Summary
ATF is a law enforcement agency in the U.S. Department of Justice that protects our communities from violent criminals/criminal organizations, illegal use/trafficking of firearms, illegal use/storage of explosives, acts of arson/bombings, acts of terrorism, and illegal diversion of alcohol/tobacco products. We partner with communities, industries, law enforcement, and public safety agencies to safeguard the public through information sharing, training, research, & technology. Visit www.atf.gov
This job is open to
Clarification from the agency
Applications will be accepted from all groups of qualified individuals in the public.
Duties
This position is located in the Office of Public and Governmental Affairs in Washington D.C. The primary purpose of this position is to serve as the Bureau's principal spokesperson and contact with the public and news media and provides liaison between the Bureau and the Department of Justice (DOJ) and similar organizations in other Government agencies.
As the Assistant Director, Office of Public and Governmental Affairs, your typical work assignments may include:
- Initiates, formulates, executes, and coordinates the Bureau's public liaison activities.
- Provides supervision for the staff in the Office of Public and Governmental Affairs.
- Represents the Director and Deputy Director on various inter-agency groups and in other high-level law enforcement and regulatory-based policy assignments.
- Administers the requests for records, Privacy Impact Assessments, Systems of Records Notices and accounting for information pursuant to the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) overall responsibility for the digital, print and visual media presence; intergovernmental affairs; public affairs and legislative affairs and all Bureau involved Congressional activity.
Requirements
Conditions of Employment
MOBILITY PLAN: New employees hired pursuant to this vacancy announcement must sign a mobility agreement. The purpose of ATF's mobility policy is to enhance career development and progression, and achieve mission and business effectiveness. To accomplish these objectives, the mobility plan will facilitate the movement of employees through special short-term assignments or permanent reassignments throughout the Bureau. Applicants who decline to sign a mobility agreement, as required, will be removed from the hiring process.
As a basic requirement, applicants must demonstrate progressively responsible leadership experience that is indicative of senior executive level managerial capability and directly related to the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities required for successful performance in this position. Typically, experience of this nature will have been gained at or above the equivalent of the GS-15 grade level in the Federal service or its equivalent with state and local government, the private sector, or non-governmental organizations. Failure to meet this basic qualification requirement and all executive and technical qualifications for the position, by the closing date of this announcement, automatically disqualifies an applicant.
The individual selected will be subject to the necessary security investigation for a critical position and reporting requirements of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978. The selectee will be required to complete an executive branch Personal Financial Disclosure Report, SF 278. The selectee may also be subject to post-employment conflict of interest restrictions under 18 USC 207 (c). You must complete a one-year probationary period unless already completed.
Key Requirements:
- Top Secret Clearance required.
- Pass drug screening and subject to random drug test.
- New SES appointees must successfully complete a 1-year probationary period.
- U.S. Citizenship is required.
Qualifications
This is a non-bargaining unit position.
Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs) - Mandatory (Current members of the career SES, former career SES members with reinstatement eligibility, and OPM/QRB certified candidates need not address the ECQs). You are required to submit information describing your experience in each of the five ECQs. The narratives should be clear, concise, and illustrate your overall record (professional and volunteer experience, education and training, accomplishments, awards and potential) in these ECQs. Be sure to furnish examples and describe the context in which you applied your knowledge, discuss how you used skills relevant to the position, indicate the complexity and scope of your work, discuss the impact of your work, note the level of people with whom you interacted, and explain the sensitivity and criticality of the issues you addressed. Structure your statements in terms of the challenges you faced, the context or environment in which the actions were taken, the actions taken, and the outcome or results from such action (i.e., Challenge-Context-Action-Result {C-C-A-R} Model). Additional information on the ECQs is available at http://www.opm.gov/ses/recruitment/ecq.asp.
Executive Core Qualifications - Please attach written responses, limited to two pages per ECQ (i.e., for a total of ten typewritten pages for all five ECQs).
1. Leading Change - Involves the ability to bring about strategic change, within and outside the organization, to meet organizational goals. Inherent to this is the ability to establish an organizational vision and to implement it in a continuously changing environment.
2. Leading People - Involves the ability to lead people toward meeting the organization's vision, mission, and goals. Inherent to this is the ability to provide an inclusive workplace that fosters the development of others, facilitates cooperation and teamwork, and supports constructive resolution of conflicts.
3. Results Driven - Involves the ability to meet organizational goals and customer expectations. Inherent to this is the ability to make decisions that produce high-quality results by applying technical knowledge, analyzing problems, and calculating risks.
4. Business Acumen - Involves the ability to manage human, financial, and information services strategically.
5. Building Coalitions - Involves the ability to build coalitions internally and with other Federal agencies, state and local governments, nonprofit and private sector organizations, foreign governments, or international organizations to achieve common goals.
Technical Qualifications (TQs) - Mandatory - Please attach written responses, limited to one typewritten page per TQ.
1. Demonstrated experience in the application of advanced public/media relations principles, trends and generally accepted practices and techniques to plan and direct public relations programs and legislative affairs activities for a large, complex law enforcement organization of nationwide scope.
2. Demonstrates broad management experience in planning, developing, administering, and directing an organization, including overall responsibility for short and long-range program planning, budget formulation, and allocation of human and material resources, development of operational guidelines and policies, and creation of new methods and measures to solve complex management problems.
3. Demonstrates experience and expertise in delivering oral and written communication on extremely sensitive and controversial issues to a wide variety of audiences, such as the organization head and Executive Staff members, Members of Congress and their staffs, counterparts in other agencies, Departmental officials, industry groups, the media, and members of the public requesting documents under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and/or the Privacy Act.
