As a basic requirement, applicants must possess the Executive Core Qualifications and Mandatory Technical Qualifications listed below. Additionally, to be qualified for this position, your resume must reflect experience in a managerial capacity. Typically, experience is gained at or above the GS-15 grade level in the Federal Service, or its equivalent with state or local government, the private sector, or nongovernmental organizations. As such, your resume must demonstrate that you have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully fulfill responsibilities inherent in most Senior Executive Service (SES) positions such as:
- Directing the work of an organizational unit
- Ensuring the success of one or more specific major programs or projects
- Monitoring progress toward strategic organizational goals, evaluating organizational performance and taking action to improve performance
- Supervising the work of other managers and exercising important policy-making, or other executive functions.
Failure to meet the qualification requirements and address all Executive Core Qualifications and Mandatory Technical Qualifications as required will result in your application being disqualified.
EXECUTIVE CORE QUALIFICATIONS (ECQs): The ECQs were designed to assess executive experience and potential--not technical expertise. They measure whether an individual has the broad executive skills needed to succeed in a variety of SES positions.
All applicants must submit a written narrative that addresses
each of the five (5) ECQs separately and individually AND should
contain at least two (2) examples per ECQ, describing your experiences and accomplishments/results. The narrative
must not exceed ten (10) pages total. The narrative should be clear, concise, and emphasize your level of responsibilities and scope. It should highlight the complexity of programs managed and program/policy initiatives undertaken, as well as the results of your actions. Applicants
should not enter "Refer to Resume" to explain your answer.
NOTE: Current career SES members, former career SES members with reinstatement eligibility, and SES Candidate Development Program graduates who have been certified by OPM do NOT need to address the ECQs:
- Leading Change: This core qualification involves the ability to bring about strategic change, both within and outside the organization, as well as the ability to meet organizational goals. Inherent to this ECQ is the ability to establish an organizational vision and to implement it in a continuously changing environment. Competencies: creativity and innovation, external awareness, flexibility, resilience, strategic thinking, vision.
- Leading People: This core qualification involves the ability to lead people toward meeting the organization's vision, mission, and goals. Inherent to this ECQ is the ability to provide an inclusive workplace that fosters the development of others, facilitates cooperation and teamwork, and supports constructive resolution of conflicts. Competencies: conflict management, leveraging diversity, developing others, team building.
- Results Driven: This core qualification involves the ability to meet organizational goals and customer expectations. Inherent to this ECQ is the ability to make decisions that produce high quality results by applying technical knowledge, analyzing problems, and calculating risks. Competencies: accountability, customer service, decisiveness, entrepreneurship, problem solving, technical credibility.
- Business Acumen: This core qualification involves the ability to manage human, financial, and information resources. Competencies: financial management, human capital management, technology management.
- Building Coalitions: This core qualification 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. Competencies: partnering, political savvy, influencing/negotiating.
Fundamental Competencies: These competencies are the foundation for success in each of the ECQs: interpersonal skills, oral communication, integrity/honesty, written communication, continual learning, and public service motivation. The Fundamental Competencies are crosscutting and should be addressed over the course of each ECQ narrative.
Applicants should follow the Challenge, Context, Action, and Result (CCAR) model outlined in the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Guide to Senior Executive Service Qualifications.
- Challenge - Describe a specific problem or goal.
- Context - Describe the individuals and groups you worked with, and/or the environment in which you worked, to address a particular challenge (e.g., clients, co-workers, members of Congress, shrinking budget, low morale).
- Action - Discuss the specific actions you took to address a challenge.
- Result - Give specific examples of measures/outcomes that had some impact on the organization. These accomplishments should demonstrate the quality and effectiveness of your leadership skills.
Additional information about the SES and ECQs can be found on the OPM SES website. You are strongly encouraged to review OPM's Guide to Senior Executive Service Qualifications for specific examples and further guidance.
MANDATORY TECHNICAL QUALIFICATIONS (MTQs): In addition to the executive core qualifying experience, applicants must possess the mandatory technical qualifications that represent the knowledge, skills, and abilities essential to perform the duties and responsibilities of the position.
All applicants must fully address
each of the following MTQs separately and individually in a narrative format, not to exceed
one (1) page per MTQ (verbiage and/or pages in excess of the maximum will be removed).
- (MTQ 1) Experience with information technology vision and strategy, preparing long-range (5 year) and short-range planning guidance in accordance with broad program policies and objectives, including experience in the development, implementation, and maintenance of sound and integrated information technology architecture and operational systems for FedRAMP High, cloud-based, data intensive programs that support financial, regulatory and law enforcement/national security stakeholders.
- (MTQ 2) Experience in the management, oversight, and troubleshooting of technical programs which includes extensive knowledge of cloud based high-volume data transaction systems, Extract-Transform-Load (ETL) capabilities, portal/identity management technology, and advanced analytic tools and techniques to include the application of those skills in both classified and unclassified environments.
- (MTQ 3) Experience in guiding staff in developing and implementing a wide range of programmatic activities, including conceiving novel approaches to accomplish its mission; identifying enterprise goals and standards; analyzing and interpreting business requirements; developing cost estimates and budget projections; establishing plans and schedules; and managing personnel and contractual services and deliverables within budget and schedule constraints.