COMMUNICATIONS ENGINEER

ABOUT THE POSITION

The City of Tucson Information Technology (IT) Department is seeking a motivated and talented Communications Engineer with data transport, physical network, and mission-critical technology design experience. This challenging and unique position involves working as part of a highly-specialized information technology team focused on design and construction management of technology-bases systems and infrastructure to support various City departments.

ABOUT TUCSON

Tucson has been continuously inhabited for over 12,000 years. It celebrates a diversity of cultures, architecture, and peoples. Yet, it is one of the "Mega-Trend" cities of the 21st Century: The Optics Valley, premier health services center of the Southwest, the astronomy center of the world, home of a premier research institution - University of Arizona, and a tourism destination.

Tucson's rich cultural heritage centers around a unique blend of Native American, Spanish, Mexican and Anglo-American influences. These can be seen in the Hispanic barrios, historical and contemporary American architecture, and historic Native American remnants.

Tucson was once referred to as a "mini-mecca for the arts” by The Wall Street Journal and was ranked #20 of the Top 25 Arts Destinations (big-cities category) by American Style Magazine. Tucson is one of a select few cities of its size that boasts its own ballet company, professional theater, symphony, and opera company. Home to 215 art groups, and more than 35 art galleries in the downtown area alone, Tucson ranks as one of the best places in the state to view works by the masters and up-and-coming artists. Tucson’s natural history and cultural heritage are also on display in the over 30 regional museums, 12 of which are located on the route of the upcoming Modern Streetcar.

Tucson is situated in the Sonoran Desert and is surrounded by five mountain ranges. A trip from the 2,389-foot valley floor to the 9,157-foot Mt. Lemmon summit (home to the southernmost ski area in the continental United States) traverses seven of the world's nine life zones. It's like driving from Mexico to Canada. Blessed with the natural beauty of the Sonoran Desert and an unsurpassed climate of 360 sunny days a year, Tucsonans embrace a rare lifestyle and are committed to preserving that quality of life. 

Tucson is the perfect place for the outdoor enthusiast. With more than 800 miles of bike paths, Tucson has been ranked by Bicycling magazine as one of the top cycling cities in the U.S. for several years running and is home to internationally known bicycling events such as El Tour de Tucson. Golf is another popular activity with dozens of regional golf courses, including five municipally owned courses.

The city is home to the University of Arizona and Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. The City's industries include electronics and missile production. Tucson is the seat of Pima County and has a Council-Manager form of government. The Tucson metropolitan area supports over 750,000 residents. As metropolitan Tucson continues to grow by nearly 2,000 new residents each month, the challenge of meeting citizen expectations also increases.  

The City of Tucson is committed to providing quality municipal services which promote a healthy community, offer opportunities for participation and leisure, and enable citizens to prosper at work and at home.

CITY-WIDE BENEFITS

The City of Tucson offers a wide range of generous benefits for eligible employees. Some of those benefits include: · Medical: Choice between a high deductible plan (HSA or HRA), or Network plan.

· Dental: Choice between a national dental PPO and a local dental HMO. 

· Vision: Coverage for annual eye exam and glasses or contacts, plus LASIK. 

· Life: City-paid coverage for you & dependents, plus option to buy more. 

· Long-Term Disability: Income replacement of up to 60% of your base salary in the event of a qualifying disability.  · Employee Assistance Program: Enhance your wellbeing when life doesn’t go as planned. 

· Flexible Spending: Pay for qualified health and dependent care expenses using pretax dollars.   

· Colonial Voluntary Benefits: Financial help in the event of cancer, hospitalization, accident, more.

Your Security and Future

· Pension: Generous pension plans that help employees retire more comfortably. 

· Deferred Compensation: Save more toward a comfortable retirement with a 457(b) plan. 

· Training & Tuition Assistance: Pursue your dream through internal training or financial help toward a degree. 

· Back-Up Care: Care for your loved ones when your regular care is unavailable.   

