City Hall Building Manager

Job Description

RED is seeking an experienced property management professional to serve as the San Francisco City Hall Building Manager and lead the full-service management and operation of City Hall, an iconic historic landmark and center of City government. The position is responsible for ensuring that City Hall is safe, well maintained, responsive to tenant and public needs, and operated to a high standard. This role requires strong political awareness, advanced communication skills, exceptional customer service, and proven project, budget and people management capabilities to address complex operational needs in a high-profile public environment. 

The City Hall Building Manager oversees multidisciplinary building operations and staff, manages tenant relations, and ensures maintenance, repairs, and capital projects are identified, prioritized, and timely completed to meet the operational needs of a historic, high-traffic civic complex. The Building Manager also plays a key role in coordinating safety, security, and emergency preparedness. The role regularly engages with elected officials, department heads, and executive-level stakeholders, and works closely with City Administrator’s Office, and partners in San Francisco Public Works, the Sheriff’s Department, contractors, and others to ensure safe, efficient, and seamless facility operations. 

Examples of Important and Essential Duties:

Building Operations & Strategic Facilities Management 

• Oversee day-to-day operations, maintenance, repairs, capital improvements, policies, and other facility functions; supervise staff and establish priorities and service expectations. 

• Serve as primary liaison between RED, tenant departments, elected officials, and executive leadership, providing regular building condition updates and operational communications. 

• Regularly assess building conditions and operational performance, work orders, and coordinate ADA, safety, and policy compliance across City Hall spaces. 

• Coordinate with RED facilities maintenance staff, San Francisco Public Works, and other partners to prioritize, track, and ensure timely completion of maintenance and repair projects. 

• Work with RED management to develop long range planning, budgets, and capital improvement funding needs. 

Customer Service, Stakeholder Management & Communication 

• Act as the main operational contact for elected officials, department heads, commissioners, and tenant departments; build effective tenant relationships and provide prompt, diplomatic customer service 

• Communicate operational impacts, policy requirements, and building constraints with clarity and tact; provide guidance, conflict resolution, and interpretation of building policies. 

•  Lead tenant onboarding and departmental moves; manage communication of tenant manuals, policies, and safety materials. 

Safety, Security & Emergency Preparedness 

• Serve as a key operational partner to the Sheriff’s Department on City Hall security matters and coordinate with RED’s Security & Access Control Manager on access systems and security infrastructure needs. 

•  Lead City Hall emergency preparedness efforts, including drills, evacuation coordination, training, and compliance documentation. 

•  Oversee key and access management and maintain a safe, secure, and well-maintained environment for staff, tenants, and visitors. 

Operational Problem Solving & Interdepartmental Coordination 

• Diagnose and resolve complex building, safety, preservation, and access issues, often involving political sensitivities or high-profile stakeholders. 

• Represent City Hall operations in cross-departmental planning, emergency coordination, and policy discussions. 

• Partner closely with San Francisco Public Works, Sheriff’s Department, Arts Commission, Clerk of the Board, and other agencies to support coordinated operations. 

Vendor, Contract, Sustainability & Performance Management 

• Manage vendor and contractor performance to ensure quality, safety, preservation standards, and timely delivery of services (i.e., pest control, landscaping, window washing, greening). 

•  Support sustainability strategies and building performance initiatives, working with engineers and the Civic Center Campus Manager to pursue ENERGY STAR or equivalent ratings and implement tenant-based greening programs. 

Qualifications

Education: 
Possession of a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university. 

Experience: 
Three (3) years of professional experience in property management (experience solely in residential property management is not considered qualifying);OR

Three (3) years of professional experience directly developing and administering facility use policies and coordinating operations for a multi-use public or high-profile commercial property. 

Substitution:  
Additional experience as described above may be substituted for the required degree on a year-for-year basis. One (1) year is equivalent to thirty (30) semester units / forty-five (45) quarter units. 

Note(s): 

• One-year full-time employment is considered equivalent to 2000 hours (2000 hours of qualifying work experience is based on a 40 hour work week). Any overtime hours that you work above forty (40) hours per week are not included in the calculation to determine full-time employment. 

