ContentDeploymentJob j = null;
SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
{
 j = ContentDeploymentJob.GetAllJobs()["Selected Sites"];
});

This works great if the user has uber access. If not the RunWithElevatedPrivileges doesn't buy you any thing as it seems to be ignored. I'm working on a workaround currently.

Solution:

Apparently the content deployment object model is blocked if ran from anywhere but central administration. But, you can undo this with the following powershell.

#POWERSHELL

# load sharepoint api libs
 [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint") > $null
 [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration") > $null

  # get content web service
 $contentService = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebService]::ContentService
  # turn off remote administration security
$contentService.RemoteAdministratorAccessDenied = $false
$contentService.Update();
 

reference:

http://unclepaul84.blogspot.com/2010/06/sppersistedobject-xxxxxxxxxxx-could-not.html

That said, I was unable to impersonate a Farm Admin. It seems that even when I used RunWithElevatedPrivileges or straight impersonation with SSS, it would still tell me that the user logged on was not a farm admin.

So for a work around I will be adding the user that will be managing content deployment as a farm admin temporarily so I can move on.

Also I've noticed that changes to code and security take some time and iisresets to go through. So make sure to iisreset and try it twice, I lost a lot of time debugging working code because of this.

OK looks like the user also needs the following db access:
USE [SharePoint_ConfigDB]
GO
GRANT EXECUTE ON proc_putObject TO [account]
GRANT EXECUTE ON proc_putDependency TO [account]
GRANT EXECUTE ON proc_getNewObjects TO [account]

USE [SharePoint_AdminContent]
GO
GRANT EXECUTE ON proc_GetContextObjectEventReceivers TO [account]
GRANT SELECT ON TVF_UserData_ListItemLevelRow TO [account]
GRANT EXECUTE ON proc_UpdateListItem TO [account]
GRANT EXECUTE ON proc_UpdateItemInNameValuePair TO [account]
GRANT EXECUTE ON proc_EnsureTranLockNotRequired TO [account]
GRANT EXECUTE ON proc_UpdateDiskUsed TO [account]