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Department Director, Department of Human Resources
Summary
King County is launching an ambitious effort to make government more transparent, accountable, and effective through the King County Delivers plan. To lead this work, we are seeking a strategic, collaborative, innovative, and results-oriented Department Director, Department of Human Resources (DHR).
The DHR Director advances the County’s people strategy through the implementation of a comprehensive and cutting-edge workforce strategic plan that optimizes the employee experience and empowers staff to do their best work. A key member of the Executive’s Cabinet, the DHR Director ensures enterprise-wide alignment of people policies, systems, and programs for 18,000 employees across 12 departments and leads the day-to-day operations of a department of 200 staff. In addition, the Director provides strategic HR support and resources alignment with the separate branches of King County government and departments with separately elected leaders.
Who We Are
The Department of Human Resources’ mission is to provide strategic human resources leadership, modernized systems, customer-focused services, and tools designed to support the management, growth, and development of the King County workforce.
This mission is supported by a set of values that guide how we serve one another and the people of King County:
- Serve with Integrity, Humility, and Empathy.
- Center Those Most Impacted.
- One Team, One Mission.
- Be in Community.
- Outcomes Over Optics.
- Commit to Excellence.
- Invest in our People. Embed Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in our work.
Job Duties
Applying equity and social justice principles is a daily responsibility and a foundational expectation for all King County employees. This role will apply equity and social justice principles that exemplify shared values, behaviors, and practices in all aspects of the work. As the Director of Human Resources, you will:
- Implement a forward-looking strategic workforce vision that supports the total employee experience in King County, including people policies and systems, talent acquisition, classification and compensation, health care and wellness programs, employee engagement, workplace culture, and learning and development.
- Embrace and commit to equity and transparency for all King County employees and embed equity in policies and processes.
- Promote an environment focused on a strong partnership with departments and enabling departments to achieve operational goals.
- Foster a culture within DHR of service excellence, innovation, continuous improvement, and ease in piloting new products and services in sync with the Executive’s vision and priorities.
- Partner with the Labor Relations Team in the Executive Office on total compensation methodology and implementation of collective bargaining agreements, and help translate concepts agreed upon in bargaining to enterprise policy.
- Advise executive and separately elected leaders on complex and/or sensitive personnel matters.
- Leverage the County's people information and business intelligence systems to drive operational improvements, identify opportunities to advance equity, and anticipate operational and workforce needs.
- Lead the development and implementation of new approaches to tracking data and using data dashboards.
- Champion modernization of technology supporting people, systems, and processes, and set innovation goals based on emerging HR systems technology, centering on customer needs.
- Administer the King County Civil Service Rules for the Sheriff’s Office in recruitment, development of selection/examination processes, and appeals in compliance with RCW 41.14.065.
- Other duties as assigned.
Experience, Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills
We are looking for a collaborative leader with a comprehensive vision for human resources in the county who will inspire a high-performing culture within DHR and be a trusted internal service provider to 12 King County departments.
The ideal candidate will have:
- Significant experience (10+ years) leading human resources, operations, or strategy in a large, complex organization; public-sector and unionized-environment experience preferred.
- Extensive experience overseeing and directing operations, programs, services, and strategic initiatives within a large, complex organization.
- Knowledge of emerging HR technologies to enhance HR service delivery is desired.
- Proven ability to drive organizational change and implement measurable improvements.
- Exceptional communication skills and ability to engage staff at all levels of the organization.
- Strategies and ideas to continue to build on King County’s culture of employee engagement, which supports the development, learning, coaching, and team building necessary for the workforce of the future.
Supplemental Information
- An online King County application. Updated with accurate contact information and relevant work history, with all job duties, dates of employment, and reasons for leaving explained clearly.
- Completed supplemental questions.
- Resume.
- A cover letter. In your cover letter, please tell us why you are interested in this job and how your experience, skills, and/or education have prepared you for this position.
Applications without the above required materials will not be considered. Application materials will be screened for competitiveness, completeness, and written communication skills. The most competitive candidates may be invited to participate in one or more interviews and possibly other selection process elements. Final offers are contingent on the successful completion of reference checks and/or a record review.
If you are interested in pursuing this position, please follow the application instructions carefully. If you need this announcement in an alternate language or format, would like to request accommodation or assistance in the application or assessment process, or if you have questions, please contact: Aimee Higbee, ahigbee@kingcounty.gov.
Other Position Information
Work Location
The main work site for this position is King Street Center, 201 S Jackson St., Seattle, WA 98104. We work in the office at least three days a week to foster connection and responsiveness, arrive prepared and on time, and structure meetings with clear goals and next steps. Across all interactions, we listen first, act quickly, and stay aligned as a team to earn and sustain public trust.
Work Schedule
The position is exempt from the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act and is not overtime eligible. The typical workweek is 40 hours per week, Monday – Friday.
King County is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Employer
No person is unlawfully excluded from employment opportunities based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex(including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), age, genetic information, disability, veteran status, or other protected class. 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.
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