4. Demonstrates applied knowledge of the legislative process, including Congressional procedures, practices, and guidelines for proposing and monitoring new legislation and communicating legislative goals.
Education
There is no education requirement.
How You Will Be Evaluated
You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.
Your application will first be evaluated to determine if you meet the minimum qualifications. A rating and ranking panel of senior executives will review your application and evaluate your qualifications for this position. It will determine the extent to which your professional and volunteer experience, education and training, and awards or professional recognition indicate you possess the required executive and technical experience. Candidates determined to be highly qualified will undergo at least one interview. Prior to selection, candidates will undergo a reference check.
Note: All applicants must thoroughly address the Mandatory Technical Qualifications. Current and former SES members, and other applicants who have already been certified by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Qualifications Review Board (QRB), are not required to address the Executive Core Qualifications. However, they must provide documentation of certification in the form of a SF-50 showing career SES status or an OPM issued SES qualification certificate.
Required Documents
- ALL APPLICANTS: You must submit a detailed resume containing the following pieces of information for each job entry listed in your employment history:
- Official position title;
- Employer name and contact information;
- Start and end dates (including month and year);
- The number of hours worked per week (or indicate full-time). Permanent and Volunteered
- Your grade/step and a detailed list of duties & accomplishments
Showing relative permanent and volunteer work experience, education, and training. Your resume serves as the basis for qualification determinations and must support your answers to the completed online assessment questions.
- Narrative Statement of Executive Core Qualifications, if applicable.
- Narrative Statement of Technical Qualifications.
Applicants who fail to submit all required information and documents will not receive consideration for the position.
Your complete online application and any required supplemental documentation must be received by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on the closing date of this announcement. It is also your responsibility to ensure all documents are received on time and the materials are readable. If applying on-line poses a hardship to any applicant, please contact us at the telephone number listed on this announcement. Applicants must contact us prior to the closing date to speak to someone who can provide assistance for on-line submission. Requests for extensions will not be granted. Paper applications submitted without prior approval from the agency point of contact may be handled as incomplete.
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
Please read the entire announcement and all instructions before you begin an application. To apply for this position, you must complete the initial online application, to include the initial online assessment and submission of the required documentation specified in the Required Documents section. You must submit a complete application package by 11:59 PM (ET) on June 18, 2024, to be considered. The application process is as follows:
- To begin the application process, click the Apply Online button.
- Answer the questions presented in the application and attach all necessary supporting documentation.
- Click the Submit Application button prior to 11:59 PM (ET) on the announcement closing date.
- After submitting an online application, you will be notified whether or not you are required to take additional online assessments through the USA Hire Competency Based Assessment system. This message will be delivered to you via email notification. The email may be routed to your "Spam" or "Junk" folder.
- If you are asked to take the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be presented with a unique URL to access the USA Hire system. Access to USA Hire is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Be sure to review all instructions prior to beginning your USA Hire Assessments. Click here for Computer System Requirements
- Note, set aside at least 3 hours to take these assessments; however, most applicants complete the assessments in less time. If you need to stop the assessments and continue at a later time, you can re-use the URL sent to you via email and also found in your USAJOBS account under the Track this application link for the corresponding application.
To update your application, including supporting documentation, at any time during the announcement open period return to your USAJOBS account. There you will find a record of your application, the application status, and an option to Edit My Application. This option will no longer be available once the announcement is closed.
To verify the status of your application both during and after the announcement open period, log into your USAJOBS account. Your applications will appear on the Welcome page. Navigate to the job application and click Track this application to view your application status. The link will take you to the hiring agency application system, which has the most up-to-date status of your application. There you can review any notifications sent to you related to this application, including the invitation to take the USA Hire assessment. The Application Status will appear along with the date your application was last updated. For information on what each Application Status means click here.
Next steps
Based on your application and your responses to the application questionnaire, you may be presented with instructions on how to access the USA Hire system to complete the online assessments. The online assessments must be completed within 48 hours following the close of this announcement. You will have the opportunity to request a testing accommodation for the assessment should you have a disability covered under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended.
Reasonable Accommodation (RA) Requests: If you believe you have a disability (i.e., physical or mental), covered by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended, that would interfere with completing the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be granted the opportunity to request RA in your online application. Requests for RA for the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments and appropriate supporting documentation for RA must be received prior to starting the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments. Decisions on requests for RA are made on a case-by-case basis. If you meet the minimum qualifications of the position, after notification of the adjudication of your request, you will receive an email invitation to complete the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments. You must complete all assessments within 48 hours of receiving the URL to access the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, if you receive the link after the close of the announcement. To determine if you need RA, please review the Procedures for Requesting a Reasonable Accommodation for Online Assessments here.
Your assessment results will be kept on record for one year and used toward future positions.
Our evaluation will be based on the information you supply. You should expect that we will verify performance, suitability, and security information and take that information into account in making employment offers.
You can check the status of your application anytime by accessing the USAJOBS online application system at http://www.usajobs.gov.You will need to provide your USAJOBS User ID and Password to access the Track your Online Job Application feature. You may also click on the link provided to access additional information on USAJobs.
All applicants will be notified at four (4) stages in the hiring process:
(1) upon receipt of your application;
(2) after your qualifications have been assessed;
(3) whether or not you've been referred to the Selecting Official; and
(4) whether or not you've been selected for the position.
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