Recovery Planning Unit Chief

About the role

The California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) seeks a Program Manager I (PM I) to lead the Recovery Planning Unit. This role involves planning, directing, and evaluating recovery planning policies, procedures, and tools, ensuring coordination with Interagency Recovery Coordination (IRC) and Joint Field Office (JFO) planning. The PM I also manages information, tracks trends, and develops training and exercise initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Plans, directs, and evaluates the work of the Recovery Planning Unit to develop, maintain, and improve statewide recovery planning policies, procedures, and tools.
• Ensures Interagency Recovery Coordination (IRC), Joint Field Office (JFO) planning integration, and operational support during disaster recovery.
• Supervises professional staff, program administration, and execution of complex and sensitive emergency management planning assignments.
• Provides leadership in designing and delivering recovery-focused training and exercise initiatives.
• Maintains accurate unit information (web content/dashboards).
• Produces monthly, quarterly, and annual planning reports.
• Cultivates partnerships to improve organizational efficiency and operational excellence.
• Manages accurate information for monthly updates to the unit webpage and dashboard.
• Tracks trends, confirms accuracy of analytics, undertakes department-wide projects, and provides quarterly and annual reports on recovery planning outcomes.
• Anticipates the needs of disaster recovery programs and operations.
• Establishes and maintains relationships with various internal and external stakeholders.
• May perform the same work tasks as subordinate staff to ensure mission, goals, and objectives are met.

Requirements

The ideal candidate should have:

• Experience supervising, leading, and developing professional or technical staff.
• Demonstrated experience developing, implementing, maintaining, or evaluating disaster recovery plans, policies, procedures, programs, or related emergency management initiatives.
• Experience managing complex emergency management programs, projects, or initiatives involving multiple priorities, deadlines, stakeholders, and organizational objectives.
• Experience establishing and maintaining productive working relationships with local, tribal, state, federal, nongovernmental, or private-sector partners.
• Knowledge of or experience working with FEMA, federal disaster recovery programs, federal recovery doctrine, or other federal policies and guidance applicable to emergency management and disaster recovery.
• Experience designing, coordinating, facilitating, or evaluating workshops, seminars, tabletop exercises, functional exercises, or full-scale exercises related to emergency management or disaster recovery.
• Experience conducting after-action reviews, identifying lessons learned, developing corrective actions, and implementing improvement plans to strengthen programs and operational capabilities.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate complex information clearly and concisely through executive briefings, presentations, reports, memoranda, correspondence, planning documents, or other decision-support products.
• Experience working within the Incident Command System (ICS) or supporting disaster operations in an Emergency Operations Center, State Operations Center, Regional Emergency Operations Center, Joint Field Office, Area Field Office, Local Assistance Center, or comparable operational environment.
• Experience identifying emerging program needs, developing innovative solutions, improving organizational processes, measuring program outcomes, and aligning activities with strategic goals and objectives.
• Demonstrated ability to exercise sound judgment, initiative, flexibility, and resourcefulness while managing competing priorities, short-notice assignments, sensitive issues, and rapidly changing conditions during emergency or disaster operations.

Qualifications

The successful candidate must possess a Bachelor's degree in a relevant field such as public administration, emergency management, or a closely related discipline, and at least 2 years of progressively responsible experience in emergency management or disaster recovery planning. A Master's degree may substitute for one year of experience.

Skills

Strong skills in project management, communication, and collaboration are essential. Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications and familiarity with ICS are desirable.

Benefits

Cal OES offers a comprehensive benefits package including free parking, on-site gym, electric carport, flexible schedules, generous paid time off, health, dental, and vision insurance, and more. For more information, visit the CalHR and CalPERS websites.