Position Summary
As a member of the Community Growth and Infrastructure Team, the Leader, Building Safety is accountable for overseeing the activities and operations of the Building Safety division in alignment with departmental goals, the City’s Quality Management Plan, and applicable legislation. The position provides leadership, technical guidance, mentorship and operational oversight to Building Safety staff, including Safety Codes Officers and the permit issuance team. The Leader, Building Safety is accountable for supporting public safety under the Alberta Safety Codes Act and related regulations, maintaining effective permit and inspection services, monitoring service levels and workflow, and ensuring consistent, timely, customer-focused permit issuance and compliance monitoring.
General Accountabilities
- Participates in the building of cohesive teams that work to achieve departmental objectives in collaboration with other departments.
- Provides opportunities for team members to understand and value each other’s expertise and skills.
- Provides mentorship and leadership to the Safety Codes Officers relating to permits and Inspections, along with the administration of the Safety Codes Act.
- Responsible for coaching, mentoring and training the Building Safety Codes Officers on policies, procedures, codes, standards and best practices.
- Monitors and supports the permit issuance team to ensure permit applications are received, reviewed for completeness, routed, issued and documented in accordance with approved processes, service level expectations, the City’s Quality Management Plan and applicable Safety Codes legislation.
- Reviews permit issuance workflow, workload, turnaround times, quality assurance results and customer service trends; identifies risks, bottlenecks and training needs; and implements process improvements to maintain timely and accurate permit services.
- Acts as the Subject Matter Expert when it comes to the Building Safety Codes enforcement matters and resolving complex situations.
- Expected to manage and resolve escalations, conflicts, create and implement action plans to improve team dynamics and overall performance and ensure that all members of the team are provided with the resources needed to perform their jobs.
- Acts as a model of the desired values, attitudes, skills, and behaviours that contribute to a safe and ethical work environment.
- Provides building discipline technical advice within the bounds of the Safety Codes Act. The Leader, Building Safety, is responsible for educating residents, developers, builders, City staff from other departments/groups, and business owners on the interpretation of safety codes.
- Networks and facilitates partnerships with local, regional, provincial, and federal subject matter experts and service providers, peers in other municipalities, consultants, developers, etc.
- Provides technical support and options for various projects to City Management on the project, including sensitive issues.
- Provides hiring advice to City Management, which may include participating in reviewing job applicants and interviews.
- Appropriate and responsible use of confidential information; maintains confidentiality and security of all information related to the city.
- Ensures a safe and healthy work environment for staff, visitors, the community and stakeholders, e.g., participates in workplace safety initiatives, participates in formal and informal worksite safety and environment inspections and audits, ensures compliance with the City’s Health and Safety Management System, reports and assists in the analysis of near misses or incidents.
- Participates as a member of the Chestermere Emergency Response team in preparing and enabling the community to respond in the event of a local or regional disaster.
Technical Accountabilities
As a member of the Community Growth and Infrastructure leadership team, you will be expected to foster an inclusive leadership approach that promotes equity, diversity and inclusion, as well as psychological and physical safety. As a strategic decision-maker, you will possess political acumen and have experience in leading transformational change and enabling innovation. Primary duties include:
- Provides technical supervision and support in the implementation and continuous improvement of:
- Safety Codes permits; reviews building plans and processes permit applications; advises clients on best practices and recommendations; approves permits for proposed construction, relocation or demolition; ensures documentation is filed accordingly.
- Inspections: performs site inspections, ensures and enforces compliance of the Safety Codes Act; ensures all safety concerns have been addressed prior to allowing building occupation; documentation of all relevant information and files accordingly.
- Customer service: provides exceptional customer service to clients; maintains professionalism by providing best practice recommendations and solutions to both internal and external clients; provides educational resources to clients, ensuring resources are available at the front desk; follows up with clients.
- This position is responsible for the life safety of all buildings through compliance monitoring in accordance with the Safety Codes Act, the National Building Code - AE and the City’s Quality Management Plan.
