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Retirement Benefits Specialist Trainee - Fixed Term

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Retirement Benefits Specialist Trainee - Fixed Term

Salary

$60,797.95 - $85,125.49 Annually

Location

Ventura, CA

Job Type

Fixed Term

Job Number

0521RET-25AB(YM)

Department

Ventura County Employees' Retirement Association

Opening Date

09/10/2025

Closing Date

9/23/2025 5:00 PM Pacific

+ Description

+ Benefits

+ Questions

Description

THE POSITION

The Ventura County Employees' Retirement Association (VCERA) provides retirement benefit services to more than 22,000 active and retired members. Under general supervision, incumbents in this classification are responsible for researching and processing retirement benefit inquiries and claims on behalf of VCERA members.

The ideal candidate must have the ability to work with a diverse group of members with tact and diplomacy. The candidate should be able to learn, interpret and apply complex rules and mathematical formulas, enjoy addressing questions from members/beneficiaries and navigating through retirement issues. Incumbents are responsible for highly confidential information and must be able to maintain confidentiality of such information.

PAYROLL TITLE: Technical Specialist IV-MB

Bilingual Incentive - Incumbents may also be eligible for a bilingual incentive depending upon operational needs and certification skills.

The eligible list established from this recruitment may be used to fill current and future Regular (including Temporary and Fixed Term), Intermittent, and Extra Help vacancies for these positions only. There are currently two (2) Fixed Term vacancies within the Retirement Department.

NOTE: Fixed Term positions are Regular positions for a specific duration of time. These Fixed Term positions are anticipated to expire on September 16, 2028.

Incumbents in this classification are eligible for benefits at the MB4 level. Technical Specialist IV-MB is a Management/Confidential classification and are eligible for overtime compensation.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

OPENING DATE: September 10, 2025

CLOSING DATE: September 23, 2025

Examples Of Duties

Duties may include but are not limited to the following.

+ Reviews, analyzes and determines eligibility for retirement benefit estimates, final retirement benefits, and retirement service credit purchases.

+ Processes documentation on behalf of separated members including contribution refunds, rollovers, inter-system membership advice forms and deferred retirements.

+ Reviews and processes beneficiary change forms.

+ Collaborates with other retirement systems to initiate reciprocity on behalf of members.

+ Researches, evaluates and responds to complex retirement benefit claims and inquiries.

+ Interprets, researches and applies state and federal regulations and laws.

+ Initiates correspondence to members and County departments.

+ Processes member retirement applications and enters data into the pension system.

+ Counsels and provides guidance to members and their beneficiaries on retirement benefits.

+ Maintains operational procedure manuals.

+ Assists the Communications Officer in the preparation and presentation of retirement information for new employee orientations and retirement workshops.

+ Coordinates and manages complex special projects as assigned.

+ Processes new member enrollments.

+ Performs other related duties as assigned.

Note: Although new Benefits Specialists are routinely assigned to the Active Member Unit, this position may be utilized in the other areas of operation (Death Services, Community Property, Retiree Payroll, or Disability Retirement). Future promotional opportunities may exist (conducted by way of a separate promotional opportunity recruitment) as this position underfills a Program Administrator II allocation.

Typical Qualifications

These are entrance requirements to the examination process and assure neither continuance in the process nor placement on an eligible list.

EDUCATION, TRAINING, and EXPERIENCE:

Any combination of education and/or experience that would provide the knowledge and abilities listed below. The required knowledge, skills, and abilities can be met by:

+ Four (4) years of advanced level clerical and/or fiscal record keeping experience.

OR

+ The equivalent of a bachelor's degree in business administration, finance, economics, accounting, or related discipline.

NECESSARY SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS:

+ Intermediate proficiency in Microsoft Word and Excel.

+ Ability to understand and execute complex calculations accurately.

+ Excellent written communication skills must be demonstrated in the application and the supplemental questionnaire.

DESIRED:

+ Intermediate proficiency in Adobe Acrobat.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS and ABILITIES:

Working knowledge of:

+ Retirement Department (Ventura County Employees' Retirement Association);

+ Standard office procedures;

Ability to:

+ Learn and apply good customer service practices; able to act with tact and diplomacy;

+ Utilize strong interpersonal and communication skills to establish and maintain cooperative working relationships;

+ Learn to provide guidance to employees and/or family members on retirement contributions, retirement planning, benefit claim procedures and other concerns;

+ Use computers and learn/use spreadsheet, word processing, and pension software programs;

+ Make complex arithmetic calculations; utilize and apply conversion tables and standard formulas to individual circumstances; collect and analyze data to draw logical conclusions and make appropriate recommendations;

+ Learn, interpret, apply and explain complex regulations and procedures;

+ Make sound decisions and independent judgments;

+ Maintain accurate records.

Recruitment Process

FINAL FILING DATE: Applications must be received by Ventura County Human Resources no later than 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 23, 2025.

To apply online, please refer to our website at www.venturacounty. gov/jobs. If you prefer to fill out a paper application form, please call (805) 654-5129 for application materials and submit them to County of Ventura Human Resources, 800 South Victoria Avenue, L-1970, Ventura, CA 93009.

INFORMATION FOR TRANSFER CANDIDATES

NOTE: If presently permanently employed in another "merit" or "civil service" public agency/entity in the same or substantively similar position as is advertised, and if appointed to that position by successful performance in a "merit" or "civil service" style examination, then appointment by "Lateral Transfer" may be possible. If interested, please click here (http://vcportal.ventura.org/CEO/HR/docs/Lateral\_Transfer.pdf) (Download PDF reader) for additional information.

NOTE TO APPLICANTS: Sufficient information must be provided under the Education/Work Experience portion of the application and supplemental questionnaire to thoroughly and accurately demonstrate your qualifications to determine eligibility. A resume may be attached to supplement your responses in the above-referenced sections; however, it may not be submitted in lieu of the application.

