As a Loan Specialist (General) at the GS-1165-09, some typical work assignments may include;

• Review and assess disaster loan applications for potential risk of fraud, identity theft, and eligibility issues.
• Review pertinent facts needed to make eligibility determinations.
• Process home loans and simple business loans.
• Investigate and evaluate credit history to determine creditworthiness.

In addition to the duties listed above, As a Loan Specialist (General) at the GS-1165-11, some typical work assignments may include;

• Review loan applications and supporting documentation for compliance with SBA programs.
• Independently analyzes loan cases involving high degrees of uncertainty.
• Prepare formal correspondence for loan denials or modifications.
• Execute loan closings and disbursements for SBA disaster loans.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• This is a Term appointment, which is a Competitive service position.
• The Term Appointment does not confer competitive status, reinstatement rights, or eligibility for non-competitive conversion to a permanent job to the individual(s) selected. You may be promoted or reassigned to another term position within SBA's Office of Capital Access; however, you may not be non-competitively appointed to another Federal position. You will be given an initial Term Appointment lasting more than 1 year, but not more than 4 years. If all other conditions of employment are met, this appointment may be extended, up to a total of four (4) years in increments determined by SBA.
• If selected, employees work on an intermittent (on-call) work schedule. This means that employees are in a pay status only when activated to respond to workload needs, especially in response to heightened disaster activity. When no longer needed, employees return to a non-pay status until the next event necessitates additional staff.
• However, depending on the workload and/or level of disaster activity, your work schedule may be changed to full-time. Subsequently, if the workload decreases, your work schedule may be changed back to intermittent.

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen
• You must successfully complete a background investigation.
• You may be required to serve a one-year probationary period.
• You must be able to obtain and maintain a Government travel credit card.
• This is not a bargaining unit position.
• Mandatory Overtime: In order to respond quickly and efficiently to disaster survivors, substantial compensated overtime hours may be required while on assignment (up to seven days a week and ten to fourteen hours a day).

Qualifications

Individual Occupation Requirements:

Education
Undergraduate and Graduate Education: Major study - finance, business administration, economics, accounting, insurance, engineering, mathematics, banking and credit, law, real estate operations, statistics, or other related fields related to the position, such as agriculture, agricultural economics, farm, livestock or ranch management, or rural sociology.

OR

Experience
Specialized Experience: Experience that demonstrated competence in agricultural, commercial, realty, or other types of loans. Experience may have been gained in such work as reviewing and passing upon applications for agricultural, commercial, bank or mortgage loans; servicing a loan portfolio of a bank or other loan association; performing financial analysis of commercial concerns for investment purposes; appraising real estate to determine property valuation; or similar work.

In addition to the Individual Occupational Requirement shown above, the following experience and/or education can be credited.

Experience: to receive credit, you must indicate the month and year as well as the average hours worked per week for each employer.
You must address the specific specialized experience required for each grade level of this position on your resume or application or you will be rated "Ineligible" for that grade level.

GS-09: One year of specialized experience, equivalent to the GS-07 grade level in the Federal service, obtained in either the private or public sector:

• Making recommendations or decisions to approve or decline home loans, and
• Evaluating credit histories to determine credit worthiness of individuals or businesses, and
• Analyzing financial statements such as federal tax returns, to determine repayment ability for loan applicants, and
• Processing loan applications using web-based financial/lending software to underwrite loans

GS-11: One year of specialized experience, equivalent to the GS-09 grade level in the Federal service, obtained in either the private or public sector:

• Making recommendations or decisions to approve or decline business loans, and
• Independently analyze financial statements such as federal tax returns, profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and business plans, and
• Evaluating business loan applications to determine eligibility and determining appropriate conditions that should be applied to loans, and
• Advising applicants on loan policies and programs, ensuring informed decision-making, and
• Evaluating assets to determine best available collateral such as real estate and general security interest to secure a loan.

Additional information on the qualification requirements is outlined in the OPM Qualifications Standards Handbook of General Schedule Positions. It is available for your review on OPM's Qualifications Website:

Loan Specialist Series 1165 (opm.gov)

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.

All qualification requirements must be met by 11:59pm (Eastern Time) 04/13/2026.

How you will be evaluated

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

Applicants meeting basic eligibility requirements will be further evaluated based on additional assessments. In addition to the application and application questionnaire, this position requires an online assessment. The online assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job. The assessments relate to the following Competencies required to do the work of this position:

• Attention to detail
• Customer service
• Flexibility
• Integrity/Honesty
• Interpersonal skills
• Learning
• Self-Management
• Stress-Management
• Stress Tolerance
• Teamwork
• Reading Comprehension
• Reasoning

The assessment includes a cut score based on the minimum level of required proficiency in these critical general competencies. You must meet or exceed the cut score to be considered. You will not be considered for the position if you score below the cut score or fail to complete the assessment.

