Review Vacancy
AgencyPeople With Developmental Disabilities, Office for
TitleEqual Opportunity Specialist 1
Occupational CategoryOther Professional Careers
Bargaining UnitM/C - Managerial/Confidential (Unrepresented)
Salary RangeFrom $67119 to $83286 Annually
Duties Description The New York State Office of People With Developmental Disabilities (NYS OPWDD) has approximately 20,000 employees across 1,000+ locations and provides services to more than 136,000 people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities. OPWDD recently created the Executive Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) with the charge to infuse DEI approaches, objectives, and methodologies through different key business functions and executive ranks in OPWDD.
The DEI Office oversees a portfolio of 100 projects, a vision-to-action plan for cultural competence, linguistic competence, and equity, and oversees statewide functions. These functions include language access; community engagement; policy audits; training and professional development; annual reporting to Department of Civil Service's Office of Diversity and Inclusion Management; annual employee experience surveys; data collection and reporting for Gender X, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander identities disaggregated, Middle Eastern North African identities disaggregated; referral processes, statewide DEI committees, and much more.
The Equal Opportunity Specialist 1 will assist in the design and implementation of OPWDD's DEI Strategic Plan, covering the 2026-2031 time period. The candidate will report to the DEI Assistant Director (Equal Opportunity Specialist 4). Responsibilities include but are not limited to:
·Work with Chief Diversity Officer and Assistant Director to ensure agency compliance with Executive Orders, NYS Laws and Regulations, OPWDD Strategic Plan (5.07), and other statutory requirements. Previous knowledge of these requirements is not necessary; EOS 1 will receive support in familiarizing themselves with DEI-related requirements for OPWDD and other Executive State Entities.
·Perform entry-level project management, such as developing work plans and project charters, documenting project requirements, identifying risks and potential solutions, and communicating status updates as required or requested.
·Perform administrative duties to assist in the design and implementation of the DEI strategic plan.
·Support and facilitate an inclusive strategic planning process, which would involve entire DEI team, OPWDD leadership, OPWDD staff, community partners, people with lived experience of developmental disabilities, and key interest holders and impacted groups.
·Support the DEI Office in community engagement, especially working with persons with developmental disabilities, famiily members, OPWDD staff, DEI community of practice and workgroup members to co-create resources and inform DEI strategic planning goals.
·Communicate and collaborate in a clear, effective, and timely manner with team members, staff and teams across the agency, external partners, and all project partners.
·Support the implementation of goals and objectives in the DEI strategic plan, with a focus on OPWDD employees. EOS 1 will receive professional development on cultural and linguistic competence to enhance their understanding and skillset.
·Perform ongoing tasks related to OPWDD staff, such as organizing employee lunch and learns, submitting updates for employee newsletters, drafting email communication about trainings and professional development opportunities, and sharing resources.
·Create accessible documents, visuals, presentations, infographics, and other deliverables to share information about the DEI strategic plan with key constituents and partners.
·Serve as the lead in the DEI Office for accessible document creating, providing education and guidance to DEI colleagues in this area. EOS 1 will receive accessible documents training.
·Draft language for public website, employee portals, and email listservs to promote and inform audiences of strategic planning progress, relevant resources.
·Work closely with DEI research scientists to ensure mixed-methods approach to measuring progress and success of DEI strategic plan; work with community engagement and language access units to ensure strategic plan reflects best practices for cultural and linguistic competence, work with DEI managers to ensure plan is informed by data and research conducted in the field of intellectual and/or developmental disabilities.
·Coordinate, facilitate, and participate in meetings with internal and external partners.
·Maintain project resource libraries and institutional memory for assigned projects.
·Develop and deliver presentations for monthly team meetings, strategic portfolio meetings, and other internal and external public speaking engagements.
·Create, edit, and vet high-level documents that range from correspondence materials to excel spreadsheets.
·Compose correspondence, charts, graphs, and presentations utilizing the Microsoft Office Suite and researching information to include in supporting materials.
This position will be filled at one of the following locations:
Albany-44 Holland Ave, Albany
New York- 25 Beaver St, New York (This location has a downstate pay adjustment)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nys-office-for-people-with-developmental-disabilities/posts/?feedView=all
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Minimum Qualifications Non-competitive: six years of experience* in equal opportunity, diversity and inclusion, or human rights.
