Deputy Assistant Director Job in Washington, DC

Vacancy No. 26-PGA-DE-12813187-DB Department Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives
Salary $150,160.00 to $225,700.00 Grade 00 to 00
Perm/Temp Permanent FT/PT Full-time
Open Date 10/7/2025 Close Date 10/28/2025
Job Link Apply Online Who may apply Public
Locations:
Washington, DC


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

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 Deputy 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

1. You must be a United States Citizen or National.
2. Veterans' preference is not applicable to the Senior Executive Service.
3. Selective Service registration is required for males born on, or after, December 31st, 1959. Those not registered should have an approved exemption on file.
4. You will be required to complete a pre-employment security investigation and background check for the security level designated for this position.
5. You may also be subject to post-employment conflict of interest restrictions under 18 USC 207 (c).
6. You will be required to undergo a drug screening and obtain favorable results prior to being appointed.
7. You may be subject to a one-year probationary period effective from the date in which you are appointed.
8. This position requires you to submit a Public Financial Disclosure Report (OGE 278) upon entry, and annually thereafter in accordance with DOJ and Federal ethics guidelines.
9. You must meet all minimum qualifications to be deemed eligible. Only experience obtained by closing date of this announcement will be considered.
As a basic requirement for entry into the SES, applicants must provide evidence of progressively responsible leadership experience that is indicative of senior executive level management capability and directly related to the skills and abilities outlined under the Mandatory Technical Qualifications and Executive Core Qualifications.

Qualifications

The application process used to recruit for this position is RESUME-ONLY. Applicants must show clear evidence of their demonstrated leadership ability by addressing the Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs) and Mandatory Technical Qualifications (MTQs) embedded within their resume. The resume-based application must not exceed 2 pages (1-sheet double-sided or 2 sheets one-sided)

**Note: Applicants who have completed the SES Candidate Development Program (CDP) and have had their ECQs certified by OPM must provide a copy of their certificate as part of their application. Candidates must still satisfy the MTQs of the position.

We recommend that your resume emphasize your level of responsibilities, the scope and complexity of the programs managed, and your program accomplishments, including the results of your actions. You will be evaluated to determine if you meet the minimum qualifications required of the position and on the extent your application demonstrates that you possess the knowledge, skills, and abilities required of the Deputy Assistant Director. Please be sure to give concrete examples of your experience and demonstrate the complexity of the knowledge you possess.

ECQ1- Commitment to the Rule of Law and the Principles of the American Founding: Involves demonstrating knowledge of the American system of government, commitment to uphold the constitution and the rule of law, and commitment to serve the American people.

ECQ2- Driving Efficiency: Involves demonstrating the ability to strategically and efficiently manage resources, budget effectively, cut wasteful spending, and pursue efficiency through process and technological upgrades.

ECQ3- Merit and Competence: Involves demonstrating knowledge, ability, and technical competence to effectively and reliably produce work that is of exceptional quality.

ECQ4- Leading People: Involves demonstrating the ability to lead and inspire a group toward meeting the organization's vision, mission, and goals, and to drive a high-performance, high accountability culture. This includes, when necessary, the ability to lead people through change and to hold individuals accountable.

ECQ5- Achieving Results: Involves demonstrating the ability to achieve both individual and organizational results, and to align results to stated goals from superiors.

For this position, the following Mandatory Technical Qualifications (MTQs) have been established and should be addressed within the resume application.

MTQ1: 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.

MTQ2: 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.

MTQ3: Demonstrates applied knowledge of the legislative process, including Congressional procedures, practices, and guidelines for proposing and monitoring new legislation and communicating legislative goals.

Education

This job does not have an education qualification requirement.

Additional information

EEO Policy Statement: The United States Government does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, age, membership in an employee organization, or other non-merit factor. The complete DOJ EEO Statement/Policy is found at: https://www.justice.gov/jmd/page/file/1394116/download.

Reasonable Accommodation: Federal agencies must provide reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities where appropriate. Applicants requiring reasonable accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process should contact the hiring agency directly. Determinations on requests for reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis. The U.S. Department of Justice fosters an inclusive and diverse workforce, find our EEO statement online at: https://www.justice.gov/jmd/reasonable-accommodation#policy.

