On this page
- Resume guide for a city manager resume
- How to write a city manager resume
- Choosing the best resume format
- Include your contact information
- Make use of a summary
- Right vs wrong: the same city manager summary, twice
- Outline your professional experience
- State the scale you have run: population, budget, headcount and outcome
- Build a snapshot of your key skills
- List your education and credentials
- Choose the right layout and design
- City manager job market and outlook
- What salary you can expect as a city manager
- Key takeaways for a city manager resume
- Related government resume examples
- FAQ
A city manager resume is a two to three page document that names the population you have served, the budget you have run, the headcount you have carried, and the outcomes an elected council voted on while you were responsible for them.
It is also a political document, which makes it unlike any other executive resume. A city manager is appointed by a council rather than hired by a boss, so the file is read by elected members with different priorities, by a search consultant screening forty applications against a council-approved profile, and in many states by the public. Florida's Attorney General held that applications for a municipal department head post are public records that must be produced for inspection by any person, and that an agency cannot promise an applicant confidentiality (Florida Attorney General Opinion 77-48). Write every line as though it may be printed in a local paper.
Resume guide for a city manager resume
This guide and the corresponding city manager resume example will cover:
- How to write a city manager resume, section by section
- Why the resume is a public document, and how that changes what you write
- Three adaptable summaries: analyst, assistant city manager and city manager
- The scale section that decides which files a search firm forwards
- What the credentials are worth, and what the pay data shows
How to write a city manager resume
Six sections: contact header, summary, a scale block, professional experience, education and credentials, and civic service. Two pages is standard, three once you have run a city.
Scale comes before experience because it is the screen. A search consultant reading against a council-approved profile checks three numbers first: population served, budget managed, and employees supervised. Buried in a bullet on page two, they get a slower read than they deserve.
SectionWhat it is answeringWhere it goes
- ScaleHas this person run a city our size?Under the summary
- Professional experienceWhat did the council get while they were responsible?Reverse chronological, with outcomes
- Education and credentialsMPA? ICMA-CM? Do they clear the profile?One block, with dates
- Civic serviceWill they represent us well regionally?Short, at the end
Write the resume assuming it will be released
Public records law is the part of this process that catches experienced managers out. Applications to a public agency are records of that agency in many states, and only the legislature can create an exemption (Florida Attorney General Opinion 77-48).
The rules that follow are simple. Write nothing about a former council, mayor or departure that you would not want read aloud at a public meeting. Do not characterise a separation; state the dates. Leave out your home address. And if you are a sitting manager applying quietly, ask the search firm in writing at what stage names are released in that state.
Run the finished file through the free ATS checker before you submit. Most executive searches now collect applications through a portal that parses the document first.
Choosing the best resume format
Reverse chronological, two to three pages. Nothing else works for an appointment made by a body that will publish your record.
Functional formats read as an attempt to obscure a timeline, the wrong signal in a process where a council will ask why you left each city. Keep the dates and let the scale block do the work a functional summary would have tried to do.
Include your contact information
Never use your current city's email address: it is a public record in its own right. Put ICMA-CM after your name if you hold it, because it is the one post-nominal a search consultant reads as a filter rather than decoration.
Make use of a summary
Four lines: role and form of government, the three scale numbers, one outcome with a figure attached, and your credential.
Management analyst adaptable resume summary example
Assistant city manager adaptable resume summary example
City manager adaptable resume summary example
Right vs wrong: the same city manager summary, twice
The right column tells a council whether you have run a city their size. The left could describe any of the forty applicants, which is how a search consultant will treat it.
Outline your professional experience
City, state, form of government, population, budget, headcount, dates. Then four to six bullets, each naming something the council voted on or a number that appeared in an audit.
- Instead of
Managed the city budget
UsePrepared and delivered a $214 million all-funds budget across six annual cycles, each adopted on the first scheduled vote
- Instead of
Improved financial stability
UseMoved general fund reserves from 1.9 to 4.6 months of operating expenditure and held the bond rating through a utility rate restructuring
- Instead of
Oversaw capital projects
UseDelivered a $61 million capital programme, 14 projects, none over budget and 12 of 14 on schedule
- Instead of
Worked with department heads
UseRecruited six of nine department directors, five of them internally promoted, with no director vacancy over 90 days
- Instead of
Handled labour relations
UseSettled four collective bargaining agreements without arbitration, including a wage reopener during a levy year
Adaptable resume employment history example
City Manager, City of Cedar Harbor, WA, council-manager form, population 82,500, $214 million all-funds budget, 540 FTE, June 2020 to Present
Appointed by a seven-member council; prepare the annual budget, appoint and supervise all department directors, and serve as the council's chief policy advisor.