- Authorized to sign enforcement orders under the Safety Codes Act, and delegates gathering evidence, preparing files for legal matters, attending appeal hearings of the Building Safety Codes Council, appearing at court cases and giving evidence as required.
- Attend to escalations and provide follow-through, feedback and coaching from inspectors.
- Monitor high volume output while ensuring the service deliverable of quality, operational performance, and appropriate interpretation of Safety Codes and other applicable legislation.
- Oversee the permit issuance team’s daily operations, including intake, completeness checks, fee calculation, permit preparation, issuance records, applicant communications, referrals to Safety Codes Officers and coordination with other City departments as required.
- Establish and monitor permit issuance procedures, checklists, reporting practices and performance measures to ensure consistent application of policies, accurate records, effective customer service and timely escalation of complex or non-compliant applications.
- Support the development and implementation of strategic objectives, processes, policies and plans to ensure the City of Chestermere's building and development standards are competitive and compliant.
- Provide reports and updates to leadership through presentation, metrics and engaged meetings.
- Develop partnerships with the construction industry.
- Proactively identify and forecast priorities, process improvements, update service agreements, manage risks and report on performance metrics.
- Understand and navigate the workings, structure and culture of municipal government as well as the impacts of business decisions and opportunities.
- Collaborate with planning, development, engineering, fire safety and enforcement teams and their leaders to ensure consistency, continuity of processes and updates are understood and implemented in alignment with the City of Chestermere’s values and strategic goals.
Note: The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by the incumbent of this job. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities and activities required of this position.
Required Education & Experience
Candidates must meet one of the education and experience pathways below and one of the Building Safety Codes Officer experience requirements that follow:
Education and Experience Pathway - one of the following:
- Journeyperson carpenter, plumber, electrician, sheet metal worker or bricklayer certification and three years of relevant experience* after receiving that journeyperson certification.
- Engineering or architecture degree and three years of relevant experience*, at least one of which must be completed after obtaining that degree.
- A two-year technology diploma in a related field or equivalent and three years of relevant experience* after obtaining that diploma.
And must also meet one of the following;
Building Safety Codes Officer Requirement - one of the following:
- Building Safety Codes Officer Part 3 HVAC All certification and 10 years of experience in Part 3 HVAC All Buildings of various complexities, or
- Building Safety Codes Officer Part 3 HVAC All certification and 5 years of experience in a Senior Safety Codes Officer position of Part 3 HVAC All Buildings of various complexities.
Required Documentation
- Valid Class 5 Alberta Driver's Licence with a satisfactory recent Driver's Abstract.
- Satisfactory Criminal Record Check.
Expected Skills & Competencies
- Thorough knowledge of the Alberta Building Code and related legislation as well as the ability to make technical judgements to correct infractions of the Alberta Building Code.
- Working knowledge of the Safety Codes Act, the City of Chestermere’s Bylaws and related policies, procedures and regulations.
- Strong technical writing skills; intermediate skills with MS Office and other relevant computer software.
- Strong customer service skills; ability to communicate professionally and resolve issues and investigate in an efficient manner.
- Self-starter with the ability to solve problems and make sound decisions in compliance with legislation and customer needs.
- Proven time management and organizational skills with attention to detail.
- Demonstrates success in building, developing and leading strong teams, leading and managing change, developing and using metrics to improve organizational performance, deploying resources to achieve effective and efficient outcomes, and establishing and maintaining strong and positive working relationships with colleagues, clients, and/or elected officials.
- Experience and success in creating and executing a strategic vision and direction for a complex organization or division, ideally in a service-based environment, is a preferred asset.
Working Conditions
- Regularly interacting with the public and stakeholders.
- Normal office conditions; long periods of sitting, reading and concentration.
- May be required to work outside normal working hours.
- Occasional travel throughout the region/neighboring urban and rural areas in order to conduct site inspections, attend meetings and trainings.
- Occasional time required outside of the office to perform specific tasks in inclement weather.
Compensation
Salary range: $118,000.00 to $130,000.00 annually.
Note: The above statements describe the general nature and level of work performed by the incumbent. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities and activities.
