Rail Senior Maintenance Manager; Transit Operations Manager

King County's Metro Transit Department has an exciting opportunity for a Rail Senior Maintenance Manager (Transit Operations Manager) in the Rail Division. This senior leader will report to Rail’s Division Director and will work in partnership with employees, colleagues, and stakeholders to ensure that Metro provides world‑class service while advancing the following strategic priorities within Rail:

• Build a Culture of care
• Provide operational excellence
• Deliver on time expansions
• Maintain healthy and resilient partnerships with Sound Transit and the Seattle Department of Transportation, our partners in Rail Service Delivery.

This Rail Senior Maintenance Manager will be charged with coordinating the Rail maintenance and asset management strategy between Sound Transit and King County Metro as well as leading and managing the implementation of this strategy for the Rail Division, overseeing the Rail Maintenance Unit which includes the following sections and functions:
Power, Wayside, Facilities, Vehicle Maintenance, and Asset Management Strategy. This position will ensure coordination between Sound Transit and Metro maintenance teams that will improve culture, efficiency, communication, implement key strategic policy initiatives, and track organizational performance metrics for continued improvement. The Rail Senior Maintenance Manager will be responsible for communicating effectively with diverse stakeholders across the Division, working collaboratively with leaders, administrative staff, employees, and Sound Transit to advance our collective maintenance delivery strategy.

This leadership role requires the ability to communicate effectively with diverse stakeholders, proactively solve problems, break down barriers, oversee change management, implement continuous improvement, and build employee engagement to improve maintenance performance. The ideal candidate in this position will be skilled in navigating an ambiguous work environment, have experience navigating complicated bureaucracies, and be able to manage multiple, competing priorities to successfully deliver a large body of work in a fast‑paced environment.

The ideal candidate will have a strong background in equity and social justice, with experience making improvements for historically marginalized employee groups.

We are looking for candidates who have the following:

• Option 1: A Bachelor's degree and five (5) years of experience in Rail Maintenance delivery which includes experience driving results, making recommendations and working on high priority tasks and/or projects simultaneously.
• Option 2:
  An Associate’s degree and seven (7) years of experience in Rail Maintenance delivery which includes experience driving results, making recommendations and working on high priority tasks and/or projects simultaneously.
• Option 3:
  Nine (9) or more years of experience in Rail Maintenance delivery which includes experience driving results, making recommendations and working on high priority tasks and/or projects simultaneously.

And

• Five (5) years of experience in leading and supervising people including:

• Supervising multidisciplinary staff.
• Developing and leading direct reports, furthering people's career goals, providing challenging and stretching tasks and assignments and effectively developing all levels of staff.
• Engaging, empowering, training, coaching, and mentoring staff.

• Experience working with labor, within unionized environments, and ability to respect established processes, fostering an environment of mutual respect.

• Commitment to equity, inclusion, and belonging for all employees.
• Passionate about creating positive and inclusive cultures that prioritize well‑being and belonging of employees in a setting with a diverse employee population.
• Ability to establish and maintain respectful, effective, and collaborative working relationships with key stakeholders.
• Knowledge of how to build relationships and treat all employees and customers equitably, with respect and dignity, as well as solve problems for the benefit of all.
• Resilience, problem‑solving skills, and capacity to handle challenging situations with composure and effectiveness.
• Demonstrated ability to give and receive feedback from employees across hierarchies, and to use employee input to inform decision‑making and build a trusting team culture.