Your application will be evaluated under the Category Rating method based on your assessments. You will receive a score based on the responses to the assessment questions. If, after reviewing your resume and or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications and or experience your score can and will be adjusted to more accurately reflect your abilities. If you meet basic requirements for the position, your application will be evaluated and placed into one of three categories:

1. Best-Qualified: highly proficient with an overall comprehensive level of knowledge, skills and abilities related to the job based on a complete review of experience, education, and training as described in an applicant's responses to the assessment questions and resume.
2. Well-Qualified: competent in the position with an overall accomplished level of knowledge, skills, and abilities related to the job based on a complete review of experience, training, and education as applicable, as described in an applicant's responses to the assessment questions and resume.
3. Qualified: an overall basic level of knowledge, skills, and abilities related to the job based on a complete review of experience, education, and training, as described in an applicant's responses to the assessment questions and resume.

Candidates eligible for veterans' preference will be placed ahead of other candidates in the appropriate category for which they have been rated. Additionally, preference eligibles who have a compensable service-connected disability of at least 10 percent and who meet Minimum Qualification Requirements will automatically be placed in the Best Qualified Category.

Career and InterAgency Career Transition Assistance Programs: To receive selection priority for this position, you must:
1. meet CTAP or ICTAP eligibility criteria as described under "Additional Information" above; and
2. submit the appropriate documentation to support your CTAP/ICTAP eligibility claim which can be found under the Required Documents section of this vacancy announcement.

Failure to submit any of the required documents by the closing date/time of the vacancy will result in your removal from consideration for this position. Please review your application prior to final submission and ensure you have submitted all appropriate documents. Uploading documents to USAJobs does NOT ensure inclusion with your application to our system. You must verify that the documents are in the system with your application prior to final submission.

1. Your Resume - Resume length may not exceed 2 pages and must contain the following information:

• Name, address, telephone number, email address;
• Job Title (if Federal Service, provide series and grade; if not in GS plan, provide GS equivalent grade);
• If qualifying based on related unpaid (e.g. volunteer service) experience, you must provide hours worked per week and beginning/ending dates (mm/dd/yyyy to mm/dd/yyyy);
• If other than full time you must provide hours worked per week.
• PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Your resume must contain sufficiently detailed information upon which to make a qualification determination.
• Should you submit multiple resumes, only the latest uploaded resume will be reviewed.
• Should your resume be longer than 2 pages you will be removed from consideration.

2. In addition to the online application (resume and responses to the occupational questionnaire), you are required to submit the following forms, if applicable. It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure all documents are legible:

• Federal employees must submit proof of your permanent career/career-conditional competitive status ("1" or "2" in Tenure, block 24 and "1" in Position Occupied, block 34). Submit SF-50 showing current grade and tenure and an SF-50 showing highest (permanent) grade ever held, if different. NOTE: An award or detail SF-50 will not be accepted as proof of status.
• If you are using education as a substitution for experience (the announcement will state whether this is allowed), or if there is an educational requirement for this position, you must submit a copy of your transcripts (unofficial or official) that clearly describes your qualifying education. If selected, official transcripts will be required;
• If you are claiming Veteran status, you must submit a copy of all required documents to support your claim (e.g.: DD-214 Member Copy 4 showing type of discharge/character of service; Current Active Duty members must submit a certification of expected discharge or release from active duty under honorable conditions dated within 120 days; SF-15 Form and related documentation; VA disability letter)--see VetGuide;
• To receive consideration for a special appointment authority (30% Disabled Vet, Schedule A, Peace Corps, VRA, etc) you must submit all required documentation supporting your claim for Special Appointing Authorities;
• Veterans who are still in the service may be granted tentative preference on the basis of information contained in their applications, but they must produce a DD-214 (showing the character of service) or other proof of service to receive consideration for veterans' preference. For more information on Veterans' Preference, please visit FedsHireVets.gov.
• CTAP/ICTAP/RPL Applicants: Surplus or displaced employees eligible for CTAP, RPL, or ICTAP priority must provide proof of eligibility (RIF separation notice, notice of proposed removal for declining a transfer of function or directed reassignment to another commuting area, notice of disability annuity termination), SF-50 documenting separation (if applicable), your most recent SF-50 noting position, grade level, and duty location with your application per 5 CFR 330, and your most recent performance appraisal.

Next steps