Deputy Fire Chief

CLAS­SI­FI­CA­TION: Deputy Fire Chief

DEPART­MENT: Fire Depart­ment

SUPER­VI­SOR: Fire Chief

EFFEC­TIVE DATE: Octo­ber 1, 2025 

PAY LEV­EL: 114 ($75,398.16 — $135,716.69)

PAY CLAS­SI­FI­CA­TION: Exempt

DEF­I­N­I­TION: This posi­tion per­forms all duties and func­tions per­tain­ing to air­craft res­cue and fire­fight­ing and requires admin­is­tra­tive, man­age­ment and tech­ni­cal skills. This is a work­ing super­vi­so­ry posi­tion assist­ing the Air­port Fire Chief with the devel­op­ment, direc­tion and con­trol of the Air­port Fire Depart­ment. The Deputy Chief is respon­si­ble for the man­age­ment of dai­ly depart­men­tal activ­i­ties and par­tic­i­pates along with the Fire Chief in tak­ing com­mand of res­cue and fire­fight­ing oper­a­tions. In the absence of the Fire Chief, the Deputy Fire Chief serves as act­ing Fire Chief. 

Work is per­formed in accor­dance with Air­port and Fire Depart­ment reg­u­la­tions, is sub­ject to review by the Fire Chief, but also requires the exer­cis­ing of inde­pen­dent judge­ment. The Deputy Fire Chief has gen­er­al super­vi­sion over all ARFF Offi­cers and Fire­fight­ers with­in the orga­ni­za­tion. Work is reviewed by obser­va­tion as well as reports sub­mit­ted to the Fire Chief and, in the absence or dis­abil­i­ty of the Fire Chief, the Deputy Fire Chief directs all oper­a­tions and func­tions of the ARFF Department.

EXAM­PLES OF DUTIES: Assists the Fire Chief in the man­age­ment of the depart­ment. Responds to inci­dents both on-duty and off-duty, deter­mines what equip­ment and/​or resources are nec­es­sary for inci­dent mit­i­ga­tion, and directs oper­a­tions until relieved by the Fire Chief. Super­vis­es, plans, directs and coor­di­nates the activ­i­ties of all ARFF Offi­cers and Fire­fight­ers. Per­forms assigned admin­is­tra­tive and tech­ni­cal duties per­tain­ing to train­ing of ARFF per­son­nel in com­pli­ance with depart­men­tal, air­port, and FAA require­ments. Con­ducts drills and gives instruc­tions in fire­fight­ing and res­cue tech­niques. Directs and over­sees inspec­tion of build­ings and premis­es for famil­iar­iza­tion pur­pos­es. Reports need­ed repairs and/​or main­te­nance of all vehi­cles and equip­ment. Coor­di­nates safe­ty inspec­tions of fuel farm, fuel truck(s) and oth­er air­port facil­i­ties as required. Assists in the coor­di­na­tion and imple­men­ta­tion of fire safe­ty and acci­dent pre­ven­tion pro­grams, includ­ing the train­ing of per­son­nel, ten­ants and cus­tomers. Assures com­pli­ance with the Air­port Emer­gency Plan (AEP) and air­port safe­ty mat­ters as set forth in FAR Part 139. Con­ducts per­for­mance eval­u­a­tions of assigned per­son­nel and per­forms oth­er duties as assigned. Makes reports con­cern­ing per­son­nel and activ­i­ties. Active­ly par­tic­i­pates in the for­mu­la­tion and pre­sen­ta­tion of the Fire Depart­ment bud­get, spec­i­fi­ca­tions for appa­ra­tus, and equip­ment replace­ment pro­grams. Super­vis­es sub­or­di­nate offi­cers and has the author­i­ty to approve leave, rec­om­mend employ­ment, promotion(s), dis­ci­pli­nary action and/​or dis­missal. Oth­er duties as assigned.

