Director, Risk Management

Description
Protect What Matters. Strengthen Public Service.
The County of Santa Clara is not just any government agency—it’s a premier public agency known for its high standard of excellence, strategic leadership, and innovative thinking. With a population of more than 1.9 million residents, Santa Clara County is the largest of the nine Bay Area counties in Northern California, and larger than 12 states. With a workforce of more than 23,000 employees across 30+ departments, the County of Santa Clara delivers critical safety-net services in health, public safety, social services, housing, and more. Our organization is made up of public servants who are dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for everyone in our community.
The Division of Risk Management plays a vital role in protecting the people, assets, and operations that sustain the County’s complex public service ecosystem. The Division is composed of Risk Management, Liability/Property Insurance, Liability/Property Claims, Workers’ Compensation, and Occupational Safety and Environmental Compliance. T he Division employs a comprehensive, integrated risk management program to manage the County’s liability, including property insurance programs, contract insurance requirements, schedules of insurance policies, and administration of liability and property claims, including the Santa Clara Valley Healthcare subrogation program. The Division also administers the County’s self-insured liability and self-administered workers’ compensation insurance programs and environmental compliance and workplace safety. Through risk identification and analysis, insurance management, loss control and prevention, claims administration, contract review, workers’ compensation, and workplace safety and environmental compliance oversight, the Division ensures continuity of high-quality services. Its work strengthens operational resilience, reduces exposure, and safeguards the programs relied on by countless individuals and families. The Division (and this position) work in close partnership with the Office of the County Counsel across all aspects of its work.
We are seeking a strategic leader to serve as the Director of Risk Management, providing analytical oversight of the County’s enterprise risk operations. This is a rare opportunity to serve as the strategic risk management advisor to executive leadership across all County departments, including health and hospitals, public safety, social services, transportation, and core government operations. The successful candidate will lead a comprehensive, prevention-driven risk program that promotes fiscal stewardship and regulatory compliance, reduces exposure, and supports the uninterrupted delivery of essential public services.
Your Mission
Lead, modernize, and integrate the County’s risk management functions into a proactive, data-informed, and prevention-focused enterprise program. In this role, you’ll collaborate with County leadership to provide strategic risk financing, enterprise-wide loss prevention, and long-term organizational resilience. You will oversee a multifaceted division responsible for safeguarding County assets, reducing losses, supporting regulatory compliance, ensuring workplace and environmental safety, and aligning long-term risk strategies with the County’s mission and values.
What Makes This Role Unique
Scale and Responsibility: You’ll oversee risk programs that support 30+ departments delivering critical public services, including hospitals, social services, law enforcement, transportation, housing, and environmental protection.
Enterprise Risk Influence: You’ll serve as a strategic advisor to County leadership, the Office of the County Executive, and department heads, shaping risk mitigation practices and policy across the entire organization.
Breadth of Impact: Your work will span financial stewardship, insurance strategy, legal and regulatory analysis, self-administered workers’ compensation, employee safety, environmental compliance, and systemwide workplace risk prevention.
Public Sector Leadership: As a recognized leader in a large, diverse public agency, you’ll influence decisions that protect workers, residents, facilities, infrastructure, and community well-being.
What You’ll Do
Strategic Leadership & Integrated Risk Oversight
Develop short-term and long-term strategies and goals, and direct, coordinate, and evaluate all functions within the Division of Risk Management.
Serve as strategic risk management advisor to the County Executive’s Office and executive leadership.
Design long-term mitigation strategies that evolve alongside changing state and federal regulations.
Serve as the County’s member representative to the public entity risk sharing pool organization known as PRISM.
Direct an integrated enterprise risk management program that aligns prevention, mitigation, compliance, and operational resilience.
Operational Stewardship
Exercise sharp judgment in managing public funds, overseeing and determining optimal self-insured retention levels, and procuring excess commercial insurance or risk pools to protect county assets.
Anticipate potential liabilities and institute preventative measures.
Monitor contractor and tenant insurance compliance across all County facilities and programs.
Direct the administration of public tort liability, civil claims, workers’ compensation, and occupational safety and environmental compliance programs alongside County Counsel.
Data-Driven Decisions
Analyze loss and claims data to set funding levels, rates, reserves, and safety program strategies.
Provide executive-level reporting, cost analysis, and trend evaluation to guide budget, planning, and policy decisions.
Regulatory Excellence
Review legislation and regulatory changes and assess their operational impacts.
Represent the County before state and federal agencies on matters related to loss prevention, compliance, safety, and workers’ compensation.
Ensure all risk programs adhere to federal, state, and local laws.
Leadership & Organizational Development
Establish strong administrative controls, reporting systems, and performance standards.
Direct, motivate, and evaluate staff; foster continuous improvement, collaboration, and high accountability.
Champion a risk-aware culture across the County through partnership, communication, and education.
What You Bring
Extensive experience leading risk management programs in large, complex organizations.
Sharp understanding of complex public sector liabilities, insurance markets, and legal frameworks.
Expertise in insurance, loss prevention, and liability and property claims management.
Demonstrated ability to analyze complex systems, solve challenging operational issues, and introduce new ideas.
Strong financial and analytical skills, including funding models, reserves, budgeting, and cost containment in the public sector.
Deep knowledge of public administration, regulatory compliance, legislative analysis, and policy development.
Ability to influence executive leaders, collaborate across departments, and communicate complex concepts clearly.
Leadership skills that inspire performance, partnership, and a shared commitment to workplace and community safety.
To view the full job specification, including the employment standards, click the link below:
https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/santaclara/classspecs/newprint/9974
What Success Looks Like
In the first 6–12 months, you will:
Assess internal risk metrics and insurance structures and prepare a strategic risk vision in coordination with the County Executive’s Office.
Strengthen integration between risk management functions and County departments.
Improve data reporting, risk insights, and operational transparency.
Establish clear performance metrics for claims, losses, and compliance.
In The Long Term, You Will
Address high-cost insurance or liability exposures.
Strengthen organizational resilience through proactive prevention and risk-awareness practices.
Ensure regulatory alignment and build a culture of accountability across all County operations.
Build out comprehensive business continuity and disaster recovery frameworks.
Position the County of Santa Clara as a leader in enterprise risk management for public institutions.
Why Join Us?
Contribute to a mission-driven public agency dedicated to service, equity, safety, and community well-being.
Lead high-impact work that protects County employees, residents, facilities, and essential services.
Join an inclusive, collaborative, and supportive leadership environment.
Virtual Executive Insight Session: Director, Risk Management
Thinking about whether this executive role might be the right next step for you? Curious about the impact you could have on the safety, resilience, and continuity of services that support our community?
Join us on Friday, December 4, 2026 from 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM for a relaxed virtual conversation with our team. We’ll walk through what the role is all about, the work it supports, and what success looks like for leaders in this space.

Skills
Risk Management

Experience
10+ yrs

Work arrangement
Yes