Environmental Permitting Coordinator

State of Washington • Thurston County – Olympia, WA

17h • Hybrid

About The Position

Join the Office of the Governor of Washington and help improve Washington's environmental permitting process. As the Environmental Permitting Coordinator, you will provide senior-level guidance to customers and partners by helping them navigate environmental permitting requirements, coordinating with local, state, federal, and Tribal agencies, and supporting improvements to regulatory tools and processes. In this role, you will research and interpret environmental regulations, scope customer projects, facilitate collaboration across multiple jurisdictions, and maintain key public-facing permitting resources, including the Joint Aquatic Resources Permit Application (JARPA) and other regulatory information. You will work closely with agency staff, the Governor's policy office, the Legislature, customers, and a broad range of public and private stakeholders to promote efficient, transparent, and customer-focused permitting processes. If you are a collaborative problem-solver with strong communication skills, sound judgment, and the ability to build productive relationships across diverse groups. If you are passionate about environmental policy, public service, and improving government processes, we encourage you to apply.

Requirements

• Experience in regulatory analysis, environmental permitting, project coordination, public-sector customer assistance, natural resource management, public policy, or a closely related field; or professional regulatory analysis experience in Washington state government.
• Experience must show a progressive increase in responsibility, independence, or authority.
• Working knowledge of Washington environmental permitting processes, regulatory roles, and common state, local, federal, and Tribal coordination issues.
• Experience facilitating meetings, workgroups, customer discussions, or stakeholder feedback processes.
• Strong writing skills, including the ability to prepare clear emails, guidance, summaries, matrices, and other customer-facing or partner-facing materials.
• Demonstrated customer service judgment, professionalism, integrity, follow-through, strong work ethic, and ability to work with people who have competing interests or priorities.
• Proven teamwork skills. Success at navigating within a team with varying perspectives and diverse priorities.
• Ability to research, interpret, synthesize, and explain statutes, rules, policies, permit requirements, guidance, and agency procedures.
• Ability to communicate complex regulatory information in plain language to customers, agency partners, and stakeholders with varying levels of technical knowledge.
• Ability to coordinate across jurisdictional boundaries, gather information from multiple sources, identify points of disagreement or uncertainty, and support practical issue resolution.
• Ability to work independently under general direction, plan and prioritize assignments, and elevate issues when policy, legal, or executive-level decisions are needed.
• Proficiency using Microsoft Office products, Teams, SharePoint, spreadsheets, document formatting tools, and virtual meeting platforms.
• Commitment to continuous improvement and to principles of diversity, equity, inclusion, access, and respect.

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor's degree in environmental studies, natural resources, public administration, planning, public policy, law, or a related field. Additional qualifying professional experience may substitute for education on a year-for-year basis.
• Seven years of professional experience in regulatory research, environmental permitting, regulatory analysis, project coordination, or a closely related field; or five years of professional regulatory analysis experience in Washington state government.
• Professional-level experience with government environmental permitting programs or multi-jurisdictional permit coordination.
• Experience maintaining public-facing regulatory guidance, application forms, web content, or permit assistance tools.
• Certification or formal training in project management, facilitation, mediation, conflict resolution, or process improvement.

Responsibilities

• Researches, interprets, and explains state environmental permitting requirements for businesses, local governments, industry representatives, citizens, and other customers.
• Identifies applicable permits, regulatory pathways, agency roles, application requirements, decision points, and customer next steps.
• Develops written and verbal guidance, including matrices, summaries, guidance documents, and other plain-language resources, to help customers understand permitting requirements and processes.
• Responds to customer inquiries regarding environmental permitting laws, rules, policies, procedures, and regulatory coordination issues.
• Serves as a technical resource to ORIA customer support staff on environmental permitting and regulatory inquiries.
• Reviews complex or escalated customer inquiries to determine appropriate research, coordination, and response actions.
• Researches and analyzes environmental laws, rules, policies, procedures, and agency guidance to support accurate and timely responses.
• Prepares written and verbal responses and communicates inquiry resolution status and outcomes to customer support staff.
• Monitors changes to environmental permitting requirements and shares relevant updates, guidance, and process information with ORIA staff.
• Serves as ORIA’s point of contact for customers and regulatory agencies on projects involving multiple permits, agencies, or jurisdictions.
• Reviews proposed projects to identify likely permits, sequencing considerations, estimated timelines, responsible agencies, and key decision points.
• Coordinates with local, state, federal, and Tribal agencies to clarify permitting requirements and support resolution of process or coordination issues.
• Assists customers in understanding environmental permitting processes, agency expectations, and project next steps.
• Facilitates communication among agencies, project proponents, and stakeholders to support timely and coordinated permit review processes.
• Facilitates and participates in interagency environmental permitting workgroups, coordination teams, and process improvement initiatives.
• Identifies recurring customer barriers, process gaps, and coordination challenges affecting environmental permitting processes.
• Researches and analyzes permitting practices, customer feedback, and partner input to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Recommends practical improvements to permitting guidance, coordination practices, customer service tools, and regulatory processes.
• Supports implementation of process improvements and interagency coordination strategies that improve customer understanding and regulatory navigation.
• Coordinates with local, state, and federal agencies to maintain and update the (JARPA).
• Organizes partner agency review processes and tracks proposed revisions and feedback.
• Researches, evaluates, and reconciles agency comments and recommended changes to the JARPA.
• Prepares updated forms, instructions, and supporting materials to maintain accuracy, usability, and consistency with participating agency requirements.
• Coordinates with agency representatives and subject matter experts to resolve issues related to JARPA content and implementation.
• Develops, updates, and maintains public-facing regulatory resources, including the Regulatory Handbook, ORIA website content, guidance documents, and related tools.
• Review regulatory content for accuracy, consistency, accessibility, plain language, and customer usefulness.
• Identify outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate regulatory information and coordinates updates with agency subject matter experts.
• Stays abreast of new or updated environmental state and federal laws and regulations and how they will affect permitting.
• Research environmental permitting requirements and regulatory changes to support development of current and accurate customer resources.
• Recommend and implement improvements to regulatory guidance materials and online customer resources.

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, Vision, and Life Insurance
• 12 paid holidays, 14 paid vacation days (minimum), and 12 days of sick leave per year
• State retirement programs

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior