General Manager / Chief Executive Officer

• Ten (10) or more years of progressive leadership in water resources, drinking-water or wastewater utility management, a river authority or comparable special-purpose district, or a public infrastructure enterprise of similar technical and regulatory complexity. In addition, at least seven (7) years as a chief executive, general manager, executive director, deputy or assistant general manager, or as the senior manager of a large operating division. A division manager qualifies when the division was substantial in its own right and the candidate owned that division’s budget, workforce, operating performance, and capital or regulatory results. Accountability may be to a governing board or, for a major operating division, to the chief executive. A staff or support role, or a title that did not carry budget and employee accountability, does not qualify.
• Demonstrated executive responsibility for an organization comparable in scale to TRA: a multi-facility utility or authority, an annual budget in the hundreds of millions of dollars, a workforce of several hundred, and a multi-jurisdictional customer or member base. Finalists should be prepared to quantify budget, workforce, facilities, and customer counts they personally directed.
• Working knowledge of regulatory compliance in drinking water, wastewater, water rights, or dam and reservoir operations, including permit compliance, enforcement response, and interaction with state or federal regulators.
• Executive responsibility for public-sector financial stewardship: enterprise or proprietary fund accounting, annual budget adoption, debt management, reserves, and audited financial reporting. Hands-on executive leadership of a multi-year capital improvement program in the hundreds of millions of dollars, including board-approved construction budgets, revenue-bond or comparable financing, engineering and construction procurement, and contract oversight through completion. With a record of working effectively with an appointed or elected governing body: preparing policy recommendations, respecting the board–executive boundary, managing recusals and conflicts, and communicating bad news early.
• Working knowledge of crisis leadership — flood, drought, treatment failure, dam or reservoir incident, security event, or comparable public-health or environmental emergency — with after-action accountability to a board.
• Demonstrated ability of effectively communicating with federal, state and local officials and their staff, with track record of success in accomplishing organizational objectives. Working knowledge of the Texas legislative process and of TCEQ, the Texas Water Development Board, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers sponsorship or contracting.

• Executive experience inside a Texas river authority, municipal utility district, regional water or wastewater provider, or state water agency.
• A documented record of wholesale or regional utility leadership, including customer contracts, cost-of-service or rate recommendations, and service-level accountability to cities, districts, or member agencies.
• Experience in a self-supporting agency that does not levy a tax is strongly preferred.
• Experience with nutrient limits, water reuse, emerging contaminants (including PFAS treatment strategy), biosolids, or dam-safety programs.
• Experience leading an organization through a Sunset review, comparable legislative oversight, or a major bond-financed expansion.
• Experience operating both a metroplex-scale system and a more rural or reservoir-based system, or an equivalent north–south regional span.
• Professional licensure is preferred, not required, and does not replace the experience requirements.

• Consulting, advisory, or interim roles without sustained executive accountability for operations, budget, and a workforce.
• Private-sector plant, industrial, or corporate leadership with no public-board, wholesale-customer, or utility-regulatory record.
• Elected office alone, or legislative or trade-association experience alone, without operational command of a utility or authority.

• Required: a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution in civil or environmental engineering, public administration, business administration, environmental science, finance, or a closely related discipline.
• Preferred: a master’s degree in a relevant field, or a professional certification used in executive practice (PE, CPA, or an equivalent credential).

• Working knowledge of water resources, environmental management, and drinking-water and wastewater utility operations, including treatment, collection and distribution, residuals, and reuse. Required.
• Public finance for a self-supporting enterprise: revenue bonds, rate covenants, reserves, wholesale cost recovery, and project-level accounting. Preferred.
• Federal and Texas environmental and water regulatory frameworks, and the practical difference between compliance, enforcement, and legislative change. Required
• Dam and reservoir operations, flood and drought management, and the Authority’s role as local sponsor of federal projects. Strongly preferred.
• Working knowledge of the Texas Open Meetings Act and of the General Manager’s role in supporting the Board’s compliance, including notice, agendas, quorums, executive session, and the record of Board actions required.

• Strategic planning tied to measurable operating, financial, and capital outcomes, not a planning document that sits on a shelf.
• Financial management at enterprise scale, including the ability to explain rate and debt choices to a board and to wholesale customers.
• Regulatory judgment: knowing when to settle, when to contest, and when to brief the Board before a position is taken.
• Stakeholder engagement across customers, member counties, legislators, and regulators, with a single consistent account of the Authority’s position.
• Crisis management and calm public communication under pressure.
• Contract and capital-program discipline. The Board should expect the General Manager to own oversight, not merely to receive contractor reports.
• Talent judgment: hiring, evaluating, and if necessary, replacing members of the executive team, and building internal successors.
• Written and oral communication suitable for Board books, legislative testimony, customer briefings, and public explanation of technical decisions.

• On-site executive role. Residence in the Trinity River basin or one of its defined counties, or relocation within a period set by the Board, is required.
• Frequent travel within the basin, regular evening Board and customer meetings, and availability for dam, flood, treatment, and security incidents outside business hours. Required.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States and able to pass a background check appropriate to a chief executive with fiduciary and critical-infrastructure responsibility. Required.

The Trinity River Authority of Texas is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable federal or state law. Applicants will be notified of their rights under federal employment laws, including the Know Your Rights notice issued by the U.S. Department of Labor.