ECMC - Financial Assurance Specialist (Compliance Specialist III)

Full Job Description

This posting is only open to residents of the State of Colorado at the time of submitting your application.

Are you interested in investing in a career that makes a difference? Consider joining the dedicated people of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources.

It’s our mission to manage and conserve Colorado’s natural resources for the benefit of people today – and tomorrow.

That means we have to balance development with conservation so the state we all love provides similar opportunities for our children and their children.

We invite you to explore our website at https://dnr.colorado.gov/about-us to find out more about the work we do to manage Colorado’s natural resources for today – and tomorrow.

The State of Colorado believes that equity, diversity, and inclusion drive our success, and we encourage candidates from all identities, backgrounds, and abilities to apply.

In addition to offering rewarding, meaningful work, we offer:

• Medical, Vision and Dental plans

• Strong, flexible retirement plans including PERA Defined Benefit Plan or PERA Defined Contribution Plan, plus pre-tax and Roth 401K and 457 plans

• Paid life insurance

• Short- and long-term disability coverage

• Employee Wellness programs

• Flexible Spending Accounts

• Health Savings Accounts

• 11 paid holidays per year plus generous vacation and sick leave

• Flexible work schedule options and remote-work options

• Career advancement opportunities throughout the State system

• Some positions may qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program

• Documenting the core business processes of the Commission;
• Evaluating the effectiveness of ECMC’s s programs, processes, and tools;
• Leading other ECMC Units in the strategic analysis and continuous improvement of core processes;
• Developing strategies, objectives, and operational status to ensure high quality products and processes;
• Reviewing quality testing policies and procedures;
• Ensuring regulatory standards are followed;
• Overseeing the fleet vehicle, drone, safety training, and field safety equipment shared services programs; and,
• Working with all ECMC units to oversee QA/QC protocols and provide resources and training.

Requirements

This posting is only open to residents of the State of Colorado at the time of submitting your application.

This position is responsible for the intake, custody, and release of all financial assurance instruments.

This requires review of all manner of presented financial instruments provided by Operators to confirm legal validity and verify compliance with criteria established ECMC Rules, and ensuring sufficiency to meet the level of bonding required by the Financial Assurance Plan approved by the Director or Commission.

It must annually confirm each approved instrument remains viable and in force with ECMC as the only assignee.

It must secure the instruments for safekeeping and reconcile monthly for all custodial financial assurance held by ECMC.

It also assists PHA 211 in the annual review of associated plans to determine whether additional assurance is required.

It is responsible for releasing instruments when the operations covered by the bonding have ceased and all associated impacts from the operations have been remediated.

It is responsible to process submitted replacement financial assurance and release the replaced instrument to prevent double bonding.

It is responsible for bond claims issued by the Commission when Operator failure resulted in default of their obligations under The Act.

It is also responsible for participating in registering entities as Operators with the Commission, which enables them to conduct oil and gas operations.

• Conduct compliance reviews to evaluate for legal efficacy of the financial assurance presented, confirming it complies with criteria established by ECMC Rules, with ECMC as the only assignee.
• This position audits applications, forms, and financial records to ensure the completeness, accuracy, and correctness of information submitted by applicants to ECMC.
• Works with applicants on identifying and/or correcting any deficiencies in their application or submitted documents.
• Verify submissions agree with metadata provided by the Operator in an associated utilized Form and approve, deny, or coordinate for correction to achieve approval of the Form, and coordinate completion of all required analog and digital document management for all types of accepted and allocated financial assurances.
• When an Operator defaults on their regulatory requirement to remediate impacts from operations or otherwise fail to comply with ECMC Rules such that the Commission rescinds their license to operate, this position must execute the associated financial assurance instruments.
• Conducts monthly reconciliations with Treasury and Accounting records as well as annual audit of all financial assurances being available and currently assigned only to ECMC.
• This position must determine how best to contact the financial assurance provider and make a legal demand to obtain the funding secured by the bond.
• Participate in changes of operator forms requiring audit of financial assurance obligation impacts to ensure for adherence to related Rules for both the buying and selling operators.
• Coordinates with ECMC’s Enforcement Unit on identified non-compliance as a result of FA processes revealing enforcement is required.
• This position must apply their independent judgment and understanding of the various Forms to determine how to best reconcile compliance matters.

Qualifications

This posting is only open to residents of the State of Colorado at the time of submitting your application.

Six (6) years of relevant experience in an occupation related to the work assigned to this position (relevant experience to include reviewing applications,mortgage processing/underwriting, banking, auditing for completeness and correctness, finance, accounting, business, etc.)

OR

A combination of related education and/or relevant experience in an occupation related to the work assigned equal to six (6) years.

• Current or former State experience relevant to this position.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Knowledge and/or experience of the oil and gas industry.
• Experience working with diverse groups of people and adapting messaging to meet needs of difference audiences.
• Proficient in using Microsoft Office and Google Suite, specifically Excel and Sheets.
• Experience auditing/reviewing forms/applications for compliance and correctness.
• Experience in finance, banking, insurance, and/or accounting.
• Experience reading and interpreting rules, guidelines, legal documents, statutes and policies.
• Professional level writing, research and communication development skills.
• Experience converting technical content into plain language content.
• Customer service experience, previous public service experience, experience dealing with public, experience with complaint intake/response.

The current work arrangement for this position is as follows:
(Please note, this arrangement can be subject to change)

• Hybrid: This is a hybrid position will work from a home office and from the main Denver office as worked out with Supervisor after initial training period, with potential for occasional travel to Operator locations as needed for audit purposes.

• Must have and maintain residency in the State of Colorado at time of application.
• Must be willing and able to possess and maintain a State of Colorado Driver's License if operating a state vehicle.
• Must be willing and able to travel to Operator locations as needed to conduct audits.
• Must be willing and able to occasionally exert up to 20 lbs. of force to move objects.
• You must be legally eligible to work in the United States to be appointed to this position. DNR does not sponsor non-residents of the United States.

Additional Information

• All applications received by the closing of this announcement will be reviewed by an HR Specialist against the Minimum Qualifications in this announcement.

• Colorado Revised Statutes require that state employees are hired and promoted based on merit and fitness through a comparative analysis process. Part of, or all of, the comparative analysis for this position will be a structured application review by Subject Matter Experts.

• Resumes, cover letters and other attachments are not considered as part of initial reviews, therefore, it is important to document in your application your education, experience, minimum qualifications, and preferred qualifications as outlined in the job announcement.

• Please thoroughly answer all supplemental questions (if listed) since question responses may be evaluated for content, writing ability, spelling, grammar, and effective communication.

• This recruitment may involve additional testing and/or exams to arrive at the top group for interviews.