Duties
The incumbent is responsible for executing administrative and operational support in matters which may include fiscal management, human resources management, property management, training, contracting, information technology, travel, records management, privacy, and space management. This position will also focus on office automation and management information systems development and maintenance, internal reviews and resource management, including allocation and utilization of manpower requirements.
Presents the OCLA Chief of Staff (COS) with recommendations to administrative views, policies, decisions, and other relevant considerations to stakeholders. Exhibits sound judgement, experience and knowledge on all administrative and congressional issues, priorities and sensitivities affecting the work of OCLA.
Develops communication plans, talking points, fact sheets, briefing documents, courses of actions and other matters for OCLA Leadership, as necessary. This position develops and/or coordinate position papers for use in high-level briefings, drafting and/or properly formatting executive correspondence, etc. regarding administrative issues and activities for day-to-day operations management.
Reviews travel requests and vouchers for approval and processing: coordinates specific work travel arrangements and submits travel vouchers for payment. Maintain tracking system to ensure travel spending is being recorded and managed appropriately according to budget limitations.
Responsible for all employee matters including access to: Sensitive White house and congressional correspondence; employee personally identifiable information; pre-decisional documents; reasonable accommodation, EEO, and grievance paperwork; labor relations and employee relations documents; labor relations negotiations materials; sensitive meeting materials; and knowledge of meeting purposes and outcomes, to include performance-related and labor relations-related information.
Coordinates administrative and operational actions and clarifies responsibilities and timelines for completion. Consolidates data as necessary and reviews the data to ensure it meets objectives and timelines. Projects have wide impact and require detailed study, compilation and analysis of facts, developments of plans, and extensive coordination with other staff prior to presenting a final product to leadership for approval. Evaluates program operations using daily observations and analysis of work processes to identify problems, inefficiencies, and potential problems; and develop and implement solutions. Develops and implements new or modified guidelines and work processes to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, or timeliness of work processes and information dissemination.
The incumbent provides advice and counsel on a broad range of administrative and operation management support issues, policies, programs, objectives, and plans for the directorate. Develops, analyzes, evaluates, advises on, or improves the effectiveness and efficiency of work methods, distribution of work assignments and other similar functions of management. Provides position management advice and recommendations to management to improve the efficiency and productivity of employees.
Conducts studies of missions, functions, organizational structures, workload, and capabilities of existing or proposed organizational entities; prepares recommendations regarding existing organization entities to achieve increased effectiveness, proper span of control, efficiency of operations, and economy of effort; examines proposed organizations with a view toward consonance with accepted management doctrines and assigned mission, functions, and workloads.
Analyzes and interprets rules, regulations, directives, correspondence, and related publications on matters of administration and keeps appraised of significant changes and developments. Provides advice, assistance, and consultation to staff in response to a wide variety of administrative procedures, taskings, and appropriate response to inquiries from leadership.
Continually reviews and assess the impact of new policies directives, regulations and procedures issued affecting areas of responsibilities. Recommends changes to administrative policies or initiates supplemental directives and instructions or other guidance to operating elements as necessary to ensure implementation and compliance.
Promotion Potential: The selectee may be promoted to the full performance level without further competition when all regulatory, qualification, and performance requirements are met. Selection at a lower grade level does not guarantee promotion to the full performance level.
Work Schedule: Monday-Friday, 8:00am-4:30pm
Compressed/Flexible: No
Telework: Ad-hoc as determined by agency policy
Virtual: Not a virtual or remote position
Position Description/PD#: Administrative Officer, 00033-0 and 00032-0
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: No
Financial Disclosure Report: No
Requirements
Conditions of Employment
Conditions of Employment
- You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job
- Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
- You may be required to serve a probationary period
- Subject to background/security investigation
- Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process
- Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents).
- Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued identification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you may be required to serve a one year probationary period or two year trial period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider:
- your performance and conduct;
- the needs and interests of the agency;
- whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and
- whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.
Upon completion of your probationary period one year probationary period or two year trial period your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.
Qualifications
To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 09/22/2025.
Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-12 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-11. For a GS-13 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-12. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade.
See the Required Document section below for more information regarding the SF-50s needed to verify time-in-grade.
You may qualify based on your experience as described below:
GS-12 Qualifications:
Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade (GS-11) in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience include:
- demonstrated knowledge of human resources programs, including serving as HR Liaison, and coordinating recruitment, promotion, position classification, and employee development activities, awards, labor-management relations, manpower management, EEO, and all other aspects of the traditional human resources management program, manpower utilization.
- Demonstrated experience in records management and privacy.
- Demonstrated experience in using VA Timekeeping and Fiscal software (iFAMS, g-Invoicing)
GS-13 Qualifications:
Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade (GS-12) in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience include:
- demonstrated experience in managing human resources programs for an office/service line, including serving as HR Liaison, and coordinating recruitment, promotion, position classification, and employee development activities, awards, labor-management relations, manpower management, EEO, and all other aspects of the traditional human resources management program, manpower utilization.
- Demonstrated experience in being an IT liaison, space planner, records management, and privacy.
- Demonstrated expertise in strategic workforce planning to include manpower utilization.
