Senior Floodplain Management Planner (Environmental Planner 4)

The Shorelands & Environmental Assistance (SEA) program within the Department of Ecology is looking to fill a Senior Floodplain Management Planner (Environmental Planner 4) position. This position can be located in any of the following offices.

Headquarters Office in Lacey, WA.

Northwest Region Office (NWRO) in Shoreline, WA.

Central Region Office (CRO) in Union Gap, WA.

Eastern Region Office (ERO) in Spokane, WA.

Upon hire, you must live within a commutable distance from the duty station.

Please Note: If the final location of this position is determined to be in our Northwest Region Office (NWRO) in Shoreline, WA. there will be an additional 5% pay increase due to its location in King County. In this instance the salary range will be $5,956 - $8,008 per month.

Flooding is the most frequent—and usually the most costly—natural disaster in the State of Washington. The Department of Ecology is the state agency responsible for regulating floodplain management within Washington, which includes administering aspects of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). As the Senior Floodplain Management Planner, your primary responsibility will be to serve as our State NFIP Coordinator. In this role, you will gain experience:

Additionally, you will advise and assist Ecology and our partners by providing high level staff support on other priority floodplain management projects, programs, and policy initiatives, including efforts to restore Washington’s floodplains.

Agency Mission: The mission of the Department of Ecology is to protect, preserve and enhance Washington’s land air and water for current and future generations.

Program Mission: The mission of the Shorelands and Environmental Assistance (SEA) program is to work in partnership with communities to support healthy watersheds and promote statewide environmental interests.

Ecology's Floodplain Management Unit was formed in early 2022 when planning, engineering, and IT/GIS staff in different offices were brought together with a new Floodplain Management Unit Supervisor. The unit has a statewide responsibility and is based within the Shorelands and Environmental Assistance (SEA) Program at Ecology's Headquarters in Lacey, WA. Our unit works closely with other managers and staff throughout the SEA Program, including regional floodplain specialists, a team of financial managers, and communication consultants.

We in the Floodplain Management Unit see ourselves as a hard-working, fun-loving, collaborative team. We are made up of people from all career stages who share a commitment to integrated floodplain management (IFM) planning approaches that promote and enable multi-benefit solutions (such as those for “fish, farms, and floods”) throughout the State of Washington. We are striving to improve integration of the different components of our work, which include floodplain restoration, flood hazard risk reduction, and comprehensive planning, both to improve outcomes on the ground and develop a well-rounded cadre of floodplain management professionals within Washington State government. Although a small group at present, we are growing—come join us!

Telework options for this position: At the present time, this position is eligible to telework up to 80% of the time. Applicants with questions about position location options, tele-work, and flexible or compressed schedules are encouraged to reach out to the contact person listed below in “other information.” Schedules are dependent upon position needs and is subject to change.

Application Timeline: The positions will remain open until filled, with an initial screening date of March 08, 2023. In order to be considered for initial screening, please submit an application on or before of March 07, 2023. The agency reserves the right to make an appointment any time after the initial screening date.

Ecology employees may be eligible for the following:

Medical/Dental/Vision for employee & dependent(s), Public Employees Retirement System (PERS), Vacation, Sick, and other Leave*, 11 Paid Holidays per year*, Public Service Loan Forgiveness, Tuition Waiver, Long Term Disability & Life Insurance, Deferred Compensation Programs, Dependent Care Assistance Program (DCAP), Flexible Spending Arrangement (FSA), Employee Assistance Program, Commute Trip Reduction Incentives (Download PDF reader), Combined Fund Drive, SmartHealth *Click here for more information 

Protecting Washington State's environment for current and future generations is what we do every day at Ecology. We are a culture that is invested in making a difference. Join a team that is highly effective and collaborative, with leadership that embraces the value of people. To learn more, check out our Strategic Plan. 

Ecology cares deeply about employee wellness; we go beyond traditional benefits, proudly offering:

Diversity, equity, inclusion, and respect (DEIR) are core values central to Ecology’s work. We strive to be a workplace where we are esteemed for sharing our authentic identities, while advancing our individual professional goals and collaborating to protect, preserve, and enhance the environment for current and future generations.

Diversity: We celebrate and appreciate diversity; our unique perspectives and abilities enrich us all and lead to innovative approaches and solutions.

 

Equity: We champion equity, recognizing that each of us need different things to thrive.

 

Inclusion: We intentionally create and hold space so that we all have meaningful opportunities to participate and contribute to Ecology’s work.

 

Respect: We treat each other with respect and dignity, acknowledging the inherent worth of our diverse perspectives and lived experiences, even in times of uncertainty and disagreement.

We believe that DEIR is both a goal and an action. We are on a journey, honoring our shared humanity and taking steps to demonstrate our commitment to a vision where each of us is heard, seen, and valued. 

 

Duties

In this role, you will be responsible for negotiating, planning, and managing the budget and scope of work for a federal contract to implement the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) for Washington State. The NFIP is decades-old but is beginning to modernize, which means that the work at present includes some aspects that are innovative and untested, while other areas can seem more tedious.

