Assistant to the County Executive

Job Description:

Assistant to the County Executive

Description

Position Information

Ready to make an impact? Bring your administrative support and project management expertise to the County of Sonoma as the Assistant to the County Executive.

Starting salary up to $58.78/hour ($122,680/year) and a competitive total compensation package!*

About the Position
As part of a dedicated, high performing team within the County Executive's Office (CEO), the Assistant to the County Executive is a trusted partner who provides both professional administrative support as well as analytical and project management support for the County Executive and two Assistant County Executives. This highly visible position operates as a liaison and representative of the CEO and interacts with County departments and agencies, department heads, elected officials, and the public. In this role, you will manage complex projects and priorities on behalf of the executive management team in a fast-paced environment while exercising sound judgment, discretion, and political acumen. You will be entrusted with sensitive and confidential matters, including personnel issues, labor relations, and topics related to the Board of Supervisors and Supervisorial Districts.

Key responsibilities include:

• Conducting research, analyzing data, and synthesizing information to support policy and operational recommendations
• Managing department and Countywide projects from initiation to completion, including defining scope, coordinating stakeholders, tracking milestones, and ensuring timelines are followed
• Tracking and monitoring Countywide and departmental initiatives
• Handling sensitive correspondence and inquiries with professionalism, discretion, and responsiveness on behalf of the CEO
• Managing and optimizing executive calendars for the County Executive and Assistant County Executives
• Leading the planning and execution of high-level meetings, special events, and travel logistics
• Providing administrative support to the management team within the department
• Developing high-quality memos, reports, presentations, and briefing materials for executive decision-making
• Maintaining confidential records and information

What You Bring
The ideal candidate will be a service-oriented and self-motivated individual with the ability to independently set and address competing priorities. They will have experience supporting high-level executives and possess project management and analytical skills. Judgement, decision making, and time management skills are required to support key requests, initiatives, calendaring needs, and other operational and administrative tasks. The ideal candidate will also bring many of the following:

• Demonstrated ability to anticipate the needs of executive leadership and exercise initiative in day-to-day responsibilities
• Demonstrated exceptional critical thinking, problem-solving abilities, and resourcefulness to ensure effective performance
• Excellent communications skills, both written and verbal
• Experience creating spreadsheets, graphs, charts, and presentations
• Knowledge of basic budget and accounting principles
• Experience working in a local government agency with an understanding of local government operations, policies, and procedures
• The ability to readily adapt and learn new technology
• Intermediate to advanced skills in using the Microsoft Office Suite (particularly Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, Planner, and SharePoint), Power Apps experience is desirable
• Having a project management certificate is a plus!

The Department
The County Executive’s Office is guided by the Board of Supervisors’ broad mission and carries out the Board’s policy goals by managing, directing, and coordinating the operations of the County’s departments and agencies. In addition, the CEO ensures implementation of County policy; prepares the County budget; provides public information and outreach to the community; analyzes and creates public policies to develop recommendations; researches grant and funding opportunities for strategic projects; coordinates with departments and agencies to manage Board priority projects; acts as the Clerk to the Board of Supervisors; implements the County’s legislative platform and oversees the County’s legislative advocacy program; prepares studies and analyses, including fiscal and programmatic performance assessments of County departments and programs; and develops and implements the County’s Strategic Plan. The CEO’s mission is “to build a sustainable and equitable future for the community by making collaborative, transparent, and informed policy recommendations to the Board of Supervisors.”

What We Offer

Working at the County of Sonoma offers expansive opportunities for growth and development, the ability to be a part of a challenging and rewarding work environment, and the satisfaction of knowing you're working to better our communities. You can also look forward to excellent benefits* including:

• Salary Advancement - A salary increase after 1,040 hours (6 months when working full-time) for good work performance; eligibility for a salary increase for good performance every year thereafter, until reaching the top of the salary range
• Paid Time Off - Competitive vacation and sick leave accruals, 12 paid holidays, and an additional 8 floating holiday hours per year
• Staff Development/Wellness - Annual benefit allowances of up to $2,000 and ongoing education/training opportunities
• County Paid Health Premium Contributions - 100% premium contribution for the majority of employee-only and employee + family health plan options
• Post-Retirement Health Reimbursement Arrangement - County contributions to help fund post-retirement health insurance/benefits
• Retirement - A pension fully integrated with Social Security
• Incentive Retirement Savings Plan (IRSP) and 457 Voluntary Deferred Compensation - 3% of salary County contribution to a 401(a), in addition to the County matching up to 1% of base salary in 401(a), based upon employee contribution
• Paid Parental Leave - May be eligible for up to 8 weeks (320 hours) after 12 months of County employment
• Additional Benefits - Excellent dental, vision, disability, life insurance, employee assistance program, professional development, and more
• Student Loan Debt Relief - County employees may be eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness through the U.S. Department of Education