Moved general fund reserves from 1.9 months of operating expenditure to 4.6 over four years and held the city's bond rating through a utility rate restructuring.
Delivered a $61 million capital programme across 14 projects, none over budget and 12 of 14 on schedule.
Settled four collective bargaining agreements without arbitration, including a wage reopener in a levy year.
Recruited six of nine department directors, five internally promoted; no director vacancy exceeded 90 days.
State the scale you have run: population, budget, headcount and outcome
This is the section that separates a city manager resume from every other executive resume, and the one most applicants leave implicit.
A search firm screens against a profile the council approved, and that profile almost always contains a size. A council of a 60,000-person city is nervous about a manager whose largest city was 9,000, and bored by one whose smallest was 400,000. The three numbers that answer it are population served, all-funds budget, and full-time employees supervised. Put them in one block near the top, for every city you have run.
Adaptable resume scale block example
Cedar Harbor, WA, 2020 to present: population 82,500, $214 million all-funds budget, 540 FTE, council-manager, seven-member council
Alderport, WA, 2015 to 2020: population 46,200, $118 million all-funds budget, 310 FTE, council-manager, five-member council
Kestrel Bay, WA, 2012 to 2015: population 18,400, $31 million all-funds budget, 96 FTE, council-manager, five-member council
Then attach outcomes a council votes on or reads in an audit: reserves as months of operating expenditure, bond rating actions, capital delivered with the count over budget, bargaining settlements and whether any went to arbitration, permit turnaround days, director vacancies and their duration, audit findings, housing units permitted. These are the metrics the profile is written from, and all of them are public.
Say the form of government too, because it is the job rather than a detail. Under the council-manager form the elected council sets policy while the appointed manager prepares the budget, recruits and supervises staff, advises on policy and carries out what the council adopts, serving at its pleasure (ICMA, Council-Manager Form of Government). A manager who has only worked under a strong-mayor structure has done a different job, and a council knows it.
The form of government you are applying into
More than 4,300 United States municipalities with populations of 10,000 or more use the council-manager form, including 59 percent of the 347 municipalities over 100,000, and more than 800 counties use a similar structure. More than 120 million people live in a municipality that operates under it (International City/County Management Association, Council-Manager Form of Government).
Tenure is shorter than the job's demands suggest. A survey of California city managers by the Rose Institute of State and Local Government for the California City Management Foundation, with responses from 321 of the state's 482 cities, found an average current tenure of just over four and a half years (California City Management Foundation, 2023).
That is why the resume carries so much weight here. You will write one every five or six years, for an audience that changes with every election, in a market where the comparable cities are finite and the search consultants know each other.
Build a snapshot of your key skills
Twelve to sixteen entries in four groups, matched to the functions a city profile names.
Adaptable resume skills example
Finance: Budget development and adoption, Multi-year forecasting, Capital improvement programming, Debt issuance and rating agency presentation, Utility rate setting, Reserve policy
Governance: Council agenda and staff report process, Policy advising, Open meeting law, Public records compliance, Intergovernmental relations
Operations: Director recruitment and supervision, Collective bargaining, Performance measurement, Emergency management
Community: Comprehensive plan and land use, Economic development agreements, Housing policy, Public engagement design
List your education and credentials
Degree, then the ICMA credential and its status, then the professional development that satisfies its annual obligation.
Adaptable resume education and credentials example
Master of Public Administration, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 2012. Programme accredited by the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration.
Bachelor of Arts, Political Science, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, 2009
ICMA Credentialed Manager, International City/County Management Association, since 2021, maintaining the 40 hours of professional development required annually under Tenet 8 of the ICMA Code of Ethics.
Professional development: ICMA Annual Conference (2023, 2024, 2025). Emergency management ICS 300 and 400, 2021.
The credential has a defined bar. ICMA requires seven years of senior management experience for a master's in public administration or policy, eight with another graduate degree, nine with a bachelor's, and fifteen for a chief administrative officer with less than a bachelor's, plus the ICMA Management Assessment and an annual report on the 40-hour professional development obligation (International City/County Management Association, 2026). Candidate status sits two years below each threshold and is worth listing.
