Background Specialist

Background Specialist

This classification performs professional background investigation work of average difficulty. An employee in this class will examine documentation, identify discrepancies, prepare reports, reconcile invoices, and clear applicants for work in adult and child care facilities.

Responsibilities:

• Notifies applicant's providers of rejection of returned fingerprints and provides instructions to applicants on being reprinted. Reconciles files and manually processes reprints if needed to ensure investigation is initiated.
• Monitors and responds to inquiries regarding applicant's background checks from providers, applicants, and program staff. Reviews data in the partner applicant processing system and communicates status of investigation.
• Reviews cases for which applicants have an excludable offense, including criminal offenses that have been dismissed, expunged, retired, or otherwise invalidated, and performs manual case closures as needed.
• Reconciles invoices to ensure accuracy and resolve discrepancies and submits for processing and payment to vendor.
• Processes driver's checks, applicant transfer requests, authorization forms for transmittal of information, and Federal Tax Information (FTI) name check requests. Assists with any user acceptance testing for upgrades or changes to the applicant tracking system.
• Builds and maintains strategic relationships with internal and external stakeholders and fosters collaboration between agencies.
• Analyzes, interprets, and applies existing policies and procedures. Identifies, suggests, and implements recommendations to adapt to challenges and improve areas of opportunity.
• Performs required registry checks, monitors for receipt of results, and ensures results are in the applicant tracking system. Creates and issues letters to providers for cleared applicants and refers applicants with findings to the appropriate division.

Qualifications:

• Education and Experience: Bachelor's degree in any field.
• Substitution of Experience for Education: Qualifying full-time professional experience in background investigations, any legal field, law enforcement, or related work may be substituted for the required education on a year-for-year basis.

Necessary Special Qualifications: Applicants for this class must:

• Have a good moral character, as determined by a background check;
• Complete a criminal history disclosure form in a manner approved by the appointing authority;
• Agree to release all records involving their criminal history to the appointing authority;
• Supply a fingerprint sample in a manner prescribed by our background check provider for a fingerprint-based criminal history records check.

Competencies:

• Decision Quality
• Resourcefulness
• Collaborates
• Communicates Effectively
• Situational Adaptability

Knowledge:

• Customer and Personal Service
• Law and Government

Skills:

• Active Learning and Listening
• Critical Thinking
• Complex Problem Solving
• Judgment and Decision Making
• Reading Comprehension

Abilities:

• Deductive Reasoning
• Inductive Reasoning
• Problem Sensitivity
• Written Comprehension

Tools and Equipment:

• General Office Equipment