Climate Change: Cap-and-Invest Finance Monitoring Team Lead (Financial Examiner 4)

State of Washington•Thurston County – Lacey, WA

37d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Department of Ecology is hiring a Climate Change: Cap-and-Invest Finance Monitoring Team Lead (Financial Examiner 4) within the Climate Pollution Reduction Program (CPRP). This position is located at the Headquarters Office in Lacey, WA. The Cap-and-Invest Group works to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through a dynamic, high-impact market system that funds the state’s transition to a cleaner, more resilient future. Within this group, the Auctions and Market Section manages one of the most important environmental markets in the region, overseeing allowance auctions, supporting major policy initiatives, and ensuring the integrity and effectiveness of a rapidly evolving program. As the Finance Monitoring Team Lead, you will guide a group of two to three market monitors (financial examiners) who apply finance-based insights to monitor trading activity, evaluate complex market behavior, and help safeguard the fairness and stability of the cap-and-invest market. This is an opportunity to play a key role in an innovative program that directly supports Washington’s climate goals and long-term economic transformation.

Requirements

Nine years of experience and/or education related to the duties of the position, which includes the following:
Leadership & Team Development – demonstrated competence in leading, mentoring, and developing diverse analytical teams to build a collaborative, emotionally intelligent, and high performing finance monitoring unit.
Advanced Financial & Market Analysis – ability to conduct and guide complex financial, institutional, and commodity market analyses to detect risks, identify anomalous behavior, and ensure informed regulatory decisions.
Regulatory Interpretation & Compliance Oversight – experience interpreting and applying rules and program requirements to assess applicability, evaluate compliance, and support consistent decisions.
Market Surveillance & Risk Identification – skills in deploying financial monitoring techniques, statistical tools, and market intelligence to proactively identify market manipulation, compliance failures, and systemic risks across primary, secondary, and futures markets.
Strategic Multi-Party Coordination – ability to collaborate with internal sections, external organizations and others to coordinate work efforts, ensure consistent regulatory responses, and uphold program transparency and reliability.
Analytical Method Development & Continuous Improvement – demonstrated competence in designing, refining, and implementing analytical approaches and work processes to strengthen the team’s ability to evaluate complex financial entities and evolving market conditions.
Confidential Information Management – skills in applying secure data handling and confidentiality practices to safeguard sensitive information and support responsible program operations.
Clear, Plain Language Communication – experience translating complex financial, regulatory, and market risk concepts into clear, accessible verbal and written communication to support decision making by staff, management, leadership, and external partners.
Education involving a major study in fields including—but not limited to—finance, business administration, economics, accounting, policy, data science, and related fields.
Examples of how to qualify: 9 years of experience.
8 years of experience AND 30-59 semester or 45-89 quarter college credits.
7 years of experience AND 60-89 semester or 90-134 quarter college credits (Associate’s degree).
6 years of experience AND 90-119 semester or 135-179 quarter college credits.
5 years of experience AND a Bachelor’s degree.
3 years of experience AND a Master’s degree.
2 years of experience AND a Ph.D.

Nice To Haves

Professional Financial Credentialing & Training – relevant FINRA licenses (e.g., Series 7, Series 66) or other finance-related certifications (CFA, CPA, PMP, financial analysis, statistics, or market analysis) to bring validated technical expertise to complex market-monitoring activities.
Applied Finance & Commodity Market Experience – experience in conducting financial analysis or working within commodity markets (such as greenhouse gas, electricity, fuels, metals, or agricultural markets) to evaluate firm behavior and understand cross-market dynamics, such as those affecting Cap-and-Invest entities.
Climate & Greenhouse Gas Market Expertise – experience working on climate-change mitigation or participating in greenhouse gas markets to apply domain-specific insights to allowance market behavior and regulatory oversight.
Quantitative, Statistical & Modeling Skills – ability to apply quantitative methods, statistical analysis, mathematics, programming, or modeling to analyze market data, detect anomalies, and support advanced financial monitoring techniques.
Leadership & Complex Project Management Experience – previous experience supervising staff or leading matrixed teams and managing multifaceted work products or projects incorporating contributions from others, to ensure high-quality, timely, and coordinated analytical outcomes.

Responsibilities

Lead finance monitoring team—two to three team members along with yourself—responsible for developing and maintaining the market monitoring strategy for Cap-and-Invest entities.
Regularly assign and review staff work products and ensure processes exist to create and maintain strong market monitoring strategies.
Direct and support finance monitoring staff as they use financial tools to analyze complex companies, including reviewing how staff evaluate whether required corporate disclosures are complete and accurate.
Plan, assign, and supervise business and financial analysis conducted by finance monitoring staff including the development of new techniques and work methods where established procedures do not exist.
Provide ongoing mentoring, coaching, and guidance for junior staff—especially those within the Auctions and Market Section and financial market monitoring team.
Regularly review, assess, and approve market monitoring analyses and other technical work completed by finance monitoring staff to ensure accuracy, consistency, and compliance with program standards.
Evaluate and review market monitoring work and analyses conducted by others.
Lead and/or coordinate staff collaboration with market monitoring, information security, and application development staff to design, develop, and maintain required registration and disclosure forms, and other user and entity interfaces with the program.
Collaborate, train, or work to support finance monitoring staff as necessary in participating in cross-cutting work with others within Ecology, and other State agencies such as the Department of Revenue, Department of Financial Institutions, Utilities and Transportation Commission, Department of Commerce, and federal organizations such as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission.