Hazard Senior Environmental Analyst

Position Description

Seattle City Light, a department of the City of Seattle, is one of the nation's largest municipally owned utilities in terms of the number of customers served. Over the years we have worked very hard to keep Seattle's electricity affordable, reliable, and environmentally sound. Today, City Light is a recognized national leader in energy efficiency and environmental stewardship.

This position serves as Seattle City Light's primary technical resource for all-hazards environmental risk analysis and program documentation, supporting the identification, assessment, and mitigation of climate-driven risks to the utility's infrastructure and operations.

Under limited supervision, this position exercises independent professional judgment across a wide range of environmental and specialized scientific fields, including forestry, wildfire behavior, extreme wind events, and flooding. This position independently determines the scope of work, budget, schedule, and compliance requirements for environmental studies and consulting contracts, and is responsible for interpreting and applying environmental and wildfire-related regulations to utility operations.

This includes designing and overseeing environmental risk studies from an operational, all-hazards perspective, and leading the update of related policies, programs, standard operating procedures, and guidelines.

The role sits within the Emergency Management team and works across Operations, Engineering, Asset Management, Vegetation Management, and external partners to ensure the utility has the data, analysis, and program documentation it needs to make informed risk reduction investments. This position will report to the Emergency Management Manager.

All-Hazards Risk Analysis and Mapping

• Leads efforts related to all-hazards environmental risk mapping, including scoping, vendor management, data coordination, and delivery of risk analysis products that inform capital investment and mitigation priorities.
• Commission and oversee risk studies and assessments conducted by external consultants, including wildfire risk mapping, infrastructure vulnerability analysis, and climate-driven hazard modeling.
• Synthesize data from multiple sources, including LiDAR, GIS, outage history, vegetation treatment records, terrain, and weather data, into risk products that are actionable for engineers, operations staff, and executives.
• Evaluate emerging environmental risks, including wildfire, high wind events, flooding, and landslides, in the context of Seattle City Light's transmission and distribution infrastructure.

Program Documentation and Compliance

• Develop and maintain technical documentation, progress reports, and program records for Seattle City Light's hazard mitigation programs, including the Wildfire Risk Reduction Strategy and any successor all-hazards frameworks.
• Support compliance with state and federal regulatory requirements governing utility wildfire and hazard mitigation planning, including RCW 19.29A.170 and RCW 76.04.185.
• Prepare briefing materials, regulatory submittals, and City Council-facing reports that communicate program status, risk posture, and mitigation progress to a range of technical and non-technical audiences.
• Develop and maintain data tracking templates, dashboards, and reporting tools that support annual progress reporting and multi-year program updates.

Capital and Technology Project Support

• Review Seattle City Light's capital program portfolio and technology projects through an all-hazards environmental risk lens, identifying gaps in risk reduction coverage and opportunities to integrate mitigation measures into planned work.
• Provide technical input on project scoping, prioritization, and sequencing to ensure that risk reduction objectives are reflected in capital planning decisions.
• Support integration of environmental risk considerations into asset management practices and long-range infrastructure planning.
• Identify and pursue federal and state grant opportunities that support all-hazards risk reduction.
• Maintain awareness of the evolving federal funding landscape related to utility resilience, climate adaptation, and wildfire mitigation.

Cross-Functional Coordination and Communication

• Represent all-hazards risk reduction program requirements on cross-functional teams and in coordination with Operations, Engineering, Asset Management, Environmental, and Emergency Management.
• Provide technical recommendations on vegetation management priorities based on environmental risk analysis and infrastructure vulnerability data.
• Coordinate data sharing and project inputs with internal teams and external partners, including vendors, consultants, state agencies, and tribal partners.
• Prepare and present technical findings, risk analyses, and program updates to leadership, regulators, and other stakeholders.

Working Conditions

This position is based at Seattle City Light's South Service Center and may require periodic field visits to transmission…