Careers

Description:

This position supports reuse of highly treated wastewater—marketed as recycled water—across King County’s treatment plants and distribution systems. By developing policy recommendations, managing projects, and ensuring compliance with regulatory and contractual requirements, the role advances the County’s sustainability goals by reducing discharges to Puget Sound, conserving drinking water supplies, and supporting regional climate resilience. As part of the Resource Recovery Unit in the Operations & Maintenance Section, you’ll join a mission-driven team at the forefront of sustainable resource recovery. This role blends stakeholder engagement, environmental compliance, and strategic planning to deliver real-world climate solutions.  

With meaningful opportunities to collaborate with peers within other clean water agencies, water users and regional stakeholders to ensure recycled water is produced, monitored, and delivered safely, and helps protect public and environmental health, this role supports a recycled water program that is reliable, science based, and community focused. This position will also support communication material development, and outreach efforts for the recycled water program and may also support similar efforts across the broader Renewable Products & Services work group. 

Job Duties

 

• Support strategic planningfor the Recycled Water Program, including long range planning, alignment with division wide resource recovery goals across the Renewable Products & Services work group.
• Cultivate and strengthen relationships with key stakeholders, including water users, partner agencies, regulators, external and internal work groups. Develop strategies to expand recycled water use, support customer success, and advance regional water reuse initiatives. Represent King County in external stakeholder meetings and planning groups involving water reuse and water resources management.
• Participate in strategic planning, policy, design and implementation efforts and recommendations related to water reuse and water resources management for internal teams, leadership, and cross divisional projects. Provide expert guidance on policy and regulatory requirements, system planning, and design considerations.
• Lead complex studies, planning efforts, and design projects, working with cross-divisional teams or consultants. Develop scopes, schedules, and budgets; provide direction on ambiguous or precedent setting issues; and ensure projects advance program and utility priorities.
• Support regulatory compliance and reporting with internal teams to ensure adherence to user agreements, permit conditions, and state recycled water standards. Prepare permit applications and act as primary regulatory liaison on permit development. Monitor the recycled water regulatory and policy landscape at the state and federal levels and advise on policy actions our utility should pursue. 

• Oversee development of program communications and educational materials developed by internal communications resources, including web content, fact sheets, public facing documents, and internal briefings. Provide oversight and strategic direction for staff responses to potential customers, existing customers, general public, state and local agencies, regulators, elected officials and the media.

Skills/Eligibility:

Qualifications You Must Bring:   

• Knowledge of water quality, drinking water systems, treatment processes, and recycled water, wastewater system operations, or similar utility-based experience including familiarity with policy development and regulatory frameworks, permit requirements, and principles that support safe, compliant, and beneficial use of recycled water.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with experience preparing technical documents, regulatory reports, policy recommendations, and outreach materials, and presenting complex information to regulators, customers, elected officials, and the public.
• Experience using environmental or operational data to inform program decisions, including maintaining detailed records, developing systems, producing summaries or visualizations, and applying data to improve recycled water (or similar utility-based resource) production, distribution, or compliance strategies.
• Proven ability to build and sustain relationships with a wide range of stakeholders—including regulators, customers/users, partner agencies, researchers, and internal teams—while navigating competing priorities, complex technical issues, and long-term program planning needs.

Competencies You Bring:  

• Plans and Aligns - Planning and prioritizing work to meet commitments aligned with organizational goals.
• Communicates Effectively - Developing and delivering multi-mode communications that convey a clear understanding of the unique needs of different audiences.
• Collaborates - Works cooperatively with others across the organization to achieve shared objectives. Represents own interests while being fair to others and their areas. Partners with others to get work done. Credits others for their contributions and accomplishments. Gains trust and support of others.
• Organizational Savvy - Maneuvering comfortably through complex policy, process, and people-related organizational dynamics.
• Strategic Mindset - Seeing ahead to future possibilities and translating them into breakthrough strategies.
• Manages Complexity - Making sense of complex, high quantity, and sometimes contradictory information to effectively solve problems.
• Manages Ambiguity - Operating effectively, even when things are not certain, or the way forward is not clear.

Required Licenses:   

• Must possess a valid Washington State Driver’s License to regularly travel to field sites and event locations not served by public transit.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience leading strategic planning and execution within a utility, environmental, or public-sector setting, including the ability to translate long term vision into actionable plans that advances system reliability, and regional sustainability goals.
• Demonstrated skill in developing, interpreting, and implementing policy, including experience assessing regulatory requirements, anticipating long range regulatory impacts, and shaping policy recommendations that support safety and compliance, specific to recycled water or related resources.
• Experience leading cross disciplinary collaboration and organizational alignment, including the ability to coordinate across technical, operational, policy, and communications teams to advance integrated initiatives and program stra