Correspondence Analyst Job in Washington, DC

Vacancy No. CCLQ-12786064-25-RC Department Deputy Assistant Secretary for Congressional Affairs
Salary $84,601.00 to $131,826.00 Grade 11 to 12
Perm/Temp Permanent FT/PT Full-time
Open Date 8/21/2025 Close Date 8/25/2025
Job Link Apply Online Who may apply Status Candidates
Locations:
Washington, DC


Summary

This position serves as a Correspondence Analyst located within the Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs (OCLA). The incumbent reports directly to OCLA's Chief of Staff and will be part of OCLA's Operations Team. The position will manage OCLA's incoming and outgoing congressional correspondence inquiries process and will ensure timely, accurate, and quality concurrences are completed. This position will be assigned special projects to streamline and enhance OCLA day-to-day operations.

Duties

  • Conducts a substantive review of incoming and outgoing congressional and VA correspondence routed to OCLA for the Secretary, Deputy Secretary, or other VA senior executive level signature. Correspondence can be sensitive, confidential, or pre-decisional in nature and should be handled with upmost discretion and professionalism.
  • Reviews correspondence for completeness, accuracy, tone, clarity, and compliance with established policy. Ensures that the appropriate OCLA stakeholders have had the opportunity to review and/or comment, and that necessary background information is included.
  • Questions originators, as required, to gain information necessary to determine if the materials and responses are adequate and proper. Returns materials for further development, when necessary.
  • Collaborates with correspondence analysts across the Department, as needed, to ensure all actions meet deadlines and are accurate and in compliance with VA Style Guide and applicable Directives, Notices, and other VA guidance documents.
  • Conducts special reviews of new systems or processes to efficiently manage the flow of communications through the office.
  • Oversees correspondence activities and develops solutions for technical or procedural issues in correspondence administration. Provides solutions and develops procedures to implement recommendations, guidance and oversight of the correspondence activities within OCLA.
  • Analyzes office procedures and develops and recommends new methods for processing documents that enhance efficiency and quality control. Trains office staff in the use of the document tracking system, document controls and quality reviews, and dissemination.
  • Tracks materials through approval process and provides updates to the Executive Secretary's office and other correspondence analysts across the Department.
  • Dispatches documents to appropriate OCLA Staff or Capitol Hill offices after signature or approval by the Secretary, Deputy Secretary, and Chief of Staff.
  • Develops and maintains OCLA trackers utilized to track congressional and communications workload related to correspondence and other areas.
  • Performs special assignments and projects for OCLA's Chief of Staff and OCLA's Senior Executive Leadership Team as needed. This includes but is not limited to correspondence/communications relates items, managing day-to-day administrative and operations items, and managing long-range administrative and operations items to ensure efficiency, quality, and compliance for OCLA as a whole - these special projects and programs could be sensitive in nature. Performs other duties as assigned.
Promotion Potential: The selectee may be promoted to the full performance level (GS-12) 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: Not available
Telework: Not available
Virtual: This is not a virtual or remote position
Position Description/PD#: 00018A (GS-11) and 00017A (GS-12)
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized
Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

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 or two year probationary 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 one or two year probationary 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, 08/25/2025.

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-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-09. For a GS-12 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-11. 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-11 Qualifications:
Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade (GS-9) in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience include: experience in performing correspondence analyst duties for a program office, to include conducting a review of incoming and outgoing correspondence for a program office that requires assigning tasks to appropriate stakeholders and ensuring timely closure of taskers; reviewing correspondence for completeness, accuracy, tone, clarity, and compliance with established policy. OR,
Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree OR 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree OR LL.M., if related. OR,
Combination: You may qualify by a combination of experience and education. Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond a Masters Degree.

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: performing correspondence analyst duties for a program office to include conducting a substantive review of incoming and outgoing correspondence for a program office that requires assigning tasks to appropriate stakeholders and ensuring timely closure of taskers; reviewing correspondence for completeness, accuracy, tone, clarity, and compliance with established policy; conducting special reviews of new systems or processes to efficiently manage the flow of communications through the office; overseeing and managing correspondence activities and developing solutions for technical or procedural issues in correspondence administration; providing solutions and developing procedures to implement recommendations, guidance and oversight of the correspondence activities within OCLA; experience working special administrative and operational special projects for front office leadership.

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:
  • Attention to Detail
  • Customer Service
  • Decision Making
  • Flexibility
  • Integrity/Honesty
  • Interpersonal Skills
  • Learning
  • Reading
  • Reasoning
  • Self Management
  • Teamwork
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: The work is primarily sedentary.

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 the GS-12 grade level. Transcripts must be submitted if qualifying based on education or a combination of education and experience at the GS-11 grade level.

Additional information

Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer (TJO). Please visit the Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP), va.gov/EMPLOYEE/docs/The-Fair-Chance-to-Compete-Act.pdf for more information.

VA supports the use of telework as a way to help attract and retain talented individuals in public service, increase worker productivity, and better prepare the agency to operate during emergencies. This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process.

The Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provides eligible displaced VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be found well-qualified, in addition to the specialized experience listed above, applicants must meet the following qualifications:

GS-11: Well-qualified Experience: previous experience working for a federal agency completing actions of incoming and outgoing correspondence related to U.S. Congress.
GS-12 Well-qualified Experience: previous experience working for a federal agency completing actions of incoming and outgoing correspondence related to U.S. Congress. Previous experience working for front office leadership on a variety of administrative and operational special projects that are sensitive and confidential in nature. Practical knowledge of VA Style Guide. Provided technical assistance to lower graded correspondence analyst staff members.

Information about CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/.

Placement Policy: The posting of this announcement does not obligate management to fill a vacancy or vacancies by promotion. The position may be filled by reassignment, change to lower grade, transfer, appointment, or reinstatement. Management may use any one or any combination of these methods to fill the position.

It is the policy of the VA to not deny employment to those that have faced financial hardships or periods of unemployment.

This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies.

Veterans and Transitioning Service Members: Please visit the VA for Vets site for career-search tools for Veterans seeking employment at VA, career development services for our existing Veterans, and coaching and reintegration support for military service members.

For more information on the "Who may apply" eligibility requirements, please refer to the OHRM Status Candidates and Other Candidate Definitions document.

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

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.

How You Will Be Evaluated

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

IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE.

Narrative responses are not required at this time. If you are referred for consideration, you may be asked to submit additional job related information, which may include, but not limited to; responses to the knowledge, skills and abilities; completion of a work sample, and/or contact for an interview. Your resume and/or supporting documentation will be verified. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating or consideration for employment.

The Department of Veterans Affairs performs pre-employment reference checks as an assessment method used in the hiring process to verify information provided by a candidate (e.g., on resume or during interview or hiring process); gain additional knowledge regarding a candidate's abilities; and assist a hiring manager with making a final selection for a position.

Order of referral: Eligible applicants will be reviewed and referred in the following order:

  • All current, permanent VA Employees in the Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs
  • All other current, permanent VA employees

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 ICTAP/CTAP documentation (for displaced Federal employees). You will not be contacted for additional information.
  • Resume
  • Separation Notice (RIF)
  • SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action
  • Transcript


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.
  • 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.
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.

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)
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.

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. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on 08/25/2025 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12786064.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.

Agency contact information

Robert Collett
Address
Immediate Office of the Assistant Secretary for Congressional Affairs
810 Vermont Ave NW
Washington, DC 20420
US

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.


Note: We cannot accept applications on behalf of Federal Agencies. Application instructions are listed within the Job Description.


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