Clarification from the agency

This vacancy announcement is open to current employees of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO).

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO), Department of Administrative Services, Human Resources Office (HRO), Judges Compensation and Retirement Division (JCRD) is seeking a self-motivated and experienced Human Resources Specialist (Employee Benefits) to serve as Team Lead in the JCRD. This position reports to the JCRD Assistant Chief.

JCRD is responsible for managing multiple unique retirement systems for retired Supreme Court justices and federal judges, and the survivor annuity system for their spouses. In addition, the division coordinates with other AO divisions on personnel actions, monthly payroll processing, benefits, and other requests for retired justices, judges, and their surviving spouses.

The Human Resources Specialist (Employee Benefits) must have excellent communication, strong interpersonal, organizational, and analytical skills. The ideal candidate must have experience in a team environment, and the ability to work collaboratively with internal and external stakeholders.

The duties of this position include, but are not limited to:

1. Leading and overseeing the Judges Retirement and Advisory Services Team, ensuring effective operations, high performance, and alignment with organizational priorities.
2. Managing workload distribution and ensuring quality control, including reviewing work products for accuracy, consistency, and compliance with policies and procedures.
3. Overseeing and managing retirement and survivor benefit cases for justices, judges, and their spouses, including handling complex and sensitive matters requiring a high degree of expertise and discretion.
4. Ensuring accurate calculation of pay and annuities for justices, judges, and survivors, in accordance with statutes, regulations, and standard operating procedures.
5. Providing expert-level counseling and advisory services to justices, judges, and their spouses on pay, benefits, and retirement programs, including the Judicial Retirement Systems, Civil Service Retirement System, Federal Employees Retirement System, Judicial Survivors' Annuities System, Thrift Savings Plan, Federal Employees Health Benefits, Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance, Judiciary-specific retirement programs, Social Security and Medicare.
6. Representing the AO in national outreach efforts, including delivering presentations on pay, benefits, and retirement planning at circuit judicial conferences, Federal Judicial Center orientations and workshops, and other judiciary-wide meetings and events.
7. Supporting the annual actuarial valuation and audit processes for the Judicial Retirement and Survivors Annuities Funds, ensuring accuracy, accountability, and compliance with financial and program requirements.
8. Preparing and reviewing written communications to judges and their spouses regarding benefits, retirement, and related programs, ensuring clarity, accuracy, and consistency.
9. Providing substantive input to division leadership on employee performance, including contributions to semi-annual and annual evaluations and ongoing staff development.
10. Leading and contributing to the development and maintenance of procedures, forms, and policy guidance, including drafting and updating standard operating procedures, agency specific forms for judges, content in the Guide to Judicial Policy, and other judges' pay, benefits, and retirement programs publications.

Conditions of employment

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

1. All information is subject to verification. Applicants are advised that false answers or omissions of information on application materials or inability to meet the following conditions may be grounds for non-selection, withdrawal of an offer of employment, or dismissal after being employed.
2. Selection for this position is contingent upon completion of OF-306, Declaration of Federal Employment during the pre-employment process and proof of U.S. citizenship for competitive status positions or conversion to a competitive status position with the AO. If non-citizens are considered for hire into a temporary or any other position with non-competitive status or when it is confirmed by the AO Human Resources Office there are no qualified U.S. citizens for a competitive status position (unless prohibited by a law or statue), non-citizens must provide proof of authorization to work in the U.S. and proof of entitlement to receive compensation. Additional information on the employment of non-citizens can be found at USAJOBS Help Center | Employment of non-citizens/. For a list of documents that may be used to provide proof of citizenship or authorization to work in the United States, please refer to Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification.
3. All new AO employees will be required to complete an FBI fingerprint-based national criminal database and records check and pass a public trust suitability check.
4. New employees to the AO will be required to successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights/responsibilities, visit https://www.e-verify.gov/.
5. All new AO employees are required to identify a financial institution for direct deposit of pay before appointment.
6. You will be required to serve a trial period if selected for a first-time appointment to the Federal government, transferring from another Federal agency, or serving as a first-time supervisor. Failure to successfully complete the trial period may result in termination of employment.
7. If appointed to a temporary position, management may have the discretion of converting the position to permanent depending upon funding and staffing allocation.

Qualifications

Applicants must have demonstrated experience as listed below. This requirement is according to the AO Classification, Compensation, and Recruitment Systems which include interpretive guidance and reference to the OPM Operating Manual for Qualification Standards for General Schedule Positions.

Specialized Experience: Applicants must have at least one full year (52 weeks) of specialized experience which is in or directly related to the line of work of this position. Specialized experience must demonstrate experience in ALL areas defined below:

• Managing federal retirement cases for high-level officials and employees.
• Providing counseling and guidance on benefits and retirement programs.
• Developing and delivering effective communication materials, presentations, and training on benefits and retirement programs.
• Processing retirement applications and death cases, including calculating annuity estimates, and service credit.

How you will be evaluated

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

We will review your resume and supporting documentation and compare this information to your responses on the occupational questionnaire to determine if you meet the minimum qualifications for this job. If you meet the minimum qualifications for this job, we will evaluate your application package, to assess the quality, depth, and complexity of your accomplishments, experience, and education as they relate to the requirements listed in this vacancy announcement.

You should be aware that your ratings are subject to evaluation and verification. If a determination is made that you have rated yourself higher than is supported by your resume and/or narrative responses, you will be assigned a rating commensurate to your described experience. Failure to submit the mandatory narrative responses will result in not receiving full consideration and/or rating credit. Deliberate attempts to falsify information may be grounds for not selecting you, withdrawing an offer of employment, or dismissal after being employed.

For this job announcement the following documents and/or information are required:

• Resume - Any written format you choose to describe your job-related qualifications.
• Citizenship - Include country of citizenship on resume.
• Notification of Personnel Action (SF-50) - All applicants outside of the AO must submit a copy of your latest SF-50 to verify current or former Federal employment status.
• Veterans Preference documentation - Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty (DD Form 214), if applicable Application for 10-Point Veteran Preference (SF-15) and an official statement, dated 1991 or later, from the Department of Veterans Affairs or from a branch of the Armed Forces, certifying to the veteran's present receipt of compensation.

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