Portfolio Planning & Analysis Unit Manager (SDA)

King County, WA; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 130,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Paid holidays

Professional development

Medical/dental/vision coverage

Job summary

King County is seeking a Portfolio Planning & Analysis Unit Manager within the Wastewater Treatment Division. This role leads the centralized capital portfolio management framework, prioritizes projects, and partners with Finance to align investments with affordability and sustainability goals.

The position supports equity, transparency, and data-informed decisions, guiding governance boards and senior leadership to balance priorities in a hybrid work environment based in Seattle, WA.

Qualifications

• Proven ability to lead centralized capital portfolio management.
• Experience guiding governance with multi-tier boards and clear analysis.
• Familiarity with enterprise project data systems (PRISM) for reporting.

Responsibilities

• Oversee WTD’s centralized capital portfolio management framework and ensure transparent, equitable investments.
• Guide portfolio governance with multi-tier boards and documented processes.
• Lead portfolio planning, project prioritization, resource planning, and policy development.
• Align portfolio planning with rate and budget processes for long-term affordability and sustainability.
• Participate in Senior Leadership Team to align strategic efforts across the organization.

Skills

Strategic portfolio leadership

Governance & decision-making

PRISM system oversight

Senior leadership collaboration

Portfolio planning & analysis

Cross-team coordination

Tools

PRISM

Job description

Summary

This opportunity is open to current King County employees. External applicants are not being considered. This recruitment aims to fill a Special Duty Assignment position for up to 12 months in duration.

About The Role

The Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD) is seeking an experienced and collaborative leader to serve in a Special Duty Assignment as the Portfolio Planning and Analysis Unit Manager. This position provides leadership for WTD’s centralized capital portfolio management function, helping the Division make sound, transparent, and data-informed decisions about its capital investments. The Unit Manager leads the Portfolio Planning and Analysis team, which manages WTD’s capital portfolio management framework, including project prioritization, resource planning, portfolio performance analysis and reporting, and portfolio management standards, processes, and policies. The position also plays a key role in managing WTD’s three-tier capital governance structure, ensuring capital decisions are clearly framed, supported by appropriate information and analysis, and routed to the appropriate decision-making level based on established authorities and decision rights.

About The Team

This position follows a hybrid work model, blending remote and in-person work. The Portfolio Planning and Analysis (PPA) Unit provides leadership for WTD’s centralized capital portfolio management function, ensuring that investments are transparent, equitable, and aligned with the Division’s mission to protect public health and the environment. The Unit guides investment prioritization, resource planning, portfolio performance analysis and reporting, and the standards, processes, and policies that shape capital decision-making. The PPA Unit manages all capital portfolio categories, including: asset management for conveyance systems, asset management for treatment plants, capacity improvements, operational enhancements, regulatory compliance (including CSO), resource recovery, resiliency, and strategic opportunities. The PPA Unit also oversees the PRISM enterprise project information system, which integrates financial, schedule, forecasting, appropriation, sustainability, compliance, and other project data to support consistent project management and portfolio oversight. Together, these functions connect strategy, governance, data, and capital delivery, giving WTD leaders the tools to balance competing priorities and limited resources, monitor the health of the capital portfolio, and invest in the right projects and programs at the right time.

Commitment To Equity, Racial And Social Justice

King County, named after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is a diverse and vibrant community that represents cultures from around the world. We prioritize equity, racial and social justice, making it a foundational and daily expectation for all employees. As a Portfolio Planning & Analysis Unit Manager, you will actively apply these principles in all aspects of your work. Learn more about our commitment at http://www.kingcounty.gov/equity.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide strategic portfolio leadership by overseeing WTD’s centralized capital portfolio management framework, ensuring investments are transparent, equitable, and aligned with public health and environmental goals.
• Guide portfolio governance and decision-making in conjunction with WTD’s three-tier capital governance boards, framing decisions with clear analysis, and ensuring appropriate processes are applied and documented.
• Lead portfolio planning and analysis functions including project prioritization, resource planning, portfolio performance reporting, and the development of portfolio standards, processes, and policies.
• Collaborate extensively with WTD’s Finance & Administration Section to align portfolio planning with rate and budget processes, ensuring capital investment decisions are financially sound, coordinated, and clearly connected to long-term affordability and sustainability goals.
• Serve on WTD’s Senior Leadership Team alongside all unit managers and plant managers, with the purpose of bringing senior leaders together to share critical information, discuss strategic opportunities and challenges, and foster alignment and collaboration across the organization in support of WTD’s mission, vision, values, goals, and strategies.

