Project Management Specialist Family
Career series with 3 positions across 3 levels
Project Management Specialist is a career-ladder family in New Jersey civil service, with 3 titles spanning 3 levels.
Entry is typically through Project Management Specialist 1, advancing through the ladder toward Project Management Specialist 3. Pay across the family spans $83,582 to $155,359, around the 86th percentile of all civil service job families by top pay. State payroll records show 141 people across the family's titles, most concentrated at Transportation.
Project Management Specialist commonly advances into Program Specialist and Hazardous Site Mitigation Specialist.
Positions in This Family
- PROJECT MANAGEMENT SPECIALIST 1 (40040) $83,582 - $122,832/year
- PROJECT MANAGEMENT SPECIALIST 2 (40041) $95,955 - $141,386/year
- PROJECT MANAGEMENT SPECIALIST 3 (40042) $105,267 - $155,359/year
What the Project Management Specialist family covers
New Jersey classifies Project Management Specialist as a 3-level series holding 3 separate title codes. Every title in it is a state title, so the employer is a state department, commission or authority rather than a county or municipality.
Chief, director, manager and supervisor are not single jobs in New Jersey civil service. They are ranks applied across the whole of government, so a single family can hold hundreds of codes covering entirely unrelated bureaus. That structure matters for anyone reading the pay figures: two titles in the same family may share nothing except a level of responsibility. Most of these positions are managerial or unclassified, which means salaries are set individually rather than by stepping through a published ladder, and the managerial schedule itself has been frozen since 2007.
The ladder, ordered by pay
Sorted by pay instead of by title number, the Project Management Specialist family stacks up as follows. Here the numbering happens to agree with the pay order, which is not guaranteed elsewhere in New Jersey's plan.
- Project Management Specialist 3 — $105,267 to $155,359 (a bachelor's degree and 7 years of experience)
- Project Management Specialist 2 — $95,955 to $141,386 (a bachelor's degree and 6 years of experience)
- Project Management Specialist 1 — $83,582 to $122,832 (a bachelor's degree and 5 years of experience)
The distance from the bottom of Project Management Specialist 1 to the top of Project Management Specialist 3 is $71,777, an increase of about 86% over the entry minimum.
What each title does
The specifications themselves are the clearest guide to what separates these titles. Here is how each one opens.
- Project Management Specialist 1: Under the limited supervision of a Project Management Specialist 3, or other supervisory official, in the Department of Transportation, serves as part of a…
- Project Management Specialist 2: Under the general supervision of a Project Manager 3 or other supervisory official, in the Department of Transportation, takes the lead over lower grade…
- Project Management Specialist 3: Under the direction of a Manager or other supervisory official in the Department of Transportation, supervises a project management team comprised of…
Getting in: the stated requirements
Across the 3 titles we have parsed, the education requirements read as a bachelor's degree on 3 of them. Stated experience runs from 5 years at the lowest rung to 7 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 141 people working under 3 of this family's titles, spread across 1 agency. Transportation alone accounts for about 100% of them.
- Transportation — 141 employees
Median actual pay varies across the family, from $107,301 for Project Management Specialist 1 up to $145,265 for Project Management 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
Nearby in the plan, ranked by how distinctive the shared terms are rather than by how many words happen to match.
- Right to Know Project Specialist (local jurisdiction)
- Management Specialist (local jurisdiction)
- Management Improvement Specialist 2 ($110,276 to $162,870, state jurisdiction) — in the Management Improvement Specialist family
- Construction Management Specialist 4 ($69,668 to $101,951, both state and local jurisdiction) — in the Construction Management Specialist family
- Management Information Systems Specialist (local jurisdiction)
- Building Management Services Specialist 1 ($60,876 to $88,743, both state and local jurisdiction) — in the Building Management Services Specialist family
Common questions about Project Management Specialist jobs
How many Project Management Specialist titles are there in New Jersey civil service?
The Project Management 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 Project Management Specialist earn in New Jersey?
Published salary data for this family runs from $83,582 at the bottom of Project Management Specialist 1 to $155,359 at the top of Project Management 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 Project Management 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 Project Management 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 5 to 7 years depending on the rung. Read the individual specification for the exact wording, including any experience substitution.
Which agencies employ Project Management Specialist staff?
State payroll records show 141 people in this family across 1 agency, with Transportation the largest at 141. Local government employers are not covered by that extract.