Salary : $8,915.17 - $13,715.67 Monthly
Location : Denver, CO
Job Type: Full Time
Job Number: KAA 7904 CSO NC 7.26
Department: Department of Labor and Employment
Division: Executive Director's Office
Opening Date: 07/27/2026
Closing Date: 8/4/2026 5:00 PM Mountain
FLSA: Determined by Position
Primary Physical Work Address: 707 17th Street, Denver, CO 80202
FLSA Status: Exempt; position is not eligible for overtime compensation.
Department Contact Information:
Type of Announcement: This announcement is not governed by the selection processes of the classified personnel system. Applications will be considered from residents and non-residents of Colorado.
How To Apply: Please submit an online application for this position at https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/colorado. Reach out to the Department Contact to apply using a paper application, including any supplemental questions. Failure to submit a complete and timely application may result in the rejection of your application. Applicants are responsible for ensuring that application materials are received by the appropriate Human Resources office before the closing date and time listed.

Description of Job

The salary range for this position is:
HOURLY

$51.43 - $79.13
BIWEEKLY
$4,114.69 - $6,330.31
MONTHLY
$8,915.17 - $13,715.67
Purpose and Duties of this Position:

The Chief Strategy Officer is a senior executive level position serving as special advisor to the Executive Director (ED) and members of the CDLE Executive Team. This group holds sole responsibility for department wide strategic priorities and critical policy making decisions.

This position plays a critical role in achieving desired results under CDLE's strategic priorities and the Governor of Colorado's wildly important goals (WIGs). As a member of the Executive team, this position provides broad strategic counsel to the ED, identifying and elevating priorities and serving as a cross-departmental link between the ED and the Executive Team. This includes identifying opportunities for synergies among numerous programs and projects, identifying and mitigating risks and ensuring the vital interests of the Department are executed as planned.

This position enables the Executive Director to more effectively work with internal and
external stakeholders by ensuring the most critical tasks are appropriately prioritized and
executed. The CSO serves as a primary liaison to the office of the Governor, the legislature,
other state agencies, business leaders and other key stakeholders. The CSO identifies and
pursues internal and external opportunities with local government, business and industry to
partner on programs and projects that further the department's initiatives and priorities,
serving as a liaison between those groups and the ED or appropriate member of the Executive Team.

Primary Duties:
Strategic Planning and Alignment:
CSO is responsible for ensuring strategic alignment among numerous programs, projects and initiatives to deliver a coordinated cross departmental strategy. Unlike statutory division
directors, the CSO will focus on new entrepreneurial or incubator projects not necessarily part of the department's historical responsibilities, rather, special initiatives of the Governor, pilot programs, executive orders and special projects assigned by the Executive Director.

Duties will include:

• Ensures department initiatives and priorities have continued relevance, goals are regularly updated, and corrective measures are identified and executed as business conditions or other factors change.
• Drives the annual strategic planning process for the Department by acting as the project manager and ensuring alignment between the Governor's Office, ED, Deputy ED's and the executive leadership team.
• Ensures key opportunity and deadline dates are met with high quality deliverables, vetted through the appropriate stakeholders and communicated effectively.
• Keeps the Executive Director apprised regarding critical initiatives such as the Future of Work, New Americans, Just Transition, Paid Family Leave, and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.
• In alignment with the Department's vision and mission, the CSO is responsible for monitoring the progress of initiatives intended to achieve Department goals and make recommendations for corrective measures, improved execution, timing, ROI, and executive accountability.
• Coordinates and aligns projects and initiatives across the Department that support Department priorities, strategies and goals.

Executive Director's Office Execution:
A critical responsibility of the CSO is to maximize the effectiveness and responsiveness of the Executive Director's office to CDLE staff, the Governor's Office, other state and local
government agencies and CDLE stakeholders.