Experience, Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills

• Ability to provide strategic portfolio leadership by overseeing a centralized capital portfolio management framework, ensuring investments are transparent, equitable, and aligned with public health and environmental goals.
• Ability to guide portfolio governance and decision-making in conjunction with multi-tier governance boards, framing decisions with clear analysis and ensuring appropriate processes are applied and documented.
• Ability to guide the PRISM enterprise project information system team, integrating financial, schedule, forecasting, appropriation, sustainability, compliance, and other project data to support consistent project management and portfolio oversight.
• Ability to serve effectively on a senior leadership team, fostering alignment, collaboration, and consistent strategies across the organization in support of WTD’s mission, vision, values, goals, and strategies.

Competencies You Bring

• Business Insight: Applying knowledge of business and the marketplace to advance the organization’s goals.
• Manages Complexity: Making sense of complex, high quantity, and sometimes contradictory information to effectively solve problems.
• Optimizes Work Processes: Knowing the most effective and efficient processes to get things done, with a focus on continuous improvement.
• Collaborates: Building partnerships and working collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives.
• Communicates Effectively: Developing and delivering multi-mode communications that convey a clear understanding of the unique needs of different audiences.

Preferred Qualifications

• Strategic Portfolio Leadership - Ability to lead a centralized capital portfolio framework so investments are transparent, equitable, and aligned with public health and environmental goals.
• Governance and Decision Making - Ability to guide portfolio governance with multi-tier boards, using clear analysis and ensuring processes are applied and documented.
• PRISM Oversight - Ability to lead the PRISM team, integrating financial, schedule, forecasting, sustainability, compliance, and other project data to support consistent project management and portfolio oversight.
• Senior Leadership Collaboration - Ability to serve effectively on a senior leadership team, fostering alignment, collaboration, and consistent strategies across the organization in support of WTD’s mission, vision, values, and goals.

Working Conditions

• Work Location: The Portfolio, Planning, & Analysis team works in a hybrid model, with days in the office as well as telecommuting. The ratio of remote to onsite work will be dependent on business needs and is subject to change. The primary onsite location is King Street Center, 201 S. Jackson, Seattle, Washington 98104. Employees must reside in Washington state and within a reasonable distance to their King County worksite to respond to workplace reporting requirements. On occasion, you may need to work at other King County worksites, including WTD treatment plant locations including:
• West Point Treatment Plant, 1400 Discovery Park Blvd., Seattle
• South Treatment Plant, 1200 Monster Road S.W., Renton
• Brightwater Treatment Plant, 22505 State Route 9 S.E., Woodinville
• King County has a robust collection of tools and resources to support working remotely. The individual selected for this opportunity will join an innovative and progressive team that is redefining how we work as we transition to the department's hybrid environment. Employees will be provided with a County-issued laptop and must maintain a home workspace with an internet connection where they can reliably perform work and remain available and responsive during scheduled work hours.
• Work Schedule: This position is exempt from the overtime provision of the Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA) and is not overtime eligible.
• Union Representation: This position is represented by Teamsters Local 117 – Wastewater Treatment Division, Managers and Assistant Managers Salary reflects $2.00 per hour contribution to the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Trust.

Benefits

• Excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage options: King County provides eligible employees with options, so they can decide what’s best for themselves and their eligible dependents
• Life and disability insurance: employees are provided basic coverage and given the opportunity to purchase additional insurance for both the employee and eligible dependents
• Retirement: eligible King County employees may participate in a pension plan through the Washington State Department of Retirement Systems and a 457(b) deferred-compensation plan
• Transportation program and ORCA transit pass
• 12 paid holidays each year plus two personal holidays
• Generous vacation and paid sick leave
• Paid parental, family and medical, and volunteer leaves
• Flexible Spending Account
• Wellness programs
• Onsite activity centers
• Employee Giving ProgramEmployee assistance programs
• Flexible schedules and telecommuting options, depending on position
• Training and career development programs

NOTE: Benefits for Term Limited Temporary (TLT) or Short Term Temporary (STT) positions, including leave eligibility and/or participation in the pension plan through the Washington State Department of Retirement Systems, will vary based upon the terms and details of the position. Short Term Temporary positions are not eligible for an ORCA transit pass.

For inquiries about the specifics of this position, please contact the recruiter identified on this job posting.

Equal Employment Opportunity

King County is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Employer. No person is unlawfully excluded from employment opportunities based on sex, race, color, national origin, ethnicity, religious affiliation, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age except by minimum age and retirement provisions, pregnancy, status as a family caregiver, parental status, marital status, military status or status as a veteran who was honorably discharged or who was discharged solely as a result of the person's sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, citizenship or immigration status, genetic information, or other protected class. However, to the extent that distinction or differential treatment on the basis of citizenship or immigration status is authorized by either federal or state law, regulation, or government contract, it is not an unfair practice.

Our EEO policy applies to all employment actions, including but not limited to recruitment, hiring, selection for training, promotion, transfer, demotion, layoff, termination, rates of pay or other forms of compensation.