Location
Description
Position and Duties:
The City Council has a Digital Inclusion and Broadband Strategy that seeks to accelerate the deployment of wired and wireless broadband for all people while making it more inclusive for the digitally underserved (the digital divide). Executing this strategy requires negotiating value exchange relationships with telecom providers, overseeing the creation, adoption, and execution of balanced broadband friendly policies, working collaboratively with the community on the aesthetics and other community concerns associated with broadband deployment, and setting the vision, strategy, and priorities for the Small Cell Team in the Department of Public Works, and the Macro Site Team in the Planning, Building, and Code Enforcement Department that executes the Permit to Inspect processes for the City.
The Broadband Manager reports directly to the Director of Civic Innovation and works closely with the Deputy City Manager responsible for 21st Century Infrastructure.
The Broadband Manager directly influences over $1B in private sector investments into the City of San José over the next seven years. This private sector investment creates thousands of jobs, dramatically increases regional GDP, delivers hundreds of millions of dollars of Smart City capability, and delivers tens of millions of economic opportunities for the digitally underserved.
The Broadband Manager requires a broad set of skills including strategic thinking, negotiation, telecommunications experience, public policy, team leadership, and public collaboration. They will negotiate value exchange agreements to generate the demand for broadband deployments and ensure City’s departments fulfill that demand by permitting communications facilities including macro site, small cells, and underground fiber optics. This role requires collaboration with various City departments including, but not limited to the City Manager’s Office of Administration, Policy, and Intergovernmental Relations; City Manager’s Budget Office; Mayor’s Office; Information Technology; Planning, Building and Code Enforcement; Public Works; and Transportation. The Broadband Manager will also work closely with innovative technology companies to evaluate ways to accelerate broadband deployment, including Smart City technology within the new context of COVID-19 public health, and the shelter-in-place dynamics that highlight the value of digital inclusion. Collaboration with public interest groups, community organizations, and other stakeholders will also be required to ensure public adoption of broadband deployment, especially the deployment of small cells on street lights. Finally, the Broadband Manager will work closely with the City’s Library Department and external stakeholders to ensure progress of social justice for the digitally underserved people in San José.
The Broadband Manager responsibilities include the following:
Negotiate value trading agreements with broadband providers that promote economic development, digital inclusion, and support for Smart Cities.
Direct the development of balanced broadband friendly policies.
Direct the City departments involved with broadband deployment.
Collaborate with external stakeholders on community concerns with broadband deployments.
Measure compliance with agreement terms and conditions.
Evaluate new technologies and approaches to accelerate broadband.
Report progress to City Council and external stakeholders.
Advise on federal, state, and local regulations including rulings from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and recent court decisions.
Advise on proposed telecommunications resiliency standards for broadband deployments from and emergency operations perspective such as the CPUC Wireless Resiliency Strategy and the City of San José Power Vulnerability Plan.
Supervise and manage the Small Cell Permitting Project Manager.
Manage the Digital Inclusion Program in relation to public-private partnership contract requirements and in relation to City and community stakeholders to advance digital inclusion.
This is a permanent position in the City Manager’s Office.
Ideal Candidate
Minimum Qualifications:
Education: Completion of a Bachelor's Degree from an accredited college or university in public administration, business administration, engineering, or a related field. A Master's Degree is preferred, and can be substituted for a portion of the required experience.
Experience: At least six (6) years management and/or administrative experience in government or private business/industry.
Employment Eligibility: Federal law requires all employees to provide verification of their eligibility to work in this country. Please be informed that the City of San José will NOT sponsor, represent, or sign any documents related to visa applications/transfers for H1B or any other type of visa which requires an employer application.
Desired Qualifications:
Telecommunications experience and existing relationships within telecommunications providers is strongly desired.
Demonstrated success identifying and exploring common interests and leveraging those interests to develop agreements that provide mutual benefit to each party. Agreements will often take the form of value exchanges.
Ability to forge and maintain long-term relationships with external and internal stakeholders.
Ability to drive a path forward despite significant ambiguity and resistance to change.
Demonstrates an execution orientation and bias for action. Should be detail oriented and able to balance high-level thinking with managing day-to-day tasks on multiple projects at the same time.
Core Competencies:
The ideal candidate will possess the following competencies, as demonstrated from past and current employment history.
Job Expertise: Demonstrates knowledge of and experience with applicable professional/technical principles and practices, Citywide and departmental procedures/policies and federal and state rules and regulations.
Leadership: Leads by example; demonstrates high ethical standards; remains visible and approachable and interacts with others on a regular basis; promotes a cooperative work environment, allowing others to learn from mistakes; provides motivational supports and direction.
Vision/Strategic Thinking: Supports, promotes, and ensures alignment with the organization’s vision and values; understands how an organization must change in light of internal and external trends and influences; builds a shared vision with others and influences others to translate vision to action.
Communication Skills: Effectively conveys information and expresses thoughts and facts clearly, orally and in writing; demonstrates effective use of listening skills; displays openness to other people’s ideas and thoughts.
Teamwork & Interpersonal Skills: Develops effective relationships with co-workers and supervisors by helping others accomplish tasks and using collaboration and conflict resolution skills.
Selection Process:
To be considered for this position, you must fill out the online application available on the City of San José website and attach a resume. The selection process will consist of an evaluation of the applicant's training and experience based on the application and responses to the Job Specific Questions. Only the candidates whose backgrounds best match the position will be invited to proceed in the selection process. Additional phases of the selection process will consist of one or more interviews and/or a practical exercise or case study.
You will be prompted to answer the following job-specific questions during the online application process. Please note that there is a 4,000-character limit, including spaces, for each text response.
Job Specific Questions:
Please indicate how you meet the minimum qualifications for this position:
Bachelor’s Degree from an accredited college or university in public administration, business administration, engineering, or related field and six (6) years of professional level management and/or administrative experience.
Master’s Degree and five (5) years of professional level management and/or administrative experience.
None of the above.
Please specify your degree, the area of study, and the institution you obtained it from.
Describe your experiences in interest-based negotiations, relationship management, strategic thinking, leadership, and stakeholder collaboration.
Describe a time when you were managing a project and staff disagreed with your approach. What steps did you take to resolve the issue and what was the outcome?
Describe your particular skills and abilities that you believe would make you a successful member of the Office of Civic Innovation & Digital Strategy with a focus on skills and abilities related to the Broadband Manager position.
You must answer all job specific questions in order to be considered for this vacancy or your application will be deemed incomplete and withheld from further consideration.
If you have questions about the duties of these positions, the selection or hiring processes, please contact Danielle Torralba at danielle.torralba@sanjoseca.gov. The first application review will be on October 20, 2020.
Please note that applications are currently not accepted through CalOpps or any other third party job board application system. To apply, applicants must complete an application via the City of San Jose’s website at www.sanjoseca.gov/citycareers. Please note that applications are currently not accepted through CalOpps or any other third party job board application system. To apply, applicants must complete an application via the City of San Jose’s website at www.sanjoseca.gov/citycareers.
