Governor Opens Recruitment for Next EDD Director

The state is recruiting candidates for the directorship of the Employment Development Department (EDD).

“The EDD is looking for an effective leader and diplomatic individual with exceptional interpersonal skills,” says a job announcement on CalCareers. “An ideal candidate would have a strong ethical commitment, a high level of personal integrity, sound judgment, and quality decision-making skills.”

The director is appointed by the governor and serves under the administrative direction of Julie Su, the secretary of the Labor and Workforce Development Agency. The director administers programs including Workforce Services, Unemployment Insurance, Disability Insurance, Paid Family Leave, and Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. The director also oversees the audit and collection of employment taxes from 1.5 million California employers.  

“This is an exempt executive assignment (at-will) position, non-tenured, full time, and is appointed by the Governor’s Office,” the job announcement notes.

The vacancy is occurring with the retirement at the end of this month of Director Sharon Hilliard. She’s overseen the beleaguered agency through a benefits backlog since the COVID-19 pandemic and other problems. Gov. Gavin Newsom has created a strike force to address the agency’s woes, which most recently included the disclosure that tens of millions of dollars in unemployment benefits had been sent to prison inmates.

The position has no job classification prerequisites, but the announcement notes that the expectations are high for candidates:

• Demonstrated transparency
• Experience with efficient and effective benefit administration and tax collection operations
• Demonstrated change management skills and utilization of improvement methodologies including: data, metrics and measurements
• Experience in testifying in local, legislative, executive or judicial on policy matters
• Demonstrated ability to maintain effective working relationships with federal, state and local communities
• Demonstrated commitment and innovation related to diversity, inclusion, and equity policies and procedures.

The job announcement cites a salary range of $14,362 to $17,072 — but it notes: “The actual monthly compensation to be paid to the successful candidate will be determined by the Governor’s Office with reference to the experience, knowledge, skills, and further subject to budgetary constraints.” The recruitment will remain active until the role is filled, and candidates will be informed of their status once the new director is chosen.

Throwing open the director’s position to all interested candidates isn’t new: Newsom did the same thing when he chose Steve Gordon as director of the Department of Motor Vehicles last July. Gordon was already a successful veteran of the IT private sector when, as he described it, he happened across the DMV recruitment announcement and applied. With the help of technology companies, and by employing a faster, more streamlined procurement model, he’s turned around many aspects of that agency in his year and a half on the job and has overseen significant technological change.