Policy Analyst

Role Responsibilities

As a Policy Analyst, you bring your expertise and practical experience in the application of the policy cycle and experience working with legislative tools to your projects. You understand all stages of the policy cycle and have experience in most of the stages, including issue identification, research and analysis, stakeholder engagement, preparing materials for decision making, implementation, and evaluation, and you bring an awareness of how different policy levers can be used to achieve the Government of Alberta’s objectives. You have strong critical thinking skills and are ready to influence positive changes within the mental health and addiction services system of care.

Leveraging your relationship building competencies, you develop networks with key stakeholders and build collaborative environments. You ensure success in policy development and implementation by applying your strong communication skills to write clear and concise plans and summaries, briefing materials and correspondence, options and recommendations, and you bring consultation skills that will strengthen the team’s capacity to engage with key players, such as Recovery Alberta, Indigenous people and communities, community agencies and cross-ministry partners, in order to understand complex issues.

You are able to demonstrate your systems thinking and understand the complexity of the addiction and mental health service delivery field and come up with creative solutions that are grounded in your knowledge of the system. You are motivated to deliver results that address the issues at hand and use your agility to navigate an environment where priorities change rapidly with quick turnaround times and multiple competing demands. You have strong project management skills and leverage these skills to plan work, understand priorities, and achieve deliverables.

You are a lifelong learner and mesh well in a culture that strives for continuous learning. You look for ways to develop yourself and support the development of your teammates and partners. You are agile and self-motivated and work well in small teams that are committed to serving Albertans impacted by addiction and mental health issues. You will be at the table with decision makers and influence tangible positive changes.

Qualifications

A minimum of graduation from a 4-year baccalaureate degree is required.

Minimum two (2) years of directly related experience is required in:

• Policy development related work, specifically in social science research, and developing options and scenarios for decision makers
• Project management and implementation (including but not limited to managing grants, academic projects etc.)

Preference will be given to candidates who have experience reviewing and critically analyzing legislation or legislative tools to support policy development.

The following experience is considered an asset:

• Experience supporting full cycle project management of complex projects including diverse stakeholders and multi-disciplinary teams.
• Experience working with policy and legislation.
• Experience drafting briefings, presentations, or other documents for decision makers.
• Stakeholder engagement experience.
• Knowledge of policy development procedures, including policy trends and best practices.
• Experience with Microsoft Excel to support budgeting and/or forecasting requests.
• Knowledge of current and emerging mental health and addiction issues, including concurrent disorders, complex needs, health promotion strategies and theories, addiction and mental illness prevention and integration of strategies and services across sectors.
• Knowledge of addiction and mental health related legislation including the Mental Health Act, the Mental Health Services Protection Act, and the Protection of Children Abusing Drugs Act.

Notes

• One permanent position
• This job ad may be used to fill future vacancies
• Hours of work: Monday to Friday; 8:15 – 16:30
• Location: Commerce Place, 10155 102 St NW, Edmonton, AB
• Written assessment may be used as part of the screening/selection process.
• The department is currently supporting hybrid arrangements for employees to work from home up to 2 days/week while working in the office in downtown Edmonton the remaining days, subject to operational requirements and approval on a case-by-case basis.

APS Competencies

Competencies are behaviors that are essential to reach our goals in serving Albertans. We encourage you to have an in depth understanding of the competencies that are required for this opportunity and to be prepared to demonstrate them during the recruitment process.

• Creative Problem Solving
• Asks questions to get a deeper understanding of present issues
• Contributing ideas for how work can be done differently to solve common problems
• Agility
• Asks questions, seeks clarification and assess how things will be different when change is introduced or anticipated
• Takes advantage of opportunities to change how work is completed to better anticipate obstacles and improve service
• Develop Networks
• Identifies key stakeholder contacts with who a relationship must be established
• Maintains contacts with a range of colleagues, clients and stakeholders
• Drive for Results
• Takes past experience into considerations when making plans and adjusts plans based on past learning
• Identifies and acts on opportunities to partner with other groups to achieve desired outcomes

How To Apply

Applicants are advised to provide information that clearly and concisely demonstrates how their qualifications meet the advertised requirements, including education, experience, and relevant examples of required competencies.

It is recommended that applicants include the assessment certificate from IQAS or any other educational assessment service as part of their application.

Closing Statement

This competition may be used to fill future vacancies, across the Government of Alberta, at the same or lower classification level. We thank all applicants for their interest. All applications will be reviewed to determine which candidates' qualifications most closely match the advertised requirements. Only individuals selected for interviews will be contacted.