*Salary is negotiable within the established range. Benefits described herein do not represent a contract and may be changed without notice. Additional information can be found in the Salary Resolution (SalRes) and our Employee Benefits Directory .
The County Executive's Office is currently recruiting to fill an Assistant to the County Executive position. This employment list may also be used to fill future full-time, part-time, or extra-help(temporary) positions as they occur during the active status of the list. Qualified County employees who wish to be considered for future positions should consider applying to this recruitment. The Civil Service title for this position is Assistant to the County Administrator.

Application submissions require the Supplemental Questionnaire be completed.

Minimum Qualifications

Education & Experience: Any combination of education, training, and experience which would likely provide the required knowledge and abilities. Normally, this would include college level coursework in business administration, economics, accounting, public administration, or related fields of study, and three years of increasingly responsible full-time experience providing administrative support to executive or management level positions, preferably in municipal government, including at least one year of professional level experience performing research, analysis, and preparation of written reports and recommendations. Experience leading or supervising staff is highly desirable.

License: Possession of a valid driver’s license at the appropriate level including special endorsements, as required by the State of California, may be required depending upon assignment to perform the essential job functions of the position.

The position advertised on this announcement does not require possession of a valid California Driver’s License.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

Thorough knowledge of: the organization, services, programs, and functions of county government; services and programs of other governmental agencies; administrative support practices; principles and practices of research methodology, data collection, and analysis; report writing; modern office management practices; office equipment and filing systems; standard office automation software and other electronic tools, including word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software, Internet search engines, and e-mail and calendaring programs; standard English grammar, usage, and composition.

Working knowledge of: principles and practices of supervision; principles and practices of business and public administration as pertinent to area of assignment; principles, practices and political implication of decisions regarding budgeting, and fiscal management; principles and methods of work planning.

Ability to: prioritize work of self and others; maintain confidentiality of sensitive information; work independently with minimum supervision; multitask effectively despite interruptions; organize documents and data; keep accurate records; learn the supervisor’s style of expression in order to compose routine correspondence in his/her absence and to clarify wording or sentence structure without necessitating review; learn the County’s budget and agenda review processes; plan, organize, and conduct research, and analytical studies related to the various aspects of administration, the County budget, and general management matters; collect, compile, and analyze qualitative and quantitative data; review and implement changes in work methods, systems, and procedures; analyze situations and data and make sound decisions; meet strict deadlines; represent the County with tact, professionalism, and diplomacy; train others on office policies, procedures, and tasks; accomplish work through effective supervision and delegation; prepare a variety of written documents, such as correspondence, procedures, and performance evaluations; prepare required forms and reports accurately and completely; take verbatim dictation during board or commission meetings; witness and attest the authenticity of signatures, power of attorneys, or legalities of written documents or instructions; interact and communicate tactfully and professionally with a wide range of people, including high-level government officials, community leaders, union representatives, county employees, and members of the general public.

Selection Procedure & Some Helpful Tips When Applying

• Your application information and your responses to the supplemental questions are evaluated and taken into consideration throughout the entire selection process.
• You should list all employers and positions held within the last ten years in the work history section of your application. Be as thorough as possible when responding to the supplemental questions.
• You may include history beyond ten years if related to the position for which you are applying. If you held multiple positions with one employer, list out each position separately.
• Failure to follow these instructions may impact your competitiveness in this process or may result in disqualification.

Please visit Getting a Job with the County of Sonoma to review more detailed information about the hiring process, including the application process, examination steps, and department selection process.

Application submissions require the Supplemental Questionnaire be completed.

Responses to supplemental questions will be scored using position-specific criteria. Please provide specific and detailed responses of a reasonable length to allow for a thorough assessment of your qualifications. Responses that state, "See Resume" or "See Application" may be considered insufficient and therefore may not be scored.