• Applicants must meet minimum qualification requirements by the final filing date unless otherwise noted. 

• Every application is reviewed to ensure that you meet the minimum qualifications as listed in the job ad. Please review our articles on Employment Application and Minimum Qualifications and Verification of Experience and/or Education for considerations taken when reviewing applications.   

Desirable Qualifications: The stated desirable qualifications may be considered at the end of the selection process when candidates are referred for hiring:

• Experience managing operations and supervising staff for a large high-profile, historic, or architecturally significant public or private building, ideally one with significant public use and foot traffic, such as a hotel, courthouse, airport terminal, performing arts center, university campus building, or civic center.  

• Experience supervising and developing staff, establishing priorities and service expectations in a customer-focused environment, and effective partnership with multidisciplinary operational teams including engineering, custodial, trades, security, media services, and administrative staff. 

• Proven ability to serve as the primary liaison to senior executives, elected officials, commissioners, and other politically sensitive stakeholders, handling escalations and high-priority needs with diplomacy 

• Strong experience preparing operational communications, policy documents, briefings, reports, and messaging for diverse audiences. 

• Experience delivering concierge-level service in complex public or corporate environments, managing competing demands while maintaining professionalism and service quality. 

• Familiarity with architects, historic preservation teams, and capital project staff, including development of long-term maintenance, preservation, sustainability, and space-planning strategies. 

• Experience creating multi-year maintenance plans, preservation strategies, risk mitigation plans, or space optimization strategies for a major public facility. 

• Skilled in emergency preparedness, security collaboration with law enforcement or related teams, and planning drills, evacuations, and continuity measures. 

Additional Information

Selection Procedures

The selection process will include evaluation of applications in relation to minimum requirements. Depending on the number of applicants, the Department may establish and implement additional screening mechanisms to comparatively evaluation qualifications of candidates. If this becomes necessary, only those applicants whose qualifications most closely meet the needs of the Department will be invited for an interview. 

Applicants who meet the minimum qualifications are not guaranteed to advance through all of the steps in the selection process.

Verification

• Please make sure it is clear in your application exactly how you meet the minimum qualifications.
• Applicants may be required to submit verification of qualifying education and experience at any point in the application and/or departmental selection process.  

Supplemental Questionnaire

After application submission, candidates deemed qualified must complete all subsequent steps to advance in this selection process, which includes completion of a supplemental questionnaire at the time of application. Please see this link to submit the supplemental questionnaire: 

https://forms.cloud.microsoft/g/ntgLuzPQ8R

Additional Information Regarding Employment with the City and County of San Francisco:

• Information About The Hiring Process
• Conviction History
• Employee Benefits Overview  
• Equal Employment Opportunity 
• Disaster Service Worker
• ADA Accommodation
• Veterans Preference
• Right to Work
• Copies of Application Documents
• Diversity Statement

Applicants will receive a confirmation email from [email protected] that their online application has been received in response to every announcement for which they file. Applicants should retain this confirmation email for their records. Failure to receive this email means that the online application was not submitted or received. 

Applicants may be contacted by email about this recruitment and, therefore, it is their responsibility to ensure that their registered email address is accurate and kept up-to-date. Also, applicants must ensure that email from CCSF is not blocked on their computer by a spam filter. To prevent blocking, applicants should set up their email to accept CCSF mail from the following addresses (@sfgov.org, @sfdpw.org, @sfport.com, @flysfo.com, @sfwater.org, @sfdph.org, @asianart.org, @sfmta.com, @sfpl.org, @dcyf.org, @first5sf.org, @famsf.org, @ccsf.edu, @smartalerts.info, and @smartrecruiters.com). 

HR Analyst Information: If you have any questions regarding this recruitment or application process, please contact the HR analyst at [email protected]. 

The City and County of San Francisco encourages women, minorities and persons with disabilities to apply. Applicants will be considered regardless of their sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition (associated with cancer, a history of cancer, or genetic characteristics), HIV/AIDS status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, military and veteran status, or other protected category under the law.