Who We Are

The San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System (SFERS) is dedicated to securing, protecting, and prudently investing the pension trust assets, administering mandated benefits programs, and providing promised benefits to the active and retired members of the City and County of San Francisco.

Established in 1889 as a fund for families and orphans of firefighters and police officers, today the San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System serves more than 75,000 active, vested, and retired employees of the City and County of San Francisco and their survivors.

What We Do

The Retirement Services Division plays a crucial role in administering retirement benefits for both active and retired employees as well as their beneficiaries. Staff provide comprehensive retirement counseling services to guide individuals through their retirement planning journey and process various benefit applications, including service and disability retirements, survivor benefits, vesting allowances, refunds, reciprocity, and the purchase of service credit. The Retirement Services Division also manages the disbursement of approximately $150 million in monthly benefit payments to around 32,100 retirees and beneficiaries, ensuring timely and accurate payments.

Specific information regarding this recruitment process is listed below:

This is a Position-Based Test conducted in accordance with CSC Rule 111A. 

• Application Opening: May 2, 2024
• Application Deadline: May close at any time, but not before May 8, 2024.
• Recruitment ID: RTF0143246-01104929
• Appointment Type: Permanent Civil Service
• Reporting Location: 1145 Market Street, San Francisco, CA
• Work Schedule: Full time, Monday – Friday, Hybrid Telecommuting work schedule available up to 2 days per week.

This job announcement will not close before May 8, 2024. Interested applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.

What We’re Looking For

Under supervision of a Senior Benefits Analyst or Benefits Supervisor, the Benefits Technician at SFERS performs technical, administrative, and research functions related to retirement benefit matters. SFERS routinely reassigns employees in this job class to different units within the Retirement Services Division to provide cross-training opportunities and to fulfill the current needs of the department.

Examples of primary duties may include:

1. Provides support services to analysts, senior analysts, and benefits supervisors in processing benefit entitlements.
2. Provides general information to City employees regarding retirement benefits by answering the telephone and responding to general questions regarding benefits, eligibility, memberships, etc.
3. Researches records and accounts for prior membership, account discrepancies, requested information, buybacks, withdrawal status, payment history, overpayments, underpayments, and adjustments in database; checks potential members’ service dates for eligibility and provides information regarding annual statements and tax form 1099R for the Retirement System; reconciles member accounts based on a variety of discrepancy reports; researches prior service history and salary figures using microfiche, data files, and other sources.
4. Processes a variety of membership forms and other types of forms such as personnel transaction forms for employee status changes; and change of beneficiary forms for active and retired members.
5. Performs various calculations to support the determination of retirement benefits. Retirement calculations include years of service, update of balance shortages, closeouts, and final account balances.
6. Processes refund of terminated member’s contributions and interest.
7. Sets up retired member’s estimated benefits in PeopleSoft - Pension Administration System.
8. Enters monthly retirement payments on excel spreadsheet and reconciles monthly change roll.
9. Communicates with employees, retirees, dependents, beneficiaries, human resources, City payroll personnel , representatives from outside agencies, and other professionals to resolve routine problems, and provides general information regarding benefits and benefit payments.
10. Updates addresses, Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) changes and tax withholdings for retired members in the system.
11. Completes standard form letters, and maintains reports and records; prepares routine correspondence to respond to active and retired members’ requests; requests additional information and documentation when needed; sends notifications of eligibility for membership in the Retirement System; prepares monthly new retirees list and sends new retiree letters.
12. Acts as a verifier to check work performed other Benefits Technicians.
13. Staffs Retirement Services reception desk by booking appointments, receiving visitors, and answering general retirement related questions in person or on the telephone.
14. Performs other related duties as assigned/required. 

Education

Completion of two (2) years of college-level course work

Substitution

Verifiable clerical or technical experience administering employee benefits programs including: researching records, claims adjudication, database maintenance, reviewing forms, performing calculations, and responding to general inquiries may be substituted for the required education on a year-for-year basis. Thirty (30) semester units/forty-five (45) quarter units equal one year of experience.

How to Stand Out

Desirable Qualifications:

The stated desirable qualifications may be used to identify job finalists at the end of the selection process when candidates are referred for hiring.

• Two or more years of verifiable experience working with a private or public defined benefit plan or defined contribution plan.
• Possession of a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, Finance, Accounting, or other related field.
• Extensive customer service experience.
• Bilingual skills.
• Strong oral and written communication skills.
• A minimum of one year working knowledge of Oracle PeopleSoft.
• A minimum of one year working knowledge of Microsoft Office using mail merge, and Microsoft Excel creating formulas and links between cells on the same or different worksheets.

Verification

Applicants may be required to submit verification of qualifying education and experience at any point during the recruitment and selection process. If education verification is required, information on how to verify education requirements, including verifying foreign education credits or degree equivalency, can be found at https://sfdhr.org/how-verify-education-requirements.

Note: Falsifying one’s education, training, or work experience or attempted deception on the application may result in disqualification for this and future job opportunities with the City and County of San Francisco.

All work experience, education, training, and other information substantiating how you meet the minimum qualifications must be included on your application by the filing deadline. Information submitted after the filing deadline will not be considered in determining whether you meet the minimum qualifications.

