26-02 Firefighter Recruit

Our diverse and inclusive workforce of more than 7000 employees play a key role in the success of San José the heart of the Silicon Valley. All City of San José employees work together as one team to make San José a vibrant innovative and desirable place to live and work.Visithere to learn more about our One Team Leadership Values and Expectations including quality and excellent customer service and hereto learn more about San José.

The City of San José is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants for all job openings will be considered without regard to age race color religion sex national origin sexual orientation disability veteran statusor any other consideration made unlawful under any federal state or local laws. The City of San José is committed to offering reasonable accommodations to job applicants with disabilities. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability please contact us at 711 (TTY) or via email at .

The San José Fire Departments (SJFD) core mission is to serve the community by protecting life property and the environment through prevention and is a high-volume all-hazards fire department providing fire suppression and rescue services that protects approximately 200 square miles Advanced Life Support and Basic Life Support services as well as specialized operations including Urban Search and Rescue Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighting and a Hazardous Incident Team with a Decontamination Unit. SJFD deploys resources from 34 fire stations protecting areas within city limits and some unincorporated areas of Santa Clara County by contract. SJFD is budgeted for 735 authorized sworn positions across nine ranks offering many opportunities for career advancement.

Clickhere for information on the SJFD Department.

Clickhere for information on Benefits.

Clickherefor the California Equal Pay Act

To apply please complete an application via the City of San Josés website clickhere and ensure you have an up to date profile with Firefighter Candidate Testing Center (FCTC) Statewide Eligibility List.

Please note that applications are currently not accepted through CalOpps or any other third-party job board application system. To apply applicants must complete an application via the City of San Joses website at is the trainee level class in the Firefighter series responsible for becoming proficient in the understanding of lifesaving and firefighting methods within the SJFD. Through a specific program comprised of general and specialized education focused training including extensive hands-on experience Firefighter Recruits will learn diverse tasks policies procedures and standards within the SJFD. Incumbents will learn techniques in emergency medical services rescue work firefighting and other emergency services. Duties may involve considerable physical exertion and potential risk to health and safety. Work is rigidly structured highly supervised and incumbents are continuously evaluated and receive feedback regularly. Firefighter Recruits must graduate from the Academy and be appointed to the classification of Firefighter in order to retain employment in the job series.

In addition to the salary employees shall also receive an approximate one percent (1%) ongoing non-pensionable compensation pay.

• Competitive Salary
  • Firefighter Recruit: $50.16 hourly $4012.80 bi-weekly*

Upon successful completion of the Firefighter Recruit Academy:

• Firefighter Step 1: $4613.60 bi-weekly base pay; $119955.68 annually*

Employees hired on or after January 1 2017 must reside within one hundred and eighty (180) minutes travel time from the nearest City of San Jose fire station (non-traffic period as calculated by Google Maps^tm or map program mutually agreed to by the parties).

To be considered the following minimum qualifications are required by the final filing date of Wednesday December 17 2025:

Firefighter Recruit applicants: Must have a current profile and test scores on the Firefighter Candidate Testing Center (FCTC) Statewide Eligibility List (SEL) by the final filing date of 12/17/2025 . For more information on how to be placed on the FCTC SEL visit A passing score on the FCTC Written Test must be dated between 12/18/2024 and 12/17/2025.

Desirable Qualifications:

• Possession of current and valid State of California Emergency Medical Services Authority Paramedic License.
• Possession of a Bachelors (BS or BA) degree or Associates (AS or AA) degree from an accredited college or university.
• Possession of a Fire Science/Fire Technology Certificate from an accredited college.
• Completion of 30 semester units (or equivalent) from an accredited college with at least 15 semester units (or equivalent) in Fire Science/Fire Technology.
• Possession of California State Fire Marshal Firefighter I Certification or equivalent.
• Possession of California State Fire Marshal Firefighter II Certification or equivalent.
• Bilingual (Arabic Armenian Assyrian Cambodian Cantonese Croatian French German Greek Hmong Japanese Korean Mandarin Persian Portuguese Russian Spanish Tagalog or Vietnamese).

Selection Process:

The selection process will consist of an evaluation of the applicants training and experience based on the application and responses to all the job specific questions. You must answer all questions to be considered or your application may be deemed incomplete and withheld from further consideration. Only the candidates whose backgrounds best match the position will be invited to proceed in the selection process. Applicants deemed most competitive after oral interviews will be required to pass a Fire background investigation which includes polygraph and psychological screening. Additional phases of the selection process are described below.

Tentative Timeline:

Personal History Questionnaire(On-line): January 8 2026

Oral Board Interviews (In Person): January 31and February 1 2026

Chiefs Interviews (In Person): StartingJanuary 31 2026

Backgrounds (In Person):Week of February 16 2026

Conditional Offers: Week of April 27 2026

Polygraph/Medical Examination(In Person):Starting week of May 18 2026

Livescan (fingerprinting)/ Uniform Sizing/ Mask Fit (In Person):Starting week of May 18 2026

Final Job Offer Notifications:Week of June 29 2026

Academy Start Date:Monday July 20 2026

*DATES ARE TENTATIVE AND MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE*

The application deadline is Wednesday December 17 2025 at 11:59 PM Please allow adequate time to complete the application and submit before the deadline or the system may not save your application. If your online application was successfully submitted you will receive an automatic confirmation email to the email address you provided. IF YOU DO NOT RECEIVE THE CONFIRMATION please email and we will research the status of your application. Please contact Human Resources at orif you have any questions.

Additional Information:

Employment Eligibility: Federal law requires all employees to provide verification of their eligibility to work in this country. Please be informed that the City of San Jose will NOT sponsor represent or sign any documents related to visa applications/transfers for H1-B or any other type of visa which requires an employer application.

You must answer all job-specific questions to be considered for this vacancy or your application will be deemed incomplete and withheld from further consideration. Applicants are expected to write their own essays/responses.

Please note that applications are currently not acceptedthrough CalOpps or any other third party job board application system.

This recruitment may be used to fill multiple positions in this or other divisions or departments. If you are interested in employment in this classification you should apply to ensure you are considered for additional opportunities that may utilize the applicants from this recruitment.

Please allow adequate time to complete the application and submit before the deadline or the system may not save your application. If your online application was successfully submitted you will receive an automatic confirmation email to the email address you provided. IF YOU DO NOT RECEIVE THE CONFIRMATION please email and we will research the status of your application.