Director of Tribal Relations (Exempt) Olympia

Full Job Description

Job Title: Director of Tribal Relations (Exempt) Olympia
Agency: Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF)
Location: Olympia, Washington - This hybrid role combines remote work with an expectation of regular in-person engagement to support leadership collaboration, key meetings and conferences, and other organizational needs.
Reports To: Agency Secretary

Position Overview:

The Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) is seeking an experienced, visionary leader to serve as the Director of Tribal Relations.

The Director of Tribal Relations reports directly to the DCYF Secretary and serves on the agency’s Leadership Team to support the mission of DCYF by providing strategic advice, relationship management, legislative and policy assistance, consultation guidance, and practice compliance oversight to ensure the agency is meeting our obligations and strategic imperative of tribal sovereignty and strong government to government relations with our 29 federally recognized tribes in Washington state.

Why Join DCYF?

This is an opportunity to make a meaningful impact on the lives of Washington’s children, youth, and families by strengthening government-to-government relationships with Tribal Nations and providing leadership and oversight of planning, consultation, and coordination that support a full continuum of culturally responsive services.

Key Responsibilities:

The Director of Tribal Relations serves as the agency’s principal authority on tribal relations and government-to-government consultation across DCYF’s core program areas, including early learning, child welfare, licensing, and juvenile rehabilitation.

This role provides executive-level leadership to ensure meaningful, consistent, and legally sound engagement with Tribal Nations.

The Director frequently represents the Secretary at high-level meetings, conferences, and roundtables, and serves as a trusted advisor on issues affecting tribal relations.

This position provides strategic guidance and analysis on legislation with tribal implications, prepares policy and fiscal impact statements, and assesses potential impacts to tribal relations, programs, funding, and agency operations.

The Director of Tribal Relations leads and facilitates consultation related to DCYF operational changes, policy development, funding opportunities, rulemaking, and system reform, ensuring compliance with consultation requirements and respect for tribal sovereignty.

This role oversees the strategic and tactical management of tribal relations through policy development, contract management, effective communication, workgroup leadership, risk mitigation, and coordination across the agency.

In addition, the Director leads agency-wide strategic planning related to tribal relations, ensuring alignment with DCYF’s long-term goals, budget priorities, and legislative agenda while strengthening partnerships with Tribal Nations.

Serves as the agency's principal expert on tribal relations, providing the highest level of counsel, coordination and problem resolution on the most complex and unprecedented matters relating to tribes for the agency's 100+ programs.

This position:

• Serves on the Leadership Team for the agency.
• Travels statewide and meets, as the primary agency representative, with tribal governments on an
  ongoing basis.
• Maintains deep knowledge of all operations and programs at the agency to understand and advise on the nuances, intertwining laws, policies and procedures, Supreme Court rulings and state and federal requirements.
• Provides effective leadership, management, and supervision of Office of Tribal Relations (approx. 25) staff.
• Ensures that government to government relationships are ongoing and meaningful between DCYF, tribal governments, and Recognized American Indian Organizations to plan, direct, develop, and implement the delivery of services, resources to the tribes, and tribal members.
• Drafts and delivers Dear Tribal letters from the Secretary and Assistant Secretaries.
• Serves as expert on the Indian Child Welfare committee and ensures follow-up and follow-through of issues.
• Monitors policy and compliance with the Washington Indian Child Welfare Act.
• Serves as the agency's senior policy advisor to the Secretary and provides regular and emergent advice and counsel to the Secretary on matters related to the Indian Child Welfare Act, regulations, consultation, relationship management and other areas related to tribal relations.
• Ensures policies of the agency are upheld as they relate to tribal and state relations.
• Plans, develops and executes on a strategy to improve agency services to and collaboration with tribes.

Required Qualifications & Experience:

• Demonstrated expertise in Tribal issues through professional or community-based experience.
• Deep knowledge of at least one of the issues of child welfare, early learning and juvenile justice.
• Bachelor’s degree* in public administration, social work, human services, education, public policy, Native American or Indigenous Studies, or a closely related field.
• Five (5) years of progressively responsible experience in evaluation, strategic planning and management of programs in state and/or tribal government.
• Three (3) years of experience managing complex projects

OR

• Ten (10) years of progressively responsible experience in evaluation, strategic planning and management of programs in state and/or tribal government and Five (5) years of experience managing complex projects.

AND

• Strong analytic skills and demonstrated ability to analyze and interpret complex data.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate clearly and effectively with a variety of audiences, including strong oral and written presentation skills.
• Highly skilled in facilitating and negotiating in times of conflict.
• Ability to create space for all voices to be heard.
• Strong management skills.
• Able to create an environment of trust and inclusion for all people.
• Knowledge of state, federal, and tribal governments.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, complex environment
• The ability to take action to learn and grow.
• The ability to take action to meet the needs of others.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Direct professional experience working with or within tribal communities and governments.
• Leadership experience in a political environment.
• Ability to research, form, build, and sustain relationships with tribal governments following government to government sovereignty protocols.
• Demonstrated commitment and effectiveness in culturally relevant institutional change and promoting culturally and linguistically responsive skills and practices.
• Three (3) years of supervision experience.
• Action-oriented work style focused on results, excellent judgement and the ability to see "big picture".

Complete your applicant profile and attach the following documents:

• Letter of interest describing how you meet the specific qualifications for this position.
• Current resume detailing experience and education.

Supplemental Information:
The Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) is committed to Washington’s children and youth growing up safe, healthy, and thriving. We invite all candidates to join us in our mission to create a diverse and equitable workplace that reflects the communities we serve. If you are excited about this role but you believe that your education and/or experience might not align perfectly with every qualification in the job posting, we encourage you to apply anyway.

The Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, race, creed, color, national origin, honorably discharged veteran or military status, or the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability or the use of a trained service animal by a person with a disability.

This position is exempt from Washington’s civil service rules. Exempt employment is considered “at will,” and there are no contractual employment rights.

Prior to a new hire, a background check including criminal history will be conducted. Information from the background check will not necessarily preclude employment but will be considered in determining the applicant's suitability and competence to perform in the position.

If you have any questions pertaining to this recruitment or if you would like to request an accommodation throughout the application/interview process, contact Steven Loduha (Talent Acquisition Manager) at steven.loduha@dcyf.wa.gov

If you're experiencing technical difficulties creating, accessing or completing your application, call NEOGOV toll-free at (855)524-5627 or email support@neogov.com.

Persons needing accommodation in the application process or this announcement in an alternative format may call the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) at 360-664-1960.