Posted: 17-Jan-26
Location: Cochrane, Alberta, Canada
Type: Full Time
Salary: $158,861 – $169,713
Categories:
Salary Details:
Required Education:
Town of Cochrane - Fire Chief
Cochrane is located in the breathtaking Bow Valley corridor in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in southern Alberta. With a population of over 37,000 people, and growing steadily every year, Cochrane is a thriving town, surrounded by world-famous ranch country. Our western heritage is reflected in the Town’s architecture and our friendly people. The Town of Cochrane welcomes innovative and skilled individuals to join our team of over 250 employees.
Who are we looking for?
Cochrane is seeking a strategic, credible, and trusted Fire Chief to lead Cochrane Fire Services through a period of cultural rebuilding, leadership renewal, and continued operational excellence.
Reporting to the Director, Community Safety, the Fire Chief provides strategic, operational, cultural, and executive leadership for Fire Services. This role is ideal for an experienced municipal fire service leader who brings proven success operating in IAFF environments, rebuilding trust and engagement, supporting leadership development, and communicating openly and honestly - especially during difficult or change-heavy periods.
If you are a visible, calm, values-driven leader who believes in empowering supervisors, strengthening relationships, leading with integrity, and delivering safe, effective, modern fire service operations, this is an opportunity to shape the future of Cochrane Fire Services.
Why build your career with Cochrane?
Cochrane is at an important and exciting point in its organizational journey. As Fire Chief, you will:
- Lead a deliberate cultural reset that strengthens trust, morale, leadership credibility, and psychological safety
- Provide steady, accountable leadership in a complex IAFF environment
- Build and empower strong Lieutenant and Captain leadership, reinforcing the supervisory chain of command
- Communicate early, openly, and plainly — including when decisions are difficult or unpopular
- Operate with political awareness while remaining non-political, professional, and governance-focused
- Support strategic growth, emergency readiness, and long-term service sustainability
- Work collaboratively with Council, ELT, union leadership, partner agencies, and the community
Cochrane fosters a positive, high-performing culture built on transparency, curiosity, accountability, innovation, and teamwork.
What are some of the duties of the Fire Chief?
- Lead Fire Services operations, culture, people leadership, governance, and service excellence
- Lead a measurable cultural reset and rebuild confidence, trust, and engagement
- Provide seasoned leadership in an IAFF environment, including grievances, discipline, conflict management, and collective agreement interpretation
- Communicate early, openly, and plainly, ensuring the “why” behind decisions is understood
- Develop, empower, and hold Lieutenants and Captains accountable while avoiding bypassing supervisory leadership
- Navigate municipal political environments without becoming political, maintaining credibility and integrity
- Provide leadership in emergency response and emergency management
- Develop and manage long-term strategic plans, risk strategies, and budgets
- Build and maintain strong relationships with internal and external partners
- Ensure compliance with legislation, NFPA standards, Town policies, and best practice service models
Qualifications, Skills and Abilities
Education and Experience:
Required:
- Minimum 10 years’ municipal firefighting experience with increasingly senior leadership responsibilities
- Extensive proven experience in an IAFF unionized fire service, including discipline, grievances, bargaining contexts, and collaborative labour-management leadership
- Experience working effectively within municipal governance settings
- Post-secondary education in Fire Service Leadership, Public/Business Administration, Emergency Management, or related field
- Proven, documented experience in leading cultural transformation or trust-repair initiatives that resulted in documented improvements in engagement, morale, leadership confidence, or organizational stability
- Demonstrated experience implementing structured leadership development programs for supervisory officers (Lieutenants/Captains), beyond day-to-day supervision or informal mentorship
Preferred:
- Proven leadership within politically sensitive or high-profile municipal environments, including navigating Council scrutiny, public accountability, and media engagement
- Demonstrated success working within complex labour environments such as multi-issue grievance climates, post-arbitration stabilization, or modernization impacts affecting union culture
- A track record of leading service modernization, innovation, or major organizational change initiatives (e.g., service model redesign, staffing models, deployment strategies, prevention/training transformation)
