What are the responsibilities and job description for the MANAGER - GAS SERVICES position at City of Long Beach?
Ideally located on the Pacific Ocean south of Los Angeles, adjacent to Orange County, the City of Long Beach, California (population 470,000) is frequently described as a series of strong, diverse interwoven smaller communities within a large city. Enjoying an ideal Southern California climate, Long Beach is home to an abundance of cultural and recreational options. The Long Beach Convention Center, Aquarium of the Pacific, Queen Mary, and the annual Penske Grand Prix of Long Beach, plus a wide variety of other attractions (two historic ranchos, three marinas, and five golf courses), serve to draw 6.5 million visitors a year. The City is also home to California State University, Long Beach, and Long Beach City College. Cal State Long Beach is the second largest university in the state and was recently ranked the No. 3 best–value public college in the nation. Covering approximately 50 square miles, Long Beach is supported by a wide mix of industries with education, health and social services, manufacturing, retail trade, and professional services comprising the highest representation. Known for its livable and desirable neighborhoods, Long Beach was named by America’s Promise Alliance as one of the 100 Best Communities for Young People two years in a row. While it offers all the amenities of a large metropolis, many say Long Beach offers the added benefit of having maintained a strong sense of community and cohesiveness despite its growth. A superb climate, quality schools, a vibrant downtown, and a wide variety of neighborhoods help make Long Beach one of the most livable communities in the country.
CITY GOVERNMENT
Long Beach operates as a charter city governed by an elected Mayor and nine City Council members elected by district. The City Manager, appointed by the Mayor and City Council, oversees the daily operations of 15 departments and an FY26 annual budget of approximately $3.7B. The City employs over 6,000 full-time and part-time staff; dedicated to providing exceptional public services with the vast majority being represented by eleven employee associations.
- City Departments
- Citywide FY26 Budget
- 2030 Strategic Vision
- Elevate ’28 Infrastructure Investment Plan
The City of Long Beach fosters an environment where every employee is celebrated for their individuality and unique talents they bring to their role. Reflecting the diversity of the community within the workforce is a key priority embraced at every level of the organization—from management to policy creation. City Leadership actively promotes equity and inclusion by partnering with staff and community stakeholders to advance fairness in all initiatives. Transparency remains a cornerstone of these efforts with demographic data, including workforce diversity and pay equity by race and gender, shared publicly to ensure accountability and progress
THE DEPARTMENT
Long Beach Utilities provides safe, clean, reliable and affordable water, gas, and sewer services to the Long Beach community. The service area supports 500,000 customers, represented by 90,000 water accounts, 153,000 gas accounts and 90,000 sewer accounts in 52 square miles. This service area includes Long Beach’s downtown core, waterfront accounts, suburban areas and dense multifamily portions of the region. The department also provides natural gas service to residents and businesses in the City of Signal Hill.
Water. Every day, Long Beach Utilities treats 32 million gallons of drinking water at the Long Beach Groundwater Treatment Plant (GWTP) and distributes this water after blending with imported water, to 90,000 households and businesses throughout the City of Long Beach. The GWTP also hosts a California Environmental Laboratory Accreditation as a Certified Water Quality Laboratory, which performs 60,000 to 70,000 water quality tests per year to ensure the high quality of the drinking water.
Gas. As a municipal utility, Long Beach Utilities’ natural gas rates and policies are established by the Board of Utilities Commission, consisting of five residents of Long Beach. The City Charter requires Long Beach rates to be comparable to the rates charged by surrounding gas utilities for similar types of service. In the region, the Southern California Gas Company is the only other natural gas utility providing similar service and serves as the market benchmark. The City of Long Beach natural gas service territory includes the cities of Long Beach and Signal Hill, and sections of surrounding communities including Lakewood, Bellflower, Compton, Seal Beach, Paramount, and Los Alamitos.
Sewer. Long Beach Utilities owns, operates and maintains over 700 miles of sanitary sewer lines, safely collecting and delivering over 32 million gallons of wastewater per day to the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County for treatment.
Under the direction of the Director of Gas Services, the Manager of Gas Services is responsible for directing the operations of the Gas Services Bureau including gas control and dispatching operations, customer service field operations, emergency field response, training, safety, and the installation and repair of residential gas meter set assemblies.
- Provides oversight for Gas Services operations including: repair and installation of residential and industrial gas meters, district regulators, and telemetry equipment; customer service field operations; emergency leak response; dispatch operations; operator qualification program; and safety compliance.
- Manages daily operations for the Gas Services Bureau, including employee work schedules, task assignments, and leave management.
- Oversees all gas customer service activities, ensuring efficient and timely completion of field activities, while enforcing compliance with safety and federal regulations (OSHA/DOT-PHMSA).
- Identifies issues concerning Gas Services operations to ensure maintenance work and meter installation projects are performed on schedule, within budget, and in compliance with safety best practices and federal regulations.
- Provides organizational leadership to the Gas Services Bureau regarding staff training and evaluation, compliance with Department and City policies and procedures, regulatory compliance, adherence to safety regulations and best practices, and matters concerning Bureau staff.
- Collaborates with other City Departments, vendors, consultants, Department leadership, and internal staff to support the Department’s operations.
