Job Information
City of New York DIRECTOR, PLANNING in New York, New York
Job Description
New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM) helps New Yorkers before, during, and after emergencies through preparedness, education, and response. NYCEM is responsible for coordinating citywide emergency planning and response for all types and scales of emergencies. We are staffed by more than 200 dedicated professionals with diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise, including individuals assigned from other City agencies.
The Planning and Resilience Bureau’s mission is to prepare the City to respond and adapt to emergencies through collaborative, scalable planning; comprehensive interagency coordination; and innovative recovery and resilience. The bureau includes Interagency Coordination with an assistant commissioner leading three units made up of subject matter experts in Health and Medical, Human Services, and Critical Infrastructure; Risk Reduction and Recovery with an assistant commissioner leading the Mitigation and Risk Analysis and Recovery units; and the Planning Unit.
The Planning Unit drives the creation, enhancement, and sustainment of comprehensive citywide emergency planning in NYC. The team works with all NYCEM staff and external partners to increase the City’s capacity for developing and maintaining flexible, effective, and actionable planning documents.
To accomplish this, the Planning Unit works across NYCEM as well as interagency partners, to manage the portfolio of citywide planning documents; coordinate planning initiatives; and enhance the City’s preparedness for natural, human-caused, and technological hazards. Additionally, the Unit helps to identify emerging issues and current planning gaps, coordinate with internal and external stakeholders to fill the gaps, and assist with developing training and exercises based on planning documents.
New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM) is seeking an exceptional candidate with experience in project management, emergency planning, strategic visioning, and staff mentorship for the Director of Planning position. Reporting to the Deputy Commissioner of Planning & Resilience, the Director will work with their staff, and colleagues across the agency to increase New York City’s preparedness through proactive, innovative, and equitable planning. The Director will directly manage a Unit of approximately seven staff which are focused on two functional areas of 1) All-Hazards Planning and Preparedness and 2) Plan Management.
With latitude for independent initiative and judgment, the Director of Planning will:
Develop and implement a strategic vision for the team that focuses on enhancing current practices and advancing the capability, efficiency, and effectiveness of citywide emergency planning.
Oversee the development, maintenance, management, and operationalization of emergency plans with particular emphasis on inter and intra-agency collaboration and cross-unit integration.
Develop and maintain a working knowledge of all-hazards and their correlated current planned response options. Types of hazards include CBRNE events, coastal storms, extreme heat, winter weather, and flash flooding.
Work closely with subject matter experts to identify strategies to maintain or adapt plans to integrate capabilities that support operational strategies.
Establish new planning initiatives and methods that address current gaps in the City’s preparedness and response to major hazards.
Support the team in creating pathways for the inclusion of equity into all aspects of the planning process.
Actively encourage and support the development of direct reports and foster a collaborative, supportive, and encouraging team culture.
Provide project management leadership and support to staff and ensure production of deliverables.
Maintain a big-picture view of all Team activities, while also supporting day-to-day tasks, ensuring proper support and resources are provided to meet all deadlines.
Develop relationships with agency staff across all units and bureaus, finding innovative and creative ways to enhance collaboration and provide support throughout the planning process.
Identify gaps within planning portfolio and foster strategies to advance and address these gaps (ex: team-wide professional development, bringing program areas together who have intersecting work, etc.).
Conduct “blue-sky prep” work for, and “grey-sky" execution of, concurrent events and cascading impact planning.
Become proficient in relevant NYCEM technological systems (including the intranet, ShareFile, Air Table, and SharePoint), and leverage them to ensure all planning documents and resources are easily available to NYCEM staff and agency partners.
Support leadership in strategic vision for Bureau Roadmap, developing systems and strategies for managing planning library, and mapping capabilities across disaster preparedness portfolio.
Work on special projects as needed.
**PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING:
The selected candidate will be assigned to an on-call Emergency Operations Center (EOC) team and will be expected to work non-business hours during some emergencies. These non-business hours include nights, weekends, holidays, and extended week hours outside of a 9AM-5PM schedule. The selected candidate will also participate in trainings to build skills and competencies in emergency response; will participate in drills and exercises associated with the on-call EOC team; and may volunteer to assist with Ready NY emergency preparedness presentations to external groups. EOC teams are on call for three weeks at a time, with six weeks off in between.
This position is grant funded through 8/24/2024 with the possibility of an extension.
IN ORDER TO BE CONSIDERED FOR THIS JOB, PLEASE SUBMIT A SEPARATE COVER LETTER IN THE ATTACHMENTS SECTION OF THE APPLICATION PORTAL.
Qualifications
A master’s degree from an accredited college in emergency management, public administration, urban planning, engineering, economics, political science, the physical sciences, or related field, and three years of satisfactory full-time professional experience in one or a combination of the following: emergency management, fire or police services, public safety, public health, public administration, urban planning, engineering, or another specialized area to which the appointment is to be made. 18 months of this experience must have been in an executive, managerial, administrative or supervisory capacity. Supervision must have included supervising staff performing professional work in the areas described above; or
A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college and four years of satisfactory full-time professional experience in one or a combination of the areas listed in "1" above, including the 18 months of executive, managerial, administrative or supervisory experience, as described in "1" above; or
A four-year high school diploma or its educational equivalent and eight years satisfactory full-time professional experience in one or a combination of the areas described in "1" above, including the 18 months of executive, managerial, administrative or supervisory experience, as described in "1" above; or
Education and/or experience equivalent to "1", "2", or "3" above. However, all candidates must have a four-year high school diploma or its educational equivalent and the 18 months of executive, managerial, administrative or supervisory experience, as described in "1" above.
Additional Information
The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.