Program Manager

Clarification from the agency

Department of Transportation (DOT)-wide employees with competitive status only, including FAA employees eligible for competitive announcements through FAA's OPM Interchange Agreement.

A major function of the Office of Data Acquisitions is to provide databases developed from state highway safety related data for use in analyses aimed at reducing deaths, injuries, crashes, and medical costs.

As the Director, the incumbent will be responsible for the following:

• Advising the Associate Administrator on all matters related to the design, development, coordination, and management of crash investigation and data collection, and their contribution to achieving the mission of NHTSA. Keeps the Associate Administrator fully informed as to the status of programs and of problems and controversial issues. Collaborates closely with the Associate Administrator and other top officials of NHTSA to identify the agency's crash research and data needs, to determine techniques and methods by which the office can meet those needs, to estimate the cost and time required to meet the needs, and to determine other implications of changes.
• Carrying out personnel management responsibilities for a staff of professional, technical, administrative and clerical support personnel. Makes decisions on work problems presented by subordinate supervisors and key specialists. Evaluates performance of subordinate supervisors and reviews evaluations made by supervisors of subordinate employee's performance.
• Establishing policy and provides management oversight of the State Data Reporting Systems Division responsible for the crash record-based data. Crash record based data includes the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), a fundamental national data base on traffic safety, Crash Report Sampling System (CRSS), Not-in-Traffic System (NTS) and the State Electronic Data Collection Program (SEDC)., The Division also provides the expertise in sample design and quality control to the other offices in the National Center for Statistics and Analysis, the rest of NHTSA and other offices in DOT.
• Establishing policy and provides management oversight of the Crash Investigation Division (CID), provides executive leadership in the planning, design, development, coordination, and management of national networks of motor vehicle traffic crash research and data collection activities. These include the operation of a national system to conduct detailed investigations of a well-defined selection of motor vehicle crashes currently the Crash Investigation Sampling System (CISS)); and the Special Crash Investigations (SCI) program of special investigations of crashes of particular, interest; and Systems for collecting, supplementing, and coding data from police crash reports to provide special purpose data files. 
• Maintaining liaison with other Federal agencies, State and local governments, police agencies, hospitals, private safety groups, motor vehicle and equipment manufacturers, crash research and analysis organizations, professional societies, and other groups with an interest in crash investigation and crash data for the purposes are for exchanging crash data and information on crash research technology, encouraging the use of crash data, and cooperating on crash research programs.

The ideal candidate is a data executive and systems expert with a track record of managing federal data collection, automation, and national crash investigation programs. They possess the strategic and technical skills to lead multi-disciplinary teams while directing the human resource, budgetary, and procurement parameters vital to national highway safety initiatives. A skilled collaborator, they excel at building partnerships across federal, state, and private sectors including law enforcement, public health, and the automotive industry to secure cooperation and advance data systems. Furthermore, they bring expertise in data governance, enforcing quality control and data completeness while protecting individual privacy, ensuring the delivery of accurate databases that support national safety research and rulemaking.

Conditions of employment

• Must meet specialized experience stated in Qualifications section
• Submit application and resume online by 11:59 PM EST on the closing date
• Required documents must be submitted by the closing date.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT:

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you maybe required to serve a 1-year probationary period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider:

• your performance and conduct;
• the needs and interests of the agency;
• whether your continued employment would advance the organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and
• whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.

Upon completion of your probationary period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

• SELECTIVE SERVICE: Males born after 12/31/1959 must be registered for the Selective Service.
• GOVERNMENT TRAVEL CARD: This position involves travel.  A government contractor-issued travel card will be issued and must be retained for official business only.
• BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION: A background security investigation is required for all selected individuals. Appointment will be subject to the applicant’s successful completion of the security investigation and favorable adjudication. Failure to meet these requirements will be grounds for termination.
• PROBATIONARY PERIOD: You must complete a one-year probationary period (unless already completed).
• TIME-IN-GRADE: Federal applicants must have served 52 weeks at the next lower grade in the competitive or excepted service in the executive branch to satisfy time-in-grade restrictions contained in 5 CFR 300, Subpart F.