Your Peace of Mind

· Paid Parental Leave: Six (6) weeks paid leave when you welcome a child, plus other generous leave policies for FML, Medical and USERRA. 

· Paid Time Away: New hires enjoy 37 days of paid time off in the first year, with time increasing steadily thereafter (In year one: 13 accrued days of vacation, 13 accrued days of sick leave, and 11 paid holidays). 

· Employee Discounts: Generous discounts, ranging from car rentals to computers, gifts to groceries, electronics to entertainment. 

· Social Connectedness: Forge connections with the community we serve through paid volunteerism and payroll-deducted charitable giving. 

For a full description of benefits offered to eligible employees, or to inquire further about the City of Tucson's benefits options, please visit: https://www.tucsonaz.gov/hr/employee-benefit-snapshot 

***The City of Tucson values the safety of our employees, our residents, our community, and our visitors.  In support of these values, if you are selected for this job, you must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, except when vaccination is not medically advised or violates your sincerely held religious beliefs. If you are invited to join our team, you must submit proof that you are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to your initial HR representative, or you must request an exemption from your representative. New employees must either provide proof of vaccination or be granted a medical or religious exemption before working with the City of Tucson.***

The Communications Engineer designs and manages the technical aspects of the City's communications network including installing, approving and providing assigned access to the network. Requires a high level of attention to detail and the ability to work and communicate with internal and external customers. On call duty to respond to alarms and outage events and provide forensic and technical expertise to rectify or re-engineer the issue for a solution.

Supervises and coordinates the equivalent of two or more fulltime employees and all assigned work in a unit ensuring timely and quality activities to respond to the needs of the City, community, department, and unit.

Assists with the implementation, evaluation and interpretation of department policies, projects and procedures.

Manages, coordinates, and determines priorities of work load, monitoring levels of resources, establishing time lines, assigning work, monitoring progress, recommending changes and suggestions, writing, reviewing and editing reports prepared by staff, and approving completed projects and reports.

Implements controls for appropriate unit staffing and effectiveness by participating in the recruitment and hiring of employees, making recommendations on employee discipline, and other human resources issues, evaluating and managing employee performance, discussing and identifying personnel issues and facilitating resolutions, promoting positive morale in the unit, ensuring staff is trained appropriately for maximum performance, and providing leadership and guidance.

Contributes to the needs of the community and City by implementing and causing others to implement the organization's values and strategies by leading through example, competency, and accountabilities.

Provides customer service by responding to information requests, conducting research, providing solutions to problems, and correcting errors.

Ensures that unit work conforms to local, state, and federal governmental regulations, and other applicable rules and requirements.

Conducts communications network research studies to determine design criteria and develops of detailed systems and specifications for both public safety and public service.

Reviews detailed drawings and projects under construction and resolves field engineering design, construction and operating problems for microwave, telephone, fiber optics, voice radio, digital data, and wireless systems.

Develops contract scope of work and manages contract schedules for installation and repair.

Prepares the budget for communications networks by identifying needs and estimating costs.

Directs the work of consultants and contractors and approves payment of invoices.

Ensures project schedules are met, prepares reports and coordinates resources.

Ensures compliance with engineering standards under Federal, State and local communications regulatory requirements.

Oversees contract adherence and quality control by reviewing and evaluating consultant submittals, reviewing and approving plans, reports and other design materials, reviewing received bids and recommending award of bids, conducting meetings, reviewing plans and specifications, resolving issues, investigating on-site issues, preparing contract amendments, negotiating and preparing change orders.

Coordinates with other departments and agencies by providing technical knowledge, develops and maintains relevant policy, selects consultants and conducts site investigations.

Provides engineering consultation on the unique communications needs of particular sites or problems.

Advises and instructs operating and maintenance personnel in matters relating to communications and electronic systems and networks, including establishing City Wide Area Network guidelines.

Prepares documentation, technical instructions, maintenance plans and related materials.

