JOB POSTING

Director of Facilities

Posted: Open to internal and external applicants

Reports to: VP of Facilities & Operations

Status: Full-time, salaried, benefitted position

Hours of work: Standard Monday-Friday workweek, 8am-5pm. Occasional need for weekend or after-hours work as related to events and other projects.

Date needed: June 2024

Posting expires: When filled

Position description:

The Seattle Aquarium, a leading marine conservation organization, is looking for a Director of Facilities to join the Facilities Team. Our lives depend on the ocean, the life support system for our blue planet. The Seattle Aquarium's physical facilities and associated equipment in concert with the departmental personnel provide foundational infrastructure to facilitate delivery of the aquarium's mission: Inspiring conservation of our marine environment. The facilities team works diligently to safely maintain, operate, and secure the Aquarium's campus and offsite facility to support our shared of ocean conservation - starting here on Seattle's waterfront.

The Director of Facilities at the Seattle Aquarium is a key leadership role responsible for overseeing safety, security, habitats (exhibits), maintenance and efficient operations of our facilities. The position reports to the Vice President of Facilities and Operations, and has four direct reports (Facilities Operations Manager, Safety Manager, Security Manager, and Exhibits Technician), with an overall team of 32 staff members. The facilities department collaborates closely with all other Aquarium departments and partners to deliver infrastructure, systems and processes that facilitate mission-delivery across a wide range of organizational functions.

All positions at the Aquarium support and advance our SALISH Values (Sustainable, Awe-Inspiring, Learning and Improving, Inclusive Community, Scientific Integrity, Honoring Place). As a part of our values, the Aquarium is committed to creating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organization. We adopted a DEI strategic plan and Regenerative Plan. We envision a future in which ocean and coastal communities survive and thrive, where we can meet the needs of the present while building more resilient and equitable systems for the future.

As part of our inclusive community value, work experience is valued the same as education degrees. A successful candidate will have a minimum of seven years of growing responsibility in a combination of facilities management, operations management, and/or related fields.

Key functions:

Team management and collaboration

• Lead, collaborate with, direct, and support the maintenance, operations, safety, security, and exhibits teams/functions. Creating and promoting a positive, supportive, and inclusive work environment.
• Foster professional growth of others through coaching and mentoring, providing feedback, training and professional development, accountability, team culture, and maintaining high performance standards.
• Actively and effectively support internal and external collaboration and partnership to operate and maintain the facilities and infrastructure in alignment with best practices.
• Champion the advancement of the organization's regenerative and equity practices.
• Provide leadership in strengthening internal communications with staff throughout the organization while meeting the needs of diverse communication styles.

Facilities operations, safety, security, and exhibits

• Oversee day-to-day operations of the Aquarium facilities, ensuring a world-class experience for visitors and staff.
• Work cross-departmentally to update and/or create and implement facilities-related processes and procedures to promote efficient operations.
• Provide oversight for our safety function to ensure with federal, state, and local regulatory agencies as they pertain to our facilities and operations. Actively examine safety practices using an equity lens, improving accessibility and inclusion, and encouraging diversity in thought and perspectives.
• Work alongside security team to continue to develop the security processes and procedures, enhance physical site security, and collaborate with external partners to deliver a secure environment for staff, volunteers, and guests.
• Collaborate with VP of Facilities and Operations, engineering team, and facilities operations staff to develop and implement standards of care and service level agreements for delivery of facilities-related services.
• Author, review, and manage facilities contracts. Collaborate with external vendors, contractors, and service providers to ensure the timely and efficient completion of facility-related projects and maintenance tasks.
• Participate in development, management, and leadership of facilities and exhibits-related capital projects.
• Develop and maintain emergency response plans and procedures to address various scenarios, including natural disasters and security incidents.

Strategic thinking, planning & development

• Serve as an active and collaborative member of the Aquarium's management team to establish the short- and long-term strategic goals for the Aquarium's facilities team and to manage and evaluate operations modeling cross-functional integration and collaborative ways of working.
• Define tasks and milestones to achieve objectives, considering impacts on all areas of the Aquarium operations while ensuring the optimal use of resources.
• Prepare and manage departmental budget, aligning four team budgets within the scope of the departmental budget, ensuring effective and responsible fiscal practices, including development and management of the annual capital maintenance budget.
• Serve on, and at times lead, various cross-departmental teams and working groups. Including, but not limited to, safety committee, exhibits committee, daily operations advisory group, etc.
• Proactively adapt to meet changing business requirements, facilitating the implementation and acceptance of change within the workplace. Seek to continuously improve processes and practices and respond to challenges and opportunities with innovative solutions.
• Lead, advance and integrate diversity, equity, inclusion, and regenerative practices throughout team management, processes, and facilities projects. All Aquarium staff and volunteers are expected to participate in advancing and integrating into their work Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Regenerative practices in alignment with our S.A.L.I.S.H. Values.
• Other duties as assigned.

