City Library Jobs in Oregon (NOW HIRING)

The Assistant City Manager & Human Resources Director serves in a unique dual leadership role, combining broad executive and organizational responsibilities with direct leadership of the City's human resources function.

Assistant City Manager Leadership

As Assistant City Manager, the position:

• Serves as a strategic advisor and thought partner to the City Manager on organizational, operational, workforce, and leadership matters.
• Provides direct leadership, supervision, coaching, and performance oversight to assigned department directors and executive-level staff.
• Oversees assigned departments and functions, currently including Human Resources, Safety & Risk, Information Technology, Finance, and Library services.
• Helps translate City Council and City Manager priorities into coordinated organizational action.
• Leads complex cross-departmental initiatives requiring collaboration, organizational change, problem-solving, and sustained executive attention.
• Evaluates organizational systems, policies, and practices and advances improvements that strengthen accountability, service delivery, efficiency, and organizational performance.
• Serves as a leader, trusted advisor and resource on the City's Leadership Team.
• Assumes leadership responsibility for significant organizational issues and special projects as assigned by the City Manager.

Human Resources Leadership

As Human Resources Director, the position leads the full range of City human resources functions, including:

• Recruitment and selection.
• Labor and employee relations.
• Performance management.
• Workplace investigations.
• Corrective and disciplinary processes.
• Benefits administration.
• Classification and compensation.
• Policy development and implementation.
• ADA and EEO compliance.
• Safety and risk management.
• Organizational development and leadership support.

The position serves as a member of the City's labor negotiation team, administers collective bargaining agreements, and serves as the City's EEO Officer and ADA Coordinator.

The successful candidate must be comfortable moving between high-level strategy and hands-on service delivery and must be willing and able to personally lead complex personnel matters when circumstances require.

Key Responsibilities

• Advise and coach executive leaders, department directors, and supervisors on complex organizational, management, and personnel matters.
• Personally lead or oversee complex employee relations matters from initial concern through resolution.
• Guide leaders through performance improvement, corrective action, progressive discipline, and employee separation or termination processes.
• Conduct or oversee workplace investigations, grievances, and other sensitive personnel matters.
• Facilitate difficult conversations involving performance, workplace conflict, employee conduct, and organizational expectations.
• Lead organizational planning, policy development, process improvement, and cross-departmental initiatives.
• Help build a culture of accountability, collaboration, effective communication, and high performance.
• Serve as a member of the City's labor negotiation team and support collective bargaining and labor-management relations.
• Lead Citywide recruitment and selection processes and oversee benefits, classification, and compensation.
• Provide consultation, training, and guidance on HR policies, employment laws, and best practices.
• Ensure compliance with applicable federal, state, and local employment requirements.
• Support risk management, workplace safety, and liability mitigation efforts.
• Coordinate with Finance on compensation, benefits, payroll, and workforce data needs.

Professional Resources and Support

The Assistant City Manager & Human Resources Director works within a network of internal and external professional resources. Depending on the nature and complexity of an issue, the position may draw on support from the City's insurance and employee risk services partners, specialized labor and employment counsel, and other professional advisors.

The City is also prepared to provide access to experienced senior HR support during the successful candidate's transition and onboarding period to provide continuity, organizational context, and support for long-term success.

What Success Looks Like

While priorities will evolve based on the needs of the organization, success in the first 12 to 18 months is likely to include:

• Building trusted working relationships with the City Manager, City Council, department directors, employees, labor representatives, and key partners.
• Developing a deep understanding of City operations, departmental priorities, organizational culture, and workforce needs.
• Establishing credibility as an accessible and trusted advisor who provides clear guidance, exercises sound judgment, and addresses difficult issues directly.
• Providing meaningful coaching, support, accountability, and strategic direction to the leaders of assigned departments.
• Strengthening consistency and confidence in the City's approach to performance management, employee relations, workplace investigations, and corrective action.
• Helping supervisors and department leaders address performance and workplace concerns earlier and more effectively.
• Assessing key Human Resources policies, practices, and systems and establishing thoughtful priorities for improvement.
• Advancing practical improvements to organizational systems, leadership practices, and cross-departmental coordination.
• Providing effective executive leadership to assigned departments while respecting the expertise and operational authority of department directors.
• Contributing effectively to labor-management relations and negotiations.
• Taking ownership of complex organizational issues and significant cross-departmental initiatives.

Ultimately, success will mean helping the City become a stronger, more consistent, and more effective organization-one in which leaders are well supported and accountable, employees understand expectations, difficult issues are addressed thoughtfully and directly, and departments work together effectively to serve the community.

Minimum Qualifications

Candidates should demonstrate the following combination of executive leadership, management, and complex personnel experience:

• Five years of progressively responsible supervisory and management experience, including at least two years in an executive or senior-management role.
• Demonstrated experience personally leading complex employee relations and personnel matters from initial concern through resolution, including substantive responsibility for performance management, workplace investigations, corrective and disciplinary action, and employee separations or terminations.
• Experience advising and coaching executive leaders, department directors, or other senior managers through sensitive, high-risk, or legally complex personnel matters.
• Experience developing performance improvement strategies and guiding leaders through progressive discipline and termination processes.
• Demonstrated ability to facilitate difficult conversations and address challenging issues directly, with the emotional intelligence, judgment, courage, tact, and diplomacy necessary to maintain trust and organizational credibility.
• Experience with labor relations, including collective bargaining, administration of collective bargaining agreements, grievances, or employee relations in a unionized environment.
• Working knowledge of federal and state employment laws and the ability to interpret and apply legal and regulatory requirements to complex workplace situations.
• Demonstrated ability to build effective relationships and communicate with employees, supervisors, executive leaders, labor representatives, elected officials, and other stakeholders.
• A collaborative, communicative, and solutions-oriented leadership style, with demonstrated ability to lead change, improve organizational systems, and balance competing priorities.
• Proficiency with Microsoft 365 and the ability to learn and effectively use multiple complex software systems.

The City recognizes that highly qualified candidates may reach this role through different professional pathways. Candidates may bring a background primarily in public administration with substantial direct experience leading complex personnel and labor matters, or a background primarily in human resources with demonstrated executive, organizational, and operational leadership experience.

Preferred Qualifications

The most competitive candidates may also bring one or more of the following:

• Five or more years of progressively responsible human resources experience, ideally in a generalist, management, or leadership capacity.
• Experience working in municipal government, another public-sector organization, or a complex nonprofit environment.
• Experience supervising department directors, executive staff, or multiple organizational functions.
• Experience leading cross-departmental initiatives, organizational change, strategic planning, or operational improvement.
• Experience providing executive-level guidance on information technology functions, including technology planning, project prioritization, cybersecurity, Citywide systems, or infrastructure.
• Familiarity with public-sector finance, budgeting, or organizational resource allocation.
• A bachelor's degree in human resources, business administration, public administration, organizational development, or a related field.
• SHRM-CP, SHRM-SCP, PHR, SPHR, IPMA-CP, IPMA-SCP, or a comparable professional certification.
• Written and/or oral Spanish-language proficiency.

Our Ideal Candidate

Our ideal candidate combines sound judgment with genuine approachability and understands that effective leadership requires both strong relationships and a willingness to address difficult issues directly.

The successful candidate will be composed and empathetic in challenging situations, comfortable making difficult decisions, and effective at coaching leaders while holding them accountable. They will be able to build trust across the organization, lead change, improve processes, and challenge practices that are no longer serving the City well.

This person will be comfortable moving between executive-level strategy and detailed, hands-on problem-solving; politically astute in working with employees, labor representatives, executive leaders, elected officials, and the public; and curious about a broad range of City operations.