Assistant Commissioner, Sustainability

**IMPORTANT NOTE: Only those serving as a permanent Administrative Engineer will be considered.**

The NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) enriches the environment and protects public health for all New Yorkers by providing 1.1 billion gallons of high-quality drinking water, managing wastewater and stormwater, and reducing air, noise, and hazardous materials pollution. DEP is the largest combined municipal water and wastewater utility in the country, with nearly 6,000 employees. DEP's water supply system is comprised of 19 reservoirs and 3 controlled lakes throughout the system’s 2,000 square mile watershed that extends 125 miles north and west of the city.

The DEP is required under a 2005 Order on Consent to reduce combined sewer overflows (CSOs) from its sewer system to improve the water quality of its surrounding waters, such as Flushing Bay, Jamaica Bay, and tributaries to the East River, Long Island Sound, and Outer Harbor. The Bureau of Sustainability (BOS) is responsible for DEP's long-range planning to ensure appropriate forecasting, trend analysis, regulatory review, scientific modeling, research, and climate resiliency initiatives. BOS also oversees the nation’s largest Green Infrastructure program design, construction and maintenance besides other key programs such as MS4 Stormwater Program, Unified Stormwater Rule and Permitting, Demand Management and Reuse, and Watershed Restoration efforts working with a wide range of local, state and federal stakeholders. BOS is also leading the Stormwater Resiliency and Cloudburst Management Feasibility, Design and Construction by applying a holistic approach to improve water quality and reduce flooding.

In March 2012, the New York State DEC and DEP signed a groundbreaking agreement to reduce CSOs using a hybrid green and gray infrastructure approach. DEP has been working with key public agency partners (such as NYC Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR), NYC Department of Education (DOE), NYC Housing Authority (NYCHA), NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) etc.) to implement green infrastructure retrofits on publicly owned land and install green infrastructure assets such as raingardens, infiltration basins, porous concrete panels etc. on the street Right of Way (ROW) and on public onsite properties, as well as on large street medians. The 2012 Consent Order was amended in April 2023 expanding the largest Green Infrastructure Program to all boroughs with a budget of $3.5 Billion to better manage more intense rainfall that climate change is bringing to the region and improve water quality in the New York Harbor. The Green Infrastructure Program has active design and construction contracts worth approximately $300 Million ongoing, with another $800 Million worth of design and construction contracts upcoming within the next 4-5 years, including the recently initiated Cloudburst design and construction projects.

DEP is seeking an Assistant Commissioner to assist the Deputy Commissioner of Sustainability, with great latitude for the exercise of independent judgement, to oversee the implementation of various Green Infrastructure and resiliency projects including the DEP’s innovative Cloudburst Management Program and Tibbets Brooks Daylighting through design and construction. The Assistant Commissioner will be the Chief Engineer leading BOS’s Office of Green Infrastructure Engineering and leading the coordination with the Bureau of Environmental Planning and Analysis (BEPA) on Green Infrastructure, Cloudburst and Stormwater Management projects. This position serves a multi-disciplinary function, working with a team of several directors to meet consent order milestones and other regulatory requirements, overseeing a multitude (30 to 40) of high-value planning, design and construction contracts simultaneously. The candidate will need to be versatile with the technical ability to oversee and resolve several complex engineering issues ranging from development and review of design details; unanticipated construction and field related problems; capital project initiation and budgetary constraints; resolution of maintenance related issues through design and construction solutions, etc. The candidate must possess the technical experience of analyzing, navigating and resolving numerous engineering issues and challenges that abruptly appear during the course of a project, while maintaining budget and schedule. The candidate must have scientific knowledge of stormwater management, its engineering principles, relevant familiarity with design and construction of both small-scale and large-scale projects including distributed assets. The candidate must be thoroughly accustomed with all aspects of an engineering project, including planning; conceptual, preliminary, and final design; design services during construction (DSDC); construction management and inspections; startup, and aspects of operations and maintenance.

The candidate will lead and oversee the design and update of standards for both the Green Infrastructure Program and the Cloudburst Program which requires updates to existing standards, as well as development of new tools and assets (such as porous pavement with underdrains, water squares, etc.) to utilize green infrastructure assets for flooding reduction and stormwater resiliency. These standards will be used Citywide (within DOE properties, NYCHA properties, DPR properties, and on the City Right of Way) and will require coordination with other DEP bureaus and other City Agencies.

The candidate will be expected to apply adaptive management principles to design and construction of distributed and centralized Green Infrastructure assets incorporating lessons learned from field data and maintenance. The candidate will play the key role to coordinate with the Green Infrastructure Maintenance Unit to develop the most cost-effective strategies for maintenance and incorporate field data into engineering design standards/plans, asset clustering/siting, asset typology selection and other key program management decisions.

The candidate will oversee a group of approximately 45 staff and five major programmatic areas including Right of way Green Infrastructure, on-site GI retrofits for DOE and NYCHA sites, Cloudburst Program, in-house design, and Construction Management.

The in-house design team is involved in the design and construction oversight of demonstratively expansive asset types such as street medians, which manage a high volume of stormwater. These assets not only manage stormwater but provide large-scale co-benefits of converting huge areas of concrete medians to green areas with beautiful landscape/softscape features, beautifying the neighborhood and reducing the urban heat effect.

The candidate will also oversee the design and construction of the over $110 Million Tibbets Brooks Daylighting Project, which is one of the largest green CSO reduction projects in the city. The candidate will oversee the design, CM and construction teams for this daylighting project, which also includes the construction of Greenway Park along the daylighted stream, as well as ecological improvements on Van Cortland Lake.

The candidate should be eager to problem-solve/resolve issues and assist the capital budget team of BEPA, with issues related to capital planning, asset management, procurement budget tracking and reporting of the program portfolio. The candidate will be responsible for resolving issues related to the preparation, negotiation and modifications of contract scope, cost and schedule for successful project completion. The candidate should be able to balance conflicting objectives and diplomatically identify, negotiate, and administer effective resolutions. The candidate will be interacting with several key staff members from other agencies such as DOT, DOE, MTA, SCA, DSNY, DDC, EDC, City Hall etc. in resolving issues such as ownership and maintenance of assets, division of responsibility, funding issues, easement, etc. The position will require review and implementation of various research and development proposals through design and construction, as well as monitoring.

The selected candidate must ensure that Environmental Health & Safety is incorporated throughout all project life cycle. The Assistant Commissioner will be responsible for the seamless communication/coordination with Agency Bureaus, other City Agencies, and key stakeholders; and also, be overall in charge of issues resolution and risk mitigation to keep projects moving while managing the quality of the project delivery throughout the project lifecycle. The Assistant Commissioner will be expected to promote employee engagement, diversity and inclusion, and organizational support for continuous improvement efforts and must coordinate closely with staff and managers across the bureau.

1. A valid New York State License as a Professional Engineer and six (6) years of full-time satisfactory experience in chemical engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering, environmental engineering, mechanical engineering, or plan examining work, at least two (2) years of which must have been in an executive, managerial, or administrative capacity.

The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.