Director of Communications and Outreach, AD-0301-00 (Senior Manager) (Excepted Service) Job in Washington, DC

Vacancy No. FSA/EN1-2025-0001 Department Federal Student Aid
Salary $147,649.00 to $221,900.00 Grade 00 to 00
Perm/Temp Permanent FT/PT Full-time
Open Date 11/25/2024 Close Date 12/8/2024
Job Link Apply Online Who may apply Public
Locations:
Washington, DC


Summary

The Director Communication and Outreach is located in Principal Deputy Chief Operating Officer (PDCOO) in Washington, DC. This position is a key leader at FSA, reporting to the Principal Deputy Chief Operating Officer, and is responsible for advising senior staff on proposals and issues involving controversy, intensive outside interest, or significant long-range effects on the programs.

This job is open to

Clarification from the agency

This announcement is open to all U.S. citizens. This is an excepted service position. This position is not in the competitive service and grants no eligibility to move to the competitive service.

Duties

As a Director of Communication and Outreach, AD-0301-00 (Senior Manager), you will be responsible for:

  • Driving the overall vision, strategy, and execution of FSA’s communication and outreach plan.
  • As a recognized expert, providing leadership in the evaluation, assessment and improvement of programs and management systems by applying a wide range of qualitative and quantitative techniques.
  • Providing program oversight and guidance that addresses modern communication practices and management approaches, drawing heavily upon best practices from the private sector and other Federal agencies.
  • Planning, developing, directing, and managing the communication and outreach strategy and team to meet FSA strategic goals.
  • Recommending the appropriate customer centric solutions to support the policies and directives issued by the Department of Education, Federal Student Aid (FSA), and the Intermediate of Chief Operations Office.

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

  • Must be a US Citizen
  • Males 18 and over must be registered with the Selective Service.
  • May be required to successfully complete a two-year trial period.
  • May be required to successfully complete a one-year supervisory probationary period.
  • Must be determined suitable for federal employment.
  • This position is eligible for telework.
  • This position is non-essential for purposes of reporting to work during federal government closures.
  • This position requires financial disclosure.
  • This position is not included in the bargaining unit.

Qualifications

ALL QUALIFICATIONS MUST BE MET BY THE CLOSING DATE OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. 

Specialized experience for the Director of Communications and Outreach, AD-0301-00 (Senior Manager) is demonstrated by performing one year of experience equivalent to the GS-15 level in each of the following three (3) duties or work assignments:

  1. Specialized experience developing or managing the strategic vision and working with strategic partners to finalize a national organization's communication and outreach plan.
  2. Specialized experience providing oversight and guidance on modern communication practices and management approaches integrating best practices from private sector and other federal agencies into the communications and outreach programs.
  3. Specialized experience leading a team in the implementation and accomplishment of a national communication and outreach plan utilizing best practices to improve communications programs.

Volunteer Experience: Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service program (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.

Credit will be given for all appropriate qualifying experience. You must include months, years and hours per week worked to receive credit for your work and/or volunteer experience.   

For periods of time that reflect military service, the DD-214 or Statement of Service is sufficient to meet the full and/or part-time hours requirement as the service dates will be reflected.

Education

Education cannot be substituted for experience for this position and grade level. 

Foreign Education:

Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet education requirements if you can show that the foreign education is comparable to that received in an accredited educational institution in the United States. It is your responsibility to provide such evidence when applying. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must submit a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education.  For further information, please click Foreign Education.

Additional information

APPLICATION LIMIT: This vacancy announcement is limited to the first 100 applications received and will close at 11:59PM Eastern Time on the day that we receive the 100th application, or at 11:59PM Eastern Time on the listed closing date, whichever occurs first. We encourage you to read this entire vacancy announcement prior to submitting your application.

This announcement may be used to fill additional positions if identical vacancies occur within 90 days of the issue date of the referral certificate.

Equal Employment Opportunity: We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a parent, marital status, or political affiliation.

People with Disabilities: We are committed to expanding access to employment by hiring people with disabilities; providing reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities; and, identifying and removing barriers to work. Persons with disabilities, including disabled veterans, may apply for jobs filled either competitively (where qualified individuals compete with one another through a structured process), noncompetitively (where a qualified individual may be selected based on a special hiring authority), or through an excepted appointing authority for people with disabilities (i.e., Schedule A). If you require a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process, please contact us (FSARecruiting@ed.gov). The decision on granting reasonable accommodation is made on a case-by-case basis. For more information, please visit: http://opm.gov/disability/PeopleWithDisabilities.asp 

Veterans’ Career Counseling: If you are a veteran interested in receiving tips on preparing a Federal resume and/or how to prepare for an interview, you may email Iwork@ed.gov to schedule a session with a career counselor (“Veterans Counseling Session” should be placed in the subject line of the email).

Suitability and Investigation: If selected for this position, you will be required to complete the Declaration for Federal Employment (OF-306) to determine your suitability for federal employment and subject to a pre-appointment investigation/background check. 

Level of Risk and Sensitivity: Level of this position T2 and the sensitivity is High Risk.

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.

FSA is a great place to work. We offer a comprehensive benefits package, including paid vacation and sick leave, federal holidays, health and life insurance, and participation in the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), including the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). As an FSA employee, you will also benefit from our family-friendly work environment. As part of our commitment to maintain a productive balance between work and home, we offer excused leave for Parent/Teacher Conferences (3 hours); excused leave for annual health screenings (4 hours); and matching leave for community volunteer service. Other flexibilities that may be available to you, may include teleworking and alternative work schedules. You may be eligible to receive a relocation incentive for this position. To receive this incentive payment, you will be required to sign a service agreement obligating you to remain with the U.S. Department of Education for a specified period as agreed upon. You may be eligible to participate in the Student Loan Repayment Program as a recruitment incentive for this position. To receive student loan repayments, you will be required to sign a service agreement obligating you to remain with the U.S. Department of Education for a specified period as agreed upon.