The selection procedure will consist of the following examination:

An Application and Supplemental Questionnaire Appraisal Examination (weight 100%) will be conducted to evaluate each applicant's application and supplemental questionnaire for satisfaction of minimum qualifications (pass/not pass); and for educational coursework, training, experience, knowledge, and abilities which relate to this position. Personally identifiable information (PII) is removed from the standard application fields and applicable attachments. This PII blind screening practice redacts a candidate’s personal information that could potentially influence or bias the scoring process. Personal information includes the applicant’s name, former last name, address, phone number, email, driver's license number, school name, education start and end dates, age, date of birth, gender, and race. This PII blind screening practice helps contribute to a fair and equitable examination process.

Each applicant will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• Relevance of work history, related experience, and achieved level of education and/or training as described in the application and responses to the supplemental questions.

Candidates demonstrating possession of the minimum qualifications will be placed on an employment list in order of most qualified to least qualified based on the achieved score received in the Application and Supplemental Questionnaire Appraisal Examination which evaluates the education, training, experience, skills, knowledge, abilities, and other qualifications that you demonstrate in your application and/or response to the supplemental questionnaire. Please be aware that resumes and cover letters are not typically evaluated in the Application and Supplemental Questionnaire Appraisal Examination. Scores may be adjusted based on such factors as the number of candidates, anticipated vacancies, past practice, and natural breaks in the scores achieved by this group of candidates.

Additional Information

A background investigation is required prior to employment. Candidates referred to departments for a selection interview are typically required to sign authorization and release forms enabling such an investigation. Failure to sign prescribed forms will result in the candidate not being considered further for that vacancy. Reference information will not be made available to applicants.

Additional requirements, such as successful completion of a physical exam, drug screen, etc., may apply, depending on the duties and responsibilities of the position. If you receive a conditional job offer for the position, the requirements upon which the offer is contingent will be outlined in the conditional job letter. You may also review the Job Classification Screening Schedule to determine the requirements for this position.

How to Apply

Applications are accepted online at www.yourpath2sonomacounty.org . Paper applications may be submitted by person, fax (707-565-3770), email, or through the mail. All applications and appropriate supplemental information as outlined in the job announcement must be received by the time and date specified on the first page of this job announcement. Applications received after the recruitment closes will not be accepted.

The County of Sonoma values diversity and is dedicated to creating a workplace environment that provides individuals with a sense of belonging. We are committed to having a diverse workforce that is representative of the communities we serve. The County is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer where all aspects of employment are based on merit, competence, performance, and business need.

HR Analyst: AK

HR Technician: PPB

Important Note: Benefits described herein do not apply to Extra Help positions.

County of Sonoma Benefits: Management*

These are some of the excellent benefits the County offers:

Paid Time Off: Competitive vacation accrual and sick leave accruals; additional management leave annually; 12 paid holidays, and an additional 8 floating holiday hours per year; and may be eligible for up to 8 weeks (320 hours) of Paid Parental Leave after 12 months of County employment.

Health Plan: Choose from nine health plans (three HMOs, three deductible HMOs, and three HSA-qualifying plans) with a generous County contribution to the premium (the contribution amount varies by bargaining unit). For more information, please see the appropriate MOU.

Retirement: Fully integrated with Social Security. For more information regarding eligibility, retirement contributions, and reciprocity with prior public service, please visit https://scretire.org/active-/-deferred/when-you-are-hired .

IRS 457 Plan: Pre-tax employee contribution up to the IRS annual maximum.

Retiree Medical: County contribution to a Health Reimbursement Arrangement to help fund post-retirement employee health insurance/benefits.

Student Loan Debt Relief: County employees may be eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness through the U.S. Department of Education.

Plus, excellent dental, vision, disability, life insurance, professional development, and more.

For answers to specific questions regarding the employment process and more details about benefits or retirement, please contact Human Resources at (707) 565-2331. Additional details about benefit and compensation packages can be found in the MOUs located at Labor Agreements & Salary Resolution . For specific information about health and welfare benefits, including plan options, coverage, and premium amounts, go to Human Resources or contact the Human Resources' Risk Management-Benefits Office at [email protected] or (707) 565-2900.

*Important Notes: Benefits described herein do not represent a contract and may be changed without notice.

Closing Date/Time: 4/23/2026 11:59 PM Pacific

Salary:

$100,912.25 - $122,680.91 Annually