Regional Interpretive and Recreation Services Manager

The Park District is currently recruiting for a Regional Interpretive and Recreation Services Manager for the Southeast Unit. This dynamic leadership role oversees seven unique work groups, including Visitor Centers, Volunteer Services, and Parks Transportation. As a key member of the Interpretive and Recreation Services management team, this position helps shape department-wide strategy and supports the delivery of meaningful public programs and services.

The Regional Interpretive and Recreation Services Manager plays an important role in supporting the teams who deliver programs and services across the District’s 126,000 acres of diverse parklands. The ideal candidate is a servant leader committed to supporting staff, strengthening collaboration, and advancing priorities that promote access and stewardship of our shared resources. This is an opportunity to lead with purpose, support talented teams, and make a lasting impact on how people experience and care for our parks.

• Respect – We honor the land we steward, each other, and the park visitors we serve.
• Resilience – We creatively adapt to change. We address challenges with empathy, perspective, and determination.
• Relationships – Our greatest strength lies in the trust, accountability, and teamwork we cultivate with our colleagues, partners, and the public we serve.
• Responsiveness – We communicate openly, honestly, and reliably.
• Transparency – We hold the public's trust through meaningful stakeholder engagement and access to timely and reliable information on decisions and performance.

• Work with a purpose for a better world today and for future generations through the preservation of open space, public access to the outdoors, and a commitment to the conservation of the natural world found east of the San Francisco Bay across 33 cities in Alameda and Contra Costa counties
• A community of colleagues who are passionate about public service and the East Bay Regional Park District, the communities it serves, and its mission
• Excellent benefits: Medical, Dental, Vision, Flexible Spending, and pension benefits through California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS). Click here fordetails regarding additional benefits
• Tuition reimbursement and professional development
• Free on-site parking
• Free parking permit for EBRPD parks (for up to 2 privately owned vehicles)
• Employee discounts for certain EBRPD park amenities (reservations, daily fishing permit, public boat launch.

• Observes, listens, identifies needs, and solves problems for teams and the department in a timely and effective way
• Demonstrates experience successfully advancing projects within government systems
• Brings a strong track record as a successful supervisor or manager, with experience coaching others to support performance and growth
• Leads with openness—welcoming dialogue, navigating differing viewpoints thoughtfully, and setting clear, fair boundaries
• Effectively manages and oversees budgets, aligning resources with priorities and ensuring responsible, transparent stewardship of public funds
• Approaches complex personnel issues with confidence and care, helping staff succeed and programs thrive
• Balances competing priorities by recognizing shifting needs and adjusting focus as needed
• Champions inclusivity and actively seeks ways to ensure programs and partnerships are delivered through an equity lens
• Builds and sustains strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including other departments and community organizations
• Brings lived experience connecting people to the outdoors as a frontline interpreter, environmental educator, and/or volunteer coordinator

• Plans, develops, implements and evaluates programs within the Interpretive and Recreation Department
• Develops short- and long-term program plans
• Develops program standards, goals and objectives in line with the Park District’s mission, vision and Master Plan
• Makes recommendations concerning programmatic policies and procedures
• Ensures compliance with established laws, regulation, policies, and procedures
• Analyzes regional programmatic needs, community engagement, outreach, and marketing of interpretive, recreation, environmental education, and special events
• Oversees the development of interpretive and recreational programs that meet the Park District’s goals related to community engagement and service delivery
• Supervises, develops, and evaluates interpretive and recreation staff, supervisors
• Exercises second and third level supervisory responsibilities over a large workforce of regular, temporary, and seasonal staff, and indirectly oversees several docents, volunteers, and/or contract concessionaires
• Develops contracts, timelines, deliverables, publications, and/or policies
• Oversees the volunteer docent program, coordinating meetings and trainings
• Coordinates planning and delivery of longitudinal youth programming services with interpretive, recreation, community, and academic partners
• Ensures the quality and appropriateness of exhibits, interpretive publications, audio visual productions, and displays consistent with professional and Park District branding standards
• Assists in resolving internal operational problems and coordinates with other Park District departments and staff in resolving broader problems and issues
• Serves as technical resource to Park District Departments/Divisions
• Assumes overall responsibility for a significant operating and capital budget
• Ensures Park District fiscal interests receive maximum attention and that decisions are consistent with overall Park District goals and objectives related to interpretive and recreation services
• Confers regularly with the Division Lead of Interpretive and Recreation Services, Unit staff, and personnel from other Park District departments to address issues
• Participates in negotiating and monitoring contracts, leases, and agreements related to facility management; responds to inquiries and complaints
• Serves as Park District representative to external organizations
• Serves as a subject matter expert on a variety of internal committees, work groups, and task forces
• Develops and maintains effective collaborative relationships with other Park District departments as well as with other agencies and the private sector to offer joint programs
• Represents the Park District with print and broadcast media
• Provides oversight and guidance to subordinate supervisors in personnel and labor relations matters
• Develops interpretive and recreation operational and safety standards and competencies; prepares and reviews a variety of correspondence, manuals, and reports
• Responds to potential public operational emergencies, as well as disasters caused by fire, flood, earthquake, or other natural events
• Makes public presentations and maintains good public relations
• May present to, or prepare material for, the General Manager and/or Board of Directors; and performs related duties as assigned.

• Possession of a valid Class C California Driver’s License is a condition of initial and continued employment.
• Possession of a Certified Interpretive Guide certificate from the National Association for Interpretation is desirable.

• Principles and practices of program planning, administration and evaluation
• Interpretive and outdoor recreation management philosophies, techniques, principles, and practices
• Routine parks and facilities maintenance
• Park design, exhibit design, interpretive writing, resource management, marketing principles, interpretive program development and presentation, revenue generation philosophies
• Outdoor recreation risk management
• Principles of effective supervision
• The Park District's Equal Employment Opportunity Policy objective
• A supervisor's role in the Equal Employment Opportunity Policy objectives and the processes available to meet objectives
• Information technology and its uses to enhance business performance and efficiency
• Labor relations principals
• Fiscal and budgetary practices and policies
• Principles and practices of program planning, administration and evaluation
• Related laws, rules, regulations, and policies.

• Plan, direct, organize, and coordinate the operational activities of the Interpretive and Recreation Services programs; plan, direct, organize, and coordinate operational activities
• Evaluate program activities and staff
• Plan, organize, assign, and review the work of subordinates
• Train, guide and evaluate the development of subordinates
• Effectively contribute to the Park District's equal employment policy objectives
• Interpret and apply administrative/operational polices, practices and procedures, including applicable memoranda of understanding with the Park District’s labor groups
• Provide technical consultation to internal and external customers and stakeholders
• Set and achieve measurable goals and objectives
• Communicate clearly and effectively both orally and in writing
• Prepare detailed reports and correspondence
• Demonstrate interpersonal sensitivity
• Exercise sound judgment, initiative, and tact; analyze and problem solve
• Manage multiple competing priorities
• Establish and maintain effective working relationships with those contacted in the course of work at all levels, including a culturally diverse general public, with a focus on quality service to internal staff and external customers.

• Must pass a Level 2 Background Check.
• This position is designated as a Mandated Reporter under the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act (CANRA). Mandated reporters are individuals who are obligated by law to report suspected cases of child abuse and neglect. As such, you will be required to sign an acknowledgment of having received the District’s policy and your responsibilities.
• This position requires a Supplemental Questionnaire for Employment in compliance with Public Resources Code §5164
• May be required to attend public hearings and other meetings which may be scheduled outside of normal work hours.

1. A current East Bay Regional Park District application submitted online,and
2. Completed supplemental questions