The City and County of San Francisco

Company Description

The Office of the City Administrator and its 25+ divisions and departments operate core internal and public-facing services in San Francisco. 

The Office of the City Administrator’s Mission and Vision 

Our vision is to lead the nation in public administration and to enable City departments to effectively deliver critical public services. We aim to help the city run better, to connect San Francisco residents and constituents to the vital public services they seek, and to create a meaningful and diverse work culture that is the place of choice for people who are invested in a career in public service.

We are committed to ensuring that the City's services are inclusive, efficient, equitable, and culturally competent for San Franciscans of all races, ethnic backgrounds, religions, and sexual orientations. This commitment requires comprehensive review and thorough analysis of existing practices and policies to remove barriers to real inclusion. 

We are also committed to ensuring that the Department is a safe, equitable, and inclusive workplace for individuals of all races. This includes creating opportunities for hiring, promotion, retention, training, and development, particularly for Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). 

We offer flexibility with a hybrid remote and in-person work environment in our office in San Francisco, California. (Must be a California resident.) 

To learn more about our departments, divisions, and programs, visit: https://sf.gov/departments/city-administrator 

About Office of Contract Administration (OCA) Purchasing

The City and County of San Francisco spends over $2B on procurement annually (including professional services, construction, grants, commodities, and general services). Its primary procurement department, the Office of Contract Administration (OCA), also known as the Purchasing Division, is responsible for procuring the commodities and services that are essential to providing governmental services for the citizens of San Francisco, through one-time purchases as well as administration of over 600 fleet, general services, general commodities, equipment lease, repair, and maintenance, and technology contracts for Citywide use. The department additionally provides Citywide oversight and administration of all City purchases subject to San Francisco Administrative Code Chapter 21, ensuring City departments abide by public contracting rules and regulations, and further supports City procurement and contracting efforts by developing and administering solicitation and contract templates, and providing training to contracting staff. 

In addition to these core responsibilities, the Office of Contract Administration is a key participant in the City’s procurement reform effort. This effort formally started in 2022, as the City began work to improve core operational processes in need of reform following the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes contracting and procurement, where the City’s processes can be complex, time-consuming, and resource-intensive for both City staff and suppliers. As such, the City Administrator’s Office launched a special initiative aimed at addressing these contracting challenges. Given its role as a central procurement oversight and administration agency, the Office of Contract Administration plays a critical role in the procurement reform effort and has initiated work to create efficiencies, improve supplier and departmental contract compliance and performance, and implement additional procurement auditing and reporting functions.

Job Description

The Deputy Director of Purchasing is one of two deputy directors within the Office of Contract Administration. Under general direction from the Director and the City Administrator, the Deputy Director of Purchasing is responsible for a portion of the operational functions and activities of the department. In this capacity, the Deputy Director of Purchasing will:

• Exercise considerable independence, discretion, and judgment in managing the day-to-day operations of OCA including overseeing the City’s contracting processes, ensuring compliance with legal requirements and ordinances, providing strategic decision-making, and providing timely customer service. 
• Oversee a portion of the division’s procurement programs and purchasing teams, comprising approximately 45 procurement staff.
• Play a significant role in monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of OCA’s service delivery systems, organizational structure, staffing levels, and other internal operations.
• Serve as a trusted partner in the Citywide procurement reform efforts, analyzing City procurement processes, identifying and recommending alternative approaches or improvements to the City’s procurement processes, and assisting in the corresponding implementation and creation of revised policies, procedures, and business processing in support of the recommended changes

Why join us?

This is a great opportunity for anyone who enjoys managing projects with significant operational impacts, is dedicated to ensuring that public institutions contract equitably and transparently, enjoys both independent and collaborative work, and sees themselves as a strong public sector leader. The Deputy Director of Purchasing will have the opportunity to work across multiple City departments, touching a wide variety of program areas and having a meaningful impact on City operations.

You will love this job because:

• Your voice will be heard and valued.
• You will play a critical role in the Citywide procurement reform efforts.
• We have a strong team that works together cohesively.
• You will have the ability to be innovative and creative in developing new programs, processes, and tools.

Essential duties include:

• Directly supervise and provide day-to-day procurement support and oversight for several OCA procurement teams, including Procurement Managers (direct reports), Purchasers, and Contract Analyst staff, administering one-time purchases as well as 200-300 as-needed contracts.
• Plan and prioritize the work of the department and client agencies, and develop purchasing strategies and project management methodologies to ensure the timely availability of critical goods and services for City departments.
• Develop, implement, and maintain purchasing procedures, administrative/monitoring practices and controls to achieve efficient, cost-effective, transparent, and ethical public procurements, minimizing risk and financial loss to the City.
• Manage relationships with City departments, managers, vendors, and/or contractors to understand needs and requirements of proposed purchases and/or services and to resolve difficult and complex issues; meet, confer, and negotiate with executive-level City managers and legislative leaders.
• Work closely with the City Attorney General Counsel's staff on complex negotiations, actions required to resolve protests, and the interpretation and implementation of legal aspects of procurement.
• Collaborate with the Director and co-Deputy Director(s) to establish periodic business review meetings regarding industry trends, City department purchasing trends, and OCA performance, entailing the collection, review and analysis of citywide procurement data and the preparation of monthly, quarterly and annual reports.
• Assist in the development and implementation of OCA’s annual and long-term goals, objectives, and priorities, and assist in the determination of resource allocation, levels of service, hiring, and budgeting.
• Train OCA staff and help to establish ongoing training mechanisms for OCA staff and City departments to ensure compliance with City regulations and provide fair and open competition for all suppliers.
• With Director, co-Deputy Director(s), and Deputy City Administrator, support the City’s multi-year procurement reform initiative, which will include active engagement and collaboration with internal and external stakeholders to ascertain procurement challenges and bottlenecks, identify solutions and recommendations for improvements to policies, processes, and systems, and assist in the development of and/or revision of citywide procurement rules and regulations to streamline procurement processes for all City departments.
• May participate as lead or committee member on: Local Business Enterprise Advisory Council (LBEAC); Controller’s Office Financial & Procurement System Executive Steering Committee; Department of Environment Sustainable Purchasing Committee; City Emergency Planning Working Group(s); Committee on Information Technology (COIT) Budget and Performance Sub-committee; COIT Privacy and Surveillance Advisory Board; City Administrator’s Office Racial Equity Steering Committee; and other City advisory bodies
• Act for the Director and/or the other Deputy Director in their absence.
• Perform related duties as assigned.

