Budget Director, Washington State Office of the Attorney General
State of Washington See More Job Openings by This Employer
- Description
Persons requiring reasonable accommodation in the application process or requiring information in an alternative format may contact the recruitment team at HREmployment@atg.wa.gov. Those with a hearing impairment in need of accommodation are encouraged to contact the Washington Relay Service at 1-800-676-3777 or www.washingtonrelay.com.
This position will remain open until a sufficient number of qualified candidates have applied. First review of applications is expected to occur on November 8, 2024 and will be ongoing. It is in the applicants’ best interest to submit their application materials as early as possible. The hiring manager reserves the right to make a hiring decision at any time. This job posting may be closed at any time without notice.
Position and Salary:
The Attorney General’s Office is recruiting for a full time Budget Director in the Financial Services Division. This position is located in Tumwater, Washington, and is not union-represented.
Salary range: $130,000 - $150,000
The base pay offered will take into account internal equity and may vary depending on the preferred candidate’s job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.
About the Financial Services Division:
The Financial Services Division (FIS) ensures and supports the critical mission of the AGO of providing excellent, independent, and ethical legal services to the State of Washington and protecting the rights of its people. FIS does this by providing support and accountability for agency financial and budgetary decisions and practices. FIS ensures that the reporting and transmission of agency financial information is complete, accurate and timely. FIS is also responsible for agency budget development and monitoring in addition to accounting, payroll, contracts and purchasing functions. FIS contains three main sections: Accounting, Contracts and Grants and Budget.
The Budget Team is responsible for all agency budget functions, expenditure monitoring and projections. In this capacity, the budget unit develops and submits biennial and supplemental budget requests, advises senior management regarding all budgetary issues, builds all divisional budgets, monitors expenditures and revenues, and prepares and submits over 250 fiscal notes per year. The budget unit works closely with Office of Financial Management (OFM) and legislative staff to represent and explain the AGO budget. The budget unit develops and sets the billing rates to bill for legal services provided to over 230 state agencies, boards, and commissions. The total AGO budget is roughly $350M per year, the majority of which is paid for by legal services billing, and 2,030 FTE.
The Accounting Services Unit is responsible for Accounts Payable, General Accounting, Accounts Receivable, Revenue, Timekeeping/Billing and Payroll functions. This unit processes employees' travel vouchers, vendor invoices, partners with the state and federal auditors, accounting for federal grants, produces our federal indirect rate, distributes cost allocations, provides cash management, daily deposits, wire transfers, local bank services including settlement monies, legal services billing and the preparation and disclosure of our financial statements. In addition, the unit ensures all transactions processed comply with state and federal requirements and reconciles all parts of the agency's reportable financial structure. The unit also manages the internal timekeeping system to generate the legal invoices distributed to most state agencies, boards, and commissions.
Contracts and Grants has agency-wide responsibilities for the centralized management and oversight of all AGO contracts, outside counsel contracts, agency purchasing and procurement, and grants. This group is responsible for ensuring that the contract initiation, execution, monitoring, payment, oversight, contract analysis, reporting and audit functions are handled correctly and conform to the decisions of the AGO Core Leadership Team and are in the best interest of our clients, the policies of the Department of Enterprise Services (DES), the standards of the Office of Financial Management (OFM), and all rules and regulations.
Financial Services reports to the agency Chief Financial Officer who oversees multiple administrative functions and statewide programs including FIS, facilities and office support, information services, safety and security, wellness and sustainability.
Duties and Essential Functions of a Budget Director:
The AGO Budget Director reports directly to the Chief Financial Officer and serves as a key advisor to agency executive management. This exciting role interfaces with all agencies and clients of the office to ensure coordination, consistency and provide communication. The Budget Director must deploy effective interpersonal skills and flexibility in order to provide information at an appropriate level.
