Career Opportunity

CBT - Principal Clerk (1408) Citywide (C00407)

Recruitment: REF58571N

Published: December 01, 2025

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

About:

THIS IS A CITYWIDE EXAM

San Francisco is a vibrant and dynamic city, on the forefront of economic growth & innovation, urban development, arts & entertainment, as well as social issues & change. This rich tapestry of culture and ideas is sustained by our City's commitment to heighten the quality of life for the diverse population of San Franciscans and residents of the greater Bay Area. Our employees play an important role not only in making our City what it is today, but also in shaping the future of San Francisco.

Specific information regarding this recruitment process is listed below:

Application Opening: December 1, 2025

Application Deadline: December 14, 2025 (This application submission period will close at 11:59 PM)

Recruitment ID:   CBT-1408-C00407

Salary range: $88,478 - $107,614  (Click here for compensation info.)

Department: Citywide
Job class: 1408-Principal Clerk
Role type: Permanent Civil Service What does this mean?
Hours: Full-time
Exam type: Class Based Test
Rule: Rule of 10
List type: Combined Promotive and Entrance

Role description

Under general direction, the 1408 Principal Clerk performs highly responsible, important, and difficult clerical work requiring extensive knowledge of departmental functions. Serves as a department's primary public contact person to explain important and specialized policies, procedures, and regulations.
Supervision Exercised: Supervises employees involved in clerical work.

EXAMPLES OF IMPORTANT AND ESSENTIAL DUTIES
According to Civil Service Commission Rule 109, the duties specified below are representative of the range of duties assigned to this job code/class and are not intended to be an inclusive list.

1. Supervises, plans, assigns and evaluates subordinate personnel to ensure conformance with departmental regulations and policies, existing office procedures, and applicable laws and regulations. This includes maintaining personnel action requests, personnel files and other personnel records. Disseminates, explains and interprets important information requiring specialized knowledge of the policies and procedures of a department, as well as the regulations enforced by the department to the public and/or employees, contractors, vendors, etc.
2. Performs highly responsible, important and difficult clerical work involving the exercise of individual judgment by knowing the applicable departmental procedures to which assigned.
3. Reviews and resolves day-to-day transactions, problems and/or complaints encountered by co-workers and/or affiliated parties (members of the public, volunteers, students, city departments and other government agencies, etc.).
4. Supervises and/or participates in the preparation and maintenance of a wide variety of records and reports by preparing, compiling, and maintaining statistics and records for these reports using applicable computer systems.
5. Supervises and/or prepares the processing and general handling of administrative documents such as licenses, permits, purchase orders, work orders, requisitions, contracts, etc. This includes verifying the timeliness and accuracy of these documents.
6. May collect, calculate and process applicable charges, fees and taxes, etc.

How to qualify

How to qualify
These Minimum Qualifications establish the education, training, experience, special skills and/or license(s) which are required for employment in the classification.  Every application is reviewed to ensure that you meet the minimum qualifications listed in the job ad. Please review our articles on Employment Application and Minimum Qualifications and Verification of Experience and/or Education for considerations taken when reviewing applications. 

1408 Principal Clerk Minimum Qualifications:
Experience: Three (3) years of highly responsible and diversified clerical experience including preparing and processing complex detailed work impacting an entire department or section; responding to and resolving difficult day-to-day problems and/or complaints encountered by staff, the public, other individuals, etc. on office operations and procedures; and explaining and interpreting complicated information to departments, staff, the public and/or others.

Substitution: Any one of the following may substitute for six (6) months of the required experience:

Completion of a clerical training program (240 hours); OR
15 semester units (or equivalent quarter units) of coursework from an accredited college or university; OR
Completion of an approved City and County of San Francisco Clerical Administrative training program (as designated on the job announcement).

Applicants must meet the minimum qualification requirement by the final filing date unless otherwise noted. 
 

Verification of Education and Experience: 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 http://sfdhr.org/how-verify-education-requirements. Every application is reviewed to ensure that you meet the minimum qualifications listed in the job ad. Please review our articles on Employment Application and Minimum Qualifications and Verification of Experience and/or Education for considerations taken when reviewing applications. 

What else should I know?

Selection Procedures

Application and Preliminary Questionnaire - Complete the application and preliminary questionnaire thoroughly to avoid disqualification. After you complete the application, you will be prompted to complete the preliminary questionnaire. Candidates that meet the minimum qualifications will be invited to participate in an assessment process designed to measure their knowledge, skills and/or abilities relevant to the class. 

