Program Support Assistant

Clarification from the agency

See Who May Apply under Requirements for more information on who is eligible to apply for this position.

As a Program Support Assistant your duties will include but are not limited to the following:

• Office and Program Liaison - Serves as liaison between BCOO and Washington, Denver, other Regions, and Federal/state officials; coordinates meetings and schedules; screens telephone calls, visitors, and correspondence; determines appropriate action or referral based on knowledge of BCOO programs and priorities.
• Correspondence Management - Serves as the initial point of contact and final control point for all correspondence signed by the Area Manager. Reviews, edits, and finalizes correspondence for style, tone, format, grammatical accuracy, and conformance with Plain Language and Reclamation policy; drafts responses to general inquiries; serves as a subject-matter resource to other administrative support staff on correspondence procedures.
• Calendar and Meeting Coordination - Independently maintains the Area Manager's calendar, scheduling appointments and conferences without prior approval; arranges logistics for meetings and conferences (space, attendees, materials); briefs the Area Manager in advance of scheduled meetings; follows up on commitments made during meetings.
• Travel Coordination - Plans and arranges complex travel itineraries, including overseas travel, for the Area Manager and staff; obtains transportation and lodging, secures special authorizations, prepares and reviews travel vouchers for accuracy and compliance with Federal Travel Regulations.
• Time and Attendance - Maintains time and attendance for BCOO staff, including creating Key/WOIDs; reviews and certifies electronic time and attendance submissions; ensures accuracy of time worked and leave usage; provides training to others on time and attendance procedures.
• Records and Information Management - Designs and maintains subject-matter files and records; manages electronic records in the Reclamation Electronic Documentation System in accordance with Federal records-keeping requirements; maintains confidential personnel files.
• Administrative Analysis and Special Projects - Research and compiles data, statistics, and program information for reports; identifies and recommends solutions to problems in office work processes and workload distribution; monitors program status and action items; provides guidance on administrative methods, procedures, and interpretation of policy.
• Guidance to Staff - Provides guidance and assistance to other administrative assistants within BCOO to ensure administrative support work is performed consistently and in conformance with established standards, policies, and procedures.

Conditions of employment

You must be a U.S. Citizen or U.S. National.
You must be suitable for federal employment, determined by a background investigation.
You must submit a resume and supporting documentation (see Required Documents).
You must submit eligibility documents for veterans consideration (see Required Documents).
Current employees must submit their most recent performance appraisal.

Who May Apply:

• Bureau of Reclamation Employees (Competitive)
• Bureau of Reclamation Employees (Non-Competitive)
• Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP)
• Land Management Workforce Flexibility Act

Qualifications

GS-07: In order to qualify for the GS-07 grade level, your resume must reflect one year of specialized experience equivalent in complexity and difficulty to at least the GS-06 grade level in Federal service.

Specialized experience for GS-07: Preparing and finalizing correspondence for a senior official; screening and independently resolve telephone, visitor, and correspondence inquiries; maintaining an executive's calendar and independently coordinate meetings and conferences; arrange complex travel and review vouchers for compliance with travel regulations; maintain and certify time and attendance records; manage subject-matter files and electronic records; research and compile information for administrative reports; and provide guidance to other administrative staff on office procedures and standards.

If your resume does not clearly reflect ALL of the above your application will be marked as not qualified.

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.

Time-In-Grade: Current career or career-conditional employees of the Federal government, or former career or career-conditional employees, who have a break in service of less than one year, are required to meet the time-in-grade restriction of one year of Federal experience at the next lower-grade, with few exceptions outlined in 5 CFR 300.603(b). Applicants eligible under the Land Management Workforce Flexibility Act (LMWFA) are not required to meet time-in-grade restrictions in order to be considered.

You must meet all Eligibility and Qualification requirements, including time-in-grade restrictions and any selective placement factors if applicable, by 07/30/2026.

How you will be evaluated

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

Resumes must not exceed two single-sided pages and resumes longer than two pages will not be accepted. The minimum font size is 10-point for all body text. Headers may be slightly larger but must remain legible. All resumes must maintain a minimum 0.5-inch margins on all sides to ensure readability and prevent excessive content compression. Including supplemental pages or attachments disguised as resume extensions are prohibited and will not be reviewed to determine your eligibility/qualifications.