- Demonstrated experience in executing fiscal management (budget preparation and tracking) and VA Fiscal software (iFAMS, g-Invoicing)
- Demonstrated substantive experience in interpreting and communicating information and data to a wide variety of individuals with varying degrees of understanding.
You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:
- Policy Analysis and Technical Acumen
- Oral and Written Communication
- Internal & External Stakeholder Management
Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.
Note:
A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment.
Physical Requirements: Work is primarily sedentary, although some slight physical effort may be required. Travel may be required.
For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at
http://://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.
Education
There is no educational substitution at this grade level.
Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: Recognition of Foreign Qualifications | International Affairs Office.
Benefits
A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.
Review our benefits
Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.
Required Documents
To apply for this position, you must provide a complete Application Package which includes:
- Resume
- SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action
The following documents are accepted, and may be required if applicable to your eligibility and/or qualifications for this position. Please use this
checklist to make sure you have included other documents required for your application, such as a copy of your transcript (if using education to qualify), SF-50's (current/former Federal employees), documentation to support Veterans Preference claims, or CTAP documentation (for displaced VA employees). You will not be contacted for additional information.
- Cover Letter
- Performance Appraisal
- Resume
- Separation Notice (RIF)
- SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action
Note: Failure to submit
all documentation prior to the announcement closing will result in an
ineligible rating. We will not contact applicants for additional documentation.
SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action (if applicable for Time in Grade and/or Eligibility):
- Most recent SF-50 (Current Federal Employees must provide an SF-50 dated 1-12-2025 or later; Current Federal Wage System (WG/WL/WS) employees must provide one dated within one year of the closing date)
- ATTENTION: You may need to submit more than one SF-50 if we cannot verify that you meet time-in-grade by your most recent SF-50. For example, if your most recent SF-50 is a General Adjustment, we need your most recent SF-50 dated 1/12/25 and another SF-50 to verify time-in-grade. Examples of SF-50s for time-in-grade verification include your last within-grade increase or promotion to highest grade held. A promotion SF-50 shows when you started the grade level and a within-grade increase verifies that you were at that grade level for at least one year. Failure to provide your most recent SF-50 dated 1/12/2025 or later and other SF-50s to verify time-in-grade will result in you being disqualified. We cannot verify time-in-grade based on the grade and step you are currently on alone.
- Former federal employee applying under reinstatement eligibility must supply their latest SF-50 as well as any additional SF-50s needed to verify time-in-grade as stated in the above bullet.
- Award SF-50's do not provide sufficient information and will not be accepted for the purpose of verifying time-in-grade.
- Examples of appropriate SF-50s to include in addition to your most recent SF-50's include:
- Within grade increases at the highest grade held; or
- Promotions with an effective date more than one year old; or
- SF-50's at the highest grade held with an effective date more than one year old.
Veterans' Preference: When applying for Federal Jobs, eligible Veterans should claim preference for 5pt (TP), 10pt (CP/CPS/XP), or for Sole Survivor Preference (SSP) in the questionnaire. You must provide a legible copy of your DD214(s) which shows dates and character of service (honorable, general, etc.). If you are currently serving on active duty and expect to be released or discharged within 120 days you must submit documentation related to your active duty service which reflects the dates of service, character of service (honorable, general, etc.), and dates of impending separation. Additionally, disabled veterans and others eligible for 10-point preference (such as widows or mothers of eligible Veterans) must also submit an SF-15 "Application for 10 Point Veteran Preference" with required proof as stated on the form.
Documentation is required to award preference. For more information on Veterans' Preference, please visit
http://www.fedshirevets.gov/job/vetpref/index.aspx.
IF APPLYING AS A CTAP ELIGIBLE:
You must submit the following documentation demonstrating eligibility for CTAP:
- Resume
- Agency Reduction in Force notice;
- Most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location
- Most recent performance appraisal (must be fully successful or above)
If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:
Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from
schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.
How to Apply
All applicants are encouraged to apply online. To apply for this position, you must complete the questionnaire and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section below. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on 09/22/2025 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12802266.
- To begin, click Apply Online to create a USA JOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USA JOBS resume and/or other supporting documents and complete the occupational questionnaire.
- Click Submit My Answers to submit your application package.
NOTE: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date.
To verify your application is complete, log into your USA JOBS account,
https://my.usajobs.gov/Account/Login, select the Application Status link and then select the more information link for this position. The Application page will display the status of your application, the documentation received and processed, and any correspondence the agency has sent related to this application. Your uploaded documents may take several hours to clear the virus scan process. To return to an incomplete application, log into your USA JOBS account and click Update Application in the vacancy announcement. You must re-select your resume and/or other documents from your USA JOBS account or your application will be incomplete.
If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement.
Next steps
Once your online application is submitted you will receive a confirmation notification by email. After we receive application packages (including all required documents) and the vacancy announcement closes, we will review applications to ensure qualification and eligibility requirements are met. After the review is complete, a referral certificate(s) is issued and applicants will be notified of their status by email. Referred applicants will be notified as such and may be contacted directly by the hiring office for an interview. All referred applicants receive a final notification once a selection decision has been made.
You may check the status of your application at any time by logging into your USA Jobs account and clicking on Applications. Information regarding your application status can be found in the USAJobs Help Center.