For more information about the many benefits available to Federal employees, please visit: https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/working-in-government/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.

We use a multi-step process to review and evaluate applicants:

1. Eligibility and Minimum Qualifications: Once the vacancy announcement closes, we will review your submitted resume and documents to determine if you meet the eligibility and minimum qualification requirements, including any required education, experience, and/or selective placement factors. You will be rated as ineligible if you are outside of the area of consideration (i.e., who may apply) or your application is missing any required documents. You will be rated as not qualified if you do not possess the minimum qualification requirements.

2. Rating and Ranking: If you are found to meet both the eligibility and minimum qualification requirements, we will assess the quality of your experience and the extent to which you possess the required competencies by comparing your submitted resume and documents against your responses to the assessment questionnaire. Your application may be referred to a subject matter expert or panel of subject matter experts for further evaluation. Based on the outcome of this evaluation, you will be placed into one of three categories: Best Qualified, Well Qualified, or Qualified. Best qualified candidates will be referred if all required supporting documentation has been provided. If your responses to the assessment questionnaire are not substantiated by your submitted resume, you may be eliminated from receiving further consideration.

Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your responses to the online assessments completed during the application process. You will be assessed on the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics):  Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your responses to the online assessments completed during the application process. You will be assessed on the following Competencies (see The OPM Website for definitions):

  • Vision
  • Communications and Media
  • Organizational Performance Analysis

Application of Veterans' Preference:  Qualified veterans’ preference eligibles will be ranked ahead of qualified non-preference eligibles within each category for which they are qualified. Qualified veterans’ preference eligibles with a compensable service-connected disability of 10 percent or more (CPS and CP) will be placed at the top of the Best Qualified category, except in the case of scientific or professional positions at the GS-9 grade level or higher.

3. Referral and Selection: If you are found to be amongst the best qualified applicants, you will be referred to the selecting official. As part of the assessment and selection process, the selecting official may invite you to participate in a structured interview, check your references, and/or request that you submit a writing sample or complete a written assessment or exercise to further evaluate your qualifications for this position.

If you require reasonable accommodation for any part of the interview process or written assessment or exercise, please inform the selecting official at the time of scheduling.


You may preview questions for this vacancy.

Required Documents

A complete application package includes a resume, required documents and completion of the vacancy announcement questionnaire. Please see this guidance: What to include in your resume (https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/faq/application/documents/resume/what-to-include/)

1.      At a minimum, your resume must indicate: job title(s) (include job series and grade, if federal); duties description; education; starting and ending dates (month and year); and either full-time or hours worked per week. If a part- time work schedule is reflected, the hours must be annotated to ensure proper crediting of specialized experience. If military or civilian, please include your rank and/or grade. We recommend using the USAJobs Resume Builder to ensure you do not miss any information; however, it is not required. Your resume should describe your specialized experience and support your answers to the vacancy announcement questionnaire.

2.     Veteran's documentation: If you are claiming veterans' preference you must submit the Member 4 copy of your DD-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, the Application for 10-Point Veteran Preference and all documents indicated on the form as proof of type of preference; and/or Proof of Sole Survivorship Preference (e.g., certificate of death or 100% disability as a result of serving in the armed forces).  http://www.opm.gov/staffingPortal/Vetguide.asp#VeteransEmploymentAct1998

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 http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records (http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records)

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

Step 1: Create a USAJOBS account (if you do not already have one) at www.usajobs.gov.

Step 2: If desired, create a resume using the USAJOBS resume builder. Ensure that your resume demonstrates your education, experience, training, and accomplishments as it relates to the qualifications for this position and substantiates your responses to the assessment questionnaire.

Click here for USAJobs Help with "How to create an application"

Step 3: Upload any required documents into your USAJOBS account (must be less than 3MB and in one of the following document formats: GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, PDF, or Word (DOC or DOCX)). 

Step 4: Click "Apply Online" and follow the prompts to complete the assessment questionnaire and attach any required documents. Verify that uploaded documents from USAJOBS transfer into the agency's hiring system. You will have the opportunity to upload any additional required documents in the agency's hiring system. Click “Finish” to submit your application.

NOTE: You may update your application or required documents at any time while the announcement is open by logging into your USAJOBS account, clicking on "Application Status," clicking on the position title, clicking "Update Application,” and following the prompts. 

In order to receive consideration for this position, you must submit your complete application, including all required documents, by 11:59 PM Eastern Time on the closing date of the vacancy announcement. If the vacancy announcement has an application limit, we recommend that you submit your complete application at the time of initial application. We will not accept any required documentation after the closing date of the vacancy announcement.

Agency contact information

Corey Anderson
Phone
303-844-0432
Fax
202-401-0520
Email
corey.anderson@ed.gov
Address
EDUCATION-OFC OF FEDERAL STUDENT AID
Human Resource Group
400 Maryland Ave. SW
Washington, District of Columbia 20202
United States
Learn more about this agency

Next steps

As an applicant, you may check your application status through your USAJOBS account at any time. We will also notify you via email of your application status at three key stages in the recruitment process.

  1. Once the vacancy announcement closes, we will inform you that your application has been received.
  2. After we review your submitted resume and supporting documentation, we will inform you if you are eligible and qualified, if your application was referred to a subject matter expert or panel of subject matter experts for further evaluation, and if you were amongst the most highly qualified candidates referred to the selecting official.
  3. Finally, we will inform you if and when a selection is made.


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


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