SUPERVISORY PUBLIC AFFAIRS SPECIALIST Job

Vacancy No. MP-26-FOCE/W-12816613 Department Small Business Administration
Salary $90,025.00 to $117,034.00 Grade 13 to 13
Perm/Temp Permanent FT/PT Full-time
Open Date 10/20/2025 Close Date 11/3/2025
Job Link Apply Online Who may apply Status Candidates
Locations:
Citrus Heights, CAAtlanta, GA


Summary

You will serve as a SUPERVISORY PUBLIC AFFAIRS SPECIALIST for US Small Business Administration, Field Operations Center East in Atlanta, GA and Field Operations Center West in Citrus Heights, CA. This position provides first level supervision to the Public Affairs staff and act as an advisor to the Public Affairs Manager.

This position is also announced under Delegated Examining Procedures, open to the general public, DE-26-FOCE/W-12816688, apply to receive consideration.

This job is open to

Clarification from the agency

This vacancy is open to current permanent Federal employees (status candidates), and individuals eligible for any of the following special hiring authorities: Military Spouses, Veterans Employment Opportunities Act, VRA, 30% or more disabled veterans, Schedule A, current/permanent employees who are CTAP eligible, ICTAP eligible current/former federal employees, Land Management, Reinstatement eligibles, Transfer employees in Competitive service, and Interchange eligibles.

Duties

This not a Remote position, however, situational telework may be available. For information on Telework please visit: http://www.telework.gov/

As a SUPERVISORY PUBLIC AFFAIRS SPECIALIST at the GS-1035-13, some of your typical work assignments may include:

  • Provide leadership support to the Public Affairs Manager to ensure effective planning, operation, and evaluation of an active well-balanced public affairs program for DR&R's internal and external customers (media, the public, business, and civic organizations, etc.) and Federal, state, and local government offices concerning the SBA Disaster Assistance Program.
  • Ensure that the Center's plan, mission, vision, and values are communicated to the team and integrated into the team's strategies, goals, objectives, and work plans.
  • Plan and produce digital and social media web content projects for publication and dissemination through multiple channels. Creates scripts, digital tiles, and videos, utilizing SBA disaster loan program material for social media promotion.
  • Acts as a spokesperson for DR&R and supports the Center Director and Supervisory Public Affairs Specialist with making public appearances, preparing presentations, talking points or speeches as necessary.
  • Answer media questions and respond to requests for interviews and written information. Proactively seeks opportunities to tell newspapers, radio, and television reporters about the SBA Disaster Program.
The U.S. Small Business Administration helps power the American dream of entrepreneurship. As the federal government's leading advocate for small businesses, we empower job creators with the essential resources and support they need to start, grow, and expand their businesses or recover from a declared disaster. Our services reach communities nationwide through a robust network of SBA field offices and partnerships with both public and private organizations.

If you're seeking more than just a job - if you desire purpose, impact, and the chance to contribute to something truly meaningful - this is your opportunity. Small businesses are our nation's backbone, driving innovation, creating jobs, and fueling prosperity. At the SBA, you'll directly help empower these vital businesses and ignite economic growth under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump and Administrator Kelly Loeffler.

For over 70 years, the SBA has fueled America's small business success by providing crucial access to capital, federal contracts, and expert guidance. Beyond our critical disaster recovery efforts, where we deploy aid and expertise to help communities rebuild, your role will directly contribute to the start, growth, and expansion of businesses nationwide, creating jobs and strengthening the economic fabric of our communities.