Clerical Examination (Weight 80%) - Candidates deemed eligible will be invited to participate in an online, remote, multiple-choice exam to determine their relative knowledge, skill and ability level. (See 1408 Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: click here.)

Clerical Supervisory Written Exam (Weighted 20%):
Candidates that pass the core Clerical Examination above will be invited to take an online, remote, multiple-choice exam to determine their relative knowledge, skill and ability level in one or more of the following job-related areas: (include but not be limited to) Knowledge of methods used to develop office policies and procedures; Ability to supervise the work of clerical and other staff; Ability to plan and coordinate staff assignments; and Ability to develop performance evaluations.

These exams will be administered in a computer format and are standardized multiple-choice examination. In accordance with Civil Service Rule 111.11.4, inspection privileges do not apply to the questions and answers in this examination.

Candidates must achieve a passing score on both the core Clerical and Clerical Supervisory Examinations in order to be placed/ranked on the eligible list for this recruitment. The hiring department may administer additional positions-specific selection procedures to make final hiring decisions. Qualified applicants will be notified by email of the exact times and dates of the examinations.

If you also apply and meet the minimum qualifications for the 1402 Junior Clerk, 1404 Clerk, 1406 Senior Clerk and/or 1410 Chief Clerk recruitments, you will only be scheduled once for the core clerical Exam.

Requests for an alternate test date may be considered in limited circumstances and must be submitted to the analyst listed in this announcement within five (5) calendar days of the announcement of the test date.

Banked Score: The score that you achieve on these examinations shall be valid and "banked" for three years, starting from the date you take the examination. This means that, during this three-year time period, you will not be required to take this test again should you apply and be found eligible for a future announcement for which this particular test is used. If the test for a future announcement is held within 1 year of the date of this examination, your score will be automatically applied to that announcement. However, after 1 year, you have the option to either (a) apply your test score to the other announcement or (b) re-take the test. Re-testing is permitted no sooner than twelve months from the date you last took the examination and only in association with your eligibility for another announcement for which this test is used. Please note that, should you re-test, your re-test score would become your official score going forward since it is the most recent. If the exam is modified, your “banked” scores may no longer be valid. In such circumstance, candidates with “banked” scores would be required to re-take the exam sooner than the three-year period specified above.

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 are 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 24 months and may be extended with the approval of the Human Resources Director.

How to Apply:  
All job applications for the City and County of San Francisco must be submitted through our online portal. Please visit https://careers.sf.gov/ to begin your application process. No other methods of application will be accepted. 

Note: 1) Please ensure the information on your application is accurate. The name of your application must match your legal ID for verification purposes. If you use a preferred first name, you may include it in parentheses, or example: Samuel (Sam) Jackson. 2) Your email address should be consistent across all jobs you apply to on our website. Use a personal and not a shared email address to prevent application submission issues. 3) Upon successful submission, applicants will receive a confirmation email from notification@smartrecruiters.com. Keep this email for your records. If you do not receive it, your application was not submitted successfully. 4) Computers are available for the public to file online applications in the lobby of the Dept. of Human Resources.

Important Email Contact Information: Applicants may be contacted by email about this recruitment and, therefore, it is your responsibility to ensure that your registered email address is accurate and kept up-to-date. Also, applicants must ensure that emails from CCSF are not blocked on your computer by a spam filter. Applicants should add our emails to your contacts to avoid delays in updates: SFHR Email Extension 
 

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. [Note: The correction of clerical errors in an announcement may be posted on the Department of Human Resources website at https://careers.sf.gov/.]

The terms of this announcement may be appealed under Civil Service Rule 110.4.  Such appeals must be submitted in writing to the Department of Human Resources, 1 S Van Ness Avenue, 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94103-5413 by close of business on the 5th business day following the issuance date of this examination announcement. Information concerning other Civil Service Commission Rules involving announcements, applications and examination policies, including applicant appeal rights, can be found on the Civil Service Commission website at https://sf.gov/departments/civil-service-commission.

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
• Veterans Preference
• Seniority Credit in Promotional Exams
• Right to Work
• Copies of Application Documents
• Diversity Statement

If you have any questions, you may contact Hana Mendoza at hana.mendoza@sfgov.org. Be sure to include the recruitment ID: 1408 (C00407) in the subject line. 

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.