Congressional Affairs Specialist (Schedule Policy/Career)

Clarification from the agency

Open to current or former Federal employees w/permanent competitive status; OR those eligible under a non-comp appointing authority (e.g. Individuals w/Disabilities, Pathways Interns & Recent Grads who are eligible for conversion, etc.); OR current or former employees who are serving, or previously served on temp or term appmt in land mgmt agency; OR veterans w/preference or those separated from armed forces OR NOAA Corps under honorable conditions after 3+ yrs of continuous service.

As a Congressional Affairs Specialist, you will perform the following duties:

• Lead Legislative Affairs outreach effort to congressional offices, including state and district-based offices and Congressional case workers. Work closely with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) staff to plan briefings, hearings, meetings, and other external events involving Members of Congress, Congressional staff, and their constituents.
• Serve as the policy and planning authority for NOAA's policies and priorities with Congress and the Department. Develop Congressional drafts and other official documentation, hearings, meetings, briefings, and other external events involving Members of Congress and staff and their constituents, to increase the understanding of Members of Congress, Congressional staff, and their constituents about the NOAA work and mission.
• Utilize expert knowledge to provide summaries of feedback from Members of Congress and Congressional staff to inform the Director for Legislative Affairs and Deputy Director about inquiries and requests that come in from Congressional offices and solicit information from senior staff about NOAA's work to be shared with Congressional offices.
• Provide authoritative and substantive guidance on legislative issues. Recommend strategies for Congressional interaction to management based on knowledge of the interests of the appropriate legislative audience. Conduct and coordinate Freedom of Information and Discovery requests for congressional inquiries.

• Must be able to obtain and maintain a Noncritical Sensitive security clearance to carry out duties requiring access to meetings, documents/info, and/or systems labeled as confidential or secret.

Conditions of employment

Key Requirements:

• Applicants must be U.S. Citizens.
• Suitable for Federal employment, as determined by background investigation.
• More requirements are listed under Qualifications and Additional Information.
• Must be registered for Selective Service, if applicable (www.sss.gov)
• Qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of the announcement.
• If you are a Federal employee applying for a promotion (under merit promotion procedures) you must meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of the announcement.

Additional Considerations:

• Position requires Non-Critical Sensitive Security Clearance.
• Background investigation required. Continued employment is subject to applicant's successful completion of security investigation and favorable adjudication. Failure to successfully meet these requirements will be grounds for termination.

Nature of Employment: This is a career, non-political position designated as policy-influencing (confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating). Employment in this position is at will. Standard civil service adverse action and performance based removal procedures under chapters 43 and 75 of Title 5, United States Code, do not apply. Consequently, traditional appeals to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) regarding performance or conduct-based removals are unavailable.

Conditions of Employment: Selection is made using merit-based evaluation procedures. Applicants and incumbents are not required to personally or politically support the President or the policies of the current administration, but they are required to faithfully implement administration policies to the best of their ability. Schedule Policy/Career employees are at-will employees at all times; therefore, they are not required to serve a trial period.

Qualifications

Qualification requirements in the vacancy announcements are based on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Qualification Standards Handbook, which contains federal qualification standards. This handbook is available on the Office of Personnel Management's website located at: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/

EDUCATION: There is no positive education requirement for this position.

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: Applicants must possess one year of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and responsibility to the next lower grade level in the Federal Service. Specialized experience is experience that has equipped the applicant with the particular competencies/knowledge, skills and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position. This experience need not have been in the federal government.

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, religious; 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.

To qualify for the ZA-4 or GS-13 level:
SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: Applicants must possess one full year (52 weeks) of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower pay band ZA-3 or GS-12 in the Federal service. Specialized experience MUST include all of the following:

• Assessing legislative initiatives on matters concerning programs and activities affecting environmental science and management programs; and
• Developing correspondence or responses to congressional inquiries.

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

You will be evaluated based on how well you meet the qualifications listed in this vacancy announcement. Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., resume, supporting documents), your responses on the application questionnaire and/or evaluation through a manual assessment process, and your responses to any additional assessments (i.e. USAHire) required for this position.

Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., resume, supporting documents) and a Job Knowledge Test. The Job Knowledge Test is designed to assess technical and professional expertise directly relevant to the requirements of this announcement. This assessment measures the specialized knowledge and skills accumulated over time, which are critical for successful performance in this position. The best-qualified candidates will be identified for referral to the hiring manager and may be invited for an interview.

You will be assessed on the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics):

Partnering, Planning and Evaluating, Problem Solving, and Strategic Thinking

Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration. Cheating on an assessment may also result in your removal from consideration.

To preview the announcement questionnaire, click here: https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/13076068

REQUIRED DOCUMENTS (may be: (1) uploaded directly from your desktop; or (2) uploaded directly from your USAJOBS stored attachments):

1. Resume:

• Your resume must be no more than 2 pages. Applicants with resumes exceeding two pages will be removed from consideration. Please review the USAJobs Help Center for additional requirements.
• You are encouraged to make your resume and profile searchable https://help.usajobs.gov/how-to/account/profile/searchable.
• You are highly encouraged to use USAJOBS Resume Builder to ensure all required information is included in your Resume.
• If you use your own resume or curriculum vitae, for each work experience at a minimum, your resume should include; job title(s) (including job series and grade, if Federal); description of duties or work performed; starting and ending dates (month and year).
• Part-Time work must be clearly identified and include the number of hours per week; if not identified, then work will be assumed to be Full-Time. (NOTE: A full-time work schedule requires most employees to work 33-40 hours during the work week. A part-time schedule requires an employee to work less than full-time, typically 16-32 hours per week.)

2. SF-50, "Notification of Personnel Action: If you are a current or former Federal employee, you must provide the most current Notification of Personnel Action (Form SF-50) that verifies career/career-conditional status, title, series and grade (do not submit an Award SF-50). Also provide the SF-50 that reflects the highest grade level held on a permanent basis or the full performance level of your current position, whichever is higher. Failure to do so will result in an ineligible rating.

3. Veteran's documentation: If you are requesting consideration under Veterans Employment Opportunity Act (VEOA) you must submit a copy of your Member 4, DD Form 214 stating disposition of discharge or character of service or other valid proof of eligibility (i.e., statement of service that shows service dates AND character of service) and/or any other required supporting documents (VA letter, SF-15, etc). For more information, please click here.

• Active Duty Service Members: You must submit a statement of discharge/certification of release or an official written document from the armed forces that certifies you are expected to be discharged or released from active duty service in the armed forces under honorable conditions no later than 120 days from the date the announcement closes. Enlisted Record Briefs and military identification do NOT qualify as official documentation. If the appropriate information is not submitted to confirm the discharge status, dates of service, etc., you will not be considered for this job opportunity under Veteran Preference procedures. To gain access to your DD-214 online please visit.

4. Documentation supporting eligibility for non-competitive appointment: Includes Individuals with Disabilities, 30% Veterans, certain Military Spouses, etc.

5. Documentation supporting NOAA Commissioned Corps: NOAA Form 56-16 or other documentation supporting active duty in NOAA Corps.

OPTIONAL DOCUMENTS:

• Performance Appraisals
• Incentive Awards

In accordance with 5 CFR 335.103(b)(3), due weight shall be given to performance appraisals and incentive awards during the selection process.

Next steps