Deputy Building Official

Deputy Building Official

Come join our team! The City of Novato is recruiting for Deputy Building Official. Final date to receive applications: continuous until filled.
* Applications will be reviewed as they are received*

The City of Novato is seeking an experienced and collaborative professional to serve as our Deputy Building Official within the Community Development Department's Building Division. This leadership role offers an exciting opportunity to help guide the daily operations of the City's permit center and plan review functions while supporting safe, compliant, and high-quality development throughout the community.

Working closely with the Chief Building Official, the Deputy Building Official plays a key role in overseeing permit processing, supervising plan review operations, and providing technical guidance to staff, design professionals, contractors, and members of the public. This position combines leadership, technical expertise, and customer service, ensuring that development projects move efficiently through the review process while maintaining compliance with applicable building codes, regulations, and safety standards.

The Deputy Building Official also supervises professional, technical, and administrative staff, coordinates consultant plan review services, and contributes to the continued improvement of Building Division policies, procedures, and service delivery. This is an excellent opportunity for a knowledgeable building professional who enjoys solving complex problems, mentoring staff, and working collaboratively with internal teams and external partners to support responsible development in the Novato community.

If you are passionate about public service, bring strong knowledge of building codes and construction practices, and thrive in a leadership role that balances technical review with responsive customer service, we encourage you to apply. The City of Novato values a diverse and inclusive workforce and welcomes applicants who are eager to contribute their expertise to a supportive and mission-driven team.

Benefits:

• 9/80 work schedule - every other Friday off
• Accrue 80 hours of vacation to start
• Provided with 90 hours of executive leave, with potential for an additional 90
• Provided with 40 hours of sick leave upon hire
• 14 paid holidays per year
• Deferred compensation match up to $2,000
• Technology and transportation stipend paid monthly
• Free parking on site
• Office is within walking distance of terrific restaurants, shopping, and the Downtown SMART Station

Qualifications:

Knowledge of:

• Advanced principles, methods, and practices of construction design and documentation.
• Applicable State laws, ordinances, and codes related to building development design and construction.
• Methods, materials, and techniques used in the construction of Public and Private development projects.
• Recent developments, current literature, and sources of information regarding building codes and standards, and land development.
• Pertinent State, Federal and local standards, regulations, and ordinances.
• Principles of supervision, training and performance evaluation.

Ability to:

• Provide lead supervision and training to assigned personnel.
• Supervise, train and evaluate assigned personnel.
• Analyze plans and detect code violations. Provide clear, concise written plan review comment reports.
• Understand and interpret complex construction plans, specifications, and other project documentation.
• Perform technical research and solve difficult engineering problems.
• Analyze problems, identify alternative solutions, project consequences of proposed actions and implement recommendations in support of goals.
• Interpret and apply pertinent laws, standards, and regulations.
• Communicate clearly and concisely, both orally and in writing.
• Establish and maintain effective working relationships with those contacted in the course of work.
• Maintain mental capacity which allows the capability of:
  
  - Making sound decisions
  - Demonstrating effective leadership.
• Maintain effective audio-visual discrimination and perception needed for:
  
  - Making observations
  - Communicating with others
  - Reading and writing
  - Operating assigned office equipment.

Experience and Training
- Any combination of experience and training that would provide the required knowledge, skills, and abilities would be qualifying. A typical way to obtain the knowledge, skills, and abilities would be:

Experience:

Three years of increasingly responsible professional experience in permit processing, building plan review and/or inspection.

Training:
Equivalent to a Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university.

License or Certificate:
Possession of, or ability to obtain, a valid California driver's license. Possession of or ability to obtain, within one year of hire, a commercial building plans examiner certification. Possession of or the ability to obtain, within one year of hire, certification as a Certified Building Official. Possession of a California Access Specialist (CASp) certification is highly…