Overview
State governments offer a variety of public administration and program management careers that support agencies and programs serving residents and communities.
Professionals in these roles help develop and implement public programs, manage grants and contracts, oversee procurement and contracts, support policy creation and coordinate services that advance agency missions. Public administration professionals may work in areas such as budgeting, program evaluation, program planning, compliance, relationship building, operational management and organizational improvement.
What You Might Work On
In state government, professionals in this field often:
- Provide oversight and organization to public-facing programs or projects
- Coordinate across departments, state partners and contractors
- Coordinate purchasing agreements, contracts and vendors
- Manage state and federal grant funding and provide guidance to grantees
Is This a Good Fit?
While roles and responsibilities vary, you might enjoy this field if you:
- Want to use your organizational and coordinating skills to manage public-facing programs
- Enjoy working with specific rules, regulations and processes and apply them to state government initiatives
- Want to support programs or initiatives that assist the public
Where You Could Work
State government is broad — so where do you start?
One approach is to focus on a type of role. Another is to focus on a mission area, or the kind of impact you want to make (i.e., in public health, education, transportation or elsewhere).
Keep in mind: mission areas often span multiple agencies, so you may find relevant roles in places you wouldn’t expect!
Professionals in this field work across many state agencies depending on mission area, including:
- Social Services: West Virginia Office of Shared Administration
- Human Resources: Vermont Department of Labor
- Arts: Maryland State Arts Council
Sample positions
Project Manager
| Employer / agency | Illinois Department of Revenue |
| Location(s) | Springfield, Illinois |
| Mission context | Provide accurate, timely and reliable funding and information to both state and local communities. |
In this role, you may:
- Manage and coordinate complex projects that are strategic, complex, sensitive or controversial in nature from start to finish with full ownership over project quality
- Recommend policies and procedures for project governance to ensure the audit trail is present and accurate and that the work complies with relevant methodology components, standards and processes
- Conduct research regarding legislation, laws, rules, policies, technology and industry best practices related to business process improvement or project management and make recommendations to executive management
Grant Manager/Liaison
| Employer / agency | Mississippi Department of Employment Security |
| Location(s) | Jackson, Mississippi |
| Mission context | Help Mississippians get jobs. |
In this role, you may:
- Attend local, regional and statewide meetings with subgrantees, including some out of state
- Act as liaison to local workforce development areas
- Provide technical assistance to subgrantees regarding fiscal and programmatic operations
- Work with appropriate accounting/fiscal staff to ensure allocation, reallocation and expenditure of funds. Interpret complex laws/regulations
- Prepare and submit quarterly and yearly reports to the U.S. Department of Labor, local workforce development areas and other partnership entities
- Research and draft correspondence, communications, policies and other relevant official documentation
Analyst
| Employer / agency | New York Office of Court Administration, Division of Grants, Contracts, and Procurement |
| Location(s) | Castleton-On-Hudson, New York |
| Mission context | Manages external funding for the procurement of legal services. |
In this role, you may:
- Perform assigned procurement activities in support of open, fair and competitive processes in accordance with applicable laws, rules and policies
- Respond to requests and inquiries in a timely and professional manner
- Coordinate with the grants, contract monitoring and fiscal operations units as needed to complete assigned procurement tasks
- Review purchase requests for completeness and assisting in identifying appropriate procurement methods under supervision
- Use established evaluation criteria and tools to assist with the review of bids, quotes and proposals
