Wildlife Program Budget Manager - WMS Band 2 - Permanent - 2026-04515

State of Washington • Thurston County – Olympia, WA

20h • Hybrid

About The Position

As the Wildlife Program Budget Manager, you will provide strategic leadership in the development, coordination, and oversight of the Wildlife Program’s operating budget and financial systems, ensuring responsible stewardship of public resources in support of WDFW’s mission and statewide priorities. Serving as a key advisor on budget strategy, fiscal policy, and operational planning, you will lead agency-wide coordination of control totals, spending plans, allotments, and fund balance projections for an operating budget exceeding $400 million per biennium. In this role, you will drive continuous improvement of financial systems and statewide business processes by developing tools, training, and procedures that strengthen budget development and monitoring across the agency. Through data-informed decision-making and strong fiscal oversight, you will help ensure public trust, legislative credibility, and the financial stability needed to sustain Washington’s fish and wildlife resources.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in accounting, economics, business or public administration, statistics, or a closely related field.
• Three (3) years of progressively responsible professional experience in budget development, monitoring, and administration.
• Analyzing complex budget and revenue issues.
• Conducting administrative and operational studies.
• Maintaining accurate records and files.
• Meeting deadlines and determining priorities.
• Manipulating data in Excel using pivot tables and X-Lookup/V-Lookup, creating charts and graphs.
• Knowledge of principles and practices related to the development and administration of operating budgets.
• Knowledge of applicable laws and regulations.
• Knowledge of techniques and methods in interpreting reports and statistical data.
• Knowledge of basic functions of a state or local government.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree in accounting, economics, business or public administration, statistics, or a closely related field
• Experience supervising and providing leadership to professional staff, including workload management, performance oversight, and staff development.
• Five (5) years of progressively responsible professional experience in budget development, monitoring, and administration.
• Professional experience in budget development, monitoring, and administration within a state or local government.
• Working knowledge of the statewide budgeting and accounting systems: Agency Financial Reporting System (AFRS), The Allotment System (TALS), Salary Projection System (SPS), Novatus, Agency Budget System (ABS), Capital Budget System (CBS), Enterprise Reporting, and Web Intelligence (AdHoc).
• Experience with WDFW's Contracts System and Centralized Accounting and Processing System (CAPS) Financial.

Responsibilities

• Support development and oversight of the Wildlife Program’s spending plans and state financial system entries.
• Serve as the key budget advisor to the Wildlife Program on the development of agency control totals and the development and maintenance of agency allotments.
• Lead your team in budget monitoring and reporting for the Wildlife program.
• Develop and coordinate with the Wildlife program for timeline, content, and collaboration for budget packages for the department.
• Coordinate the development of internal program allotments in the Contracts and Project System (CAPS) database and monitors their accurate upload into TALS.
• Provide technical assistance to programs as needed to help them interpret Office of Financial Management (OFM) and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) rules and principles.
• Improve and maintain coordination between the Fiscal, Human Resources, Contracts, and Budget divisions to ensure the agency reports accurate data in state financial systems.
• Focus on process improvements between divisions and developing working relationships and periodic meetings to improve coordination and quality of information provided to budget and programs.
• Work directly with the other Budget Managers, developing, drafting and presenting standard operating procedures to the Budget Officer to ensure budget management principles are consistent throughout the agency.
• Train and mentor budget staff on internal agency budget processes and internal and external financial systems.

Benefits

• May include telework options up to 2 days per week, at the discretion of the supervisor.
• Click the “Benefits” tab at the top of this announcement to learn more.

What This Job Offers

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