Clarification from the agency

This position is open to current and permanent employees of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and individuals eligible under Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP).

In this position, you will serve as Grants Management Specialist. Typical work assignments include:

• Providing technical assistance to award recipients, explaining federal rules and regulations, as well NEA policies and grants management processes.
• Assisting extends to advising award recipients experiencing technical challenges with the NEA grants management system and other federal IT systems such as login.gov and SAM.gov.
• Conducting initial reviews of payment requests, amendment requests, and personnel updates.
• Assisting with the preparation of a variety of spreadsheets, presentations, and reports for the OGM. These may include work in Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat, and other standard office software programs.

Conditions of employment

• Must be a U.S. Citizen or National
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
• You may be required to serve a probationary period.
• Complete the initial online assessment and USAHire Assessment, if required
• Status Candidates must submit an SF-50 and recent appraisal.
• Status candidates must meet time-in-grade requirements (52 weeks at the next lower grade level).
• Time-in-Grade must be met by the closing date of the announcement
• Only experience obtained by the closing date of this announcement will be considered.

Qualifications

Applicants must demonstrate that they meet the Minimum Qualification/Specialized Experience requirements as noted below.
In order to qualify for this position, your resume must provide sufficient experience and/or education, knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the duties of the specific position for which you are being considered.

You qualify for the GS-09 grade level if you meet the following requirements:
MINIMUM QUALIFICATION:
To qualify for this GS-1109-09 Grants Management Specialist: Your resume must demonstrate at least one year of specialized experience at or equivalent to the GS-07 grade level or pay band in the Federal service or equivalent experience in the private or public sector. Specialized experience must demonstrate the following:

• Assisting customers or stakeholders by responding to inquiries and applying established policies, procedures, or guidelines to provide accurate information;
• Supporting the use of a grants management system, database, or other information system by providing basic guidance, troubleshooting, or user support; and
• Performing administrative or program support tasks using office software (e.g., Excel, Word, databases) to organize, track, or present information.

OR substitute qualifying education for experience with one of the following

You must possess a master's or equivalent graduate degree or 2 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree or LLB. or J.D, if related. (You must provide proof before the job announcement closing date)
OR
You must possess a combination of Specialized Experience and Education: Only graduate level education beyond the first year may be used to qualify at the GS-09 level. To compute your combined percentage, divide your total months of qualifying experience by 12. Then divide your semester hours of graduate education beyond one year by 18. Add the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100% to qualify for this grade. (You must provide proof before the job announcement closing date)

Your resume is the key means we have for evaluating your skills, knowledge, and abilities as they relate to this position. Therefore, we encourage you to be clear and specific when describing your experience. Your resume must demonstrate at least one year of specialized experience at or equivalent to the advertised grade level or pay band in the Federal service or equivalent experience in the private or public sector.

You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer and part time experience. You must clearly identify the duties and responsibilities in each position held and the dates worked and total number of hours per week.

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

Applicants are encouraged to use the USAJOBS resume template. However, if you do not use the template you must ensure that your resume contains ALL required information which includes hours worked, starting & ending month and year, and if Federal employment (series, pay plan, and grade).

Current or Former Political Appointees: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) must authorize employment offers made to current or former political appointees. If you are currently, or have been within the last 5 years, a political Schedule A, Schedule C, Non-career SES or Presidential Appointee employee in the Executive Branch, you must disclose this information to the Human Resources Office.

How you will be evaluated

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

You will be evaluated based on how well you meet the qualifications listed in this vacancy announcement. Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., resume, supporting documents), your responses on the application questionnaire, and your responses to all assessments required for this position.

Names of all candidates in the best qualified category will be sent to the hiring official for employment consideration

You will be assessed on the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics):


Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration. Cheating on an assessment may also result in your removal from consideration.

Candidates who apply under Competitive Merit Promotion procedures will undergo a quality review to determine if they are best qualified based on the content of their resume and their responses to the questionnaire. Best qualified candidates will be referred if all required supporting documentation has been provided.

Candidates who apply under Noncompetitive and Special Hiring Authorities procedures will undergo a quality review to determine if they are minimally qualified based on the content of their resume, supporting documentation submitted and their responses to the assessment questionnaire.

Career Transition Assistance Program (CTAP) Eligibles: If you have never worked for the federal government, you are not CTAP eligible. View information about CTAP eligibility here. To be considered well qualified under CTAP, you must be rated at a minimum score of 85 for this position. In addition, you must submit the supporting documents listed under the required documents section of this announcement.

To apply for this position, you must submit a complete Application Package which includes one or more of the following documents. Documents and must be received by the closing date of this announcement:

1. Your RESUME (2-page limit) showing all relevant work experience (paid and unpaid) including: duties performed; full name and address of the each employer; start and end dates (month/day/year); work schedule (part-time, full-time, number of hours if intermittent); salary; and any completed education and training (program title, subject area, number of hours completed, and completion date).
2. Your responses to the job questionnaire and the USA Hire Competency Based Assessment
3. A copy of your college transcript (unofficial is acceptable) or a list of coursework with hours completed, if applicable.
4. Cover letter, optional
5. A copy of your recent performance appraisal.
6. SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action showing title, series, grade and Competitive status AND status as a current NEA employee:
   • An SF-50 showing 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
   • Award 50's d not provide sufficient information and will not be accepted for the purpose of verifying time-in-grade.
   • Examples of appropriate 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.
7. If your application is rated as well-qualified (score 85 or above) and you are claiming special priority selection rights under the Career Transition Assistance Program (CTAP) submit:
   • a copy of your agency notice,
   • a copy of your most recent performance rating, and
   • a copy of your most recent SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action, noting your current position, grade level, and duty location.
8. If you are requesting a reasonable accommodation to the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, submit documentation to support your request, including the Reasonable Accommodation Request Form found here. (https://help.usastaffing.gov/Apply/index.php?title=Reasonable_Accommodations_for_USA_Hire)

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