Assistant City Manager

City of Waco, Texas

Waco is at an inflection point. The City is growing, investing, reorganizing, and asking more of its infrastructure and development platform than ever before. That creates a particularly compelling opportunity for a seasoned municipal executive who can bring operational depth, strategic perspective, and steady leadership to one of the City’s most important portfolios.

This recruitment is not about maintaining the status quo. It is about adding a high-capacity leader who can help the City Manager strengthen execution across infrastructure, water, capital delivery, development, and public works while also helping shape the next phase of Waco’s growth. The next Assistant City Manager will step into a role where the work is highly visible, deeply consequential, and central to how residents experience city government every day.

The Role: A Core Executive Seat in Waco’s Infrastructure and Development Platform

The Assistant City Manager will serve as a principal advisor to the City Manager and a key member of the executive leadership team. This role is expected to oversee a portfolio centered on Water Resources, Public Works, Infrastructure Services, and Development Services, Customer Service & Engagement, while also helping ensure alignment across customer-facing and operational functions connected to infrastructure delivery, and service performance, both internally and externally, using data and dashboards.

A particularly important part of this role will be helping the City develop and sustain a more strategic, future-oriented approach to water resources. Waco has already undertaken meaningful long-range water planning, including integrated resource planning around reclamation, new sources, and long-term availability, but the next Assistant City Manager will be expected to help continue to focus on water resource strategy and turn that planning into an actionable implementation agenda. This means working with staff to connect long-range water strategy to the City’s five-year CIP, maintaining momentum on current delivery needs while ensuring that critical future investments are sequenced, funded, and not crowded out by more immediate demands. The successful candidate will understand how to operate in both horizons at once, driving today’s infrastructure work while helping prepare the city for its next ten to twenty years of growth and water demand.

This is a heavy operational and implementation-focused executive role. It is not simply a coordination post. The next ACM will help lead the City’s water resources, infrastructure and development platform at a moment when Waco needs both disciplined project delivery now and stronger long-range planning for what comes next, especially in water, capital improvements, deferred maintenance, and growth-related infrastructure needs.

Portfolio Scope: A Large, High-Impact Operational Platform

This role touches some of the City’s largest and most visible departments.

Public Works is a reorganized department delivering critical field and maintenance functions across Public Works Administration, Maintenance, Utilities, Safety, Solid Waste, and Streets, including traffic and drainage. Its FY26 budget is $96.2 million, and the department includes 308 FTEs.

Infrastructure Services is responsible for essential infrastructure solutions through Engineering, Transportation, Water and Wastewater Treatment, and Development. The department provides deep technical capacity in engineering design, water and wastewater treatment, transportation planning, and stormwater management, and has an FY26 budget of $138,168,800 with 153.475 FTEs.

Development Services supports the orderly, safe, and responsible development of Waco through Planning, Inspections, and Code Compliance. The department is advancing several meaningful FY26 priorities, including new permitting and inspection software, updated building and electrical codes, the implementation of an efficiency study, a proactive multifamily inspection program, zoning ordinance updates to support downtown and infill development, and the completion of a historic resources survey. Its FY26 budget is $5,886,711, and it includes 46 FTEs.

Customer Engagement is a newly formed department created to unify key customer-facing service functions into a more coordinated service platform. The department brings together the Call Center and Customer Care Team, revenue collections, customer billing, customer support, and meter services to improve communication, streamline service processes, and deliver a more consistent customer experience. Its work spans first-point-of-contact service, payment and billing support, issue resolution related to leaks and sewer overflows, 811 locate coordination, outage notifications, and meter reading, repair, replacement, and testing. Customer Engagement also includes responsibility for collections and reconciliation across multiple utility-related funds and reflects the City’s broader emphasis on service integration, responsiveness, and operational efficiency. The department includes 54 FTEs.