Responsibility encompasses the entire agency and influences all aspects of the agency’s biennial budget and programs for many years. At the fully functioning level and with an exceptional grasp of managerial and executive expertise expected for leadership and direction, contributes to the mission of the organization by providing mastery level budget expertise to direct, control, and integrate the work of budget staff, services, and projects that the Budget Office delivers to both internal and external AGO customers.
This position plays a critical role in long-range strategic and financial planning and analysis, including positioning the AGO for optimal utilization of available funds, and is responsible for developing and implementing policies and procedures for the Budget Unit, FIS and the agency as a whole.
The budget director works with the AGO leadership; including the Attorney General, other FIS managers, AGO employees, the legislature, the Office of Financial Management (OFM), Office of Program Research (OPR), and other state agencies to coordinate and respond to budget issues and needs.
Duties include but are not limited to:
- Day-to-day oversight of operational functions of the budget team, 7 fulltime professional staff, including WMS Budget managers and Budget Analysts.
- Budget Director is responsible for funds management and ensuring optimal use of each fund type. Currently the AGO is the funds administrator for ten separate fund types and the Budget Director must ensure there is adequate funding available to cover program expenditures. During the 2023-25 Biennium AGO spends out of 15 Funds/Accounts.
- Identify strategic financial issues and oversee the development and analysist of options.
- Work with financial staff, customers and information technology professionals as needed to design charts, reports and data visualizations for summary level and detailed financial data in effective and easy to understand ways
- Responsible for decision packages and briefing papers for budget building and monitoring activities to help ensure the work of the AGO is fully funded. This position is responsible for and is the approval authority for the AGO Fiscal Note (FN) process, FN development and timely submission to OFM. Using budget expertise as the subject matter expert, the Budget Director represents the AGO in meetings with other state agencies, divisions and the legislature.
- Primary liaison with external agencies such as OFM, the legislature, and state agencies in matters related to budget issues, procedures, and compliance.
- Coordination internally and externally on budget building, funds and expenditures monitoring, and legal services billing to state agencies.
- Prepares expert and strategic analysis of fiscal and policy decisions, recognizing trends and making correct correlations in order to recommend action plans for AGO leadership review.
Important competencies for successful candidates include
- Team Leadership: Ability and desire to encourage others on a team; as a leader demonstrates skill and success in getting groups to work together; demonstrates inclusiveness of various and diverse individuals having differing styles and skills. Actively takes steps to build a cohesive and results-oriented team.
- Managing Performance: Ability to take responsibility for one's own or employees performances by setting clear goals and expectations; monitoring progress, assuring timely feedback; and appraisals, and addressing performance problems and issues promptly; supervision, delegating; motivating, direct reports.
- Coaching & Mentoring: Actively partner with co-workers to provide them with information, techniques, instructions, feedback and encouragement to maximize success on the job
- Accountability: Accepts personal responsibility for the quality and timeliness of work. Can be relied upon to achieve excellent results with little oversight. Demonstrates stewardship in use of resources, allocating time, money, materials, facilities and human resources effectively and efficiently.
- Communication: Verbal and written - Demonstrate clear and effective communication skills when creating reports, research, or responding to customer service requests. Sufficient skill and ability to communicate effectively and present complex financial material to all levels of agency management and staff while providing the accounting services they need to effectively manage their areas.
- Critical Thinking: Demonstrates ability to independently and creatively use judgement and critical thinking to infer appropriate meaning and form conclusions necessary to resolve the problems or issues. This work may be done in the absence of clear guidelines or information.
- Management skills to lead, support, motivate, mentor and training management, professional and administrative support staff on appropriate financial work.
- Statewide financial systems - Extensive knowledge of and ability to effectively utilize all statewide and agency unique accounting, budget, and labor distribution systems, including indirect calculation and cost allocations. Develops and demonstrates proficiency in using the statewide financial systems, reports, coding structures, and processes.
Ideal Candidate Profile:
Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration, Public Administration or allied field, and six years of professional level budget experience. A minimum of four years' supervisory experience is required.
