Dispute Resolution Specialist Family
Career series with 3 positions across 3 levels
Dispute Resolution Specialist groups 3 related titles into a 3-level career ladder.
Entry is typically through Dispute Resolution Specialist 1, advancing through the ladder toward Dispute Resolution Specialist 3. Pay across the family spans $87,507 to $155,359, around the 86th percentile of all civil service job families by top pay. State payroll records show 4 people across the family's titles, most concentrated at Environmental Protection.
Dispute Resolution Specialist commonly advances into Program Specialist and Hazardous Site Mitigation Specialist.
Positions in This Family
- DISPUTE RESOLUTION SPECIALIST 3 (21814) $105,267 - $155,359/year
- DISPUTE RESOLUTION SPECIALIST 2 (21815) $95,955 - $141,386/year
- DISPUTE RESOLUTION SPECIALIST 1 (21816) $87,507 - $128,719/year
What the Dispute Resolution Specialist family covers
Dispute Resolution 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.
Legal titles in New Jersey split into two groups that look similar and are not. Deputy attorneys general, public defenders and public advocates are unclassified: they are appointed, not examined, and their pay is negotiated inside a schedule rather than earned by stepping through it. Hearing officers, appeals examiners and paralegal support titles are ordinary classified positions filled the usual way. Both groups cluster in Law and Public Safety, the Office of Administrative Law and the agencies that run their own hearings, so the work is closer to administrative adjudication than to courtroom practice.
The ladder, ordered by pay
Ordered by what they actually pay rather than by the number in the title, the Dispute Resolution Specialist rungs look like this. Here the numbering happens to agree with the pay order, which is not guaranteed elsewhere in New Jersey's plan.
- Dispute Resolution Specialist 3 — $105,267 to $155,359 (a doctoral degree and 4 years of experience)
- Dispute Resolution Specialist 2 — $95,955 to $141,386 (a doctoral degree and 2 years of experience)
- Dispute Resolution Specialist 1 — $87,507 to $128,719 (a doctoral degree and 1 year of experience)
The distance from the bottom of Dispute Resolution Specialist 1 to the top of Dispute Resolution Specialist 3 is $67,852, an increase of about 78% over the entry minimum.
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.
- Dispute Resolution Specialist 3: Under direction of a higher level supervisory official in a state department, acting independently and without supervision, takes the lead role as an…
- Dispute Resolution Specialist 2: Under limited supervision of a higher level supervisory official in a state department, is responsible for assessing the disputant's needs and recommends…
- Dispute Resolution Specialist 1: Under close supervision of a higher level supervisory official in a state department, acts as an arbitrator, case evaluator, conciliator, facilitator…
What it takes to qualify
Across the 3 titles we have parsed, the education requirements read as a doctoral degree on 3 of them. Stated experience runs from 1 year at the lowest rung to 4 at the highest, which is the main thing separating one level from the next.
On how the jobs are filled: 3 are competitive, filled from an eligible list after an open competitive or promotional examination.
Who actually employs these titles
State payroll records show 4 people working under 2 of this family's titles, spread across 2 agencies. Environmental Protection alone accounts for about 50% of them.
- Environmental Protection — 2 employees
- Law and Public Safety — 2 employees
Median actual pay varies across the family, from $88,530 for Dispute Resolution Specialist 1 up to $150,105 for Dispute Resolution 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
Titles in this family are paid on the A-P-R-S salary schedule. See every step in that schedule. Bargaining is handled by CWA. Union contracts and rights are collected here.
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 Dispute Resolution Specialist, which usually means overlapping duties or a related eligible list.
- Legal Specialist (state jurisdiction)
- Grants Specialist ($87,507 to $128,719, state jurisdiction)
- Legal Specialist 1 ($83,582 to $122,832, state jurisdiction) — in the Legal Specialist family
- Binding Specialist 1 (local jurisdiction) — in the Binding Specialist family
- Paralegal Specialist (local jurisdiction)
- Fire Code Specialist ($87,507 to $128,719, state jurisdiction)
Common questions about Dispute Resolution Specialist jobs
How many Dispute Resolution Specialist titles are there in New Jersey civil service?
The Dispute Resolution 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 Dispute Resolution Specialist earn in New Jersey?
Published salary data for this family runs from $87,507 at the bottom of Dispute Resolution Specialist 1 to $155,359 at the top of Dispute Resolution Specialist 3. Those are schedule figures. Where the title appears on the state payroll, actual median pay is listed on the page above.
Do you need to take an exam to become a Dispute Resolution Specialist?
Yes for most of the family. 3 of the 3 titles are in the competitive division, which means appointment comes from an eligible list built by an open competitive or promotional examination.
What qualifications does a Dispute Resolution Specialist need?
The most common education requirement in this family is a doctoral degree, named on 3 of the 3 titles. Stated experience ranges from 1 to 4 years depending on the rung. Read the individual specification for the exact wording, including any experience substitution.
Which agencies employ Dispute Resolution Specialist staff?
State payroll records show 4 people in this family across 2 agencies, with Environmental Protection the largest at 2. Local government employers are not covered by that extract.