NJ Civil Service Navigator

Program Specialist Family

Career series with 40 positions across 4 levels

New Jersey classifies Program Specialist as a 4-level family, 40 titles in all, built for step-by-step advancement.

Entry is typically through Program Specialist 1, advancing through the ladder toward Program Specialist 4 and, from there, into supervisory roles. Pay across the family spans $58,222 to $148,187, around the 78th percentile of all civil service job families by top pay. State payroll records show 4,296 people across the family's titles, most concentrated at Human Services.

Program Specialist reports to supervising titles such as Supervising Program Development Specialist and Senior Environmental Health Specialist.

40
Positions
4
Career Levels
14
Specializations
Salary Range: $58,222 - $148,187/year

Specializations

Bilingual In Spanish & English Bilingual In Spanish And English Occupational Environmental Health Occupational Environmental Health Code Enforcement Occupational Environmental Health, Code Enforcement Regulatory Programs Regulatory Programs Bi Spanish/english Social Human Services +6 more

Positions in This Family

... and 25 more positions

What the Program Specialist family covers

Program Specialist is a graded series in the New Jersey civil service classification plan, running 40 title codes across 4 levels. The family straddles jurisdictions: 36 state, 2 both state and local, and 1 local, so parts of it are hired by state departments and parts by local civil service employers.

Inspectors and examiners are the operating arm of New Jersey's regulatory statutes, and the title usually tracks the law it enforces rather than a profession. That is why these families are narrow and numerous: weights and measures, construction code, environmental compliance, child care, insurance and market conduct each get their own series. Many require a state credential issued by another agency before you can hold the title at all, so the license, not the exam, is the real bottleneck. Local health and code enforcement offices hire the same titles as the state.

The ladder, ordered by pay

Ordered by what they actually pay rather than by the number in the title, the Program Specialist rungs look like this. Note that the numbers in these titles do not run in pay order. In this family a lower number sits higher on the ladder, which is a New Jersey convention that catches people out when they read a title list top to bottom.

Showing the 12 best paid of 38 titles with published salary data.

The distance from the bottom of Program Specialist 1 to the top of Program Specialist 4 is $89,965, an increase of about 155% 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.

Showing 8 of 36 published definitions in this family. The full list of titles is below.

What it takes to qualify

Across the 40 titles we have parsed, the education requirements read as a master's degree on 36 of them and a bachelor's degree on 4 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.

3 of the 40 titles carry a license or certification requirement. On how the jobs are filled: 39 are competitive, filled from an eligible list after an open competitive or promotional examination.

Who actually employs these titles

4,296 people appear on the state payroll under 23 of these titles, at 24 agencies. Human Services alone accounts for about 31% of them.

  • Human Services — 1,315 employees
  • Health and Senior Services — 630 employees
  • Environmental Protection — 581 employees
  • Children and Families — 486 employees
  • Community Affairs — 261 employees
  • Law and Public Safety — 225 employees

Those are the 6 largest of 24 agencies employing this family.

Median actual pay varies across the family, from $58,818 for Program Specialist 1 up to $129,353 for Program Specialist 4 Social/Human Services. 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

Because the family mixes jurisdictions, the answer to "who hires this" depends on the specific code. State codes run through the Civil Service Commission's announcement and eligible list process; local codes are hired by the counties, municipalities and authorities that adopted civil service under Title 11A. Check an employer's status before assuming a title is available where you live.

Related titles elsewhere in the plan

These titles sit elsewhere in the classification plan but share vocabulary with Program Specialist, which usually means overlapping duties or a related eligible list.

Families next to this one

New Jersey's classification plan links families by shared terminology and by the routes people actually take between them. These sit closest to Program Specialist.

Common questions about Program Specialist jobs

How many separate Program Specialist classifications does New Jersey have?

The Program Specialist family holds 40 title codes arranged across 4 levels. Each code is a separate classification with its own published specification, requirements and salary treatment.

How much is a Program Specialist paid?

Published salary data for this family runs from $58,222 at the bottom of Program Specialist 1 to $148,187 at the top of Program Specialist 4. Those are schedule figures. Where the title appears on the state payroll, actual median pay is listed on the page above.

Is there a civil service test for Program Specialist?

Yes for most of the family. 39 of the 40 titles are in the competitive division, which means appointment comes from an eligible list built by an open competitive or promotional examination.

What are the requirements to become a Program Specialist?

The most common education requirement in this family is a master's degree, named on 36 of the 40 titles. Stated experience ranges from 1 to 4 years depending on the rung. 3 of the titles also require a license or certification. Read the individual specification for the exact wording, including any experience substitution.

Which agencies employ Program Specialist staff?

State payroll records show 4,296 people in this family across 24 agencies, with Human Services the largest at 1,315. Local government employers are not covered by that extract.

Is Program Specialist 1 higher or lower than Program Specialist 3?

In this family the lower number is the more senior title. New Jersey's level numbering does not run in pay order, and reading the titles by number alone will give you the ladder upside down. The list above is sorted by what each title actually pays.