- Oversees Operator Qualification (OQ) compliance, ensuring staff maintains qualifications and schedules for training cycles as needed.
- Maintains strong working relationships and communicates regularly with Call Center and Billing workgroups to coordinate field activities.
- Prepares periodic reports and maintains records of all customer service activities carried out by Bureau personnel.
- Assists in preparing and managing the Bureau's annual budget including forecasting for staffing, equipment, materials, and inventory needs.
- Keeps the Director of Gas Services informed regularly on the status of open issues and may act in Director’s place when needed.
- Communicates with personnel, departments, consultants, contractors, vendors, and outside organizations to coordinate activities and programs, resolve issues/disputes, and to exchange information.
- Responds to customer service requests and complaint inquiries, providing prompt responses, and maintaining public satisfaction and service standards.
- Manages Bureau procurement activities ensuring timely, compliant, and cost-effective acquisition of goods and services needed for daily operations.
- Provides leadership for implementation of technology systems such as mobile workforce management, GIS, advanced metering infrastructure, meter data management and SCADA, to continuously evaluate and optimize workflows and operations.
- Oversees workforce development strategies, implements targeted training programs for new employees, and continuous skill advancement for all staff.
- Manages the bureau’s Training Steering Committee, composed of division leads, to enhance safety, training quality, and operational efficiency.
- Other duties as required.
IDEAL CANDIDATE
The ideal candidate will demonstrate the following knowledge, skills, and abilities:
- Natural gas end-use applications and equipment.
- Qualitative and quantitative methodologies used to evaluate the technical, economic, and market feasibility of existing and new equipment and/or concepts.
- Long Beach Utilities’ core and noncore gas services, rate options, and programs.
- Best management principles for gas services operations and procedures, and standard practices.
- Natural gas industry equipment, safety, and compliance requirements.
- Principles of personnel management including employee development, training, progressive discipline, and succession planning.
- Principles and practices of effective customer service.
- Principles and practices of project management.
- Principles and practices of supervision, motivation, and training.
- Knowledge of gas regulatory compliance, occupational hazards, and standard safety practices.
- Routine and emergency field operation procedures and equipment.
- Budget preparation and control.
- Applicable laws, codes, regulations, policies, and procedures.
- Utilities industry customer service best management practices.
- Utility customer service portal, software and systems communications center, telemetry, SCADA, and customer service.
- Train, supervise, and evaluate the performance of assigned staff.
- Draw upon familiarity with natural gas end-user applications and equipment to support the department.
- Draw upon knowledge of the Long Beach Utilities Department’s core and non-core gas services, rate options and programs to support Billing and Call Center.
- Train, supervise, and evaluate the performance of assigned staff.
- Interpret, apply, and explain Department rules, regulations, policies, and procedures.
- Establish and maintain cooperative and effective working relationships with others.
- Analyze situations accurately and adopt an effective course of action.
- Prepare and maintain a variety of records and files related to assigned activities.
- Interpersonal skills using tact, patience, and courtesy.
- Ability to establish, build, and maintain effective working relationships with all levels of employees, including top, middle, and supervisory levels of management.
- Must demonstrate leadership skills that include maturity, vision, and an ability to articulate the department’s vision and mission to others.
- Must possess a collaborative work style that fosters teamwork and high motivation and commitment.
- Train, supervise, and evaluate the performance of assigned staff.
- Must have strong leadership skills and be capable of motivating and energizing staff.
- Requires excellent oral and written skills, and an ability to effectively communicate ideas in a clear, concise, and professional manner.
- Requires the ability to follow verbal and written instructions.
- Four (4) years of recent supervisory experience directly involved in utility field operations (ideally experience with natural gas end-use field operations).
- A valid driver’s license, or the ability to arrange necessary and timely transportation for field travel, may be required for some assignments.
- Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university in a related field. (Proof required at time of application*).
Applications will be reviewed for depth and breadth of experience, and for level and relatedness of education. The most qualified candidates will be invited to participate in further selection procedures. The selected candidate may be required to go through a background check and a physical examination prior to appointment. Applicants who do not meet the minimum requirements, including submission of all required attachments, will not be considered. For questions regarding this recruitment, please contact (562) 570-2141.
The City of Long Beach is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value diversity in our workforce and are committed to creating a workplace where every employee is respected and included. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, disability status, or any other legally protected characteristic. We strive to reflect the diversity of our community at all levels of the organization, advance equity, and inclusion through our work with staff and community partners, and promote transparency by publishing workforce demographic information, including diversity and pay data by race and gender.
The City of Long Beach will consider qualified applicants with a criminal history pursuant to the California Fair Chance Act. You are not required to disclose your criminal history or participate in a background check until you receive a conditional job offer. If the City of Long Beach has concerns about a conviction that is directly related to the job after making a conditional job offer and conducting a background check, you will have the opportunity to explain the circumstances surrounding the conviction, provide evidence to mitigate concerns, or challenge the accuracy of the background report. Find out more about the Fair Chance Act by visiting https://calcivilrights.ca.gov/fair-chance-act
The City of Long Beach intends to provide reasonable accommodations in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. If a special accommodation is desired, or if you would like to request this information in an alternative format, please call (562) 570-2141.
Salary : $128,535 - $178,518