Qualifications

To meet the minimum qualifications for this position, you must meet the specialized experience qualifications.

To qualify for the Grade 15, you must have at least one year of specialized experience equal or equivalent to the GS-14, it must include:

• Experience directing multi-disciplinary professional, technical, and administrative teams while managing the organizational, human resource, and budgetary parameters vital to national highway traffic safety initiatives. 
• Experience communicating with system managers, rulemaking engineers, researchers, technicians, traffic safety administrators, Governor's Representatives for Highway Safety, State and local officials, national data system program managers and others associated with the application of data as it applies to helping solve complex safety issues.
• Experience establishing policy and overseeing large federal data divisions to ensure data completeness, security, and rigorous quality control. Examples include working with executive leadership to plan, develop, and manage large-scale national data collection systems and multi-level crash investigation programs.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES (KSAs): Your qualifications will be evaluated on the basis of your level of knowledge, skills, abilities and/or competencies in the following areas:

1. Technical Knowledge: Knowledge of federal budgeting to manage large divisional funds, appropriations, large-scale national data architecture, data collection methodologies, complex procurement or contracting mechanisms and systems engineering principles required to build and sustain nationwide databases.
2. Leadership and Supervision: Management and/or team leader skills, including the ability to direct, manage, and develop a diverse, high-performing human resources workforce of technical and administrative staff.
3. Communication: Communication, presentation, and negotiation skills, including the ability to secure community support, build strategic intergovernmental alliances, and establish private-sector data-sharing partnerships.
4. Reasoning: Ability to collaborate across federal, state, and private boundaries to improve data accessibility while balancing competing stakeholder priorities. 

For all types of consideration, 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.

For additional information about applying to Federal positions, please click on the following link:  https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-policies/#url=e4

All applicants must meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of this announcement

How you will be evaluated

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

DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE: PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. To receive full credit during evaluation, your assessment responses must explicitly point back to your resume, as HR cannot make assumptions about your experience. You must write your narrative answers in full paragraph format, beginning each response with the exact position title, organization, employment dates (MM/YYYY–MM/YYYY), full-time/part-time, average hours worked per week, and federal series/grade (if applicable) as listed on your resume. Within the paragraph, clearly describe your specific individual duties, actions taken, tools used, and measurable outcomes to prove your level of expertise. HR will cross-check your narrative against your resume; if your resume does not fully support every detail and timeframe claimed in your written response, the claimed experience will be disallowed, which may result in an ineligible determination.

Eligible Federal employees also seeking consideration for noncompetitive reassignment for this position, must indicate interest in the assessment. Noncompetitive federal candidates must have competitive status on a SF-50, meet minimum qualifications, have served at the same grade or higher, and held or exceeded the promotion potential of this position.

All applicants:  Your application will be reviewed in two phases determine how you move forward in the hiring process.  Phase I: Your resume will be reviewed to determine your technical qualifications for this position based on the required specialized experience. ONLY two (2) pages of your resume will be reviewed. Additional information beyond your resume (e.g., cover letter, links embedded in your resume) will not be reviewed.  Applicants passing “Phase I” will move on to the “Phase II” of the assessment process where your application will be reviewed and rated based on the KSAs/Competencies listed in the vacancy announcement by a Subject Matter Expert (SME).

• your most recent performance appraisal,
• the proof of eligibility letter from the Agency, and
• your most current SF-50, displaying current series and grade. 
• YOU MUST SUBMIT ALL 3 documents and meet the well qualified standards for this vacancy (meeting minimum requirements for position and scoring at least an 80) to be considered under CTAP.

Displaced employees may be eligible for CTAP priority consideration. For more information, please review the OPM Employee's Guide to Career Transition.

Failure to submit any of the required documents by the closing date 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.

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