We are looking for candidates who are thoughtful, organized, collaborative, adaptable, forward-thinking, and largely self-directed with strong technical, administrative, and customer service skills. If you are excited about leading us confidently through this time of change in the NFIP while also seeking ways to better integrate with our agency’s non-NFIP-focused areas of floodplain management work, apply to join our team today!

Qualifications

Experience for both required and desired qualifications can be gained through various combinations of formal professional employment, educational and volunteer experience. See below for how you may qualify.

Option 1: A Bachelor’s degree with a major emphasis in land use, urban, regional, environmental, or natural resource planning, landscape architecture, geography, land use or environmental law, public administration with an environmental emphasis, or closely related field AND five (5) years of professional experience in land use, urban, regional, environmental, or natural resource planning, and/or program development.

Option 2: A Master’s degree or higher with a major emphasis in land use, urban, regional, environmental, or natural resource planning, landscape architecture, geography, land use or environmental law, public administration with an environmental emphasis, or closely related field AND three (3) years of professional experience in land use, urban, regional, environmental, or natural resource planning, and/or program development.

Option 3: One year of experience as an Environmental Planner 3, at the Department of Ecology.

Special Requirements/Conditions of Employment: 

Obtain and maintain a valid driver's license.

We highly encourage you to apply even if you do not have some (or all) of the desired experience below.

Note: Having some (or all) of this desired experience may make your application more competitive in a highly competitive applicant pool.

Supplemental Information

Ecology seeks diverse applicants: We view diversity, equity, inclusion, and respect through a broad lens including race, ethnicity, class, age, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, immigration status, military background, language, education, life experience, physical disability, neurodiversity, and intersectional identities. Qualified candidates from all backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

Need an Accommodation in the application and/or screening process or this job announcement in an alternative format?

It's in the applicant's best interest to submit all of the documents listed below. Applications without these documents may be declined.

Please do NOT include your salary history. Wage/salary depends on qualifications or rules of promotion, if applicable. 

For Your Privacy:

When attaching documents to your application (such as Resume, Cover Letter, Transcripts, DD-214, etc.):

Per Governor Inslee’s Directive 22-13.1, state employees must be fully vaccinated effective November 4, 2022. Providing proof of being fully vaccinated is a condition of employment and your vaccine status will be verified prior to starting work. Being fully vaccinated means two weeks after you have received the second dose in a two-dose series of a COVID-19 vaccine or a single-dose COVID-19 vaccine authorized for emergency use, licensed or otherwise authorized or approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or listed for emergency use or otherwise approved by the World Health Organization. If you have questions, please contact Careers@ecy.wa.gov with “COVID-19 vaccination” in the subject line.  

Additional Application Instructions for Current Ecology Employees:

 

Please make sure to answer the agency-wide questions regarding permanent status as a classified employee within the Washington General Service or Washington Management Service. Do not forget to select Department of Ecology as a response to question 2, and type your personnel ID number for question 3. If you are not sure of your status or do not know your personnel ID number, please contact Human Resources.

The act of submitting application materials electronically is considered affirmation that the information is complete and truthful. The state may verify this information and any untruthful or misleading answers are cause for rejection of your application or dismissal if employed. 

If you have specific questions about this position, please email Mary Huff at Mary.Huff@ecy.wa.gov. Please do not contact Mary to inquire about the status of your application.

To request the full position description: email careers@ecy.wa.gov

As an agency, our mission is to protect, preserve and enhance Washington's environment for current and future generations. We invest in our employees to create and sustain a working environment that encourages creative leadership, effective resource management, teamwork, professionalism, and accountability.

Joining Ecology means becoming a part of a team committed to protecting and restoring Washington State's environment. A career in public service allows you to help solve some of the most challenging problems facing our state, while keeping your health and financial security a priority. We combine one of the most competitive benefits packages in the nation with a strong commitment to life/work balance.

To learn more about The Department of Ecology, please visit our website at www.ecology.wa.gov and follow, like or visit us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or our blog.

Collective Bargaining: This is a position covered by a bargaining unit for which the Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE) is the exclusive representative.  

Equal Opportunity Employer: The Washington State Department of Ecology is an equal opportunity employer. We strive to create a working environment that includes and respects cultural, racial, ethnic, sexual orientation and gender identity diversity. Women, racial and ethnic minorities, persons of disability, persons over 40 years of age, veterans, military spouses or people with military status, and people of all sexual orientations and gender identities are encouraged to apply. Persons needing accommodation in the application/testing process or this job announcement in an alternative format may call (360) 407-6186. Applicants who are deaf or hard of hearing may call the Washington Relay Service by dialing 7-1-1 or 1-800-833-6388.

Note: This recruitment may be used to fill other positions of the same job classification across the agency. Once all the position(s) from the recruitment announcement are filled, the recruitment may only be used to fill additional open positions for the next sixty (60) days.