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, the responses you provide on the application questionnaire, and the result of the online assessments. You will be assessed on the following competencies:

Applicants will be further evaluated on the following technical competencies:

• Technical Competence: Knowledge of how to perform one's job. Refers to specialized knowledge that is acquired through formal training or extensive on-the-job experience.
• Writing: Uses correct English grammar, punctuation, and spelling to communicate thoughts, ideas, information, and messages in writing.

• Occupational Reading Assessment: Reading is defined as the ability to identify understands and interprets written material, including technical material, rules, regulations, instructions, reports, charts, graphs, or tables; applies what is learned from written material to specific situations.
• Occupational Reasoning Assessment: Reasoning is defined as the ability to identify rules, principles, or relationships that explain facts, data, or other information, and analyzing information to make correct inferences or draw accurate conclusions.
• Occupational Judgement Assessment: Judgement is defined as the ability to makes sound, well-informed, and objective decisions; perceives the impact and implications of decisions; commits to action, even in uncertain situations, to accomplish organizational goals; causes change.
• Occupational Interaction Assessment: Measures multiple competencies (flexibility, learning, stress tolerance, customer service, integrity/honesty, teamwork, accountability, attention to detail, interpersonal skills, self-management) related to personal characteristics such as attitudes, interests, and preferences that are important in the workplace.

In order to be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. 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 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. Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may resin your removal from consideration. Cheating on the online assessment may also result in your removal from consideration.

Please submit the supporting documents outlined below applicable to your claimed eligibility status and the position and grade to which you are applying. Failing to submit required documents will result in non-consideration due to an incomplete application package.

Resume: You must submit a resume that demonstrates how skills and experiences through job duties meet the qualifications and requirements listed in the job announcement to be considered for the job. Each job experience must include dates of employment including start and end dates (month and year), work schedule (full-time or part-time), and hours worked per week. For more information, click here.

Performance Appraisal: You must submit 1) a copy of your most recent performance appraisal/evaluation, and 2) a list of any awards (e.g. superior performance awards, special act/achievement awards, quality step increase, etc.) you received in the last 5 years. Any performance appraisal/evaluation and award documentation you provide will be forwarded to the selecting official. The selecting official will review this documentation and give it due weight consideration during the overall selection process. If you do not have your most recent performance appraisal/evaluation, you must submit a statement as to why it is not available. Please indicate if any prior performance appraisals/evaluations were at an acceptable level.

Federal Employees: You must submit a copy of their SF-50, verifying highest rate of pay and documenting career or career-conditional status in the competitive service (Tenure 1 or 2) for which the applicant is claiming eligibility. Do not submit award SF-50s. If you are applying for a higher grade and your SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you meet the one year time-in-grade requirement so you will need to provide an SF-50 which clearly demonstrates you meet the time-in-grade requirements (examples of appropriate SF-50s include Promotions, Within-grade Grade/Range Increases, and SF-50s with an effective date more than one year old). For more information, click here.

Career Transition Programs: Permanent Federal employees who are surplus, displaced, or involuntarily separated. You must submit a copy of their most recent performance appraisal, proof of eligibility, and most current SF-50 noting position, grade level, and duty location with their application. To be considered under CTAP/ICTAP, you must be well-qualified (i.e., meet the minimum qualification requirements, including selective factors, education and experience requirements) and score at least 90.0 on the assessment questionnaire as established, and be able to perform the duties of the position upon entry. For more information, click here.

Land Management Workforce Flexibility Act: Current or former land management agency appointees. You must submit (1) a copy of your SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action, that reflects having initially been hired under competitive examining procedures to a time limited (temporary/term) appointment; (2) a copy of SF-50(s), Notification of Personnel Action(s), that reflect having served under one (1) or more time-limited (temporary/term) appointments by a land management agency for a period totaling more than 24 months without a break in service of two (2) or more years; and (3) a copy of your Performance Appraisal Plan and/or Supervisor Memorandum that reflects having performed at an acceptable level during each period of service. For more information, click here.

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