Salary : $133,692.00 Annually
Location : Spokane County - Airway Heights, WA
Job Type: Exempt
Job Number:
Department: Dept. of Corrections
Division: Prisons - AHCC
Opening Date: 06/29/2026
Closing Date: 7/13/2026 11:59 PM Pacific

Description
Associate Superintendent - Exempt Band 3

Airway Heights Corrections Center (AHCC)

Annual salary: $133,692.00

This position is exempt from Civil Service Laws
NOTE: THIS IS AN INTERNAL RECRUITMENT OPEN TO CURRENT PERMANENT WASHINGTON STATE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS EMPLOYEES ONLY.
This is an excellent opportunity for internal interest to serve as an Associate Superintendent at Airway Heights Corrections Center within the Prisons Division. This position is located in Airway Heights, WA. This position requires professional proficiency of sound correctional practices, management principles and skills, the Associate Superintendent's scope of authority and impact encompasses the entire facility.

Airway Heights Corrections Center (AHCC) is a 2000+ bed male facility located approximately 10 miles west of Spokane. The prison consists of a main facility that houses medium- and long-term minimum-custody incarcerated individuals. A separate perimeter adjacent to the main facility accommodates a minimum-security unit for incarcerated individuals with minimum-custody or lower.

If you are interested in applying and would like to be considered, please apply directly at careers.wa.gov, AND attach the following documents to your profile:

• A Letter of Interest explaining how you meet the qualifications (preferably no more than two pages),
• A current Resume (chronological order); and
• Minimum of three (3) professional references with your application. A professional reference is defined as an individual who has been paid to supervise your work and can attest to your work performance, technical skills, and job competencies. If you do not have any or sufficient professional references, please include non-related professionals, such as educators or other professional associates.

Duties
Under the direction of the Superintendent, the Associate Superintendent manages and directs all the daily on-site and off-site operations through their chain of command ensuring business is conducted consistent with established safety and security procedures. Requiring sound correctional knowledge, skills and abilities of advanced level management work, the Associate Superintendent's scope of authority and impact encompasses the entire facility with significant impact both within and outside state government.
This position serves as a key member of the Superintendent's Executive Leadership Team (ELT), serves as Superintendent designee during appointing authority absence. Incumbent's focus will be on strategic long-range planning and integration of work with consideration of tactical actions/plans necessary to implement local and department decisions. Develops biennial budget decision packages while managing and controlling large portions of allotted facility budget within their delegated authority. Develop, implement, and monitor policies, local operational memorandums and procedures that provide operational and security direction for staff and the Incarcerated Individuals (I/I). Ensure compliance with department directives, mission, values, and key goals.

At the direction of the Superintendent, the Associate Superintendent will be responsible for any combination of the following areas: a variety of direct incarcerated individuals (I/I) services, including coordination of physical plant maintenance/construction; I/I work/training and activity programs; volunteer programs; religious, medical, and food services; records; classification; I/I management; operation of the general population; segregation and intensive management units; emergency response coordination; security and safety operations of the institution; Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) program compliance and processing; coordinating the delivery of support services; facilitating the operation of Correctional Industries; staff training and safety program.

Associate Superintendents are accountable to:

• Act as the Superintendent's designee during appointing authority absences.
• Plan, lead, organize, and control the daily work performed by the facility under their supervision.
• Administer, monitor, and oversee operations, safety, security, and emergency response activities in a corrections facility.
• Ensure clean and safe facility operations.
• Support effective communications throughout the organization.
• Provide and manage 2-way communication between all levels of staff and I/I.
• Balance the facility mission and objectives within budgeted resources.
• Maintain the highest standards of personal/professional and ethical conduct and support the state's goals for a diverse workforce.
• Provide a working environment free from discrimination and harassment that promotes diversity.
• Develop operational goals and working objectives and ensure those objectives are reached.
• Strengthen public confidence in the integrity of facility staff be demonstrating and setting the tone for the highest standards of personal and professional integrity, fairness, honesty, and compliance with both the spirit and the letter of the law.
• Promote an environment of public trust free from fraud, abuse of authority, and misuse of public property.
• Respect and protect privileged information accessible through the course of official duties.

Duty Officer:

• Serves in the capacity and makes decisions for incidents that occur at the facility level, on a rotational basis.
• Determines how, in an emergency, incident, or significant event, the facility's operations are managed, authorizes activities and provides direction to all facilities and community corrections offices outside of normal business hours.
• Opens and assumes command of the Facility Incident Command Post (ICP) in the event of a major emergency or disaster.
• Serve as an Incident Commander during emergencies, with responsibilities to manage the facilities response and recovery from critical incidents and significant events.
• Determines allocation of resources and personnel, management of the incident based on emergency protocols, and coordination activities with the facilities/offices and other federal, state and local agencies while communicating through Headquarters Duty Office and EOC.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• High School Diploma or GED Equivalent, and ten (10) years of Corrections work experience.

Or;

• Satisfactory completion of two (2) years of college (60 semester or 90 quarter credits), and eight (8) years of Corrections work experience.

Or;

• Bachelor's Degree, and six (6) years of Corrections work experience.

Or;

• Master's Degree (MA) in sociology, psychology, social work, criminology, or closely related field, and four (4) years of Corrections work experience.

NOTE: All college credits and/or degrees will need to be from a college or university whose accreditation is recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) or the US Department of Education or foreign equivalent. You will be required to provide an official college transcript within 30 days of hire.

And;

• Three (3) or more years broad based, progressive managerial, operational, or administrative experience, which includes supervisory experience in a multi-level custody, adult corrections environment and experience in at least five (5) of the following areas;

Emergency Management (Incident Command System) and contingency planning; prisons programs; sustainability; evidence-based programs; correctional practice, theory and law; budget administration and development; offender classification processes and policy; labor relations; public relation methods and application; and/or training and staff development; experience working with unions.

• Effective project management skills and Quality Improvement Analysis (critical thinking).
• Organization and time management skills.
• Conflict resolution skills and abilities.
• Working knowledge of policies, procedures, CBA's, WAC's, and RCW's.
• Ability to be calm and thoughtful in emergent situations.

Preferred Qualifications

• A Bachelor's Degree from a college or university whose accreditation is recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) or the US Department of Education or foreign equivalent.
• One (1) year of experience in Unit Team Management. The Unit Team is a multi-disciplinary group of staff that manages the security, classification, and programs of all offenders assigned to an offender living unit. The Unit Team is typically composed of a CUS, Correctional Sergeant, Classification Counselors, a support staff, and Correctional Officers. Through the effective use of the unit team of the providing for a safe and effective unit operation.
• Working knowledge of LEAN practices and how to apply them in a large-scale organization to improve business practices.
• Experience in budget administration and development.
• Experience working with minimum security camp incarcerated individuals to include off-site work crews.
• Professional experience in working with mentally ill Incarcerated Individuals (I/I) and operations of an Intensive Management Unit/Intensive Treatment Unit.

Supplemental Information



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IMPORTANT NOTES:

• Please include a minimum of three professional references with your applicationA professional reference is defined as an individual who has been paid to supervise your work and can attest to your work performance, technical skills, and job competencies. If you do not have any or sufficient professional references, please include non-related professionals, such as educators or other professional associates. NOTE: Phone number AND email address are required for all professional references.

Employees may work directly with or in close proximity to incarcerated individuals in a potentially hazardous setting. Please consider this when deciding whether to apply.