ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH INSPECTOR - Hazardous Materials and Waste (6120) - San Francisco Department of Public Health

The Department of Public Health prioritizes equitable and inclusive access to quality healthcare for its community and values the importance of diversity in its workforce. All employees at the Department of Public Health work to advance equity, inclusion, and diversity with a specific lens and focus on race, ethnicity, gender, sex, sexuality, disability, and immigration status. 

• Application Opening – November 21, 2025
• Application Deadline - Application filing will close on or after December 31, 2025
• Salary:  $129.038 - $156,754 Annually
• Appointment Type: Permanent Civil Service
• Recruitment ID: CBT-6120-H00177 [REF58545Z]

The Mission of the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) is to protect and promote the health of all San Franciscans. The Population Health Division (PHD) provides core public health services for the City and County of San Francisco: health protection, health promotion, disease and injury prevention, and disaster preparedness and response. 

The eligible list from this Class Based Test (CBT) announcement will be used to fill future vacancies in this class for the duration of the eligible list.

Under direction, the Environmental Health Inspector in the Hazardous Materials and Waste Program specialty conducts inspections and surveillance of business establishments, facilities, industrial plants, hazardous materials and waste sites, medical providers and laboratories, and other related sites in order to rectify violations and enforce established regulations.

Essential duties include:

1. Enforces provisions of the local health code; State health and safety, industrial relations, administrative, and penal codes, and other environmental hazards.
2. Investigates and conducts complaint investigations involving facilities requiring permits to operate, including various types of hazardous materials and waste facilities; investigates cases including those being prepared for hearings before the Director of Health; takes necessary action to abate illegal health, sanitary and safety conditions; appears as witness in court litigation when required and testifies in cases involving hazardous materials and waste management, and other related compliance matters. 
3. Documents and issues violations; coordinates efforts with applicable city departments in the enforcement of appropriate hazardous materials, hazardous waste, and medical waste codes; makes follow-up inspections to assure ordered corrections have been made. 
4. Oversees the opening and closure of new hazardous materials and waste facilities; determines if facilities meet criteria for regulation under one or more of the local or delegated Certified Unified Program Agency (CUPA) program elements. 
5. Conducts routine inspections and investigations of hazardous materials and waste facilities to determine compliance with applicable codes, laws and regulations; conducts field tests and acquires samples for laboratory analysis; 
6. Manages an inspectional district of assigned facilities; issues violations and orders corrective actions;
7. Drafts complaints for the purpose of administering administrative civil penalties; appears and testifies at compliance hearings;
8. Reviews plans and applications for the repair/upgrade and/or closure of underground storage tanks;
9. Reviews and processes documents submitted in the California Environmental Reporting System (CERS); and
10. Provides information and education to the public, business owners and operators and/or their agents regarding proper hazardous materials and waste management, and medical waste management.

The 6120 Environmental Health Inspector Hazardous Materials and Waste specialty may perform other duties as assigned/required.

Minimum Qualifications

1. EDUCATION*:  Possession of a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university with at least 30 semester units in, OR a major in one or more of the following disciplines*:

• Biology or microbiology;
• Chemistry, chemical engineering;
• Physics, physical science;
• Environmental science;
• Geology or soil science;
• Environmental health;
• Environmental or sanitary engineering;
• Toxicology;
• Industrial hygiene;
• Hazardous materials management;
• Fire science, fire technology.

2. EXPERIENCE: 

• Two (2) years of experience in hazardous materials, hazardous waste, site mitigation and/or medical waste
  • as a technician or inspector in an environmental health agency or related regulatory/service agency, or
  • as a professional consultant in the environmental health industry; OR
• One (1) year of experience as an inspector in a Certified Unified Program Agency (CUPA)

3. LICENSE  AND CERTIFICATION:

• Possession of a valid California driver's license.
• Requires obtaining and maintaining a CA UST Inspector Certification issued by the International Code Council (ICC) within 180 days following appointment.
• Requires obtaining and maintaining a HAZWOPER Certification within one year following appointment.

Important Note: Please make sure it is absolutely clear in your application exactly how you meet the minimum qualifications.  *If necessary, please upload transcripts showing the required coursework with your application. Applicants may be required to submit verification of qualifying education and experience at any point during the recruitment and selection process. Please be aware that any misrepresentation of this information may disqualify you from this recruitment or future job opportunities.

One-year fulltime employment is equivalent to 2,000 hours (2,000 hours of qualifying work experience is based on a 40-hour work week).

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

Selection Procedures
After application submission, candidates deemed qualified must complete all subsequent steps to advance in this selection process, which includes the following: 

Written Performance Exercise (Weight: 100%)
Qualified candidates will be invited to participate in a written performance exercise designed to measure knowledge, skills and/or abilities in job-related areas which may include but not be limited to:

• Knowledge of:
  • Field inspection techniques and procedures;
  • State laws and city ordinances, health department rules and regulations pertaining to the field of general sanitation and housing inspection
• Ability to:
  • meet and deal with the general public, as well as with many different food vendors, retailers, food manufacturing representatives, building owners and managers, tenants, and others;
  • obtain effective cooperation and understanding of requirements to improve general public health and sanitary conditions in assigned district

Candidates must achieve a passing score on the Written Performance Exercise to continue in the selection process and will be placed on the confidential eligible list in rank order according to their final score.

Additional selection processes may be conducted by the hiring department prior to making final hiring decisions.

Certification
The certification rule for the eligible list resulting from this examination will be the Rule of The List.

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. For more information, visit https://careers.sf.gov/knowledge/process/

How to apply:

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. 

Our e-mail communications may come from more than one department so please make sure your email is set to accept messages from all of us at this link. 

Applicants may be contacted by email about this recruitment; therefore, it is their responsibility to contact the Analyst if they update their email address. 

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.

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 http://sfgov.org/civilservice/rules.  

Additional information regarding Employment with the City and County of San Francisco: 

• Candidate Knowledge Center with information on:
  • Position Types and Hiring Process
  • Diversity Statement
  • Applications and Minimum Qualifications
  • Right to Work
  • Copies of Application Documents
  • Disaster Service Workers
• Conviction History 
• Employee Benefits Overview 
• Equal Employment Opportunity 
• Disaster Service Workers
• Reasonable Accommodation
• Veterans Preference

If you have any questions regarding this recruitment or application process, please contact the analyst, David Chalk at [email protected] or (628) 271-6702. 

We may use text messaging to communicate with you on the phone number provided in your application. The first message will ask you to opt in to text messaging.

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.