Senior Policy Strategist (Medical Debt) Fellow Job in Anywhere in the U.S. (remote job)

Vacancy No. 25-CFPB-13-X Department Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Salary $132,432.00 to $255,000.00 Grade 71 to 71
Perm/Temp Temporary FT/PT Full-time
Open Date 10/25/2024 Close Date 11/14/2024
Job Link Apply Online Who may apply Public
Locations:
Anywhere in the U.S. (remote job)


Summary

This position is located at Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Office of Markets. As a Senior Policy Strategist (Medical Debt) Fellow, you will be responsible for monitoring, anticipating, and explaining within the Bureau the rapid evolution of the medical billing and revenue industry's business models and technology as it relates to companies that issue medical credit, consumer debt collections agencies, and debt buyers.

This job is open to

Clarification from the agency

U.S Citizens or U.S. Nationals; No prior federal experience is required.

Duties

This is a time-limited Fellowship position located in the Research, Monitoring & Regulations (RMR) Division, Office of Markets, Consumer Credit, Payments, and Deposits (CCPD) Section. RMR is responsible for bringing an empirical, data-driven approach to the regulation of consumer financial markets. The Office of Markets brings a grounded perspective of how markets, firms, and products function; the challenges financial services providers face; and keys to market performance. Markets staff work directly with research economists and regulatory attorneys and play central and leading roles in rulemaking efforts; and advise offices responsible for implementing sandbox policies, consumer education, supervision, enforcement, and fair lending.


As a Senior Policy Strategist (Medical Debt) Fellow, you will:

  • Under the direction of the Assistant Director, CCPD, develop a consumer medical debt agenda for Office of Markets and prioritize short- and long-term policy and operational goals related to developments in the market, especially as they relate to recently passed regulations in the debt collection market. Reach out to relevant stakeholders to gather input on third-party collections priority projects, determine opportunities, constraints, and obstacles, develop options, and build consensus toward a clear path forward.
  • Proactively build relationships with the Bureau's Supervision, Enforcement, Innovation, Consumer Response, Consumer Education & Engagement, Fair Lending, and other divisions as appropriate. Engage these stakeholders to jointly define priorities and identify ways that Office of Markets can more effectively, efficiently, or systematically support these divisions' needs related to developments in the medical debt industry.
  • Lead, coordinate, and/or facilitate work and projects with analysts or cross-functional teams of analysts engaged in monitoring of current and emerging issues relating to medical debt.

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

Key Requirements:

  • Must be U.S. Citizen or U.S. National
  • This position is being filled under the Bureau's excepted service authority.
  • A trial period that will cover the full period of the appointment may be required.
  • Public Trust - Background Investigation will be required.
  • Complete a Declaration for Federal Employment to determine your suitability for Federal employment, at the time requested by the agency.
  • Appointments under this authority will be made in the excepted service and do not convey competitive status.
  • This appointment may be extended.
  • Have your salary sent to a financial institution of your choice by Direct Deposit/Electronic Funds Transfer.
  • If you are a male applicant born after December 31, 1959, certify that you have registered with the Selective Service System or are exempt from having to do so.
  • Go through a Personal Identity Verification (PIV) process that requires two forms of identification from the Form i-9. Federal law requires verification of the identity and employment eligibility of all new hires in the U.S.
  • Obtain and use a Government-issued charge card for business-related travel.
  • File a Confidential Financial Disclosure Report within 30 days of appointment and annually from then on.
  • This position requires that the successful candidate undergo personnel vetting, which includes a background investigation and enrollment upon onboarding into "Continuous Vetting." Enrollment in Continuous Vetting will result in automated record checks being conducted throughout one's employment with Treasury. The successful candidate will also be enrolled into FBI's Rap Back service, which will allow Treasury to receive notification from the FBI of criminal matters (e.g., arrests, charges, convictions) involving enrolled individuals in near real-time.

Qualifications

You must meet the following requirements within 30 days of the announcement's closing date.


Specialized Experience: For the CN-71, you must have one year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the CN-60 grade level in the Federal service. (For qualification purposes, the CN-60 is broadly equivalent to the GS-14).
Specialized Experience for this position includes:
  • Managing, overseeing, developing products, or researching (including for academic, government, for-profit or non-profit entity) aspects of the consumer medical debt lifecycle, including healthcare providers that issue medical credit, and the entities that buy/sell and/or collect delinquent medical debt; AND
  • Conducting analyses of trends in consumer medical debt, including at least one of the following areas: medical debt tradeline furnishing; medical debt collection practices, including litigation and debt sales; or the relationship between medical billing, medical system revenue cycle management and financial operations, and consumer healthcare insurance;
OR
  • Managing all aspects of revenue cycle management (including billing, pricing of services, insurance claim processing, and financial assistance policies and practices) of a healthcare provider.

