Senior Land Acquisition Agent - Jefferson County

Target Close Date:

10/17/2025

Pay Grade:

Grade 24

Type:

Full time

Job Summary:

Jefferson County is seeking a qualified and motivated Senior Land Acquisition Agent. This role oversees complex property appraisal, negotiation, and acquisition to secure rights-of-way, easements, and other real property interests. The position provides guidance to Land Acquisition Agents, ensures compliance with local, state, and federal regulations, and serves as a liaison with property owners, appraisers, attorneys, and surveyors. Work is performed under the general direction of the Chief Land Acquisition Agent.

Compensation & Benefits:

Jefferson County provides competitive pay and comprehensive benefits packages to include medical and dental insurance, employer-sponsored retirement plan (pension), generous paid holidays, sick and vacation leave, and more. The pay range for this job is presented below:

Jefferson County: $59,155 - $91,769

Minimum Qualifications:

The following are job-related qualifications that are required for employment consideration for this position:

• Driver'S License.

• Coursework in real property appraisal from a member of the Appraisal Foundation, Appraisal Institute, from an accredited university, or the IRWA (International Right of Way Association).           
• Experience reviewing property appraisals.           
• Experience involving acquisition of land and real property interest.          
• Experience reading, writing, and interpreting legal descriptions.
• Experience reading and interpreting engineering design plans.
• Experience using the guidelines and procedures from the Uniform Act for the acquisition of real property.               
• Experience conducting transactions regarding public property in compliance with federal funding (Uniform Act)
• including eminent domain (e.g., sales, vacations, leases).

Preferred Qualifications:

The following are job-related qualifications deemed desirable by Jefferson County. These qualifications may be considered when reviewing applications and inviting candidates to participate in subsequent steps in the selection processes.

• IRWA (International Right of Way Association) designation or other advanced IRWA certifications.
• Work experience in land acquisition for federally funded projects, including eminent domain and relocation assistance.
• Work experience negotiating acquisitions, easements, and relocations for transportation, utilities, or public infrastructure projects.
• Work experience reviewing and interpreting engineering and right-of-way plans, plats, and legal property descriptions.
• Work experience using GIS mapping software (e.g., ArcGIS) and databases for tracking parcels, easements, and project progress.

Typical Job Duties:

• Prepares written correspondence, reports, and legal documents such as deeds, easement agreements, and contracts using templates or previous examples to facilitate the acquisition, divestment, or vacation of real property.
• Facilitates the divestment, lease, or licensure of jurisdictional property in order to transfer property ownership or land use rights in accordance with local, state, and/or federal laws.
• Initiates eminent domain processes in order to condemn subject property parcels by attending probate court hearings, meeting with commissioners to visit properties, and testifying as an expert witness during court hearings so eminent domain processes can be completed.
• Updates GIS mapping system software and/or computer files (e.g., documents, spreadsheets, databases) with information pertaining to land acquisition projects (e.g., property boundaries, owner’s name, estimated value, existing rights-of-way/easements, jurisdictional assets and use, etc.) to ensure property records are accurate and up to date.
• Conducts negotiations and serves as a liaison to property owners by analyzing land needs of the county, consulting with experts, and ensuring that negotiations follow applicable regulations and standards in order to obtain property rights, resolve problems, gather information, and address concerns that arise during land acquisition projects.
• Engages in activities designed to ensure professional development, awareness of developments in the field, and knowledge of relevant practices, rules, laws, policies, and/or guidelines.
• Conducts research on property parcels involved in land acquisition projects using tax assessor records, deeds, title records, survey maps, and on-site inspections to verify the accuracy of construction/engineering plans, determine project scope, and identify the owner of land involved in acquisition projects.
• Manages records, documents, and paperwork generated during the acquisition of the property in order to ensure they are filed in accordance with legal and/or departmental standards.
• Guides parties (the public, engineers, surveyors, and other agencies) through the right-of-way vacation process in order to fulfill requests to abandon land use rights in accordance with state statutes.
• Supervises staff by assigning and distributing work, directing staff in their job duties, monitoring progress of work, providing feedback and/or training.

Physical Demands:

Job is primarily sedentary involving sitting for long periods of time, but may involve occasional walking or standing for brief periods. May involve occasional light lifting of items or objects weighing up to 25 lbs.

Work Environment:

Work is conducted mostly indoors in an office setting, with periodic field visits to external indoor or outdoor locations. Work involves use of standard office equipment, such as computer, phone, copier, etc.

Eeo Statement:

The Personnel Board of Jefferson County provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment with the Personnel Board of Jefferson County, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.  Each Merit System member city/agency operate its own equal employment opportunity policies available on the individual city/agency website.

Accommodation:

To request an accommodation in the application or hiring process due to your own ongoing medical condition or disability, please contact our Accommodations Coordinator at accommodationrequest@pbjcal.org or phone at 205-279-3500 (select option 1) Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Central Time. The accommodation process is reserved solely for job seekers with disabilities requesting accessibility assistance or accommodation in the job application process.

Note:

This job posting may close before, or be extended beyond, the listed Target Close Date based on the employment needs of the Merit System. More detail regarding this job is available by clicking Apply.

Disclaimer:

This job posting is not meant to be an all-inclusive list of the job duties, responsibilities, or skills and abilities required to do the job and may be changed at the discretion of the Personnel Board at any time.