- Background managing multi-year strategic planning, capital planning, and fleet or infrastructure renewal within a fire service context
- History of building strong regional collaboration, including mutual aid leadership, joint emergency management participation, and multi-agency command operations
- Ability to lead effectively in rapidly growing municipal environments, adapting service delivery to evolving community and operational demands
Skills and Abilities:
Required:
- Demonstrated ability to rebuild trust and culture through visible, consistent leadership
- Strong, honest, and timely communication skills; able to explain decisions clearly, including unpopular ones
- Skilled at building leadership bench strength, including formal officer development pathways, succession planning, and sustained leadership coaching cultures
- Political awareness while remaining non-political and governance-focused
- Steady, realistic leadership approach grounded in current organizational realities
- Ability to demonstrate values-aligned behaviour under pressure
- Strong fiscal, business planning, and risk management capability
- Advanced relationship-building, problem-solving, and conflict resolution skills
- Demonstrated ability to stabilize organizations in complex or high-pressure contexts, rebuilding confidence and credibility through visible and steady leadership
Preferred:
- Advanced ability to navigate politically sensitive, high-profile, or emotionally charged environments while maintaining professionalism, composure, and trust
- Strong strategic foresight skills, with the ability to anticipate organizational impacts of growth, risk trends, legislative changes, and community expectations
- Demonstrated success influencing and aligning diverse stakeholders, including Council, ELT, union leadership, regional partners, and community groups
- Highly adept at communicating during uncertainty, ensuring clarity, transparency, and reassurance in challenging or evolving situations
- Proven ability to balance operational credibility with senior executive leadership, including decision-making that reflects both frontline realities and municipal obligations
- Demonstrated success in regional collaboration, mutual aid leadership, and multi-agency coordination environments
- Strong capability in change leadership, including leading people through difficult transitions with empathy, accountability, and consistent follow-through
Certifications, Licenses and/or Designations:
Required:
- Valid Alberta Class 5 Driver’s License
- Completion of Incident Command System 300
- Current Standard First Aid, CPR, and AED
- NFPA-compliant firefighter, officer, and incident command-related certifications appropriate to a senior leadership role
- Ability to obtain and maintain required security clearances and compliance requirements
Preferred:
- Incident Command System 400
- Advanced emergency management certifications (e.g., Basic Emergency Management, ECC, Director of Emergency Management)
- Advanced NFPA leadership, safety, or specialty certifications (e.g., Fire Officer advanced levels, Safety Officer, Wildland leadership)
- ATIA/POPA, municipal leadership, or executive leadership training
- Additional specialized rescue, emergency operations, or leadership designations relevant to a modern municipal fire service
- Blue Card Command Certification
Cochrane is committed to providing a healthy and safe work environment for all employees, which means that everyone is responsible for health and safety. This means that you must take reasonable care to protect the health and safety of your colleagues, contractors, the public, and of course, yourself by following all relevant health and safety legislation and corporate policies.
Still interested? Here’s how to apply:
- Qualified individuals are encouraged to submit your resume, and a letter stating how your experience match the required qualifications, skills, and abilities for this position.
- The annual salary for this position is between $158,861 - $169,713 and is based on a 35-hour work week.
- In addition to a competitive salary - Town of Cochrane employees also enjoy :
- Comprehensive total compensation program with 100% employer-paid Extended Health Care, Dental, Life Insurance, Dependent Life, Accidental Death & Dismemberment and Short Term Disability
- Health Care Spending Account and wellness benefit to support physical and mental well-being
- Employee & Family Assistance Program for confidential personal and family support
- Enrollment in the Local Authorities Pension Plan (LAPP) - a defined benefit pension where the Town matches employee contributions and contributes an additional 1%
- Additional employee perks including vacation entitlement that increases with service learning and development support, and other workplace benefits
We thank all applicants for their interest, however only those selected for an interview will be contacted. All applicants must be legally entitled to live and work in Canada.