Permit Specialist

Salary: $17.46 - $21.83 Hourly
Location : 2401 Market St. Baytown, TX
Job Type: Full Time
Job Number: 26-00088
Department: PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT SERVICES
Opening Date: 05/05/2026

Job Summary
Join the City of Baytown as a Permit Specialist and play a key role in keeping our community growing and thriving. In this fast-paced position, you'll manage permit applications, collaborate across departments, and deliver top-notch service to residents and businesses. If you're highly organized, detail-driven, and experienced in municipal permitting, we'd love to have you on our team.
The Permit Specialist performs duties to support the department's overall mission. In this role, you will administer permit issuance and recordkeeping, coordinate inspections, process payments, and provide professional customer service to both internal stakeholders and the public. You will also conduct thorough completeness reviews, prepare reports and correspondence, and exercise sound judgment within your scope of authority to maintain compliance and consistency in all processes.
Duties

• Issues and maintains permits. Assists customers with the permit application process and answers a wide variety of questions. Data entry of all permits and process payments. Prepares work orders for inspectors and schedules inspection requests from contractors and homeowners/owners.
• Answer the phone, takes messages and responds to voicemails. Retrieves, opens, and distributes daily mail/email. Releases utility approvals to CenterPoint Energy. Prepares reports for distribution externally/internally.
• Logs plans for building permits and routes to other departments for review. Schedules inspections for Planning, Health, Fire, Engineering, Storm Water and Environmental Departments. Processes Certificates of Occupancy.
• Prepares and balances daily deposit while reviewing the day's permits and receipts for errors, resolves overages or shortages.
• Maintains all plans in accordance with the records retention and destruction policy.
• Responds to "Public Information Requests" which could involve researching computer programs and hard copies, making copies, re-file records and contacting citizens.
• Assists with customer needs across all plan, permit, registration and licensing programs administered by the Planning & Development Services.
• Performs all other related duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications
Required:

• High School Diploma or equivalent (GED).
• Two years customer service or general office experience OR equivalent combination of education and experience.

Preferred:

• Bilingual in English/Spanish.
• Office experience in the building industry.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
Ability to multitask, establish priorities, work independently, and maintain organization. Work requires continual attention to detail in entering, composing, typing and proofing data and materials. Knowledge of business machine operations, personal computers and related software, and accounting/billing processes. Must have a high level of interpersonal skills to handle sensitive and confidential situations with both internal and external customers. Position continually requires demonstrated poise, tact, and diplomacy. Ability to get along appropriately with co-workers and the public.

Here at the City of Baytown, in recruiting for our team, we welcome the unique contributions that you bring. We strive to provide a workplace where differences are honored, with a workforce that reflects the diversity of the people we serve.

Attendance is an essential function of this position. The City reserves the right to require an employee in this position to work overtime. This position provides services or performs duties for the benefit of the general public during emergency situations. These may include services or duties different from those performed in the usual course and scope of your job. In the event of an evacuation, the incumbent in this position may be required to remain to perform needed services.

Overall Position Strength Demands

Light Work: Exerting up to 20 pounds of force occasionally, and/or up to 10 pounds of force frequently, and/or a negligible amount of force constantly to move objects.
To promote health and wellness, we provide a comprehensive benefits program (listed below) to meet the needs of you and your family. Our goal is to help you live and work well - 365 days a year.

Medical

• United Healthcare
• Effective the first day of the month following 30 days of employment
• Annual Deductible (Network) $750 Indiv/$2,250 Family
• In-Network Benefit 80%/20% after plan deductible
• $50 co-pay (general visit)
• RX - $10 Generic/$40 Formulary/$75 Non-Formulary
• Flexible Spending Accounts: Healthcare and Dependent Care expenses
• FREE virtual visits

Dental

• Cigna Dental PPO & DHMO
• Effective the first day of the month following 30 days of employment
• Preventative & diagnostic covered at 100%
• Annual Deductible: $50/Indiv (Cigna PPO) - No annual deductible for Cigna DHMO

Vision

• Superior Vision
• Effective the first day of the month following 30 days of employment
• In-Network exam co-pay $10 & $25 materials co-pay
• Frames: $140 Allowance - Contact Lenses: $160 Allowance

Holistic Health & Wellness

• Employee Wellness Center offering FREE primary care medical treatment for employees & dependents on the Medical plan
• FREE access to gyms, Shipt, and Walmart+ through our employee medical insurance
• Gym partnership with Lee College Wellness Center & swimming pool for $58/year
• Employee Assistance Program providing employees and their household family members up to 8 FREE counseling sessions per issue per year, legal and financial assistance, will generator tools, and more!
• Sick Leave Pool providing participants additional paid sick time if accruals are exhausted.
• SmartDollar: free online program providing tips and tools from Dave Ramsey for getting out of debt and building good saving practices

Retirement

• Texas Municipal Retirement System:
  • 7% employee contribution with a 14% employer match
  • 5 year vesting
  • Retirement Eligibility: 20 years of service/any age - or - 5 years of service/at least age 60
  • FREE Life Insurance coverage up to 1X your base annual salary
• MissionSquare 457 and 457 Roth IRA plans: additional voluntary employee participation

Disability Insurance

• Equitable:
  • Long-term Disability: voluntary elected coverage. Pays 60% of monthly earnings up to $8,000 per month up to social security age, depending on the disability
  • Short-term Disability: voluntary elected coverage. Pays 60% of weekly earnings up to $1,000 per week for up to the first 13 weeks of a disability

Training and Tuition Assistance

• The HUB Employee Training Center: we invest in you by equipping you with the knowledge and skills needed to live out our Purpose and Core Values
• Access to funding up to $1,500 per semester or $3,000 per year for tuition toward courses that are job-related or will enhance your work performance

Generous Paid Sick, Vacation, & Holiday Leave

• 10 holidays per year and one personal employee day per year
• 15 days sick leave per year
• Starting at 10 days of vacation per year; up to 25 days per year
• Sick and Vacation hours roll over annually up to the maximum limit
• 15 days Paid Parental Leave

To explore all of the benefits we offer, please visit:
01

Which of the following best describes your highest level of education?

• High School Diploma/GED
• Associate's Degree
• Bachelor's Degree
• Master's Degree
• None of the above

02

How many years of customer service or general office experience do you have?

• Less than 6 months
• 1 year
• 2 years
• 3 years
• 4 years
• 5+ years
• None of the above

03

Please describe your office experience in the building/permit industry. If you have none, please put N/A.
04

If you are bilingual, in which language are you most proficient?

• I am not bilingual
• Spanish
• Vietnamese
• Chinese
• French
• Urdu
• American Sign Language
• Other

Required Question