We are looking for someone who:

• Has superior project management skills in a deadline-driven environment.
• Has strong interpersonal skills in order to lead and support staff and provide excellent customer service.
• Has experience with stakeholder engagement and achieving consensus.
• Is a strategic and data-driven decision maker.
• Is creative and has proven problem-solving skills.
• Is experienced with complex federal, state or local procurements and public procurement regulations.
• Has experience developing agency programs, policies, and procedures.
• Is flexible and adaptable.
• Has experience with an enterprise-level online financial and/or procurement system such as PeopleSoft.

Nature of Work:

Incumbent must be willing to work a 40-hour per week schedule.

Qualifications

Baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university; AND

Five (5) years of full-time professional experience in implementing agency programs, policies and procedures, (3) years of which must be supervising professional staff engaged in the aforementioned work.

SUBSTITUTION: 

Additional qualifying work experience may be substituted for the required education on a year for year basis (30 semester/45 quarter units equals one year).; OR

Possession of a Master’s degree from an accredited college or university in Public or Business Administration, Management, or a related field may be substituted for one (1) year of the required experience.

Verification:

Please make sure it is clear in your application exactly how you meet the minimum qualifications. Applicants will be required to submit verification of qualifying education and experience during the recruitment and selection process. For information on how to verify experience and/or education requirements, including verifying foreign education credits or degree equivalency, please visit Verification of Experience and/or Education.

Note: Falsifying one’s education, training, or work experience or attempted deception on the application may result in disqualification for this and future job opportunities with the City and County of San Francisco.

Applicants must meet the minimum qualification requirement by the final application deadline unless otherwise noted.

Additional Information

Selection Procedures

The selection process will include evaluation of applications in relation to minimum requirements and assessment of candidates’ job-related knowledge, skills and abilities. Depending on the number of applicants, the Department may establish and implement additional screening mechanisms to evaluate candidate qualifications. This typically includes an oral interview and/or a written or performance exercise.

If this becomes necessary, only those applicants whose qualifications most closely meet the Department needs will be invited to continue in the selection process. Applicants meeting the minimum requirements are not guaranteed advancement in the selection process.

To find Departments which use this classification, please see: https://sfdhr.org/sites/default/files/documents/Forms-Documents/Position-Counts-by-Job-Codes-and-Department-FY-2022-23.pdf.

Additional Information Regarding Employment with the City and County of San Francisco:

• Information About The Hiring Process
• Conviction History
• Employee Benefits Overview 
• Equal Employment Opportunity 
• Disaster Service Worker
• ADA Accommodation
• Veterans Preference
• Right to Work
• Copies of Application Documents
• Diversity Statement

How to Apply:

Applications for City and County of San Francisco jobs are only accepted through an online process. Visit https://careers.sf.gov and begin the application process.

• Interested candidates are encouraged to apply as soon as possible, as this job announcement will close at any time, but not before Friday, March 15, 2024 at 11:59pm.
• Select the "Apply Now" button and follow instructions on the screen

For best practices on the application process, please visit Apply for Jobs in the City and County of San Francisco Best Practices Guide. Applicants may be contacted by email about this announcement and, therefore, it is their responsibility to ensure that their registered email address is accurate and kept up-to-date. Also, applicants must ensure that email from CCSF is not blocked on their computer by a spam filter. To prevent blocking, applicants should set up their email to accept CCSF mail from the following addresses @sfgov.org, @sfdpw.org, @sfport.com, @flysfo.com, @sfwater.org, @sfdph.org, @asianart.org, @sfmta.com, @sfpl.org, @dcyf.org, @first5sf.org, @famsf.org, @ccsf.edu, @smartalerts.info, and @smartrecruiters.com).

Applicants will receive a confirmation email that their online application has been received in response to every announcement for which they file. Applicants should retain this confirmation email for their records. Failure to receive this email means that the online application was not submitted or received.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

HR Analyst Information: If you have any questions regarding this recruitment or application process, please contact Connie Poon at Connie.Poon@sfgov.org.

Condition of Employment: 

The City and County of San Francisco encourages women, minorities and persons with disabilities to apply. Applicants will be considered regardless of their sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition (associated with cancer, a history of cancer, or genetic characteristics), HIV/AIDS status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, military and veteran status, or other protected category under the law.

The City and County of San Francisco encourages women, minorities and persons with disabilities to apply. Applicants will be considered regardless of their sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition (associated with cancer, a history of cancer, or genetic characteristics), HIV/AIDS status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, military and veteran status, or other protected category under the law.

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