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Job Description
Description
Join the City of Palo Alto as a Utility Safety Officer and apply your expertise to advance safety across electric, water, gas, wastewater, and fiber utilities, supporting reliable service for our community.
The Department
Palo Alto is a city in California that offers a full array of utility services to its citizens and businesses. Because of this full service, the City has a unique opportunity to partner with the Palo Alto community to enjoy the benefits and achievements of reliable, home-grown, and environmentally focused utilities. Palo Alto has a tradition of over 125 years of successful public utility operations. It is a tradition that continues to provide the Palo Alto community with safe and reliable utilities service, local decision-making over policies, utility rate-making, environmental programs, and customized services. Learn more about our Utilities Department.
Career Opportunity
The Utilities Safety Officer designs, implements, manages, and continually evaluates the Utilities Department's health and safety programs including utility-specific industrial safety, job-related training programs, and investigations within the Department. This position ensures compliance with applicable federal, state, and local workplace safety and environmental regulations, including timely completion of mandatory training requirements for the City's electric, fiber, water, gas and wastewater utilities staff. This position works in the office and field and requires independent judgment and knowledge of principles and practices of health and safety program administration, conducting audits, inspections, investigations and developing applicable training programs.
Ideal Candidate
The ideal candidate will have a strong utility (electric, fiber, gas, water, wastewater) safety background and technical knowledge of regulations and operations to ensure compliance with workplace safety and environmental regulations. Candidates shall possess strong experience in the interpreting and implementation of OSHA requirements, developing safety training programs, and determining training needs based upon audits of work sites and practices. The successful candidate will be an engaging leader to influence and build a work environment committed to an effective health and safety culture.
Compensation (UMPAPA): Comprehensive compensation plan. To learn more, click here.
Benefits: The City offers a fantastic benefits package including:- Schedule: Option of a 9/80 work schedule with every other Friday off
- Professional development: Tuition reimbursement, leadership training, and career growth opportunities
- Education benefits: Potential enrollment for dependents in the Palo Alto Unified School District (pilot program, subject to change)
- Childcare support: $10,000 in childcare subsidies (pilot program, subject to change)
- Commute benefits: Incentives for walking, biking and taking transit to work. The City of Palo Alto participates in the Clipper Bay Pass program (Employee Cost: $5 per month).
- Defined-Benefit Retirement Plan: with competitive pension benefits
To learn more about benefits, click here.
Essential Duties
Essential and other important responsibilities and duties may include, but are not limited to the following:- Design, develop, and manage the Utilities Department's safety/health program; manage the development and implementation of goals, objectives, policies , and procedures for the safety program in collaboration with others; identify resource needs;
- Lead Department managers and other staff in the development of a safety program
- Conduct investigations and review injury/accident reports and evidence to determine cause, effect, liability, and prevention methods; recommend and implement modifications to working procedures as needed to reduce and/or eliminate the frequency and severity of accidents and incidents;
- Regularly track and report incident frequency and severity rates from personnel and vehicle accidents.
- Coordinate with risk management staff as appropriate.
- Review and assess risk and liability from third-party claims and take appropriate action to reduce and/or eliminate the frequency and severity of third-party claims and incidents.
- Participate in budget preparation and administration; prepare cost estimates for budget recommendations and submit justifications for materials and supplies; monitor and control expenditures.
- Coordinate safety training activities in response to management requests and regulatory compliance requirements; arrange for appropriate training to meet identified needs.
- Conduct training and/or arrange for outside vendors/consultants; schedule training and document attendance and maintain related records in a training database; manage contracts for contractors and vendors that provide training.
- Participate in safety inspections and audits conducted by outside agencies; Conduct independent audits of Department facilities/work locations to ensure compliance yearly and as needed to identify potential safety hazards and/or unsafe working conditions .
- Assist the Department's first responders in emergency events when appropriate;
To review the full job description, click here.
Minimum Qualifications
Any combination of experience and training that would provide the required knowledge and abilities is qualifying. A typical way to obtain the required knowledge and abilities would be:- A Bachelor's degree from accredited college or university with major course work in occupational health and safety, industrial hygiene or a closely related field; and,
- Four years of increasingly responsible experience in the development and administration of safety and training programs and experience in utilities operations;
- Or an equivalent combination of education and experience sufficient to perform the essential job functions and possession of the required knowledge and abilities.
Supplemental Information
Working Conditions / Physical Requirements
Work is performed in both an office and outdoor setting. Outdoor activities take place in all weather conditions, including temperature extremes, during daylight hours and nights, and on various types of terrain. Incumbent may be exposed to conditions and hazards from obstacles, heights, and open trenches associated with construction sites. Work may be performed in proximity to electrical high voltage lines and equipment.
The Selection Process:- Applicants will receive recruitment status notifications via email. Governmentjobs.com account also has notification status updates.
- Applicants will be screened throughout the posting process and highly qualified candidates may be invited to interview at any time.
- The screening process for this position typically will include a panel interview preceding final interviews with the hiring manager or their designee.
