Special Staff Officer Family
Career series with 6 positions across 3 levels
Special Staff Officer is a career-ladder family in New Jersey civil service, with 6 titles spanning 3 levels.
Entry is typically through Special Staff Officer 3, advancing through the ladder toward Special Staff Officer 1. Pay across the family spans $58,222 to $106,798, around the 34th percentile of all civil service job families by top pay. State payroll records show 20 people across the family's titles, most concentrated at Military and Veterans Affairs.
Special Staff Officer commonly advances into Staff Nurse - and Fire Officer.
Positions in This Family
- SPECIAL STAFF OFFICER 3 (34371) $60,876 - $88,743/year
- SPECIAL STAFF OFFICER 3 (34372) $58,222 - $84,763/year
- SPECIAL STAFF OFFICER 2 (34373) $63,663 - $92,953/year
- SPECIAL STAFF OFFICER 1 (34374) $69,668 - $101,951/year
- SPECIAL STAFF OFFICER 1 (34375) $72,896 - $106,798/year
- SPECIAL STAFF OFFICER 2 (34379) $66,592 - $97,354/year
What the Special Staff Officer family covers
Special Staff Officer is a graded series in the New Jersey civil service classification plan, running 6 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.
Clerical series are the entry door to New Jersey civil service and the largest group by headcount. They are also the most duplicated: nearly every one exists in both a state and a local version, and the local versions are what municipal clerks, county offices and boards of education hire against. Most require a high school diploma and nothing more, which makes them the practical route in for applicants without a degree. Advancement runs by responsibility, from clerk to senior to principal to head, with the specialised transcription and stenography variants branching off partway up.
The ladder, ordered by pay
Ordered by what they actually pay rather than by the number in the title, the Special Staff Officer 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.
- Special Staff Officer 1 — $72,896 to $106,798 (a bachelor's degree and 3 years of experience)
- Special Staff Officer 1 — $69,668 to $101,951 (a bachelor's degree and 3 years of experience)
- Special Staff Officer 2 — $66,592 to $97,354 (a bachelor's degree and 1 year of experience)
- Special Staff Officer 2 — $63,663 to $92,953 (a bachelor's degree and 1 year of experience)
- Special Staff Officer 3 — $60,876 to $88,743 (a bachelor's degree)
- Special Staff Officer 3 — $58,222 to $84,763 (a bachelor's degree)
The distance from the bottom of Special Staff Officer 3 to the top of Special Staff Officer 1 is $48,576, an increase of about 83% 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.
- Special Staff Officer 3: Under direction of a Principal Staff Officer or a Special Staff Officer serves as a primary assistant in matters of a varied nature; does other related duties as…
- Special Staff Officer 2: Works under a Principal Staff Officer or Special Staff Officer 1, assisting in the…
- Special Staff Officer 1: Under the direction of a Principal Staff Officer or other supervisory officer in the Department of Military Affairs or…
What it takes to qualify
Across the 6 titles we have parsed, the education requirements read as a bachelor's degree on 6 of them. Stated experience runs from 1 year at the lowest rung to 3 at the highest, which is the main thing separating one level from the next.
On how the jobs are filled: 6 are unclassified, which means appointment at the employer's discretion and salary set individually.
Who actually employs these titles
State payroll records show 20 people working under 3 of this family's titles, spread across 2 agencies. Military and Veterans Affairs alone accounts for about 95% of them.
- Military and Veterans Affairs — 19 employees
- Unknown — 1 employee
Median actual pay varies across the family, from $81,348 for Special Staff Officer 1 up to $88,395 for Special Staff Officer 2. 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 Special Staff Officer, which usually means overlapping duties or a related eligible list.
- Special Law Enforcement Officer (local jurisdiction)
- Program Officer, Office of Special Projects ($79,844 to $117,228, state jurisdiction)
- General Staff Officer ($75,474 to $105,655, state jurisdiction)
- General Staff Officer ($115,536 to $170,731, state jurisdiction)
- Principal Staff Officer 3 ($79,844 to $117,228, state jurisdiction) — in the Principal Staff Officer family
- Training and Staff Development Officer ($95,955 to $141,386, state jurisdiction)
Common questions about Special Staff Officer jobs
How many Special Staff Officer titles are there in New Jersey civil service?
The Special Staff Officer family holds 6 title codes arranged across 3 levels. Each code is a separate classification with its own published specification, requirements and salary treatment.
What does a Special Staff Officer earn in New Jersey?
Published salary data for this family runs from $58,222 at the bottom of Special Staff Officer 3 to $106,798 at the top of Special Staff Officer 1. 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 Special Staff Officer?
Mostly no. 6 of the 6 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 Special Staff Officer need?
The most common education requirement in this family is a bachelor's degree, named on 6 of the 6 titles. Stated experience ranges from 1 to 3 years depending on the rung. Read the individual specification for the exact wording, including any experience substitution.
Which agencies employ Special Staff Officer staff?
State payroll records show 20 people in this family across 2 agencies, with Military and Veterans Affairs the largest at 19. Local government employers are not covered by that extract.
Is Special Staff Officer 1 higher or lower than Special Staff Officer 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.