KNOWL­EDGE, SKILLS AND ABIL­I­TIES: Must have a thor­ough knowl­edge of the prin­ci­ples, pro­ce­dures and equip­ment used in mod­ern fire­fight­ing and pre­ven­tion for Air­craft Res­cue and Fire­fight­ing. Must pos­sess con­sid­er­able knowl­edge of fire haz­ards, fire pre­ven­tion, haz­ardous mate­ri­als, and pro­tec­tive meth­ods, and must be able to deter­mine and appraise haz­ardous con­di­tions. Must be able to devel­op a thor­ough knowl­edge of the geog­ra­phy of the air­port, air­port facil­i­ties, water mains, fire hydrants, and major fire haz­ards. Must have the abil­i­ty to estab­lish and main­tain effec­tive work­ing rela­tion­ships with fel­low employ­ees, ten­ants and cus­tomers along with the abil­i­ty to com­mu­ni­cate, edu­cate, and present infor­ma­tion to fel­low employ­ees, ten­ants, and cus­tomers in both oral and writ­ten form. Must be pro­fi­cient in Microsoft Office, includ­ing Word, Excel and Pow­er­Point. Must have the abil­i­ty to assist in the for­mu­la­tion and admin­is­tra­tion of the Fire Depart­ment budget.

MIN­I­MUM QUAL­I­FI­CA­TIONS: Must have a cur­rent State of Flori­da Fire­fight­er Cer­tifi­cate of Com­pli­ance or abil­i­ty to obtain cer­ti­fi­ca­tion with­in six months; Associate’s Degree in Man­age­ment or Fire Ser­vice relat­ed field; five years of pro­gres­sive­ly respon­si­ble fire­fight­ing expe­ri­ence, prefer­ably in ARFF / Air­port Oper­a­tions, with three of those years in a super­vi­so­ry capac­i­ty at the rank of Cap­tain or above. Must be phys­i­cal­ly fit and pass a pre-employ­ment drug screen as well as peri­od­ic test­ing in accor­dance with air­port pol­i­cy. Must pass a 10-year fin­ger­print based crim­i­nal his­to­ry records check as required by the Trans­porta­tion Secu­ri­ty Admin­is­tra­tion. Must pos­sess a valid Flori­da Driver’s License and be insur­able by the Air­port Authority’s insur­ance car­ri­er. A com­pa­ra­ble amount of train­ing and/​or expe­ri­ence may be con­sid­ered on a case-by-case basis for the min­i­mum qual­i­fi­ca­tions. Air­port expe­ri­ence is preferred.

DESIRED QUAL­I­FI­CA­TION: ARFF Fire­fight­er Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion; State of Flori­da Fire Offi­cer I or above; State of Flori­da Fire Instruc­tor I or above; State of Flori­da Fire Inspec­tor I or above; EMT or Para­medic License; Bachelor’s Degree in Man­age­ment or Fire Ser­vice relat­ed field.

*Note: Any Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion or License pre­sent­ed for review must be current. 

PHYS­I­CAL DEMANDS: The phys­i­cal demands described here are rep­re­sen­ta­tive of those that must be met by the team mem­ber to suc­cess­ful­ly per­form the essen­tial func­tions of this job. 

Work­ing Con­di­tions: Work requires mod­er­ate to extreme expo­sure to one of more dis­agree­able con­di­tions (i.e., inclement weath­er, night and day shifts, emer­gency and stress­ful envi­ron­ment, exces­sive noise, extreme tem­per­a­tures, wet or humid conditions).

Risk/​Safety Con­di­tions: This posi­tion requires mod­er­ate expo­sure of risk to phys­i­cal health and/​or phys­i­cal safe­ty (e.g., expo­sure to envi­ron­men­tal­ly haz­ardous mate­r­i­al, heavy equip­ment, expo­sure to: smoke, nox­ious odors, dust, fumes, chem­i­cals, liq­uid chem­i­cals, sol­vents, oils, fumes or air­borne par­ti­cles). This posi­tion often requires the use of Per­son­al Pro­tec­tive Equip­ment (PPE) and may include com­plet­ing and suc­cess­ful­ly pass­ing med­ical eval­u­a­tions or clearances.

Essen­tial Phys­i­cal Activ­i­ties: Bending/​stooping, sit­ting, stand­ing, crouch­ing, walk­ing, pulling, lift­ing, grasp­ing, hear­ing, see­ing up close, see­ing far away, kneel­ing, reach­ing, pushing/​pulling, talk­ing, climb­ing, fin­ger move­ment of firm grasp­ing and fine manip­u­la­tion, repet­i­tive motions, depth per­cep­tion, bal­anc­ing, squat­ting, work­ing at heights. This posi­tion may require lift­ing up to, car­ry­ing up to, or mov­ing up to 125+ lbs. 

DIS­CLAIMER:

The exam­ples above are illus­tra­tive and not intend­ed to describe every func­tion which may be per­formed by this job class. The omis­sion of spe­cif­ic duties does not pre­clude man­age­ment from assign­ing spe­cif­ic duties not list­ed, if such duties are a log­i­cal assign­ment to the position