*Qualifying experience includes working with organizations concerned with equal opportunity, diversity and inclusion, civil rights, minority business development, or similar programs; or in recruiting, training, and upgrading the educational and job qualifications of protected class members.
Substitutions: associate’s degree may substitute for two years of the nonsupervisory experience; bachelor’s degree for four years; and J.D. or master’s degree for five years.
Preferred Qualifications:
·Passion for systems change and diversity, equity, and inclusion for people with developmental disabilities and other marginalized identities.
·A willingness to learn and grow as a DEI practitioner, with a commitment to improving individual and organizational cultural and linguistic competence.
·Experience with all Microsoft Office products including Excel, Word, Teams, and Power Point.
·Strong organization, collaboration, interpersonal communication, and facilitation skills.
·Experience working in hybrid environments with teams of diverse backgrounds and perspectives.
Additional Comments • Preference will be given to OPWDD employees impacted by closures. If you are being impacted by closure, please indicate this on your resume.
• All OPWDD employees must be eligible and maintain eligibility for full and unconditional participation in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Continued employment will depend on maintaining eligibility.
• If you are employed by state government you may be able to receive loan forgiveness under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF). The PSLF Program forgives the remaining balance on Direct Loans after 120 qualifying monthly payments have been made under a qualifying repayment plan while working full-time for a qualifying employer. For more information on PSLF, please visit www.studentAid.gov/publicservice.
• Employees on long term leave can bid on positions but must be able to report to work within fourteen (14) days and be able to perform the essential functions of their positions with or without reasonable accommodation (RA).
• If an employee or job applicant believes that they need a reasonable accommodation, they should contact the Reasonable Accommodation Unit at (518) 486-7222 or email accommodationrequests@opwdd.ny.gov to obtain information and RA forms.
• Savings programs such as the U.S. Savings Bond and the College Savings Plan.
• Voluntary pre-tax savings programs such as Health Care Spending Account and the Dependent Care Advantage Account offer employees options to pay for uncovered health care expenses or dependent care expenses.
• Access to the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) an assessment and referral service that connects employees with local service providers and support services to address their personal needs.
• Life insurance and Disability insurance.
• The New York State Deferred Compensation Plan is a voluntary retirement plan that offers employees the option to invest a part of their salaries for retirement on a tax-deferred basis.
• Paid Holidays and Leave:
° Thirteen (13) paid holidays each year.
° Thirteen (13) days of paid vacation leave initially.
° Five (5) days paid personal leave each year.
° Paid sick leave each year, which may carry over from year to year.
• Health Care Coverage:
Employees and their eligible dependents can choose from a variety of affordable health insurance programs. Employees are provided family dental and vision plans at no extra cost.
• Paid Parental Leave:
Paid Parental Leave allows eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of paid leave at full pay for each qualifying event. A qualifying event is defined as the birth of a child or placement of a child for adoption or foster care.
• Retirement Program:
Participate in The NYS Employees’ Retirement System (ERS), which is recognized as one of the best-managed and best-funded public retirement systems in the nation.
• Professional Development and Education and Training:
NYS offers training programs and tuition assistance to eligible employees to maintain and increase their professional skills and prepare them for promotional opportunities. For more information, please visit https://oer.ny.gov/training-and-professional-development.
• Additionally, the Public Service Workshops Program (PSWP) offers certain professional training opportunities for PEF represented and M/C designated employees that may grant continuing education credits towards maintaining professional licensure. For more information, please visit https://oer.ny.gov/public-service-workshops-program-pswp.
• OPWDD is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer dedicated to creating and sustaining a culture of inclusion. We believe that we are most effective in managing and improving our service system with a diverse team of employees. With such a large workforce, we rely on the collective individual differences, life experiences, knowledge, self-expression, ideas and talent that our employees bring to their work. This speaks to our culture and is a key part of our successes. As we continuously recruit people for our team, we welcome the unique contributions that applicants bring in terms of their education, culture, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, nation of origin, age, languages spoken, veteran’s status, color, religion, disability, sexual orientation and beliefs.
***All people with disabilities are encouraged to apply.***
Some positions may require additional credentials or a background check to verify your identity.