Find your WHY working for Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience (ODR&R), Public Affairs Department. As a member of the Public Affairs team, the work you accomplish supports SBA's disaster work in the following:
  • Rapid Relief: When disasters strike, the SBA mobilizes quickly to provide low-interest, long-term disaster loans to businesses, homeowners, renters, and nonprofits. These funds help repair damage, recover lost revenue, and preserve local jobs.
  • Rebuilding with Resilience: We don't just rebuild-we help communities prepare for the next crisis. SBA disaster loans often include additional funds for mitigation improvements, such as storm proofing or elevating key infrastructure, to strengthen long-term recovery.
  • Supporting America's Backbone: Whether it's a family-owned bakery in Texas or a childcare provider in Florida, SBA's mission is to empower those who power our economy, especially during their greatest time of need.
  • Innovative & Adaptive: We're modernizing how we deliver assistance-embracing new technology, streamlining loan processing, and ensuring more access to every disaster survivor who needs us.
  • Collaborative Culture: SBA works together with local and state governments, other federal partners, and community-based organizations to deliver coordinated recovery assistance when it matters most.
What You'll Gain:
  • Impactful Leadership: Influence organizational structures and ensure the efficiency of SBA's disaster assistance programs.
  • Professional Growth: Join a forward-thinking team that values innovation and continuous improvement.
  • Mission-Driven Work: Your role will directly contribute to helping Americans recover and rebuild their businesses, homes, and communities after disasters.
  • Field-to-Headquarters Impact: SBA deploys employees to support communities on the ground and manages national operations from its Washington, D.C., headquarters, and regional centers. Wherever you serve, your work matters.

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

  • U.S. citizenship is required.
  • You must be able to obtain and maintain a Government travel credit card.
  • Favorable background investigation is required.
  • You must meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date.
  • A one-year supervisory/Managerial probationary period may be required.
  • You may be required to complete a one-year probationary period for non-supervisors if you fail to complete the one-year supervisory probationary period.
  • 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).
  • If required to travel to a disaster site, you may encounter hazardous working and/or living conditions, for example, no water or electricity and/or minimal lodging facilities.

Qualifications

Federal status applicants must meet both Time-In-Grade AND experience requirements by the closing date of this announcement. However, if you have separated from the Federal Government for at least 52 weeks, you are not subject to the Time-in-Grade requirement.

TIME-IN-GRADE: If you are a current career or career-conditional federal employee applying for promotion under Merit Promotion you must have completed a minimum of 52 weeks in positions at the next level lower than the position being filled.

Experience: To receive credit, you must indicate the month and year as well as the average hours worked per week for each employer. Average work hours must be stated on the resume to quantify each period of work experience or that experience will not be credited toward meeting the specialized experience requirement. 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-13: To qualify you must have at least 1 full year (52 weeks) of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and complexity to the GS-12 level in the Federal service that has equipped you with the particular knowledge, skill, and ability to perform successfully in this position. This experience may have been gained in a Non-Federal service position. In addition, this Specialized Experience must demonstrate the following:
  • Implement organizational mission, team strategies, goals, and work plans; AND
  • Assess and lead a diverse team, establish work assignments, and manage workload balance; AND
  • Explain an organization's programs, policies, and procedures (1) either to the public as a member of the media (print, radio and/or television), or (2) to the media (print, radio and/or television) as a representative of an organization. (e.g., Media experience must have communicated directly to the public by written or broadcast reporting; AND
  • Oversee and monitor a social media engagement program to include the management and/or use of social media platforms, the posting of content, engaging in on-line conversations, chats, webinars, and live events, while ensuring agency and federal guideline compliance; AND
  • Create engaging content using video editing software (such as Adobe Premiere Pro, iMovie, and Final cut Pro), understands social media metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of campaigns and adjust strategies.

Do not copy and paste the duties, specialized experience, or occupational assessment questionnaire from this announcement into your resume as that will not be considered a demonstration of your qualifications for this position.

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: Public Affairs Series 1035

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.

Additional selections may be made from this announcement if identical vacancies occur within 180 days from the closing date.

All qualification requirements must be met by 11:59 pm (Eastern Time) on 11/03/2025.

Education

Education may not be substituted for experience for this position.

