Permit Technician

Job Posting

The Town of Corte Madera's Community Development Department is hiring a Permit Technician to join their team.

About Us

The Town of Corte Madera is committed to enhancing the community's health, safety, and quality of life through proactive, responsive, and inclusive public service. Located in the heart of beautiful Marin County, Corte Madera is a vibrant community of just under 10,000 residents known for its small-town charm, strong sense of community, and exceptional quality of life.

Surrounded by natural beauty and conveniently located between San Francisco and the North Bay, Corte Madera offers the best of both worlds, scenic open spaces, waterfront views, and outdoor recreation alongside easy access to shopping, dining, transportation, and cultural amenities. The Town takes pride in preserving its rich history while thoughtfully planning for the future through sustainable development, community engagement, and high-quality municipal services.

Town employees play an important role in supporting a collaborative and service-oriented organization dedicated to maintaining Corte Madera as a welcoming, safe, and thriving community for residents, businesses, and visitors alike. To learn more about the Town, visit: The Town of Corte Madera

Department

The Community Development Department helps plan, build and enhance the quality of life for the Town of Corte Madera. The Department is tasked with land use planning including the implementation of the General Plan, maintenance of the Zoning Code, overseeing housing programs, economic development, facilitating the entitlement process, and protecting public safety, health and welfare through the effective administration and enforcement of local ordinances and building codes (structural, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, and energy efficiency).

Position

Under general supervision, the Permit Technician provides technical, administrative, and customer service support for the Town's Community Development Department. This position serves as a primary point of contact for the public by assisting with planning and building permit applications, explaining permitting requirements and procedures, coordinating plan review activities, maintaining permit records, scheduling inspections, calculating fees, and supporting departmental operations. The role requires strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and the ability to interpret and apply building and zoning regulations while delivering responsive and professional public service.

Ideal Candidate

The Town seeks a highly organized, detail-oriented professional with experience in building permitting processes and a strong commitment to delivering exceptional customer service. The ideal candidate is collaborative, dependable, and skilled at managing multiple priorities in a fast-paced public service environment.

Key qualities include:

• Technical Expertise: Experienced in reviewing building permit applications and plan submittals for completeness; able to accurately and consistently interpret building codes, zoning regulations, and permitting requirements.
• Customer Service: Courteous, patient, and professional when assisting customers at the public counter, by phone, and through electronic communications; skilled at assessing customer needs, explaining processes clearly, and guiding applicants through permitting procedures.
• Communication: Communicates clearly, professionally, and effectively with residents, contractors, consultants, and internal staff, both verbally and in writing.
• Organization and Attention to Detail: Adept at performing initial plan and document reviews, verifying contractor licenses and credentials, calculating permit fees, processing permits, and maintaining accurate records and databases.
• Coordination and Time Management: Comfortable tracking plan review timelines, coordinating with consultants and internal departments, and helping ensure timely permit issuance and inspection scheduling.
• Teamwork and Collaboration: Works effectively and cooperatively with Town departments, outside agencies, contractors, and the public to support efficient and responsive service delivery.

Our ideal candidate is proactive, solutions-oriented, and committed to providing high-quality public service while supporting the Town's development review and permitting operations with professionalism and accuracy.

Examples of Duties

• Assist the public at the front counter and on the phone; interview customers and determine their needs and assess the scope of their project; answer questions and provide information within specific guidelines or direct complex issues or inquiries to appropriate Town staff; provide forms, applications, and other materials; assist the public in completing application forms.
• Confer with and accurately advise members of the general public, property owners, architects, engineers, developers, other Town departments and others regarding Town policies, procedures and standards related to planning and building issues; provide and explain requirements of codes and ordinances.
• Assist contractors, engineers, architects, realtors, and homeowners in locating permit and parcel information, including zoning information; generate 300' radius labels using computer application and photocopy and mail public notices.
• Perform initial review of building applications, plans, and support documents for accuracy and completeness; interpret and apply applicable codes and procedures.
• Track and coordinate the plan review process to obtain approvals and/or corrections in a timely fashion; review, create and send correction letters; compile plans and documents for permit issuance, coordinate consultant plan review and inspection activities; process necessary paperwork; calculate and assess permit fees; issue permits; collect fees; record and file documents; enter inspection results, plan review and permit status records; prepare files for final inspections.
• Verify validity of contractors' state licenses, business licenses, workers' compensation insurance, liability insurance and property ownership.
• Participate in developing customer handouts and information packets related to construction, code and ordinance compliance; develop, write and maintain a comprehensive building procedures manual for permit processing.
• Perform general office duties; receive, compile, and organize information for the preparation of correspondence, documents, agendas, spreadsheets, and reports as assigned; post meeting agendas, reports and notices; photocopy and collate public hearing packets; maintain confidentiality of sensitive information and documents.
• Type technical correspondence, memoranda, labels, contracts, legal documents, and reports; format documents and check drafts for punctuation, spelling and grammar; make or suggest corrections to drafts; distribute copies of materials.
• Perform general clerical accounting duties; calculate fees and collect payments; input ledger information; prepare refund requests; prepare reports and graphs.
• Perform comprehensive reviews of file records for relevant construction histories for residential properties offered for sale; prepare and maintain records; enter and retrieve data; produce various documents, summaries and reports utilizing standard and advanced equipment and computer functions and programs, developing formats and manipulating data to achieve desired results.
• Maintain Department files; file copies of permits, letters, memoranda, reports, construction plans, and associated documents for microfilming in accordance with Town policies and procedures; ensure compliance with records retention system procedures.
• Schedule inspections; assist the Building Official and planning staff in locating files and permit information and resolving discrepancies with construction projects; assist with the gathering of data for inspection reports and investigations.
• Stay abreast of related trends, laws, and regulations; attend classes required for certification renewal.
• Gather, compile and summarize information from a variety of sources to prepare data reports, budget reports and routing reports.
• Maintain inventory and stock of office supplies for the assigned area.

Typical Qualifications

Any combination of training, education and/or experience which provides the knowledge, skills and abilities of employment is qualifying. An example of a way these requirements might be acquired is:

Experience: Two years of responsible experience in the building construction trades or with a government building, planning or public works organization or three years of clerical, office support, and/or customer service experience preferably in a construction, building, engineering or similar office.

Training: Equivalent to completion of the twelfth grade; an Associate of Arts or Sciences degree in a related field is highly desirable.

License: Possession of a valid California driver's license is required.

Must obtain a valid I.C.C. certification as a Permit Technician within one year of appointment.

Supplemental Information

Application and Selection Procedures

Apply On-Line at: https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/centralmarinpolice/cortemadera by 11:59 PM (PST), Sunday, June 7, 2026, or Hard copy applications may be obtained from and submitted during normal business hours: Monday – Friday, 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM by contacting: Attn: Human Resources Channelle Ceralde, SHRM-SCP 300 Tamalpais Drive Corte Madera, CA 94925 Email: cceralde@cortemadera.gov Phone: (916) 471-3110

The selection process is tentative, and applicants will be notified if changes are made. To assess applicants' possession of required qualifications, the examination process may include an oral examination, pre-examination exercises, performance examination, and/or written examination. The competitive examination process includes submittal of required application materials. A complete application package will include:

• A completed Town of Corte Madera Employment Application
• Responses to the Supplemental Questions

Applicants who