Required skills and experience:
We will consider various combinations of relevant experience and education to meet minimum requirements.

• At least seven years of cumulative experience, demonstrating continued growth and leadership in facilities management and/or operations management in a complex organization as well as growing responsibility in staff leadership and management.
• Culturally responsive leadership and management skills, with demonstrated experience supervising and mentoring staff at multiple levels, including team development, career progression, and interdisciplinary teams.
• Experience executing multi-faceted plans, projects, and initiatives across a complex organization.
• Experience with environmental health and safety compliance
• Experience implementing sustainable practices into operations.
• Demonstrated history of implementing new ways of thinking and engagement while alternating strategic and tactical perspectives.
• Deep understanding of resource management in terms of time, effort, and budget. Evidence of strategic decision making in allocation and tracking of resources. Solutions-oriented approach in addressing near- and long-term goals of the department.
• Demonstrates an understanding of the Aquarium's Mission and Values, including Regenerative and Equity work. Strong ability to build and maintain positive, respectful relationships with people from diverse backgrounds. Ability to approach others from an empathetic, authentic and curious perspective.
• A preference forMultilingualapplicants and Englishspeakers with comfort and practice communicating across cultural and language barriers.

Working conditions:

• Most work is performed in a typical office setting with frequent interruptions. Other work areas include outdoor environments with the occasional need for travel.
• Some exposure to elements as employees are located in campus environment with multiple buildings, outdoor and semi-covered areas, for example moving between Aquarium buildings in all types of weather to participate in meetings.
• This position occasionally involves walking and working on uneven, slippery surfaces, climbing up and down ladders and working in a confined space.
• On rare occasion must be available to be on-call for emergencies.
• Must be flexible for occasional evening, early morning or weekend hours in support of events and projects.

Salary and benefits: $98,000 - $125,000 yearly Dependent on experience. Please include salary expectations in your materials. Full-time staff are eligible for the Seattle Aquarium's comprehensive benefits package to include medical, vision, dental, an employer-funded health reimbursement account, medical and dependent care flexible spending accounts, life insurance, long-term disability, 403b retirement fund with employer match, access to a subsidized ORCA pass, a Seattle Aquarium Family Plus membership and generous paid time off.

How to apply: The Seattle Aquarium is committed to expanding a diverse, equitable, and inclusive conservation movement. We are invested in building an Aquarium with a wide variety of backgrounds, identities, languages, cultural ways of knowing, and life experiences. We know research shows that society has conditioned communities of color, trans and gender non-conforming people, immigrants, people with disabilities, and other marginalized candidates to more frequently not apply to a job because they don't feel that they meet all of the qualifications listed even if they are qualified. If you meet some of the requirements and you are passionate about our mission and our ocean, we encourage you to apply and look forward to learning more about you.

Interested candidates should upload a resume to our online application to be considered. Application review will begin immediately.

Please let us know if you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for this job by emailing us at .

Note: If offered the position, candidates must pass a background check. Conviction record is not an automatic disqualifier; we are a second chance employer.

About the Seattle Aquarium:

The Seattle Aquarium is a respected authority on Puget Sound, the Salish Sea and the world's one ocean. Our passionate staff increases awareness and drives the change needed to preserve and protect our marine environment by providing an inspiring visitor experience, engaging daytime and evening events, conservation education programs for people of all ages and backgrounds, community outreach to marginalized populations, research that advances understanding of animals in our care and their counterparts in the wild, advocacy and policy work, an award-winning volunteer program, high-impact marketing and communications, and more.

Our values, developed in conjunction with our staff, include commitments to adopting and promoting sustainable practices, creating awe-inspiring experiences, constantly learning and improving, fostering an inclusive community, maintaining scientific credibility through evidence-based practices and honoring our unique place by using our location and history as a lens for larger understanding.

Proudly accredited by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, we're among the top 10 aquariums in the U.S. by attendance, and we welcome over 850,000 people each year. Guided by our mission of Inspiring Conservation of Our Marine Environment, we're working to substantially increase our conservation impact by expanding our campus with a new building, the Ocean Pavilion. Learn more at .

Timeline:

We anticipate the following recruiting schedulefor those candidates who are selected for consideration.The following dates are preliminary and subject to change.We will work with candidates to set interview dates.If hired, relocation assistance is not available.

• Priority given to applications received the first two weeks.
• Start date: June 2024