Resumes will not be accepted in lieu of a completed City and County of San Francisco application. 

Applications completed improperly may be cause for ineligibility, disqualification, or may lead to lower scores.

SELECTION PROCEDURES

After application submission, candidates deemed qualified must complete all subsequent steps to advance in this selection process, which include the following:

Minimum Qualification Supplemental Questionnaire (Weight: Qualifying)

Candidates will be prompted to complete a Supplemental Questionnaire as part of the online employment application. This Minimum Qualification Supplemental Questionnaire is designed to obtain specific information regarding an applicant's experience in relation to the Minimum Qualifications for this position. Applicants must also complete the official application. It is essential that applicants provide complete information in identifying their education, experience and training. The Minimum Qualification Supplemental Questionnaire will be used to evaluate if the applicant possesses the required minimum qualifications.

Written Examination (Weight: 100%)

Candidates who meet the position’s minimum qualification requirements will be invited to participate in a written examination to determine their relative knowledge, skills, and abilities in job-related areas which may include, but are not limited to: technical knowledge of employee benefit programs; ability to perform accurate benefits calculations; ability to research; computer skills; and problem solving ability.

Only those applicants meeting the minimum qualifications will be notified of the exact date, time, and place to report to the written examination. A passing score must be achieved on the written examination in order to be placed/ranked on the Eligible List.

Applicants meeting the minimum qualifications are not guaranteed to advance through all of the steps in the selection process. The department may administer additional selection procedures upon certification in order to make a final hiring decision.

Candidates’ scores on this examination may also be applied to other announcements involving other job titles, when directed by the Human Resources Director.

Upon approval of the Human Resource Director (see Civil Service Rule 111A.26.5), the eligible list resulting from this announcement may be used by other departments that also use this classification or a similar classification. To find other Departments which use this classification, please visit here. Search that document by title or job code to see which departments use the classification.

Eligible List/Score Report

A confidential eligible list of applicant names that have passed the civil service examination process will be created, and used for certification purposes only. An examination score report will be established, so applicants can view the ranks, final scores and number of eligible candidates. Applicant information, including names of applicants on the eligible list, shall not be made public unless required by law. However, an eligible list shall be made available for public inspection, upon request, once the eligible list is exhausted or expired and referrals resolved. The eligible list/score report resulting from this civil service examination process is subject to change after adoption (e.g., as a result of appeals), as directed by the Human Resources Director or the Civil Service Commission.

The duration of the eligible list resulting from this examination process will be six months, and may be extended with the approval of the Human Resources Director.

Certification

The certification rule for the eligible list resulting from this examination will be Rule of Three. Additional selection processes may be conducted by the hiring department prior to making final hiring decisions.

Terms of Announcement and Appeal Rights

Applicants must be guided solely by the provisions of this announcement, including requirements, time periods and other particulars, except when superseded by federal, state or local laws, rules or regulations. Clerical errors may be corrected by the posting the correction on the Department of Human Resources website at careers.sf.gov.

The terms of this announcement may be appealed under Civil Service Rule 111A.35.1. The standard for the review of such appeals is “abuse of discretion” or “no rational basis” for establishing the position description, the minimum qualifications and/or the certification rule. Appeals must include a written statement of the item(s) being contested and the specific reason(s) why the cited item(s) constitute(s) abuse of discretion by the Human Resources Director. Appeals must be submitted directly to the Executive Officer of the Civil Service Commission within five business days of the announcement issuance date.

Additional Information Regarding Employment with the City and County of San Francisco:

• Information About The Hiring Process
• Conviction History
• Employee Benefits Overview  
• Equal Employment Opportunity 
• Disaster Service Worker
• ADA Accommodation
• Seniority Credit in Promotional Exams
• Veterans Preference
• Right to Work
• Copies of Application Documents
• Diversity Statement

HOW TO APPLY

Applications for City and County of San Francisco jobs are only accepted through an online process.

Visit careers.sf.gov and begin the application process.

• Select the “Apply Now” button and follow instructions on the screen.

Applicants may be contacted by email about this recruitment and, therefore, it is their responsibility to ensure that their registered email address is accurate and kept up-to-date. Also, applicants must ensure that email from CCSF is not blocked on their computer by a spam filter. To prevent blocking, applicants should set up their email to accept CCSF mail from the following addresses (@sfgov.org, @sfdpw.org, @sfport.com, @flysfo.com, @sfwater.org, @sfdph.org, @asianart.org, @sfmta.com, @sfpl.org, @dcyf.org, @first5sf.org, @famsf.org, @ccsf.edu, @smartalerts.info, and @smartrecruiters.com).

Applicants will receive a confirmation email that their online application has been received in response to every announcement for which they file. Applicants should retain this confirmation email for their records. Failure to receive this email means that the online application was not submitted or received.

If you have any questions regarding this recruitment or application process, please contact the exam analyst, James Galileo, at [email protected].                      

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

The City and County of San Francisco encourages women, minorities and persons with disabilities to apply. Applicants will be considered regardless of their sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition (associated with cancer, a history of cancer, or genetic characteristics), HIV/AIDS status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, military and veteran status, or other protected category under the law.