About NVBPELS

NVBPELS serves the public interest by regulating and providing leadership to the engineering and land surveying professions—individuals and companies that practice engineering and land surveying in Nevada.  This is done on behalf of the Nevada government through the Professional Engineering Act of March 29, 1919, adding Professional Land Surveying March 31, 1947.  NVBPELS is not part of Nevada government’s general fund but is self-funded by the fees it collects in licensing professional engineers and land surveyors.

Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors are:

• involved in design, construction, maintenance, renovation of hospitals, healthcare facilities, schools, and other essential public infrastructure needed for communities, such as roadways and transit, and clean safe drinking water
• on the forefront of discovering and developing Nevada’s resources and the identification of alternative energy sources, such as wind power, fuel-cell technology, other renewable resources
• involved in developing and growing cutting edge companies, and innovating technology that helps drive diversification of Nevada’s economy

The standards NVBPELS sets for ethical, professional, and technical competency ensure that Nevadans are protected in their workplaces and communities.

NVBPELS supports Nevada’s initiatives to become the most military-friendly state in the nation, and diversify our economy by partnering with cutting edge companies and technology innovators by:

• Waiving application fees and priority processing for military members, $0 fee and licensing in less than 3 days
• Priority application processing for military spouses, licensing in less than 3 days
• Processing approximately 100 comity/endorsement license applications monthly, typically licensing professionals in less than 5 days
• Implementing simpler faster processes for new firms desiring to offer and provide professional services
• Implementing continuous review processes to ensure licensing, regulatory processes, statutes, and regulations are streamlined and efficient and remove unnecessary barriers to licensing and regulation.

NVBPELS regulates over 22,000 engineer and land surveyor licensees and certificate holders.  Actively practicing professionals total over 14,000, about 3,300 are Nevada residents, nearly equally split between northern and southern Nevada.

Purpose

The purpose of the board, as stated in Nevada Revised Statute 625.005, is to safeguard life, health and property and to promote the public welfare by providing for the licensure of qualified and competent professional engineers and professional land surveyors.

Mission

Founded on the board’s purpose, the board’s mission is to uphold the value of professional engineering and land surveying licensure by assessing minimum competency for initial entry into the profession, and to ensure ongoing standard of professionalism by facilitating compliance with laws, regulations, and code of practice; and to provide understanding and progression in licensure by openly engaging with all stakeholders.

Key External Relationships

NVBPELS is an actively engaged member of the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) and has played a significant role in influencing NCEES model laws and rules, and its policies.  NCEES has been a platform by which NVBPELS has been able to affect change nationally in licensing professional engineers and land surveyors.

Key external relationships include Nevada state, county, and city agencies engaged in building permits, public works projects, and community development.

NVBPELS maintains strong relationships with other engineering and land surveying related organizations through its Professional Association Liaison Committee (PAL).  Through regularly scheduled PAL Committee meetings and communications throughout the year, NVBPELS and the PAL Committee organizations maintain an open dialogue about issues of common interest.

PAL Committee organizations include the following:

• American Council of Engineering Companies of Nevada
• American Society of Civil Engineers
• National Society of Professional Engineers
• Structural Engineers of Southern Nevada
• Nevada Association of Land Surveyors
• Society of Women Engineers
• Construction Managers Association of America
• City of Henderson
• Las Vegas Valley Water District
• Clark County Building and Fire
• Clark County Public Works
• City of North Las Vegas

NVBPELS also maintains relationships with tertiary institutions in Nevada—College of Southern Nevada, Great Basin College, University of Nevada, and University of Nevada Las Vegas.

About the Position

The Executive Director is responsible for providing strategic leadership for NVBPELS. The successful candidate will be accountable for the successful execution and implementation of the NVBPELS’s policies, procedures, initiatives, and strategic plan. The Executive Director serves at the pleasure of the board and manages and supervises board staff.  The Executive Director is responsible for managing the board office with a business focused mindset, giving the proper strategic direction to staff as well as creating an operational plan for successfully executing the board’s goals through directing the board’s day-to-day operations.

