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Job Description
Description
Our Organization
The City of Palo Alto is located in the heart of Silicon Valley and home to global technology and business leaders, startups, Stanford University, and a highly educated and engaged constituency. The City is committed to cultivating a creative and progressive economy and is actively engaged in making a difference both locally and globally. Working at the City, you will join a culture that strives for excellence and encourages leadership, new ideas, and creative solutions.
Department
The Administrative Services Department (ASD) provides analytical, organizational, and administrative support for a wide variety of projects throughout the organization. The Department prides itself on a high-level of customer service to decision-makers, the public, employees, and other departments in the City. ASD records, monitors, and protects the City’s assets through essential financial management, including forecasting, budgeting, and financial reporting. ASD’s divisions include Accounting, the Office of Management and Budget, Purchasing, Treasury, Real Estate, Revenue Collections, Stores and Administration.
The Accounting Division provides a wide range of in-house services unique to a smaller City like Palo Alto. The division is experiencing a unique opportunity for growth and development of current and new staff. As an Accountant, you will have a chance to be a part-of and help redesign Palo Alto’s evolving accounting team. Learn more about the Administrative Services Department.
Career Opportunity
We are seeking someone who is eager to learn, creative in their craft of accounting, and demonstrates the ability to adapt. As an essential team member of the Accounting Division, the Accountant will be responsible for achieving the Accounting Division mission of accurate, timely and reliable financial information for internal and external customers, including vendor payments, payroll and financial reporting. Palo Alto is a full-service City with its own Police and Fire Departments, several Enterprise Funds which provide utility services to residents and businesses, a very active Capital Projects Fund, Internal Service Funds and numerous Special Revenue Funds. This wide array of activity requires a broad range of accounting expertise and a highly skilled level of communication to liaise with other departments and external agencies.
The Ideal Candidates- Experience with financial statement review and analysis in a governmental fund setting including enterprise funds such as Electric, Gas, Water, Airport and Wastewater, at an analyst or journey-level.
- Ability to review and verify the accuracy of financial data and information and associated legal documents and make sound, independent judgements with essential guidelines.
- Experience managing one or more specific program areas in the Accounting Division such as payroll, capital assets / capital projects, federal grants, accounts payable / receivable, general ledger, enterprise accounting and other program areas.
- Detail oriented with strong problem-solving skills.
- Experience preparing components of Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR).
- Knowledge of Governmental Accounting Standard Board (GASB) Statements and their application in governmental accounting.
- Ability to work with a variety of levels of staff, develop working relationships, and effectively communicate complex financial data.
- Self-starter: can take even the smallest project and run with it to successful completion.
Benefits: The City offers a fantastic benefits package that includes affordable healthcare plans, generous retirement packages, paid parental leave, convenient commuter programs and more !
Compensation (MGMT): Comprehensive compensation plan. To learn more, click here .
Schedule: Hybrid, 9/80 work schedule (with every other Friday off) and up to 2 remote days per week.
Essential Duties
Essential and other important responsibilities and duties may include, but are not limited to, the following:- Creates information databases, spreadsheets and reports for use in accounting and financial analysis.
- Prepares and enters journal entries for allocations, purchases, adjustments, payments, payroll, and/or other related information.
- Performs a variety of accounting-related reconciliations to ensure accuracy of financial data and information.
- Monitors general ledger activities, which includes: preparing and entering journal entries for various adjustments and corrections; analyzing and resolving accounting issues; preparing recurring journal entries; preparing, reviewing, and distributing financial reports for internal departments; conducting month-end and year-end closings; and, performing other related tasks.
- Prepares, analyzes, reviews, and submits a variety of reports, reconciliations, and statements to and from internal departments, the City Council, financial institutions, and applicable agencies.
- Performs capital asset accounting, including the review and recording of capital additions, construction in progress, transfers, depreciation, adjustments, and asset disposals in accordance with City policy and GASB standards.
- Assists with the implementation of new GASB pronouncements, including research, documentation, system updates, and financial statement impacts.
- Participates in analyzing and implementing procedures for automated accounting software packages; reviews programs and trains staff in maximizing the use of automated systems.
- Performs a variety of accounting functions, which includes: reviewing and approving payables; reconciling accounts; preparing accounting and audit schedules; reviewing quarterly tax filings for accuracy; coding and entering information into a database; serving as a liaison with outside agencies; and, performing other related tasks.
- Assists in the preparation of the City's Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR).
- Monitors capital improvement projects and grant expenditure funds.
To review the full job description, click here .
Minimum Qualifications
Sufficient education, training and/or work experience to demonstrate possession of the following knowledge and skills, which would typically be acquired through:
Bachelor's Degree in Accounting, or a related field, and two years of related accounting experience; or, an equivalent combination of education and experience sufficient to successfully perform the essential duties of the job such as those listed above.
Licensing Requirements:- None Required
Preferred Qualifications:- Experience performing capital asset and long-term construction (CIP) accounting in an SAP environment or comparable ERP systems. Public agency capital asset and long-term construction accounting experience.
Supplemental Information
The Selection Process:- Recruitment status notifications will be sent via email or text (please enroll in text alerts when applying).
- Updates can also be found on your governmentjobs.com account.
