Senior Water Quality Program Specialist

The City of Gresham is seeking a Senior Water Quality Program Specialist to serve as the Citys central lead for its drinking water quality and protection programs reporting directly to the Water Operations Manager. This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced water professional to take ownership of a large-scale high-profile program with direct public health regulatory and community impact.

This position provides advanced technical oversight and citywide coordination of regulatory sampling and reporting distribution system flushing strategy cross-connection control customer water quality investigations and data analysis across SCADA GIS laboratory and field datasets. This person must be fully versed in drinking water testing procedures under Oregon Health Authority (OHA) rules and regulations and will often serve as the divisions subject matter expert. The position provides lead direction training and functional guidance to water quality staff.

As Oregons fourth-largest city Gresham is a welcoming community of hard-working people where tradition and heritage meet innovation and opportunity. Gresham is a dynamic and rapidly growing city where families and businesses have a mutual desire and drive to thrive. City of Gresham employees care deeply about the community they serve and go one step beyond to deliver services in collaborative inventive practical and nimble ways. Our work is challenging fast-paced and rewarding.

We believe that to deliver the highest level of service to all Gresham community members it is crucial we employ a diverse workforce foster an inclusive working environment and ensure our policies and systems result in equitable outcomes. The City seeks candidates who will support these values by continuously incorporating equity in their daily work and actively contributing to a workplace culture that respects unique viewpoints life experiences and cultural perspectives. Come build the future with us.

What you will get to do:

• Plan organize and manage a high-profile drinking water quality program with regulatory and public health components.
• Assist with strategic planning develop program goals policies and procedures.
• Monitor subprograms evaluate and report on performance and outcomes and analyze technical information and evolving federal and state regulatory requirements to recommend improvements and ensure ongoing compliance.
• Conduct program-related research and data analysis.
• Gather and compile drinking water quality and regulatory monitoring data from a variety of sources.
• Apply descriptive statistics to answer questions and support programmatic changes.
• Prepare submit and distribute the annual Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) along with a variety of technical reports notices and public communication materials.
• Develop and implement outreach in support of program goals.
• Build and maintain relationships with partner and regulatory agencies.
• Provide water quality technical assistance and education to staff the public and outside agencies.
• Represent the City in meetings presentations committees and interagency work groups and respond to sensitive inquiries investigate complaints and recommend corrective actions.
• Maintain and advance critical program documentation including SOPs technical manuals monitoring plans and staff training materials essential to regulatory compliance and sanitary survey readiness.
• Support budget development equipment procurement and inventory management.
• Deliver training and functional oversight to operations staff.
• Serve as delegated backup Direct Responsible Charge (DRC).
• Coordinate prioritize and assign work to assigned staff.
• Perform other duties as assigned including participation in citywide emergency response.

Knowledge of:

• Federal and state drinking water regulations including the Safe Drinking Water Act and OAR 333; cross-connection control and backflow assemblies.
• Sampling techniques QA/QC protocols and laboratory coordination.
• Data analysis trend evaluation dashboards and regulatory record keeping.
• Development of monitoring schedules SOPs and multi-program workflows.

Ability to:

• Prioritize multiple high-risk regulatory tasks with minimal oversight and exercise sound operational judgment including as backup DRC.
• Train others and lead program initiatives.
• Perform instrument calibration and field troubleshooting.
• Communicate effectively verbally and in writing; present information proposals and recommendations clearly and persuasively.
• Establish and maintain effective working relationships with all internal and external contacts.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Associates degree and
• Three (3) to six (6) years of progressively responsible water quality water distribution or related experience.

Any combination of qualifying education training and/or experience equivalent to five (5) to eight (8) years may be considered.

Required Licenses and Certifications:

• Valid drivers license
• Oregon Health Authority (OHA) Water Distribution System Operator Level 4 Certification.
• OHA Cross Connection Tester License.
• OHA Cross Connection Specialist License.
• Ability to obtain Oregon OSHA-approved confined space training within six (6) months of hire.

Driving Matrix:

You will be disqualified from this process if you possess any of the following driving infractions:

• A major traffic offense or accident that results in death or major injury.
• Driving under the influence (DUI) offense within the last 5 years.
• Have more than 3 moving violations within a 3-year period or more than 2 within a one- year period.
• Have more than 2 accidents within a 3-year period.

To apply for this position click Apply at the top of this job posting.

Required application materials:

• Complete online application(Do not type see resume in any fields or leave work experience fields blank in the application template.)
• Answers to supplemental questions

The City of Gresham offers a comprehensive and equitable base salary within the listed range based on your experience skills and education verified in your application. We encourage you to clearly describe how you meet the minimum and preferred qualifications and essential attributes in your application materials.Learn more about Oregon Equal Pay.

If you desire a modification of this process to accommodate a disability please provide your request in writing to or by phone to upon submitting the required application documents.

A review of application materials including your response to supplemental questions submitted will determine which candidates will be invited to an interview.

Communication with candidates will be done primarily through e-mail. Sometimes these messages may land in a spam or junk mail folder. We encourage you to monitor your inbox as well as the inbox within the portal for important updates related to this process.

Veterans Preference

The City of Gresham provides qualifying veterans and disabled veterans with preference in employment in accordance with state law. Any candidate wishing to have their qualifying veterans preference applied to the process must submit a qualifying document (DD Form 214 or 215) at the time of application providing proof of eligibility that includes discharge status. Disabled veterans must also submit a copy of their Veterans disability preference letter from the US Department of Veteran Affairs at the time of application unless the information is included in the DD Form 214 or 215.

Our Commitment

The City of Gresham is committed to providing equal employment opportunity to all qualified employees and applicants without unlawful regard to race color religion sex (including pregnancy childbirth and related medical conditions) sexual orientation gender identity national origin age mental or physical disability genetic information veteran status marital status familial status or any other status protected by applicable federal Oregon or local law.

Please direct questions about this position to or

If you need assistance with the online application please contact NEOGOV directly at 1-.

Any offer of employment is contingent upon successful completion of reference checks a criminal background check and driving record review.