Deputy Chief of GI Maintenance

City of New York•New York City, NY

About The Position

The NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) protects public health and the environment by supplying clean drinking water, collecting and treating wastewater, and reducing air, noise, and hazardous materials pollution. DEP is the largest combined municipal water and wastewater utility in the country, with nearly 6,000 employees. We deliver 1.1 billion gallons of high-quality drinking water per day to 8.3 million New York City residents and more than 1 million people in Upstate New York, and we collect and treat an average of 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater per day. The Bureau of Environmental Planning and Analysis (BEPA) is responsible for design and construction of Green Infrastructure in NYC and maintenance operations of all constructed Green Infrastructure assets. To date, DEP has constructed over 11,000 assets in Queens, Brooklyn and Bronx in which majority of these assets are located within the public right of way comprised of rain gardens, infiltration basins, porous panels and medians. More information on NYC Green Infrastructure Program can be found at https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/dep/downloads/pdf/water/stormwater/green-infrastructure/gi-annual-report2020.pdf Green Infrastructure Maintenance seeks to hire an Administrative Horticulturist to serve as the Deputy Chief of Green Infrastructure to manage a staff consisting of both technical staff and field staff. Under the direction of the Chief of Green Infrastructure Maintenance, the selected candidate will manage technical and labor class personnel in a large dynamic maintenance unit responsible for the routine and periodic maintenance and repair of the Agency’s green infrastructure practices. Critical projects may include, but will not be limited to, multi-year and seasonal project planning and tracking, oversight of contract drafting and review, equipment and supply procurement, coordination with project management teams executing in-house and contracted hardscape repairs, plantings, and enforcement activities, serving as a point of contact for EHS/IT and Fleet Services to ensure that procedures and emerging policies are reviewed and implemented on a rolling basis. Other responsibilities could include assisting the Chief in coordination of maintenance and repair activities with internal and external project managers and collaboration with other DEP Bureau personnel planning capital repair projects and preparing detailed presentations on completed projects and new needs. This is a unique opportunity, as the selected candidate will be a key leader on the green infrastructure maintenance team and play a crucial role in shaping the program and training team members in a multidisciplinary environment. As the program continues to grow new asset types are added to the maintenance unit’s responsibility set, DEP will continue to staff new maintenance positions and add new types of equipment and tools to ensure the Bureau’s maintenance goals are met. The selected candidate is expected to continuously and transparently evaluate the overall efficiency of the maintenance team and analyze the impact of potential changes to practices and procedures. Additionally, the candidate is also expected to interact with interagency, affiliated NGOs and community stakeholders, understand the Agency’s KPIs and advance the team’s performance relative to those indicators, prepare technical reports and maintain regular workflow correspondences. Work assignments will broad in scope and require independent initiative and autonomous decision making to resolve or contribute to the resolution of problems of considerable difficulty. The Deputy Chief will support and aid the Chief of the Unit for the following responsibilities including but not limited to:

Requirements

1. A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college with major study in horticulture, arboriculture, or landscape architecture and four years of full-time, paid experience in horticultural work of which two (2) years must have been in a supervisory, administrative, consultative, managerial, or executive capacity; or
2. A satisfactory equivalent. However, all candidates must have at least a high school diploma or evidence of having passed an examination for a high school equivalency diploma and one year of supervisory, administrative, consultative, managerial, or executive experience as described above.

Responsibilities

Manage a team of supervisory and labor class staff
Manage administrative functions and lead technical analyses to support maintenance staff of approximately 100 FTE up to 50 seasonal employees.
Assist in the creation of new roles, recruitment, task assignment, onboarding, training and performance evaluation
Oversee the Section Chief in the administration of disciplinary actions in coordination with Agency policies and procedures
Support the Deputy Chief of Green Infrastructure Maintenance Unit to ensure Green Infrastructure assets are maintained efficiently and effectively while utilizing the best of the existing resources
Assist in oversight of field/satellite yards, assigned fleet assets, maintenance equipment/supplies and facilities
Analyze and project long term facility and equipment needs for operational staff including capital project planning, and scoping of projects and new needs
Oversee contractors to ensure high quality work products
Work with Staff Analysts and City Research Scientists in the monitoring GI maintenance operational performance
Provide support for the resolution of 311 complaints and lead enforcement efforts
Utilize assigned resources to ensure quality, consistency, and efficiency across all aspects of the maintenance operation
Generate appropriate documentation for resolution of problems or failures that include drawings, reports, presentations, etc.
Identify inefficiencies of operation, plan, validate and implement solutions to address them effectively
Understand KPIs and maintenance tracking metrics and oversee the quarterly reports improvement to processes.
Develop solutions to a diverse range of new problems based on available analytics