The Executive Director’s salary is commensurate with the successful candidate’s background and experience, and the salary is capped by state statute.  Board staff observe all state holidays, currently there are eleven.  Each calendar year staff are allotted 80 hours of Paid Time Off (PTO) and accrue vacation at 80 hours per year after the first year of employment and 120 hours per year after five years of employment.  The maximum accrued vacation that can be carried over to another calendar year is 240 hours.  NVBPELS is not enrolled in Nevada’s Public Employment Retirement System, instead it offers an employee directed SEP-IRA contribution.   

Responsibilities

The Executive Director develops strategy; plans, directs, and formulates operational action plans based on the board’s strategic goals; and provides information to be presented to the board and its committees for consideration and approval.  Following are the Board’s four goals and the current associated tasks.

Outreach

• Increase legislators understanding of criticality of services provided by the board and professional engineers and professional land surveyors
• Evolve technical capability and expand social media presence
• Increase visibility of the board
• Sustain appropriate allocation of resources for effective social media content development

Licensure

• Increase/stress the importance of Licensure to university level students
• Increase the public’s knowledge about the value of Licensure
• Increase kids’ knowledge of what engineers/land surveyors do
• Continuously work to improve the process and portability of licenses
• Provide options to meet land surveyor educational requirements
• Increase knowledge of the quality of experience required for licensure to potential licensees
• Maintain relevancy of engineering licensure, specifically as it relates to emerging technologies

Regulation

• Maintain currency and applicability of statutes and regulations
• Increase relationships with key stakeholders
• Increase awareness of new/emerging technologies in relation to statutes and regulations
• Regulate professionals with least restrictive barriers while maintaining those barriers necessary for public safety and protection

Operational Excellence

• Maintain effective staff capacity
• Maintain business plan for resource allocation to support board goals
• Maintain effective office and administrative processes
• Build a data collection strategy to ensure we have data needed for effective decision making and mandated legislative reporting
• Increase transparency and communication with stakeholders of board functions, operations, and initiatives
• Oversee development and implementation of an upgraded firm registration and licensing database systems to better manage data, enable customer self-service, and reduce manual tasks

Qualifications

Candidates for the position should hold a bachelor’s degree and have at least five years of management experience. The ideal candidate will be a forward-thinking leader with strong financial experience, preferably with experience in the engineering or land surveying community. Licensure as a professional engineer or land surveyor is preferred but not essential.  A successful candidate will understand licensure and operational intricacies related to a state regulatory board, have excellent verbal and written communication skills, and have knowledge of the Nevada Revised Statues and Nevada Administrative Code.

The successful candidate will demonstrate the following knowledge and skills for this role:

• Strategic planning
• Ability to interpret statutes and regulations
• Familiarity with Nevada Open Meeting Laws
• Strong financial acumen with knowledge of budget development and control
• Critical thinking in problem identification and resolution
• Ability to build consensus among staff, board members, and stakeholders
• Networking and partnership development capabilities
• Commitment to developing staff
• Ability to manage and work effectively with staff that works part-time and/or remotely
• Public speaking and ability to effectively represent the board
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Familiarity with Nevada’s process of updating statutes and promulgating regulations
• Ability to travel domestically
• Ability to work with people and organizations with diverse backgrounds

Personal Characteristics

• Energetic, forward-thinking, and creative individual with high ethical standards
• Strategic thinker with analytical ability, good judgment, and strong operational focus
• Well-organized and self-directed individual
• Team player
• Articulate, with the ability to relate to people of varying backgrounds
• Ability to lead change
• Decisive individual who possesses a big-picture perspective
• Ability to respond to sensitive inquiries or complaint

Timeline

Position published:        January 25, 2024

Application deadline:    March 1, 2024

Interview period:             March 2024

Final interviews:              March 14, 2024

Executive selected:         March – April 2024

Proposed Start Date:     April 29, 2024

Contact Information

Interested candidates should submit a cover letter and resume by email, no later than midnight (PST) on March 1, 2024, to NVBPELS Administrative Procedures Oversight Committee at NVBPELS.ED.Search@gmail.com. 

Candidates will be notified that their submission has been received by return email. Submissions will be reviewed by the committee, and candidates selected for interview will be notified by March 5, 2024.