• Resolves escalated scheduling conflicts involving the Executive Director and his Deputy Executive Directors to ensure the highest priorities are being met and identifies alternate solutions to address issues.
• Prepares talking points or briefings with appropriate background information for use by ED and Executive Team.
• Crafts agendas for Executive Team meetings, prioritizing requests for agenda topics and ensuring efficient discussion and decision-making. Ensures accountability on any action items arising from these meetings.
• Facilitates execution and approval of ED communications with a focus on ensuring Executive Director messaging achieves associated internal and external goals.
• Prepares the ED or his/her designee for upcoming meetings/events by conducting required background research, ensuring he/she has all the relevant information, talking points, and materials necessary to be productive and engaged.
• Engages on behalf of the ED with internal services to monitor and manage the ED's needs around budget, procurement, accounting, business technology, staffing, performance management reporting, etc.
• Acts as the Executive Director's delegate in staffing critical positions reporting to the EDO or supporting high priority positions that will contribute to the strategic plan.
• Oversees membership on and participation in Governor's working cabinet groups to ensure commitments are clear and understood, deadlines are met, and that effective collaboration takes place with other working group members to achieve stated goals.

Management of Department Initiatives:
The CSO provides high level oversight and guidance on Departmental initiatives of high importance. Oversees large, cross-functional, organization-wide projects/initiatives and brings together important stakeholders to help drive decisions. Leads individual projects related to department initiatives as directed by the Executive Director from development through successful execution. The CSO drives initiatives on behalf of the Executive Director.

• Meets regularly with designated office, initiative and project leads to provide direction and receive progress updates on behalf of the ED.
• Ensures the ED's priorities are being incorporated in overall plans from inception to completion.
• Verifies critical deadlines are on track to be met. Removes barriers to execution and escalates/resolves issues as necessary to maintain momentum.
• Determines potential overlaps and synergies among multiple department-wide projects and ensures all potentially impacted initiatives, divisions, offices or stakeholders are connected and in alignment.
• Monitors and drives legislative implementation, and tracks legislative and budget needs and deadlines.
• Makes recommendations for improved execution, timing, ROI, accountability and tracking.

Governor's Office Liaison:
Acts as primary department liaison to the Governor's office to oversee, coordinate and support any requests, issues, or deadlines including but not limited to: briefing documents, Critical Incident Reports, Cabinet working groups, scheduling requests, crisis/incident updates, OSPB and Policy questions, status agenda updates, citizen advocacy issues etc.

• Ensures strategic alignment between the Governor's Office and CDLE.
• Ensures Governor's Dashboard performance indicators are complete, accurate and provided on time.
• Creates and reviews complex analytical products for submission to the Governor's Office upon request.
• Serves as the ED's delegate as requested, handling inquiries and developing action plans to address them, and assisting with the preparation and dissemination of communications.
• Acts as the primary internal point of contact in the event of high profile issues that impact the department's staff and/or services. The role of the CSO is to facilitate decision making from the Executive Director's Office, and support senior leadership by providing swift response times and available resources from the EDO.
• Makes recommendations as to what is to be escalated to law enforcement, reported to the Governor's office or managed in the media and works with appropriate internal partners to execute decisions.
• Receives and provides updates until the situation is resolved. Tracks incidents, identifies
• lessons learned and modifies and communicates process changes as necessary.

Other Duties as Assigned:
The intention for this position is to make it highly agile to the critical needs of the ED and the department. As different issues and circumstances arise, it is vital for the CSO to review, evaluate and manage each one at the highest levels, identifying and engaging appropriate resources for timely and informed decision-making and action.
Minimum Qualifications, Substitutions, Conditions of Employment & Appeal Rights

Required Competencies:

• Critical Thinking
• Strategic Planning and Program Execution Skills
• Initiative Management
• Communication (oral and written, multiple levels and audiences)
• Collaboration
• Emotional Intelligence
• Strategic, Systems level thinking
• Coalition Building
• Stakeholder Management
• Ability to Function Effectively in a Highly Political Environment

Minimum Qualifications:
10 years of professional experience in Operations, Human Capital Management, Technology, or strategic planning. Your application must demonstrate strategic program planning as part of your experience. Please be sure this is clearly included on your application.
OR

Education and Experience:

A combination of related education and/or relevant experience in an occupation related to the work assigned equal to ten (10) years.