Choose the right layout and design
Single column, plain type at 11 or 12 point, clear headings, no photograph, no graphics, and page numbers with your name in the footer. Search firms print these and hand them to councils in packets, and a file that loses its identity on page two is one nobody can find again.
Do
- Give population, all-funds budget and headcount for every city.
- Name the form of government and the size of the council.
- Attach outcomes a council voted on or an auditor recorded.
- Use ICMA-CM after your name if you hold it.
- Keep the whole file to something you would be comfortable seeing published.
Don’t
- Do not use your current city email address.
- Do not characterise a departure, a former mayor or a former council.
- Do not include a home address.
- Do not describe a matter in litigation.
- Do not write "oversaw" where a number exists.
City manager job market and outlook
City managers are counted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics inside chief executives, within the top executives group, so the figures cover a wider population than municipal management alone.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Chief executive jobs, 2025 | 291,600 |
| Top executives jobs, 2025 | 3,890,600 |
| Projected change, top executives, 2025-35 | +5% (faster than average), +190,600 |
| Projected annual openings, top executives | ~304,100 |
| Typical entry-level education | Bachelor's degree |
| Work experience in a related occupation | 5 years or more |
| Median annual wage, chief executives, May 2025 | $213,990 |
| Median annual wage, chief executives in government, May 2025 | $146,700 |
The market for the job itself is narrower: bounded by the count of council-manager municipalities, by tenure of roughly four and a half years in the one state with a published survey, and by the fact that councils hire through search firms with a list of people they already call.
What salary you can expect as a city manager
Chief executives had a median annual wage of $213,990 as of May 2025, with the lowest 10 percent under $75,700 and the highest 10 percent over $507,730. In government, excluding state and local education and hospitals, the chief executive median was $146,700 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025).
That government figure is the useful one, and the spread beneath it is almost entirely scale. Population, budget and headcount set the range, and a council benchmarks against comparable cities in its region before making an offer. That is the practical reason the scale block matters: the same evidence sets your salary band and gets you shortlisted.
Contract terms hold the rest of the money and are negotiated after appointment, not claimed on a resume: severance, allowances, a professional development budget, relocation, and the evaluation cycle.
Key takeaways for a city manager resume
- Put population, all-funds budget and headcount in a block near the top, for every city.
- Name the form of government and the size of the council; it defines the job.
- Attach outcomes a council voted on or an auditor recorded, not adjectives.
- Write the file assuming it will be released under public records law.
- Use ICMA-CM after your name, or Candidate status if you do not hold it yet.
- Never apply from your current city's email address.
- Keep it two to three pages, with your name in the footer.
Related government resume examples
- Federal resume
- Government resume
- Correctional officer resume
- Postal service worker resume
- Police officer resume
- Firefighter resume
- Security officer resume
- Military resume
- Criminology resume
- Case manager resume
- Community outreach coordinator resume
- Social worker resume
City manager resume questions, answered
How long should a city manager resume be?
Two pages for an assistant city manager, two to three once you have run a city. Search firms often also ask for a one-page list of accomplishments and a management style statement, so keep those separate rather than padding the resume.
Do I need an MPA to become a city manager?
It is the standard qualification rather than a legal requirement. ICMA's credentialing thresholds treat it as the shortest route: seven years of senior management experience for a master's in public administration or policy against nine for a bachelor's (International City/County Management Association, 2026). Without one, the resume carries more weight on scale and outcomes.
Is the ICMA-CM credential worth listing?
Yes, with the year. It signals a defined combination of education and senior management experience, adherence to the ICMA Code of Ethics, and a documented 40 hours of professional development a year under Tenet 8 (International City/County Management Association, 2026). List Candidate status while working toward it.
Will my application become public if I apply?
It depends on the state and the stage. In some states an application to a public agency is a public record from the moment it is filed; Florida's Attorney General held that applications for a municipal department head must be produced on request and that the agency cannot promise confidentiality (Florida Attorney General Opinion 77-48). Ask the search firm in writing before you apply.
What if my experience is in a strong-mayor city?
Say so plainly and translate it: budget prepared, departments supervised, headcount, capital delivered. Then address the difference in the cover letter, because a council will wonder whether you can advise a body of seven rather than report to one elected executive.
How do I show results when the council gets the credit?
Use what is recorded: reserves as months of operating expenditure, bond rating actions, audit findings, capital delivered against budget and schedule, permit turnaround days, bargaining settlements without arbitration, director vacancies and their duration. All are public and verifiable, and none requires you to claim a decision that belonged to the council.