Financial Management Specialist

Clarification from the agency

Current FCC Employees Only

• Serves as the primary Financial Management Specialist for FCC disbursements, travel questions, and issues on topics ranging from travel policy issues, disbursement transaction problems; and as a liaison between RDG and Bureau/Office staff. Ensures that day-to-day operations are focused on customer service.
• Provides disbursement, travel advice, assistance, guidance and pertinent information to travelers and administrative officials. Work is performed under frequent pressure of short deadlines.
• Coordinates with Chief of RDG on disbursement, travel and funding needs/adjustments.
• Works directly with FCC managers and employees and provides a one stop customer service point for questions and problem solving on topics related to the responsibilities of RDG that
  includes USF and TRS disbursements, vender invoice approvals, travel policy, transaction and payment issues. Troubleshoots all issues that arise and follows up to ensure resolution.
• Interprets and applies FCC's payment, travel system rules, policies, and regulations.
• Works with the Chief of RDG and senior accountants in the review of requests from employees and initiates request decisions on per diem, travel allowances, entitlements and funding sources.
• Provides timely responses both written and verbal summarizing travel and financial research and findings.
• Advises and makes recommendations to superiors of impact of regulatory revisions.
• Participates with management in conducting studies relative to the development or modification of policies, procedures, regulations involving all aspects disbursements and travel related transactions and makes recommendations to resolve problems or to improve the overall process.

Conditions of employment

• FCC Employees Only.
• Suitable for employment as determined by a background investigation.
• Current FCC employees must provide SF-50 verifying grade & status.
• Resume must not exceed two pages and must meet resume format criteria.
• Education-Transcripts Required

In order to be considered for this position, applicants must:

-Currently be employed in the Federal Communications Commission in positions serving under career or career conditional appointments.

ALL FCC EMPLOYEES MUST provide a legible Personnel Action, SF-50, that verifies your status and highest permanently held grade.  If an SF-50 is not submitted, the application will be rated as ineligible. To request a copy of your SF-50 please send an email to PersonnelRecordsRequest@fcc.gov

Qualifications

Interested candidates should be passionate about the ideals of our American republic, committed to upholding the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution, and committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government. Hiring decisions will not be based on race, sex, color, religion, or national origin.

Applicants must meet eligibility and qualification requirements by the closing date of this announcement.  Current Federal employees must meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement.  

IN ORDER TO BE DEEMED AS QUALIFIED, CANDIDATES MUST MEET THE QUALIFICATION CRITERIA OUTLINED BELOW.

GS-11

Candidates can qualify by virtue of education, specialized experience or a combination of both education and experience.

A. Education: 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

B. Specialized Experience

Candidates must have one year of specialized experience which is equivalent to the GS-9 grade level in the federal service. Specialized experience is defined as follows:

1. Experience providing disbursement, travel advice, assistance, guidance and pertinent information to travelers and administrative officials.
2. Experience interpreting and applying FCC's payment, travel system rules, policies, and regulations.
3. Experience facilitating timely and accurate submission of travel vouchers from employees.
4. Experience performing internal control reviews of highly vulnerable areas and establishes plans for corrective action and writes required reports.

OR

C. Combination of both education and experience.

GS-12

Candidates must have one year of specialized experience which is equivalent to the GS-11 grade level in the federal service. Specialized experience is defined as follows:

1. Experience providing disbursement, travel advice, assistance, guidance and pertinent information to travelers and administrative officials.
2. Experience interpreting and applying FCC's payment, travel system rules, policies, and regulations.
3. Experience facilitating timely and accurate submission of travel vouchers from employees.
4. Experience performing internal control reviews of highly vulnerable areas and establishes plans for corrective action and writes required reports.
5. Experience conducting analyses of the Genesis Travel System to enhance productivity in accordance with priority programs and projected requirements. 
6. Experience analyzing and evaluating travel practices, work methods and/or procedures.

PART-TIME OR UNPAID EXPERIENCE: 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.

SME REVIEW

Subject matter experts will review your application to determine if you meet the following required Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSA's):