Legal and Regulatory Guidance

  • Social Security Number - Your Social Security Number may be requested under the authority of Executive Order 9397 to uniquely identify your records from those of other applicants who may have the same name. As allowed by law or Presidential directive, your Social Security Number is used to seek information about you from employers, schools, banks, and others who may know you.
  • Privacy Act - Privacy Act Notice (PL 93-579): The information requested here is used to determine qualifications for employment and is authorized under Title 5 U.S.C. 3302 and 3361.
  • Signature - Before you are hired, you will be required to sign and certify the accuracy of the information in your application.
  • False Statements - If you make a false statement in any part of your application, you may not be hired; you may be fired after you begin work; or you may be subject to fine, imprisonment, or other disciplinary action.
  • Selective Service - If you are a male applicant born after December 31, 1959, you must certify that you have registered with the Selective Service System or are exempt from having to do so under the Selective Service Law.

"Federal Regulations state no ATF employee, his/her spouse, or his/her minor child shall have, directly or indirectly, any financial interest, including compensated employment, stock, or proprietary interest in the alcohol, tobacco, firearms or explosives industries. You should be aware that you may be asked to relinquish any ownership of or interests in the alcohol, tobacco, firearms or explosives industries before a determination can be made whether access to ATF information, information technology systems, and/or facilities can be authorized."

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.

How You Will Be Evaluated

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

Only experience obtained by the 11:59pm EST on the closing date of this announcement will be considered. Once this announcement closes the following will occur:
1. A review of your resume, Clear evidence of the 5 ECQs and MTQs, and supporting documentation will be conducted by the HR Specialist.
2. Applicants deemed minimally qualified will be referred to an Executive Resources Board (ERB) to further evaluate applications.
3. The ERB will further evaluate applications to determine the best qualified applicants for referral to the hiring official.
4. Best qualified applicants will be referred to the hiring official and may be invited to participate in a structured interview. Interviews may be in a virtual setting or in person at ATF offices.
5. The selectee will receive a tentative offer from the agency however before an agency can appoint a new Senior Executive Service member, the selected individual will be subject to further evaluation through a Structured Interview by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Qualifications Review Board (QRB) as required by law. OPM must review the executive qualifications of each new career appointee to the Senior Executive Service (SES) prior to appointment.

NOTE: You MUST address all MTQs as required above, but do not need to address the ECQs if you:
1. Are currently serving under a career SES appointment;
2. Are eligible for reinstatement into the SES; or
3. Have successfully completed a SES Candidate Development Program and been certified by Office of Personnel Management (OPM).Proof of Qualifications Review Board (QRB) certification must be provided in your application.

Required Documents

  • To apply for this position, you must provide a complete Application Package which includes:
  • Complete Resume that addresses the MTQs and ECQs. Your resume must not exceed 2 pages.
  • Recent SF-50 that shows Official Title, Salary, Grade Level, Status (for current or former federal employees)
  • Recent Performance Appraisal (for current or former federal employees)
  • Provide certification of OPM QRB approval (for graduates of SES Candidate Development Programs)
  • Other supporting documentation as required.

Applicants who fail to submit all required information and documents will not receive consideration for the position.

How to Apply

To begin the process, click the Apply Online button to create an account or log in to your existing USAJOBS account.
Failure to submit a complete application (resume and all supporting documents) by 11:59 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) on 10/28/2025 may result in an ineligible rating and loss of consideration. Please follow all instructions carefully as missing application information will not be requested. It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date.

If more than one resume is received, only the last resume submitted will be reviewed.

Note: To check the status of your application or return to a previous or incomplete application, log into your USAJOBS account: https://my.usajobs.gov/Account/Login select Application Status, and click on the more information link under the application status for this position.

The Details 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 USAJOBS account and click Update Application in the vacancy announcement. You must re-select your resume and/or other documents from your USAJOBS account or your application will be incomplete.

Do not email or send hard copy resumes/applications to the Contact Information or Agency Information listed in this vacancy announcement. All resumes/applications received at the addresses listed in the Contact Information or Agency Information will be destroyed and will not be considered for this vacancy announcement.

Agency contact information

Dalton Baker
Address
Office of Public and Governmental Affairs
99 New York Ave., N.E.
Washington, DC 20226
US

Next steps

Once your complete application is received, we will conduct an evaluation of your qualifications and determine your ranking. The most highly qualified candidates will be referred to the hiring manager for further consideration and possible interview. You will be notified of the outcome.


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


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