Minimum Education Level & Type: Associate's Degree

Minimum Experience Qualifications: At least 5 years of experience designing, installing, and managing communications networks for microwave, telephone, fiber optics, voice radio, digital data, and wireless systems

An equivalent combination of education, training, and experience which provides the required knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the essential functions of this position may be considered.

• At least five years outside plant (OSP) design and related engineering and construction experience.
• Five years of experience with optical networks including design and architecture Two years of experience in RF Communication
• Experience with use of fiber network design, planning and mapping software tools such as OSPInsight, 3-GIS, ESRI ArcGIS and QGIS
• Proficient with Autodesk AutoCAD
• Operational experience working with major carriers
• Experience with 100G coherent detection long-haul networks
• Experience designing, installing and operating DWDM systems
• Operational experience with multi-vendor DWDM network equipment
• Strong hands on technical knowledge of network components
• Experience with network management systems and network automation
• Experience in system engineering and test and link analysis with vendor-specific tools
• Troubleshoot optical transport issues using OTDR, OSA, BERT, and optical power meters
• IP and Ethernet networking experience
• Understanding of telecommunications industry standards, practices, and procedures (ANSI/TIA/EIA/BICSI).
• Understanding of relevant city, state, and federal codes, regulations, and standards (NEC, NFPA, FCC).
• Experience in an Agile/Scrum environment
• Strong written and oral communications skills with the ability to influence others with your engineering solutions
• BICSI RCDD credential or RCDD with OSP designation
• BS or MS degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Engineering Physics or other relevant major  

PLEASE NOTE: Resumes AND Cover Letters must be uploaded as a PDF or Word document to be considered. Failure to upload your Resume AND Cover Letter as ONE Document in the application will be considered an incomplete application.

Applicants who meet the minimum qualifications will be evaluated on the education and work experience in their employment profile and the responses to their supplemental questions. The highest scoring applicants will then be invited to participate in an Oral Board interview.   

• Virtual Oral Board Interviews will be held: September 2, 2022 via Microsoft Teams

Upon completion of all examination processes, the highest scoring applicants will be placed on the Civil Service Employment List.  An applicant's ranking on the Civil Service list will be based on their final score which will be calculated as:      

• 20% of your rating for education and work experience
• 80% of your oral board interview   

This recruitment will establish a civil service list that will be utilized to fill vacancies occurring within the next 6 months.

Veterans, Native American, or Disability preference points will be added to the final score for those that are placed on the Civil Service Employment List.  If you qualify for preference points as outlined in the Employment Profile, you must present your documentation at the Oral Board interviews.  The DD 214 must be a copy that indicates characterization of service.  

If you are in need of Americans with Disabilities Act-related accommodation during the testing process, please email Curtis.Rohlfs@tucsonaz.gov at least 48 hours prior to the evaluation.

Communications throughout this process will be sent exclusively through email. Please ensure your browser accepts emails from jobs@tucsonaz.gov and check your email account regularly. Failure to respond or follow instructions will result in disqualification. All inquires should be directed to Curtis Rohlfs by email at Curtis.Rohlfs@tucsonaz.gov

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To ensure accurate payroll information for tax purposes, the successful candidate will need to provide their original Social Security Card or original letter from the Social Security Administration with their social security number prior to beginning work with the City of Tucson.

The City of Tucson hires lawful workers only - US citizens or nationals and non-citizens with valid work authorization - without discrimination. Federal immigration laws require all employers to verify both the identity and employment eligibility of all persons hired to work in the United States. In its efforts to meet the law's requirements, the City of Tucson participates in the E-Verify program established by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA) to aid employers in verifying the eligibility of workers.

Retired City of Tucson employees receiving benefits from the Tucson Supplemental Retirement System who are considering reemployment with the City should be aware that pursuant to Section 22-37(g) of the Tucson City Code, retirement benefits shall be suspended during the period of reemployment with the City of Tucson unless you have been separated at least twelve consecutive months before returning to work AND you return to a non-permanent employment classification. Creditable service does not accrue during any reemployment period.