• Detailed, intensive knowledge and understanding of travel and disbursement financial policies, precedents, goals, objectives, regulations, and guidelines to: analyze and evaluate continual changes in program plans and funding and their effect on financial and budget program milestones; analyze financial and budgetary relationships to develop recommendations for financial actions under these types of conditions and time pressures: (a) uncertainty due to short and rapidly changing program and financial deadlines and objectives; (b) gaps and conflicts in program and financial/budgetary information; (c) lack of predictive data; (d) conflicting program and financial objectives; and/or (e) changing guidelines for the work.
• Comprehensive knowledge of Office of Management and Budget (0MB) and the Federal Travel Regulations (FTR), Comptroller General decisions and travel procedures, methods, and
  practices sufficient to readily recognize errors or inconsistencies, take appropriate actions to correct problems/issues, and maintain internal controls that reduce the risk of fraud, waste, and error in the FCC travel and disbursement programs; and to ensure that the management requirements, guidelines and financial objectives respond to programmatic travel and disbursement issues and questions from all levels of FCC Bureau/Office management and employees.
• Knowledge of financial management systems principles and practices to devise and implement
  changes, interpret, identify and correct problem areas related to FCC travel program and disbursements, and ensure FCC provides adequate customer services; and have the ability to monitor and enforce the FCC travel program and disbursement controls by applying numerical concepts to verify and compare relevant financial information, explain/justify variances, apply arithmetic and statistical formulas and organize numerical data.
• Knowledge of and skill of automated system software capabilities (i.e. Excel, Word, FCC Official Travel system, Genesis, etc.) to review, report and process financial data as required.
• Knowledge and skill to develop alternative solutions involving the resolution of conflicting goals and objectives, by various managerial analysis techniques for problem that are time sensitive, in a rapidly evolving environment, often lacking necessary predictive data and subject to constantly evolving guidelines.

If you are deemed to be qualified by the Subject Matter Experts, your application will be referred to the hiring manager for hiring consideration. Alternatively, if your application is not deemed as qualified by the Subject Matter Experts, your application will not be referred to the hiring manager for hiring consideration.

How you will be evaluated

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

Optional Four Essay Questions

At the time of application, applicants have the option of answering the following four short, free-response essay questions.

1. How has your commitment to the Constitution and the founding principles of the United States inspired you to pursue this role within the Federal government? Provide a concrete example from professional, academic, or personal experience.
2. In this role, how would you use your skills and experience to improve government efficiency and effectiveness? Provide specific examples where you improved processes, reduced costs, or improved outcomes.
3. How would you help advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role? Identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired.
4. How has a strong work ethic contributed to your professional, academic or personal achievements? Provide one or two specific examples, and explain how those qualities would enable you to serve effectively in this position.

Applicants will be required to certify that they are using their own words, and did not use a consultant or AI (such as a large language model [LLM]). The responses to each question cannot exceed 200 words per question.

All applicants will be rated on the extent and quality of experience and education relevant to the duties of the position.  An automated score is administered based on the on-line application process used.  Eligible applicants will receive a numerical rating based on their responses to the job specific questions for this position.

There are several parts to the application process that affect the overall evaluation of your application including:

1. the core questions
2. the vacancy questions
3. supplemental documentation (e.g., DD-214, SF-50, SF-15, transcripts), if applicable; and
4. your resume.

Applicants will be rated ineligible, if they do not respond to job specific questions provide supplemental documents and submit resume.  For more information, please click on Rating Process 

Merit Hiring Plan Resume Requirements

In compliance with Executive Order 14170, Reforming the Federal Hiring Process and Restoring Merit to Government Service resumes must not be longer than two pages in length. The resume must address minimum qualifications and other requirements listed in the job announcement.

Resumes must include all of the following information outlined below:

Contact Information

Name and how best to contact you, including email address and phone number.

Relevant Work Experience

• Job Title and Employer (including series and grade for any Federal positions)
• Start and end dates with month/year (e.g., 05/2019 –08/2022)
• The number of hours you worked per week

Ensure work experience descriptions are aligned with the job announcement and address all required qualifications. Brief descriptions should demonstrate your ability to perform the tasks at the required level as stated in the job announcement.

Resumes must be formatted as outlined above. If the two page resume criteria and/or the resume formatting requirement is not met candidates will be rated as ineligible and will not be referred for hiring consideration.

The FCC is providing the following applicant resume resources: 

• Applicant Guidance on the Two-Page Resume Limit
• USAjobs-How to Write a Federal Resume

ALL SUPPLEMENTAL DOCUMENTS MUST BE UPLOADED BY THE CLOSING DATE OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT.  If applying online poses a hardship, you may contact either the HR Specialist listed on the vacancy announcement or you may contact the Monster Government Solutions help desk (prior to the closing date of the vacancy announcement) via e-mail at mgshelp@monster.com or you may reach them directly at 866-656-6831. The Monster Help Desk is available Monday-Friday 7:00 am to 7:00 pm EST.

Supplement Documents Required: Employees must provide a legible Personnel Action, SF-50, that verifies your status and highest permanently held grade.  If an SF-50 is not submitted, the application will be rated as ineligible.

ALL FCC EMPLOYEES MUST provide a legible Personnel Action, SF-50, that verifies your status and highest permanently held grade.  If an SF-50 is not submitted, the application will be rated as ineligible. To request a copy of your SF-50 please send an email to PersonnelRecordsRequest@fcc.gov

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