Property Tax Specialist - Controller's Office (Open and Promotional)

The Controller's Office of the County of San Mateo seeks highly qualified candidates for the position of Property Tax Specialist. 

The Property Tax Specialist is a single classification within the Controller’s Office that performs journey-level professional work related to the processing, calculation, updating, and apportionment of secured, unsecured, and supplemental property taxes. Under general direction, the incumbent performs a variety of technical and analytical duties within the Property Tax Division, ensuring the accurate and timely processing and distribution of property tax revenues. This classification is distinguished from the Senior Property Tax Specialist, which serves as the supervisory level within the Property Tax Specialist series.

The ideal candidate is a detail-oriented public finance professional with a strong foundation in governmental accounting, property tax accounting and apportionment, tax-roll administration, and applicable laws governing County fiscal operations. They bring sound analytical and reconciliation skills, are comfortable working with complex numerical data and accounting systems and can independently identify and resolve discrepancies while maintaining accurate documentation for reporting and audit purposes. The successful candidate exercises sound judgment, manages competing deadlines effectively, communicates technical information clearly, and builds productive working relationships with internal departments and external stakeholders.

The Controller's Office
The mission of the Controller's Office is to promote the County's operational effectiveness and ensure its financial transparency and integrity by providing quality accounting, audit, and financial reporting services.
 
The Controller's Office maintains the County’s financial systems and records, and prepares independently audited, award-winning annual financial reports that disclose the financial condition of the County to the public. We are staffed with 51 full-time accounting, audit, and information systems professionals. The office also calculates annual property tax bill amounts, distributes taxes collected to local government agencies, performs internal audits of the County’s operations, and provides payroll services for the County's workforce.

NOTE: The eligible list generated from this recruitment may be used to fill future extra-help, term, unclassified, and regular classified vacancies.

Duties may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Explains tax apportionment processes and related issues to other jurisdictions, departments, taxing agencies, and consultants.

• Explains to taxing agencies their revenue allocation and projected revenues for the year.

• Apportion monies, including secured, unsecured, supplemental, impounded, redeemed, and other taxes.

• Prepares and submits tax revenue reports required by the State Controller, the State Board of Equalization, and Community College Districts.

• Coordinates and maintains continuous contact with the County Assessor's office and the Tax Collector's office to ensure the successful completion of the Auditor's Office portion of the monthly tax processing schedules.

• Calculates estimated levy based on ERAF and AB8 factors.

• Balances and reconciles tax collection data received from the Tax Collector-Treasurer’s Office.

• Reconciles and allocates supplemental tax apportionment to taxing agencies.

• Reconciles and apportions secured and unsecured taxes, including advances and cleanup.

• Maintains accurate records of disbursements and reconciling worksheets, ledgers, and journal entries to account for apportionments.

• Analyze and prepare varied tax reports.

• Performs basic accounting processes and functions.

• Regularly engages with taxpayers and other customers, delivering prompt, professional, and high-quality customer service. Perform related duties as assigned.

Experience and Education:
Any combination of education and experience that would likely provide the required knowledge and skills is qualifying.  
 
A typical way to obtain the required knowledge and skills is:
  
Education: Graduation from a four-year college or university with major coursework in accounting, finance, business administration, or a closely related field.
  
Experience: One year of responsible accounting work, preferably in a governmental or public agency, which includes work experience in property tax accounting and customer service.

Knowledge of:

• Working knowledge of the laws, ordinances, and regulations governing the financial operation of the County, especially those regarding property tax accounting. 

• Rules and procedures relating to the compilation, maintenance, and reconciliation of tax rolls.

• Accounting theory, principles, practices, procedures, and terminology of general, fund, and governmental accounting. 

• Basic auditing and financial reconciliation principles and methods.

• Property tax apportionment and procedures used in the maintenance of property tax records.

• Principles and practices of business data processing, particularly as it relates to the processing of accounting information. 

• Principles of public finance and taxation.

• Applicable laws regulating public fiscal operations. 

• Budgeting principles and terminology.

Skill/Ability to:

• Review, analyze, interpret, and reconcile tax reports.

• Exercise sound independent judgment within established policy guidelines.  

• Make accurate mathematical and statistical calculations. 

• Establish and maintain effective working relations. 

• Understand and interpret the principles, laws, and procedures involved in property tax accounting and apportionment.

• Gather and analyze data and prepare reports.

• Perform detailed work involving numerical data.

• Document processes and maintain accurate records and files for year-end reporting and audit purposes.

• Understand and explain the relationship between accounting records and documents for recording and reporting purposes.

• Independently reconcile discrepancies within the assigned record-keeping system.

• Prioritize work to meet deadlines accordingly.

Open & Promotional. Anyone may apply. Current County of San Mateo and County of San Mateo Superior Court of California employees with at least six months (1040 hours) of continuous service in a classified regular, probationary, or extra-help/limited term position prior to the final filing date will receive five points added to their final passing score.

Responses to the supplemental questions must be submitted in addition to our regular employment application form. A resume will not be accepted as a substitute for the required employment application and supplemental questionnaire.

The examination process will consist of an application screening based on the candidates' applications and responses to the supplemental questions (weight: pass/fail). Candidates who pass the application screening may be invited to a panel interview (weight:100%). Depending on the number of applicants, an application appraisal of education and experience may be used in place of other examinations, or further evaluation of work experience may be conducted to group applicants by level of qualification. Applicants meeting the minimum qualifications are not guaranteed advancement through any subsequent phase of the examination. All examinations will be given in San Mateo County, California, and applicants must participate at their own expense.

IMPORTANT: Applications for this position will only be accepted online. If you are currently on the County's website, you may click the "Apply" button. If you are not on the County's website, please visit https://jobs.smcgov.org to apply. Online applications must be received by the Human Resources Department before midnight on the final filing date.

TENTATIVE RECRUITMENT SCHEDULE
Final Filing Date: Friday, September 18, 2026, 11:59 PM PST
Application Screening: September 28 - October 2, 2026
Civil Service Panel Interview: October 15 and/or 16, 2026

About the County
San Mateo County is centrally located between San Francisco, San Jose, and the East Bay. With over 750,000 residents, San Mateo is one of the largest and most diverse counties in California and serves a multitude of culturally, ethnically, and linguistically diverse communities.

The County of San Mateo, as an employer, is committed to advancing equity in order to ensure that all employees are welcomed in a safe and inclusive environment. The County seeks to hire, support, and retain employees who reflect our diverse community. We encourage applicants with diverse backgrounds and lived experiences to apply. Eighty percent of employees surveyed stated that they would recommend the County as a great place to work.