Office of Performance & Efficiency is a two-person function within the City Manager’s Office that helps lead the City’s performance management efforts, Thehe office is responsible for developing department-level metrics, managing the City’s performance dashboard, and expanding a consistent framework for how Waco tracks, shares, and evaluates success across the organization. Positioned within this ACM portfolio, it supports the City’s growing focus on transparency, accountability, and measurable results.

Together, these departments form one of the most operationally significant platforms in the City. This Assistant City Manager will not only oversee major service areas, but also help ensure they work in concert: engineering and utilities, planning and development, field operations and maintenance, long-range vision and short-term execution.

Why This Opportunity Is Distinctive

A role built around real infrastructure leadership.

The City Manager has been clear that this position needs someone with strong background in water, infrastructure, capital improvements, public works, and development-related functions. The goal is to add genuine subject-matter depth to the executive team in an area that will be increasingly central to Waco’s future.

A chance to lead both current execution and future planning.

Waco does not need a leader who sees only the next project milestone. The City needs someone who can keep today’s work moving while also pressing the organization to think several years ahead, particularly around water availability, implementation of integrated resource planning, and the alignment of CIP with long-term infrastructure needs.

A high-trust executive role for a new City Manager.

This search comes at an important leadership moment. The City Manager is relatively new in the role, and this ACM will be expected to help round out the executive team with experience, sound judgment, and a management style that fits a results-oriented environment where communication, alignment, and accountability matter.

A portfolio with strong directors and meaningful leadership complexity.

The next ACM will inherit talented department heads with different styles, strengths, and developmental needs. This is an environment that rewards a leader who can mentor, challenge, and align smart people without overreaching, undercutting expertise, or relying on positional authority alone.

The Leadership Agenda for the Next Assistant City Manager

The next Assistant City Manager will be expected to help Waco deliver in several connected ways over the next three to five years.

First, this leader will help ensure the City’s infrastructure platform performs with greater consistency and integration across Public Works, Infrastructure Services, and Development Services. That includes maintaining momentum on major projects and service expectations while also clarifying priorities, removing bottlenecks, and reinforcing accountability.

Second, the ACM will help the City move beyond reactive capital delivery toward a stronger long-range posture, especially around water and infrastructure planning. Existing planning work has been done; the challenge is implementation, sequencing, and making sure future-oriented investments do not get crowded out by immediate operational demands.

Third, the role will require strong internal executive management. The City needs someone who can lead experienced and technically strong directors, tailor their approach to different personalities, and help those leaders operate more effectively in a political, cross-functional, citywide environment.

Fourth, the next ACM will help translate technical matters into executive and political reality. Waco needs a leader who understands that the technically correct answer is not always the only variable in municipal decision-making and can help departments navigate council expectations, organizational priorities, and community-facing implications.

What the City Is Looking for in the Next Assistant City Manager

Waco is seeking a seasoned municipal executive with the maturity, credibility, and judgment to operate successfully at the intersection of infrastructure, development, politics, and organizational leadership.

The ideal candidate will likely bring meaningful experience in one or more of the following environments: a large or growing city, a utility or infrastructure-intensive public organization, or a municipal executive role with substantial responsibility for water, public works, engineering, capital delivery, and development services. The City is not necessarily seeking a Professional Engineer, although that background could be valuable; rather, it is seeking someone who combines infrastructure fluency with executive-level perspective and strong people leadership.

The strongest candidates will bring:

deep experience in municipal infrastructure, water, CIP, and public works;
the ability to balance immediate implementation with long-range planning;
executive maturity to manage and mentor strong directors with differing styles;
political and organizational judgment;
comfort in a leadership culture that emphasizes visibility, communication, and accountability; and
the perspective that comes from having seen enough in local government to serve as a steady partner to a new City Manager.

