Physician Specialist Family
Career series with 1 positions across 1 levels
Physician Specialist 1 is an unclassified role, so it is appointed at the discretion of the hiring authority and does not carry the usual exam-and-tenure track.
Qualifying takes a doctoral degree and 2 years of relevant experience. The FY2027 range lands between $168,248 and $249,836, and state payroll currently lists about 43 people in the title, most of them at Health and Senior Services.
Physician Specialist is a single-title classification family: Physician Specialist 1 is the only position in it. Physician Specialist commonly advances into Physician and Program Specialist.
Positions in This Family
- PHYSICIAN SPECIALIST 1 (00088) $168,248 - $249,836/year
What the Physician Specialist family covers
In New Jersey's classification plan, Physician Specialist stands alone. The family holds one title code rather than a graded series. Every title in it is a state title, so the employer is a state department, commission or authority rather than a county or municipality.
The state is a direct care employer at scale, running psychiatric hospitals, developmental centers and veterans homes around the clock. That shapes the classifications: shift work, unusual work weeks and institution-specific variants are normal here rather than exceptional, and the same clinical title can exist several times over for different facilities. Professional licensure carries the qualification weight, so movement between the public and private sector is easier in this group than almost anywhere else in civil service. Counties run their own health departments and hire parallel titles under local jurisdiction.
What each title does
The published specification opens with this definition of the work.
- Physician Specialist 1: Under general supervision of a Medical Director, Managing Physician/Psychiatrist, or other higher level supervisory official in a…
What it takes to qualify
Across the 1 title we have parsed, the education requirements read as a doctoral degree on 1 of them. Experience requirements sit at 2 years wherever they are stated.
On how the jobs are filled: 1 is unclassified, which means appointment at the employer's discretion and salary set individually. 1 title in this family is covered by the compendium's special incentive program, which lets an appointing authority hire a qualified candidate above the bottom step instead of starting them at step one. See the full list of incentive titles.
Who actually employs these titles
43 people appear on the state payroll under 1 of these title, at 3 agencies. Health and Senior Services alone accounts for about 79% of them.
- Health and Senior Services — 34 employees
- Human Services — 8 employees
- Law and Public Safety — 1 employee
Median actual pay for Physician Specialist 1 is $241,388, which is what people in the title are really paid rather than the published band.
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
Hiring for this family runs through state service. Departments, commissions and boards fill these titles from eligible lists built by the Civil Service Commission, so the route in is an announcement and a filing deadline rather than a posting you apply to directly. What state jurisdiction means, and a breakdown of who employs what.
Related titles elsewhere in the plan
These titles sit elsewhere in the classification plan but share vocabulary with Physician Specialist, which usually means overlapping duties or a related eligible list.
- Physician ($160,481 to $238,146, state jurisdiction)
- Physician (local jurisdiction)
- Physician ($168,248 to $249,836, state jurisdiction)
- Physician 2 ($126,854 to $187,691, state jurisdiction) — in the Physician family
- Clinic Physician (local jurisdiction)
- School Physician (local jurisdiction)
Common questions about Physician Specialist jobs
How many separate Physician Specialist classifications does New Jersey have?
The Physician Specialist family holds 1 title code. Each code is a separate classification with its own published specification, requirements and salary treatment.
How much is a Physician Specialist paid?
Physician Specialist 1 is published at $168,248 to $249,836. Salary depends on the salary range assigned to the title and the step the employee has reached.
Is there a civil service test for Physician Specialist?
Mostly no. 1 of the 1 title 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 are the requirements to become a Physician Specialist?
The most common education requirement in this family is a doctoral degree, named on 1 of the 1 title. Stated experience ranges from 2 years depending on the rung. Read the individual specification for the exact wording, including any experience substitution.
Which agencies employ Physician Specialist staff?
State payroll records show 43 people in this family across 3 agencies, with Health and Senior Services the largest at 34. Local government employers are not covered by that extract.