Mission-Critical Public Safety Communications Network Program Management Services

San Mateo County Public Safety Communications (PSC) seeks a qualified Program Manager to oversee multiple high-visibility, mission-critical projects supporting the County’s law enforcement network services and platforms. These initiatives are essential to public safety operations and may include modernization, enhancement, or full replacement of existing systems. The work is time-sensitive, operates under tight deadlines, and requires consistent delivery within a highly accountable, public-sector environment.

The Program Manager will provide direct support to PSC leadership and will manage the complete project lifecycle with minimal supervision, beginning with participation in RFI/RFP development and vendor selection. Responsibilities include, but not limited to, project initiation and planning, design coordination, documentation, stakeholder communication, and execution through testing, validation, and successful production deployment. The role requires regular engagement and coordination with executive stakeholders and department leadership across multiple partner agencies, including Police Departments, Sheriff’s Office, District Attorney’s Office, Courts, Airport authorities, et al.

The Program Manager will also be responsible for managing vendor performance, schedules, risks, and dependencies across concurrent projects, as well as ensuring effective post-implementation transition and operational handover. This engagement demands proven technical program management experience delivering complex, multi-agency public safety programs under aggressive timelines and high visibility, with a strong emphasis on governance, reliability, and quality outcomes.

The PSC operates a Public Safety Communications Network (PSCN) and Services that supports mission-critical communications and data exchange for multiple public-safety and law enforcement agencies. Portions of the PSCN were implemented using legacy technologies and architectures that no longer fully support current operational requirements, security standards, or interoperability expectations. Public-safety agencies increasingly rely on secure, high-availability systems that support mobile access, cloud-based services, real-time data sharing, and integration with emerging technologies. Additionally, evolving cybersecurity threats and Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) compliance requirements have increased the need for enhanced security controls, network segmentation, monitoring, and encryption.

The PSC’s Message Switch System (MSS) is a key component of the current environment and serves as a centralized system for routing law enforcement messages between internal applications, such as Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD), and external systems, including CLETS, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), Automated Warrant System (AWS), and other local, state, and federal law enforcement systems. The existing MSS has been in operation for many years and continues to support daily operations; however, the system’s aging architecture, reduced vendor support, limited scalability, and lack of modern security capabilities present increasing operational, compliance, and sustainability risks.

The PSC is initiating these projects to modernize and replace the existing MSS as part of its broader efforts, and to enhance the PSCN and services modernization. The goal is to implement a secure, reliable, scalable, and CJIS-compliant solution that supports multi-agency operations, improves resilience and maintainability, and enables integration with both current and future on-premises and cloud-based systems, while ensuring continuity of mission-critical public safety services.