Additional information

Reasonable Accommodation Requests: If you believe you have a disability (i.e., physical or mental), covered by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended and Americans with Disabilities Act 1990 as amended, that would interfere with completing the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be granted the opportunity to request a reasonable accommodation in your online application. Requests for Reasonable Accommodations for the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments and appropriate supporting documentation for Reasonable Accommodation must be received prior to starting the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments. Decisions on requests for Reasonable Accommodations are made on a case-by-case basis. If you meet the minimum qualifications of the position, after notification of the adjudication of your request, you will receive an email invitation to complete the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments. You must complete all assessments within 48 hours of receiving the URL to access the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, if you received the link after the close of the announcement. To determine if you need a Reasonable Accommodation, please review the Procedures for Requesting a Reasonable Accommodation for Online Assessments here: https://help.usastaffing.gov/Apply/index.php?title=Reasonable_Accommodations_for_USA_Hire

EEO Statement: The United States government does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, retaliation, parental status, military service or other non-merit factor.

Selective Service: If you are a male applicant born after December 31, 1959, you must certify that you have registered with the Selective Service System or are exempt from having to do so under the Selective Service Law. For additional information visit www.sss.gov.

Noncompetitive Appointment Authorities: For more information on noncompetitive appointment authority eligibility requirements: Persons with Disabilities - Schedule A Special Hiring Authority for Veterans Special Hiring Authority for Certain Military Spouses Other Special Appointment Authorities - Subpart F

Veterans Employment Opportunity Act (VEOA) -VEOA allows eligible veterans to apply and compete for positions announced under merit promotion procedures when the hiring agency is recruiting from outside its own workforce. To be eligible for a VEOA appointment, a veteran must be honorably separated and either a preference eligible or have substantially completed three (3) or more years of continuous active military service. If you are applying for a Merit Promotion announcement and wish to be considered under VEOA, you must submit a copy of the Member Copy 4 of your DD-214, in addition to any other required documents listed on this announcement.

Political Appointees (Current or Former): 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 or Non-Career SES employee in the Executive Branch, you must disclose this information to the HR Office. Failure to disclose this information could result in disciplinary action including removal from Federal Service.

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

Benefits

A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.

If selected for this position, you will be eligible for benefits. The above link is provided for your reference to explore the major benefits offered to most Federal employees.

Review our benefits

Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.

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 all the Specialized Experience listed in this vacancy announcement. If you do not, you will be rated "Ineligible". Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., resume, supporting documents) and the result of the online assessments required for this position.

In order to be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. In addition to the application, this position requires an online assessment. The online assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job.

Your resume should not exceed two pages and must demonstrate the specialized experience related to the position for which you are applying. If your resume goes beyond two pages, we will only consider the first two pages for the required experience.

Agency Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) Eligibles: If you have never worked for the federal government, you are not CTAP eligible. View information about CTAP eligibility on OPM's Career Transition Resources website. You must submit the supporting documents listed under the Required Documents section of this announcement. To be considered well qualified under CTAP, you must be rated at a minimum score of 85 for this position.

National Service Experience (i.e., volunteer experience): 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.

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. You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above. Your application package (resume, supporting documents, and responses to the questionnaire) will be used to determine your eligibility, qualifications, and quality ranking for this position. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating or consideration for employment. Applicants who disqualify themselves will not be evaluated further.

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.

Required Documents

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 must 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.
2. Other supporting documents, such as:
  • Veterans' documentation, if applicable (e.g. DD-214 Member Copy 4 or other Member Copy showing type of discharge/character of service, SF-15 Form and related documentation, VA letter, etc.)
  • Career Transition Assistance Program/Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program documentation, if applicable (e.g. Certification of Expected Separation, Reduction-In-Force Separation Notice, or Notice of Proposed Removal; SF-50 that documents the RIF separation action; and most recent performance appraisal.)
  • If you are a current or former Federal employee, submit a copy of your official SF-50 or other official "Notification of Personnel Action" document that shows the following information to verify your eligibility for consideration as a status applicant:
    • your appointment in the competitive or excepted service
    • tenure
    • grade, step and salary
    • highest grade held or full performance level of current or prior position (as applicable).
DO NOT SEND YOUR RESUME OR ANY APPLICATION DOCUMENTS TO THE AGENCY CONTACT.

ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION:
1. Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) or Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP):
If you are claiming CTAP/ICTAP eligibility, provide a copy of your most recent annual performance appraisal (which must show at least a "fully successful" rating or equivalent), and proof of eligibility, i.e., a RIF separation notice or Certification of Expected Separation, and SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location. In addition to meeting all qualification requirements and selective placement factors (if applicable), CTAP/ICTAP eligibles must meet the Well-Qualified criteria with a score of 85 or above based on the competencies listed above for the position in order to be given priority consideration. Information about CTAP and ICTAP eligibility is also on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at: CTAP/ICTAP http://www.opm.gov/rif/employee_guides/career_transition.asp.
2. If you are a veteran applying under the Veterans Employment Opportunity Act (VEOA) Appointing Authority or for any other Appointment based on your military service, you must submit a copy of your DD-214 copy showing type of discharge/character of service or other proof of creditable service.
3. If you are a male applicant who was born after 12/31/59 and are required to register under the Military Selective Service Act, the Defense Authorization Act of 1986 requires that you be registered, or you are not eligible for appointment in this agency.

How to Apply

Please read the entire announcement and all the instructions before you begin an application.

To apply for this position, you must complete the online application and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section.

  • To begin, click Apply Online to access an online application. Follow the prompts to select your USAJOBS resume and/or other supporting documents. You will need to be logged into your USAJOBS account, or you may need to create a new account
  • You will be taken to an online application. Complete the online application, verify the required documentation, and submit the application
  • You will receive an email notification when your application has been received for the announcement.
  • After submitting an online application, you will be notified whether or not you are required to take additional online assessments through the USA Hire Competency Based Assessment system. This message will be delivered to you both on screen and via email notification.
  • If you are asked to take the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be presented with a unique URL to access the USA Hire system. Access to USA Hire is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Be sure to review all instructions prior to beginning your USA Hire Assessments. Click here for Computer System Requirements
Note, set aside at least 3 hours to take these assessments; however, most applicants complete the assessments in less time. If you need to stop the assessments and continue at a later time, you can re-use the URL sent to you via email and also found on the Additional Application Information page that can be located in the application record in your USAJOBS account.

To update your application, including supporting documentation, at any time during the announcement open period, return to your USAJOBS account. There you will find a record of your application, the application status, and an option to Update Application. This option will no longer be available once the announcement has closed.

To verify the status of your application both during and after the announcement open period, log into your USAJOBS account at https://www.usajobs.gov/All of your applications will appear on the Welcome page. The application record in your USAJOBS account provides an Additional Application Information page that provides information regarding the documentation you submitted and any correspondence we have sent related to this application. The Application Status will appear along with the date your application was last updated. For information on what each Application Status means, visit: https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/how-to/application/status/

The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (EST) on 11/03/2025 to receive consideration.

Your uploaded documents may take several hours to clear the virus scan process.

Agency contact information

Antoan Massey
Address
Field Operations Center West - FOCW
6501 Sylvan Road
Citrus Heights, CA 95610
US

Next steps

Based on your application and your responses to the application questionnaire, you may be presented with instructions on how to access the USA Hire system to complete the online assessments. The online assessments must be completed within 48 hours following the close of this announcement. You will have the opportunity to request a testing accommodation for the assessment should you have a disability covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Your assessment results will be kept on record for one year and used toward future positions for which you might apply that require the same assessments.

SUITABILITY, CLEARANCE & REQUIREMENTS: A background investigation may be required for all new hires. Appointment will be subject to the applicant's successful completion of a background investigation and favorable adjudication. Failure to successfully meet these requirements will be grounds for termination.

SBA uses e-Verify, an Internet-based system, to confirm the eligibility of all newly hired employees to work in the United States. Learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities.


Note: We cannot accept applications on behalf of Federal Agencies. Application instructions are listed within the Job Description.


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