Confidential Investigative Specialist Family
Career series with 3 positions across 3 levels
Confidential Investigative Specialist groups 3 related titles into a 3-level career ladder.
Entry is typically through Confidential Investigative Specialist 1, advancing through the ladder toward Confidential Investigative Specialist 3. State payroll records show 2 people across the family's titles, most concentrated at Legislature.
Confidential Investigative Specialist commonly advances into Program Specialist and Hazardous Site Mitigation Specialist.
Positions in This Family
What the Confidential Investigative Specialist family covers
Confidential Investigative Specialist is a graded series in the New Jersey civil service classification plan, running 3 title codes across 3 levels. Every title in it is a state title, so the employer is a state department, commission or authority rather than a county or municipality.
Sworn and investigative titles sit apart from the rest of civil service. They carry their own salary schedules, their own unions and, in most cases, an academy requirement and a medical and psychological screen on top of the exam. Rank is handled by moving between titles rather than by moving up a range, so the ladder here is a sequence of separate classifications. New Jersey also runs a large civilian investigative service alongside the sworn forces, and those titles follow ordinary competitive rules even though the work overlaps.
What each title does
Each title in the family carries its own published definition. These are the opening lines of each one, which is usually where the difference between two neighboring rungs is actually stated.
- Confidential Investigative Specialist 1: Act as an aide and under the direction of the Assistant Director, Confidential…
- Confidential Investigative Specialist 2: Under the direction of the Assistant Director, Confidential Investigative Specialist 3…
- Confidential Investigative Specialist 3: Under the direction of the Commission Chair, Commissioners, Executive Director, or…
What it takes to qualify
Across the 3 titles we have parsed, the education requirements read as a bachelor's degree on 3 of them. Experience requirements sit at 3 years wherever they are stated.
On how the jobs are filled: 3 are unclassified, which means appointment at the employer's discretion and salary set individually.
Who actually employs these titles
State payroll records show 2 people working under 2 of this family's titles, spread across 1 agency. Legislature alone accounts for about 100% of them.
- Legislature — 2 employees
Median actual pay varies across the family, from $67,850 for Confidential Investigative Specialist 2 up to $110,810 for Confidential Investigative Specialist 3. Those are medians of what people are really paid, not schedule minimums and maximums.
State payroll only, deduplicated by payroll title; local employers file separately, so a family with local codes looks smaller here than it is. How this is counted.
How the pay is set
No state salary schedule applies here, because these are local titles. Pay is set by each adopting county, municipality or authority under its own ordinance or negotiated agreement, so two employers using the same title code can pay very differently. How local civil service pay works.
Where these jobs exist
These are state titles, hired by New Jersey departments, commissions and boards through the Civil Service Commission's announcement and eligible list process rather than by an ordinary job posting. How state hiring works, and which agencies employ what.
Related titles elsewhere in the plan
These titles sit elsewhere in the classification plan but share vocabulary with Confidential Investigative Specialist, which usually means overlapping duties or a related eligible list.
- Legal Specialist 3, Confidential ($71,879 to $100,638, state jurisdiction) — in the Legal Specialist family
- Coordinator Investigative Analysis (state jurisdiction)
- Coordinator Investigative Accounting (state jurisdiction)
- Investigative Agent 1 State Commission of Investigtion (state jurisdiction) — in the Investigative Agent family
- Investigative Analyst 1 State Commission Investigation (state jurisdiction) — in the Investigative Analyst family
- Legal Specialist (state jurisdiction)
Common questions about Confidential Investigative Specialist jobs
How many Confidential Investigative Specialist titles are there in New Jersey civil service?
The Confidential Investigative Specialist family holds 3 title codes arranged across 3 levels. Each code is a separate classification with its own published specification, requirements and salary treatment.
What does a Confidential Investigative Specialist earn in New Jersey?
No state salary schedule figure is published for the titles in this family, which is normal for local classifications. Local civil service employers set their own pay by ordinance or negotiated agreement, so the rate depends on which county, municipality or authority is hiring.
Do you need to take an exam to become a Confidential Investigative Specialist?
Mostly no. 3 of the 3 titles here are unclassified, so appointment is at the employer's discretion rather than from an eligible list, and salary is set individually rather than by a published step. That also makes cross-agency salary comparison less reliable for these titles.
What qualifications does a Confidential Investigative Specialist need?
The most common education requirement in this family is a bachelor's degree, named on 3 of the 3 titles. Stated experience ranges from 3 years depending on the rung. Read the individual specification for the exact wording, including any experience substitution.
Which agencies employ Confidential Investigative Specialist staff?
State payroll records show 2 people in this family across 1 agency, with Legislature the largest at 2. Local government employers are not covered by that extract.