools, universities, counties, and other trust beneficiaries, while accommodating compatible public uses.
• Implement three major resource protection programs – wildfire prevention/suppression, forest resilience, and forest practices – on private and state forest lands within the region on approximately 1.5 million acres of state and private forest lands.
• Develop and ensure proper utilization of a $32 million biennial budget.
• Ensure that public resources are protected.
• Be prepared for emergencies, including fire suppression.
• Seek efficiencies and cost savings in all aspects of region operations.

Qualifications

• Education: A bachelor’s degree in Natural Resources Management, Business Management, or related field AND ten years of professional-level experience with a demonstrated progression in leadership responsibilities related to land and resource management and personnel management; OR An Equivalent Combination Of Education And/or Experience.
• Key Knowledge: Knowledge of organizational leadership principles and practices; knowledge of continuous improvement and change management practices and processes; knowledge of principles and practices of natural resource management; knowledge of wildfire prevention and suppression practices, including the Incident Command System (ICS); familiarity with Washington’s Forest Practices Act and Rules; familiarity with Washington State’s legislative process; familiarity with the Revised Code of Washington (RCW) and the Washington Administrative Code (WAC) as these apply to the Department of Natural Resources.
• Key Skills: Experience-based ability to lead a large organization; strong commitment to ethical leadership and the goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion; experience-based ability to create a positive work environment, build morale, and elicit sustained superior job performance; excellent communication skills; experienced-based ability to guide a team through deadline and workload pressures, and to resolve competing workload demands; experienced-based ability to develop and implement large budgets; strong safety awareness and orientation.

Desired Qualifications

• Knowledge of natural resource management issues in the Pacific Northwest.
• Knowledge of Washington’s Indian Tribes, tribal sovereignty, and treaty rights.
• Familiarity with principles and practices of labor unions and collective bargaining.