Career Opportunity

Retirement Benefits Supervisor - San Francisco Employees' Retirement System (1814) (121371)

Recruitment: RTF0121370-01026326

Published: January 11, 2023

Apply using SmartRecruiters, the City and County of San Francisco's application portal.

About:

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

The San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System ("SFERS") offers an exceptional opportunity for the right candidates to serve this historic, well established City Department by engaging in interesting and rewarding mission critical work. 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.

Our Mission

The San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System 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.

Specific information regarding this recruitment process is listed below:

• Application Opening: January 11, 2023
• Application Deadline: Open Until Filled         
• Recruitment ID: RTF0121370-01026326

This job announcement will not close before January 25, 2023. Interested applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.

Role description

The Benefits Supervisor supports the implementation of retirement benefits provisions for the San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System; supervises and directs the work activities of analytical and technical staff in meeting the operational goals of the department.

Examples of primary duties may include:

1. Train, evaluate, supervise and direct a major unit of professional analysts and technicians in an assigned employee benefits program.
2. Review Charter, Federal, State and City laws and regulations and pending legislation to determine its applicability to San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System.
3. Document existing business processes and procedures. Assist management in developing and implementing new operational procedures to accommodate legislative changes.
4.  Assist management in monitoring operational procedures to enhance workflow and program effectiveness. Identify and resolve issues or problems. Research to determine causes of issues or problems and recommend solutions. Communicate outcomes to members verbally and in writing.
5. Coordinate with Operations, Benefits, Information System, Accounting, Actuary and Business Services Division to gather and analyze data, to make payments and to manage pension administration; participate in information systems design, development, testing and implementation. Identify and resolve problems including performing research to determine causes of issues and recommending solutions.  Communicate outcomes to members verbally and in writing.
6. Prepare and present oral presentations regarding the San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System. Develop content for member educational webinars and videos.
7. Manage complex special projects.
8. Contact City departments, employees, employee’s representatives, other government agencies and various private entities to furnish and/or obtain information on complex pension related matters.
9. Manage and monitor business processes and workflow to ensure quality and timeliness of work product and resulting service to members. Identify operational procedures that can be improved and bring those to the attention of management.
10. Collect and analyze data in order to develop and present detailed reports to management on various operational matters including statistical reports.

How to qualify

Minimum Qualifications:

1. Possession of a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university, AND
2. Four (4) years of progressively responsible experience in administering employee retirement and/or pension benefits programs. This experience must include two (2) years senior level work and knowledge of the administration of employee pension and death benefits programs; including applicable federal/state/City law and associated terminology.

Substitution

Additional qualifying experience may be substituted for the required education on a year-for-year basis.

The above minimum qualifications reflect a special condition associated with the position(s) to be filled. They may differ from the standard minimum qualifications associated with this class code.

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.

• Minimum of four (4) years verifiable experience with employee retirement benefit programs involving analysis of data for counseling and benefit calculations with a public sector retirement and/or pension plan or experience with a defined benefit plan or defined contribution plan.
• Minimum of two (2) years verifiable supervisory experience in benefit administration or in a customer service focused environment.
• Working knowledge of PeopleSoft.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office products, including Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Teams. Demonstrated proficiency in using Excel for complex calculations and tracking preferred.
• Strong oral and written communication skills.

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 sent a minimum qualification supplemental questionnaire (MQSQ) to complete and submit. This MQSQ is designed to obtain specific information regarding a candidate's experience in relation to the Minimum Qualifications for this position. It is essential that candidates provide complete information in identifying their education, experience, and training. The MQSQ will be used to evaluate if the applicant possesses the required minimum qualifications.

Supplemental Questionnaire Evaluation (Weight: 100%)

Candidates who meet the position’s minimum qualification requirements will be sent a Supplemental Questionnaire (SQ) that must be completed by the set date. Candidates will be evaluated on their relative knowledge, skill and ability levels in job-related areas. A passing score must be achieved on the SQ 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.

What else should I know?

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.

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

All applicants must submit a resume and completed job application (all sections, including Experience and Education, must be completed) in order to be considered. Resumes will not be taken as a substitute for completing the application. 

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 “I’m Interested” 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, Karen Perez, at karen.perez@sfgov.org.                            

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

CONDITION OF EMPLOYMENT:  All City and County of San Francisco employees are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment. Someone is fully vaccinated when 14 days have passed since they received the final dose of a two-shot vaccine or a dose of a one-shot vaccine. Any new hire must present proof of full vaccination status to be appointed. Any new hire who will be routinely assigned or occasionally enter High-Risk Settings, must provide proof of having received a COVID-19 booster vaccine by March 1, 2022, or once eligible.

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.