- Applicants will be screened throughout the posting process and highly qualified candidates may be invited to interview at any time.
- The screening process for this position may include a virtual recorded interview and/or panel interviews preceding final interviews with the hiring manager or their designee.
- More than one position may be filled through this posting.
Our online application system is provided by NeoGov. If you have problems while applying online, please contact NeoGov's Live Applicant Support at (855) 524-5627 between 6:00 AM and 5:00 PM Pacific Time, Monday - Friday.
The City of Palo Alto is an Equal Opportunity Employer. In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the City will provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities and encourages both prospective and current employees to discuss potential accommodations with the employer.
See our Benefits at a Glance Bookletfor more details.
Learn more about our Compensation Plan HERE.
Closing Date/Time: 1/4/2026 11:59 PM Pacific -
ABOUT THE COMPANY
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City of Palo Alto
Show moreThe Community
The birthplace of Silicon Valley, Palo Alto, is a community of approximately 68,000 residents and nearly 100,000 jobs. Located on the mid-Peninsula between San Francisco and San Jose, Palo Alto is recognized worldwide as a leader in cutting-edge technology, medicine, and green innovation. The community's treelined streets and historic buildings reflect its California heritage, and, at the same time, many world-class businesses maintain or started offices here, such as Stanford Health Care and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, Amazon, Broadcom, Hewlett-Packard, Houzz, Rivian, SAP and SAP Ariba, Tesla, and Varian Medical Systems. Numerous start-ups are also at home in Palo Alto, arguably making it the start-up capital of the world. Stanford University is foundational to the history and prestige of Palo Alto, reflected in the community's dedication to lifelong learning. Stanford's cultural and educational offerings are integral to the vibrancy and charm of Palo Alto, while the City's exceptional K-12 school district ranks among the top public-school systems in the country. With more than 50% of adult residents holding a graduate degree or higher, Palo Alto is frequently listed as one of the most educated cities in the nation. Palo Alto boasts a genuine sense of community and an active citizenry with strong environmental values. Beautiful neighborhoods are complemented by vibrant commercial corridors and a bustling economy featuring premium shopping and dining options. Excellent healthcare facilities, performing arts, and diverse recreational opportunities are some of the community's incredibly desirable and cherished amenities. To learn more, visit https://www.paloalto.gov/Departments/City-Manager/Latest-NewsCity Government
Palo Alto is a full-service charter city with a council-manager form of government. The seven-member City Council is elected at large, and the City Council annually selects the Mayor and Vice Mayor from among its members. The Mayor and City Council appoint the City Manager, City Attorney, City Clerk, and City Auditor. The City Manager is responsible for the strategic direction and day-to-day operations of the City. Palo Alto is organized into 15 departments/offices with 1,093.10 authorized positions in FY 2025. There is also a FY 2025 capital budget of $316.2 million. Palo Alto owns and operates its own utilities, including electricity (carbon-neutral), gas, water, wastewater, and an expanding fiber network. This dynamic municipal environment ensures an ever-engaging platform for unique problem-solving and advances new initiatives, including sustainability, broadband, and effective service delivery. Community assets also include five libraries, 36 parks, five community centers, a museum and zoo, youth centers, a general aviation airport, an 18-hole golf course, a regional water treatment plant, and wildland open space preserves at the San Francisco Bay and in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains offering 41 miles of walking/biking trails in addition to its police, fire, and ambulance services. Palo Alto has long been a leader in sustainability, and the City's ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction goals are part of what sets it apart. Since the City's first Climate Protection Plan was passed in 2007, Palo Alto has set goals that exceed State and Federal targets. Today, the City's goal to reduce emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2030 (the "80x30" goal) and achieve carbon neutrality by 2030 guides sustainability efforts. An award-winning City, Palo Alto is recognized nationally as innovative and well-managed. City services and performance also receive impressive marks from community members in the Palo Alto Community Survey.
Many of those ratings put City programs and services in the highest percentiles among the hundreds of benchmark cities. Palo Alto makes decisions through comprehensive processes and proactively seeks to involve its extremely informed, educated, and engaged residents. Projects are naturally a cooperative effort among the City Council, Boards, Commissions, Committees, engaged residents, neighborhoods, businesses, property owners, and staff.
Join an Award Winning Team
Palo Alto is an award-winning City recognized nationwide as innovative and well-managed. Palo Alto is one of a small number of California cities with a AAA bond rating. Recently, Palo Alto became one of the most livable cities in the U.S. by Livability.com. It's the only city to receive the Platinum Beacon Award in sustainability best practices by California’s Institute for Local Government. We offer a variety of career paths that relate to building and improving communities. The City has fourteen departments employing 1,000 full-time staff. Police officers, fire fighters, paramedics, and building inspectors keep us safe. Engineers and public works staff build and re-build the physical infrastructure. City planners help envision and shape future community growth. Recreation, arts and library professionals enhance community life. Utilities provides electric, gas, water, sewer and other services. Internal services departments help manage, staff, and protect the City.
Want to learn more about our benefits? Learn more by reviewing our "Benefits at a Glance Booklet."
Contact Us
Phone: 650-329-2376
Email: Recruit@paloalto.gov
Location: City Hall, 1st Floor | 250 Hamilton Ave 94301 | View Map
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