Preference will be given for state governmental budget experience with increasing levels of responsibility.About the Washington State Office of the Attorney General:
Join an agency whose work impacts the lives of every resident of Washington State.
The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) touches the lives of every resident in this state. We serve more than 230 state agencies, boards, commissions, colleges and universities, as well as the Legislature and the Governor. The Office is comprised of nearly 700 attorneys and 800 professional staff, all working together to deliver the highest quality professional legal services to Washington state officials, agencies, and entities. This includes:
- Economic justice and consumer protections (safeguarding consumers, protecting youth, seniors, and other vulnerable populations)
- Social justice and civil rights (addressing discrimination, environmental protection, and veteran and military resources)
- Criminal justice and public safety (investigative and prosecutorial support, financial crimes)
- And much more!
Our agency also has national reach, representing the State of Washington before the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals and trial courts in all cases that involve the state’s interest. If you want to make a difference, we may be the perfect fit for you! Learn more about the AGO here.
Commitment to Diversity:
Diversity is critical to the success of the mission of the AGO. This means recognizing, respecting, and appreciating all cultures and backgrounds-- and fostering the inclusion of differences between people. Appreciating, valuing and implementing principles of diversity permits AGO employees to achieve their fullest potential in an inclusive, respectful environment. One recent measure of the AGO's commitment to diversity can be found in its nomination for Rainbow Alliance and Inclusion Network's "Outstanding Agency Award" in 2019. Our commitment to employee wellness is reflected in earning the 2021 Zo8 Washington Wellness Award.
Excellent benefits:
Washington State offers one of the most competitive benefits packages in the nation, including Medical/Dental/Vision for employees & dependent(s); Vacation, Sick, and Other Leave; 11 Paid Holidays per year; Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) plans; and Life Insurance. Beyond these traditional benefits, we offer Dependent Care Assistance, Flexible Spending Accounts, Public Service Loan Forgiveness, Tuition Waiver, Deferred Compensation, Employee Recognition Leave, and more. With the goal of employee health and wellness, we also offer flexible schedules and telework options for most positions, a Wellness Program, the Employee Assistance Program, and numerous affinity groups to foster community and connection.
APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS:
In addition to completing the online application, applicants must attach the following documents to their profile in order to be considered for this position:
- A letter of interest, describing your specific qualifications for the position;
- A current resume detailing experience and education.
READ THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION COMPLETELY:
- Carefully review your application for accuracy, spelling and grammar before submitting.
- You may not reapply to this posting for 30 days.
- The initial screening of applications will be solely based on the contents and completeness of the “work experience” and “education” sections of your application in www.careers.wa.gov, completeness of the application material submitted, and responses to the supplemental questionnaire.
- A resume will not substitute for completing the “work experience” section of the application.
- All information may be verified and documentation may be required.
Honoring diversity, equity and inclusion means that as an agency, and as individuals, we are committed to ensuring that all employees and volunteers enjoy a respectful, safe and supportive working environment. Only by fostering the inclusion of people from all backgrounds, cultures and attributes, can AGO employees and volunteers achieve their fullest potential and best advance the goals and mission of the AGO.
The AGO is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin, sex, marital status, sexual orientation/gender identity, age, disability, honorably discharged veteran or military status, retaliation or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal by a person with a disability. Persons requiring reasonable accommodation in the application process or requiring information in an alternative format may contact the recruitment team at HREmployment@atg.wa.gov. Those with a hearing impairment in need of accommodation are encouraged to contact the Washington Relay Service at 1-800-676-3777 or www.washingtonrelay.com.
For questions regarding this recruitment or assistance with the application process, please contact Judith Vandergeest @ (360) 586-7691 or Judith.Vandergeest@atg.wa.gov.
If you are having technical difficulties creating, accessing or completing your application, please call NEOGOV toll-free at (855) 524-5627 or support@neogov.com.
- $130,000 - $150,000/year
