Privacy Program Specialist - Program Specialist

Are you committed to safeguarding sensitive information, and would you thrive in a role focused on guiding the Department of Retirement Systems (DRS) as we continue to build our privacy program and maintain the hard‑earned trust of the Washington State public employees we serve? Would you enjoy serving as the privacy subject matter expert focused on elevating agency awareness of privacy best practices?

And, is working in a cooperative culture of continuous improvement, learning, and work‑life balance important to you? If your answer is Yes, the role as the Privacy Program Specialist – Program Specialist 4 could be the perfect opportunity for you!

Reporting to the Risk Management Director, you will help shape the agency’s privacy program. In this collaborative role you will be responsible for furthering the goals, maturation, and management of the agency’s organization‑wide privacy program in alignment with the WaTech Office of Privacy and Data Protection (OPDP) Privacy Framework.

• Administering and directing the agency’s privacy program, ensuring alignment with WaTech OPDP’s Privacy Policy.
• Partnering with DRS divisions to assess and evaluate the current agency privacy risks and mitigation practices with special attention to systems that contain personally identifiable information (PII).
• Applying knowledge gained from internal assessments to produce an organization‑wide self‑assessment which will be updated annually.
• Designing and delivering annual privacy training and awareness materials to strengthen agency‑wide understanding of privacy risks.
• Leading required OPDP Privacy Threat Assessments (PTA) and/or Privacy Impact Analysis (PIA).
• Facilitating the ongoing inventory of sensitive information and evaluating third‑party data sharing practices in partnership with IT, Legal, and the contracting unit.
• Reviewing new or updated Data Sharing Agreements (DSAs) for consistency with privacy laws and principles and making recommendations.
• Supporting the DRS Suspicious Account Activity Reviews through member account research, analysis, and coordination with Division Business Units.

After successful completion of the review period and effectively demonstrating the ability to perform work independently, you may be eligible to telework up to two (2) days per week, at the discretion of the Appointing Authority and with a telework agreement in place. The ability to work remotely is dependent on the nature of the tasks and projects assigned and on having a safe remote work environment with reliable connectivity.

You must live within a reasonable commuting distance (less than 50 straight‑line miles) to the DRS building in Tumwater, WA, and must be willing to adjust your telework schedule to attend mandatory meetings, trainings, and other required on‑site activities.

Experience for qualifications can be gained through various combinations of professional employment, education, and volunteer/personal experience. Experience can be concurrent:

• Researching and analyzing processes, policies, laws, rules, or regulations and applying the information to advise on privacy business processes, related internal controls, and privacy‑related questions.
• Collecting verbal and written information to understand an organization’s privacy practices, identify privacy risks, perform root‑cause analysis, and identify gaps in controls.
• Proactively developing and delivering formal and informal training to move program goals forward.
• Collaborating and partnering across organizational units to achieve program goals.
• Ability to take complex information and condense it into easily understood language.
• Proactively identifying program needs and producing clear written materials (e.g., SOPs, templates, procedures, training plans).

The above is typically gained from a minimum of three (3) years of full‑time professional experience. Proven experience maintaining and maturing an organization‑wide government privacy program and/or advising on agency privacy practices and recommending improvement opportunities is highly desired.

• In addition, candidates should have demonstrated experience and proficiency in the use of…