EXAMINATION PROCESS

SUPPLEMENTAL QUESTIONNAIRE - qualifying: All applicants are required to complete and submit the questionnaire for this examination at the time of filing. The supplemental questionnaire may be used throughout the examination process to assist in determining each applicant's qualifications and acceptability for the position. Failure to complete and submit the questionnaire will result in your application being removed from consideration.

APPLICATION EVALUATION – qualifying: All applications will be reviewed to determine whether or not the stated requirements are met. Those individuals meeting the stated requirements will be invited to continue to the next step in the screening and selection process.

WRITTEN EXAMINATION - 100%: An un-proctored, online, internet-based job-related written examination will be conducted to test candidates' knowledge of Interpersonal Skills, Reading Comprehension, Information Evaluation, Math, and Recordkeeping. Candidates must earn a score of seventy percent (70%) or higher to qualify for placement on the eligible list.

ELIGIBLE LIST:

Candidates successfully completing the examination process may be placed on an eligible list for a period of one (1) year.

BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION:

A thorough background investigation which may include inquiry into past employment, education, criminal background information and driving record, may be required for this position.

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY:

The County of Ventura is an equal opportunity employer to all, regardless of age, ancestry, color, disability (mental and physical), exercising the right to family care and medical leave, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, military or veteran status, national origin, political affiliation, race, religious creed, sex (includes pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and related medical conditions), and sexual orientation.

For further information about this recruitment, please contact Yvonne Martinez by e-mail at [email protected] or by telephone at (805) 654-3051.

YOUR BENEFITS AS A COUNTY OF VENTURA EMPLOYEE

MANAGEMENT

To learn more about Benefits, Retirement, and the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), see links below.

+ Benefits website (https://hr.ventura.org/benefits) or you may call (805) 654-2570.

+ Retirement FAQ's (https://vcportal.ventura.org/CEO/benefits/docs/RETIREMENT%20-%20FAQs.pdf)

+ Memorandum of Agreement

Union Codes: MB3, MB4, MS, MT, MCC, MU

01

Please provide a description of how you define good customer service and provide examples of your own work experience providing such services.

To receive credit for this experience, you MUST include each employer in the Work Experience section of your application, and all details for each employer must be included.

If you do not have this kind of experience, please type "No experience."

02

If you are using education to qualify, please list any courses you have taken that are relevant to this job. If not, please type “N/A.”

03

This position requires the ability to understand and execute complex calculations accurately. Please describe in detail the experience you have had in this area.

To receive credit for this experience, you MUST include each employer in the Work Experience section of your application, and all details for each employer must be included.

If you do not have this kind of experience, please type "No experience."

04

Select your level of proficiency in Microsoft Word from the options below.

+ No experience.

+ Basic – This level of skill is sufficient to perform daily word processing tasks, such as, producing routine letters, memoranda, and informal reports. A person with this level of skill is able to use basic formatting, editing, printing functions, and understand the document page setup.

+ Intermediate – This level of skill is necessary in order to use and create a variety of templates, complex tables, merges; manage table data, sort and filter merges, and also perform basic work with existing Macros. A person with this level of skill is able to customize toolbars, import and insert graphs, embed Excel data, and elaborate reports.

+ Advanced – This level of skill is required in order to produce very large, complex formal documents that require a table of contents, footnotes, endnotes, bookmarks, and other special elements. A person with this level of skill is able to use and create a wide range of graphic effects and has full mastery of Macro commands.

05

Select your level of proficiency in Microsoft Excel from the options below.

+ No experience.

+ Basic – This level of skills is sufficient to enter and correct data, modify a workbook, format a worksheet, and use printing functions.

+ Intermediate – This level of skill is necessary in order to work with multiple worksheets, filter data, use integrated functions and manipulate databases. With this level of skill, a person understands the concepts of databases and is able to work with charts and use the list management capabilities of Excel.

+ Advanced – This level of skill is required to use advanced techniques for analyzing and manipulating data in Excel. A person with this level of skill is able to automate some operations, pivot tables, manage Macro commands, and create MS Excel applications.

06

Select your level of proficiency in Adobe Acrobat from the options below.

+ No experience.

+ Basic – This level of skill is sufficient to open, view, and navigate PDF documents, use basic annotation tools like highlighting, adding comments, and stick notes, fill out and save PDF forms, perform simple text searches within PDF’s, basic printing and saving/exporting PDF’s, and perform simple file management actions (opening, saving, renaming).

+ Intermediate – This level of skill is necessary to create PDF’s from various file formats (Word, Excel, images), combine multiple files into a single PDF, edit text and images within PDFs (basic corrections, adding/removing), use advanced annotation tools (drawing, stamps, measuring tools), apply and manage basic security settings like password protection, use form creation tools to create fillable forms, insert, delete, reorder, and extract pages, use OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to make scanned documents searchable, comment and review PDFs collaboratively, and export PDFs to other formats (Word, Excel).

+ Advanced – This level of skill is required to create and edit complex interactive forms with calculations and validations, use advanced security features (digital signatures, certificate-based encryption), automate workflows using actions and batch processing, optimize PDF’s for web or print (reduce file size, adjust resolution), redact sensitive information securely, create PDF portfolios and interactive multimedia PDF’s, integrate Acrobat with other software (Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft Office), customize Acrobat using JavaScript for automation and enhanced functionality, manage document versioning and review cycles efficiently, and troubleshoot and repair corrupted PDF’s.

Required Question

Employer

Ventura County

Address

800 S. Victoria Avenue LOC. #1970 Ventura, California, 93009

Phone

(805) 654-5129

Website

http://hr.ventura.org

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