Key Responsibilities

The Assistant City Manager will be expected to:

Provide executive leadership for Public Works, Infrastructure Services, and Development Services, ensuring clear priorities, aligned direction, and strong follow-through across the portfolio.
Advise the City Manager on strategic, operational, budgetary, and organizational matters related to infrastructure, water, capital delivery, development, and service performance.
Strengthen coordination among engineering, utilities, field operations, maintenance, planning, zoning, inspections, and code-related functions.
Support both near-term execution and long-range infrastructure planning, with particular attention to water availability, integrated resource planning, CIP implementation, and deferred maintenance.
Lead and develop directors and senior staff, using a management approach that is both accountable and adaptive to differing leadership styles.
Help translate technical and operational issues into decision-ready recommendations that account for political, organizational, and community realities.
Reinforce a performance-driven culture marked by clarity, responsiveness, accountability, and strong communication across departments and with executive leadership.

Required Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Public Administration, Civil Engineering or a related field.
At least six years of experience managing public sector operations, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
Demonstrated executive or senior-level leadership experience overseeing multiple departments, divisions, or major functional areas in a municipal or similarly complex public-sector environment.
Experience leading through operational, interdepartmental, budget, and performance management issues, with the ability to translate broad policy direction into effective implementation.
Strong experience supervising senior staff or department heads, including setting expectations, evaluating performance, resolving issues, and ensuring service quality.
Working knowledge of administrative management principles, including budgeting, procurement, contract administration, risk management, performance management, and personnel practices.
Ability to analyze complex administrative and operational issues, interpret laws and regulations, evaluate alternatives, and develop practical recommendations and operational improvements.
Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a political environment with changing priorities, competing demands, and significant public accountability.
Strong verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to present and defend operational information in public meetings and build effective working relationships with elected officials, community groups, and internal stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

Master’s degree in Public Administration, Business Administration, Engineering, Urban Planning, or a related field.
Significant experience in municipal infrastructure leadership, with strong background in one or more of the following: water or wastewater utilities, public works, engineering, transportation, capital improvement delivery, development services, or related operational functions.
Experience overseeing large, complex service portfolios that combine technical operations, field service delivery, regulatory functions, and customer-facing departments.
Demonstrated success balancing immediate operational execution with long-range strategic planning, particularly around infrastructure, capital planning, service delivery, and organizational performance.
Experience leading and mentoring strong department directors or senior technical leaders with differing personalities, leadership styles, and areas of expertise.
Strong political and organizational judgment, including experience advising a City Manager, executive team, elected body, or governing board on sensitive operational and policy matters.
Experience building or strengthening accountability systems, performance metrics, dashboards, KPIs, or other tools used to evaluate departmental performance and communicate results to leadership and the public.
Familiarity with growth-related municipal issues such as water supply planning, deferred maintenance, land development, utility coordination, customer service integration, and interdepartmental service alignment.
Experience in a fast-growing city, large utility organization, or similarly complex local government environment where infrastructure delivery and public expectations are both high.
Professional Engineer license is not required, but technical credibility in infrastructure-related functions would be viewed favorably.

Compensation and Benefits

Anticipated Hiring Range: $215,000-$255,000.

The City of Waco offers a comprehensive benefits package designed to support employee well-being, retirement security, and work-life balance. The City shares in the cost of medical and prescription coverage, provides basic life and AD&D insurance and long-term disability at no cost to eligible employees, and offers access to dental, vision, flexible spending accounts, deferred compensation, and wellness resources.

Retirement benefits are provided through TMRS, with employees contributing 7% of gross pay and the City matching at a 2:1 ratio. Additional benefits include education assistance of up to $5,000 per calendar year if eligible, longevity pay, paid parental leave, and a comprehensive leave program including 12 paid holidays annually.

Why Waco, and Why Now

For the right leader, this is a chance to do meaningful work at the center of a city’s growth and infrastructure future.

This is an opportunity to help shape how Waco builds, maintains, and delivers the systems residents rely on every day. It is a role for someone who can step into a trusted executive seat, bring depth where the organization most needs it, strengthen a major operational platform, and help a new City Manager lead with confidence through growth, complexity, and change.

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