Colorado Governor Jared Polis is committed to building a Colorado For All, a place where everyone has an opportunity to succeed and live the Colorado way of life. Governor Polis is focused on lowering health care costs for hardworking Coloradans, transitioning the state to renewable energy sources, ensuring every Colorado child gets a quality education, and building an economy that works for everyone, as well as empower state agencies to build a culture of operational excellence and bold innovation driven by continuous performance improvement. The Governor's staff includes offices for budgeting, communications and outreach, legal counsel, legislative liaison, operations, policy and research, and scheduling.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis is committed to building a Colorado For All, a place where everyone has an opportunity to succeed and live the Colorado way of life. Governor Polis is focused on making Colorado one of the safest states in the country, lowering health care costs for hardworking Coloradans, transitioning to renewable energy sources, ensuring every Colorado child gets a quality education, and building an economy that works for everyone.

Candidates should be a dynamic leader. They should have strong analytical skills, organizational skills, and oral and written communications skills. Candidates should possess proven problem solving acumen, be highly detail-oriented, and have the ability to multitask. They should have experience managing complex systems and organizations. They should demonstrate personal integrity, confidence, diplomacy, and flexibility. We believe that diverse teams produce better results and encourage people of a variety of backgrounds and qualifications to apply.

The Colorado Department of Corrections is responsible for the management of the state’s adult prison system, intensive supervision program-inmate (ISP-I), and adult parole. Prison Operations is accountable for incarcerated persons sentenced to prison. Located throughout Colorado are 18 facilities and the Youthful Offender System that are owned and operated by the state of Colorado, and two private facilities contracted by the DOC to house incarcerated people. Adult Parole is responsible for incarcerated people who transition from a facility to parole, community residential programs, and interstate compact inmates. Parole also provides transitional services through community re-entry and pre-release programs.

Position Description: The Executive Director is the Chief Executive Officer of the Colorado Department of Corrections The Executive Director is part of the Governor’s Executive Cabinet, and is responsible for overseeing the administration, programs and strategic plan of the Department as well as the consistent achievement of its mission and objectives. The Executive Director is held responsible for executing on the agency’s Wildly Important Goals (WIGs), which are measurable deliverables that align with the most important priorities of the Polis Administration. Accomplishing these WIGs makes up 40% of the Director’s annual performance evaluation.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Ensure that the Department has a long-range vision and strategy which achieves its mission, and ensures consistent and timely progress toward that mission.
• Provide leadership in developing program, organizational and financial plans with Division leaders and staff.
• Working closely with stakeholders from across the spectrum, including victims’ rights advocates, local governments and community to instill trust in the agency and its mission.
• Building an effective team of leaders by providing guidance and coaching to subordinate managers.
• Creating and/or approving plans for the effective management of the offender population, including personnel, facilities, parole and reentry programs
• Directs and oversees the Department’s budget
• Responsible for fiscal management that generally anticipates operating within the approved budget, ensures maximum resource utilization, and maintenance of the organization in a positive financial position.
• Responsible for the effective administration of the Department’s operations, including adherence to all laws directing the work of the Department.
• Maintain a climate which attracts, keeps, and motivates a diverse staff of top quality people.
• Briefs the Governor’s Office on all relevant policy issues arising from State and Federal legislative activities.
• Supports management of the agency’s proactive legislative agenda and externally-driven legislation that impacts the Department’s operations.

• Five or more years of experience being responsible for the successful leadership and management of jails, prisons or a corrections system at the local, state or federal level;
• Five or more years of experience developing or providing the overall vision and strategic plan, at an executive leadership level, for an organization of twenty-five or more employees;
• Five or more years of experience fostering effective and efficient process improvements for an organization of twenty-five or more employees;
• Five or more years of experience demonstrating effective communication and collaboration with stakeholders, including adversarial relationships, to help achieve the strategic goals of an organization;
• Five or more years of experience overseeing the day-to-day delivery of the programs and services of an organization;
• Five or more years of professional executive management experience, which included establishing goals and objectives and developing and managing a budget to achieve program goals and objectives;
• A Bachelor’s or advanced degree in a related field.

Special Qualifications:

Conditions of Employment:

Some travel may be required, especially in the post-COVID future and around the state, but this position is not one of the departments that travels constantly.

A thorough background check will be conducted.

To Apply:

A cover letter and resume must be submitted with the application for consideration. Your cover letter and resume must provide sufficient detail about your background and experience to allow the screening panel to properly assess your experience in the required elements, including your experience, achievements, why you want to be the Executive Director and what you would bring to that position.

The State of Colorado/Office of the Governor offers a generous benefits package including:

• Retirement benefits including PERA Defined Benefit Plan or PERA Defined Contribution Plan*, plus optional 401(k) and 457 plans - https://www.copera.org/
• Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance coverage - including extensive prescription drug coverage (many preventive medications covered at no cost)
• Wellness programs - participation can reduce employee premiums
• Automatic Short-Term and Optional Long-Term Disability Coverage
• Life and AD&D Insurance
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)
• Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) job protection and State of Colorado Paid Family Medical Leave (PFML)
• 11 Paid Holidays Annually and Accrued Annual and Sick Leave
• Hybrid work arrangements
• Variety of discounts on services and products available through the State of Colorado's Work-Life Employment Discount Program
• Access to the Colorado State Employee Assistance Program (CSEAP): offers confidential mental health counseling, professional coaching, employee mediation, 24/7 crisis support
• Free RTD EcoPass to all eligible State Employees
• Training and professional development opportunities, including reduced college tuition through CSU Global
• Credit Union of Colorado Membership Eligibility

To learn more about State of Colorado benefits, please visit the state’s benefits portal: https://www.colorado.gov/dhr/benefits.

• For information on mandatory employee salary deferral (in lieu of contribution to Social Security), see COPERA for details: https://www.copera.org/member-contribution-rates

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

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. The State of Colorado is an equal opportunity employer committed to building inclusive, innovative work environments with employees who reflect our communities and enthusiastically serve them. Therefore, in all aspects of the employment process, we provide employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, medical condition related to pregnancy, creed, ancestry, national origin, marital status, genetic information, or military status (with preference given to military veterans), or any other protected status in accordance with applicable law.

ADAAA Accommodations

The Office of the Governor is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, our agency will assist individuals who have a disability with any reasonable accommodation requests related to employment, including completing the application process, interviewing, completing any pre-employment testing, participating in the employee selection process, and/or to perform essential job functions where the requested accommodation does not impose an undue hardship. If you have a disability and require reasonable accommodation to ensure you have a positive experience applying or interviewing for this position, please direct your inquiries to our ADAAA Staffing Coordinator (the Director of Human Resources) at gov_hr@state.co.us.

Conditions of Employment

Applicants must pass a thorough background check prior to employment.