Our online application system is provided by NeoGov. If you have problems while applying online, please contact NeoGov's Live Applicant Support at (855) 524-5627 between 6:00 AM and 5:00 PM Pacific Time, Monday - Friday.
The City of Palo Alto is an Equal Opportunity Employer. In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the City will provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities and encourages both prospective and current employees to discuss potential accommodations with the employer.
See our Benefits at a Glance Bookletfor more details.
Learn more about our Memorandum of Agreements (MOAs) between the City and its bargaining units, by clicking HERE.
Closing Date/Time: 5/3/2026 11:59 PM Pacific -
ABOUT THE COMPANY
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City of Palo Alto
Show moreThe Community
The birthplace of Silicon Valley, Palo Alto, is a community of approximately 68,000 residents and nearly 100,000 jobs. Located on the mid-Peninsula between San Francisco and San Jose, Palo Alto is recognized worldwide as a leader in cutting-edge technology, medicine, and green innovation. The community's treelined streets and historic buildings reflect its California heritage, and, at the same time, many world-class businesses maintain or started offices here, such as Stanford Health Care and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, Amazon, Broadcom, Hewlett-Packard, Houzz, Rivian, SAP and SAP Ariba, Tesla, and Varian Medical Systems. Numerous start-ups are also at home in Palo Alto, arguably making it the start-up capital of the world. Stanford University is foundational to the history and prestige of Palo Alto, reflected in the community's dedication to lifelong learning. Stanford's cultural and educational offerings are integral to the vibrancy and charm of Palo Alto, while the City's exceptional K-12 school district ranks among the top public-school systems in the country. With more than 50% of adult residents holding a graduate degree or higher, Palo Alto is frequently listed as one of the most educated cities in the nation. Palo Alto boasts a genuine sense of community and an active citizenry with strong environmental values. Beautiful neighborhoods are complemented by vibrant commercial corridors and a bustling economy featuring premium shopping and dining options. Excellent healthcare facilities, performing arts, and diverse recreational opportunities are some of the community's incredibly desirable and cherished amenities. To learn more, visit https://www.paloalto.gov/Departments/City-Manager/Latest-NewsCity Government
Palo Alto is a full-service charter city with a council-manager form of government. The seven-member City Council is elected at large, and the City Council annually selects the Mayor and Vice Mayor from among its members. The Mayor and City Council appoint the City Manager, City Attorney, City Clerk, and City Auditor. The City Manager is responsible for the strategic direction and day-to-day operations of the City. Palo Alto is organized into 15 departments/offices with 1,093.10 authorized positions in FY 2025. There is also a FY 2025 capital budget of $316.2 million. Palo Alto owns and operates its own utilities, including electricity (carbon-neutral), gas, water, wastewater, and an expanding fiber network. This dynamic municipal environment ensures an ever-engaging platform for unique problem-solving and advances new initiatives, including sustainability, broadband, and effective service delivery. Community assets also include five libraries, 36 parks, five community centers, a museum and zoo, youth centers, a general aviation airport, an 18-hole golf course, a regional water treatment plant, and wildland open space preserves at the San Francisco Bay and in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains offering 41 miles of walking/biking trails in addition to its police, fire, and ambulance services. Palo Alto has long been a leader in sustainability, and the City's ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction goals are part of what sets it apart. Since the City's first Climate Protection Plan was passed in 2007, Palo Alto has set goals that exceed State and Federal targets. Today, the City's goal to reduce emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2030 (the "80x30" goal) and achieve carbon neutrality by 2030 guides sustainability efforts. An award-winning City, Palo Alto is recognized nationally as innovative and well-managed. City services and performance also receive impressive marks from community members in the Palo Alto Community Survey.
Many of those ratings put City programs and services in the highest percentiles among the hundreds of benchmark cities. Palo Alto makes decisions through comprehensive processes and proactively seeks to involve its extremely informed, educated, and engaged residents. Projects are naturally a cooperative effort among the City Council, Boards, Commissions, Committees, engaged residents, neighborhoods, businesses, property owners, and staff.
Join an Award Winning Team
Palo Alto is an award-winning City recognized nationwide as innovative and well-managed. Palo Alto is one of a small number of California cities with a AAA bond rating. Recently, Palo Alto became one of the most livable cities in the U.S. by Livability.com. It's the only city to receive the Platinum Beacon Award in sustainability best practices by California’s Institute for Local Government. We offer a variety of career paths that relate to building and improving communities. The City has fourteen departments employing 1,000 full-time staff. Police officers, fire fighters, paramedics, and building inspectors keep us safe. Engineers and public works staff build and re-build the physical infrastructure. City planners help envision and shape future community growth. Recreation, arts and library professionals enhance community life. Utilities provides electric, gas, water, sewer and other services. Internal services departments help manage, staff, and protect the City.
Want to learn more about our benefits? Learn more by reviewing our "Benefits at a Glance Booklet."
Contact Us
Phone: 650-329-2376
Email: Recruit@paloalto.gov
Location: City Hall, 1st Floor | 250 Hamilton Ave 94301 | View Map
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