The experience may have been gained in either the public, private sector or volunteer service. One year of experience refers to full-time work; part-time work is considered on a prorated basis. To ensure full credit for your work experience, please indicate dates of employment by month/day/year, and indicate number of hours worked per week on your résumé.

Additional information

OTHER INFORMATION:

  • We may select from this announcement or any other source to fill one or more vacancies.
  • This announcement may be used to fill like positions in other organizations within the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
  • This is a bargaining unit position. The Union that represents CFPB employees is the National Treasury Employees Union ("NTEU"), Local Chapter 335.
  • We offer opportunities for flexible work schedules.
  • Bureau employees are subject to government-wide ethical standards of conduct, financial disclosure requirements, and post-employment prohibitions, which applicants may review at www.oge.gov. In addition, employees must comply with the Supplemental Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (5 CFR 9401), which, among other things, prohibit an employee or the employee's spouse or minor child from owning or controlling a debt or equity interest in an entity supervised by the Bureau. Regulations also impose restrictions on the outside activities of certain Bureau employees, including examiners and attorneys. Applicants may review the Bureau ethics regulations and a summary of the regulations at www.consumerfinance.gov. Questions regarding these requirements and prohibitions should be directed to the Bureau Ethics Office at EthicsHelp@cfpb.gov.
Selectees living in the Washington, D.C. locality pay area will have their duty station listed as CFPB Headquarters. Selectees living outside the Washington, D.C. locality pay area will have their duty station listed as their home address. The locality pay you receive will be determined by your duty station: CFPB Headquarters (Washington, D.C.), or home address if located outside the D.C. locality pay area.

Remote work is approved for the contiguous United States and does not include Alaska, Hawaii, or U.S. territories and possessions.

The locality pay you receive will be determined by your duty location: Washington D.C., or home address if located outside of D.C. locality pay area.

CFPB uses an experience-based process to set pay for employees. Experience is evaluated and credited using the employee's résumé. To ensure that all of your prior work experience (e.g., internships, volunteer work, details, part-time, self-employment, secondary jobs, etc.) is considered and accounted for, please ensure that your résumé covers the following:
  • your entire work history with specific start and end dates (MM-DD-YYYY) provided for each listed position
  • hours worked per week for each position
  • degrees and the dates conferred (MM-YYYY)
Part-time experience will be credited pro-rata based on a 40-hour work week, while work of 32 hours or more will be rounded up to full-time experience. If you have multiple positions that have overlapping start and/or end dates, only 40 hours of experience will be credited for a given work week. Refer to Resume Tips for more information on how to submit a comprehensive résumé. See information on our base pay ranges and salary structure.

Our comprehensive benefits are among the most generous in the federal government. They include:- Challenging and rewarding work benefiting American consumers - Opportunities for development and advancement- Comprehensive Federal health, vision, dental, life, and long-term care insurance programs- Learn more about Federal benefits programs at: http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/201706_cfpb_benefits.pdf

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.

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.

The Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act prohibits specific inquiries concerning an applicant's criminal or credit background unless the hiring agency has made a conditional offer of employment to the applicant. An applicant may submit a complaint, or any other information, to the agency within 30 calendar days of the date of alleged non-compliance by contacting: Ana.GuzmanEvans@cfpb.gov
What are criminal history inquiries?

Your application includes your résumé, responses to the online questions, and required supporting documents. Please be sure that your résumé includes detailed information to support your qualifications for this position; failure to provide sufficient evidence in your résumé may result in a "not qualified" determination.

Qualifications and Rating:
If you meet the eligibility and specialized experience requirements, you will be required to participate in an assessment exercise to determine qualifications and category rating for this position. An Assessment Specialist from the Bureau's Office of Human Capital will email you at the email address associated with your USAJobs account and you will have at least 48 hours to submit your assessment response back to the CFPB_Assessments@cfpb.gov inbox. It is advised to routinely check your "junk mail"/SPAM folders within your email to ensure you do not miss an email from the Assessment Specialist. You may request reasonable accommodation to complete the exercise through your Assessment Specialist. Your submitted assessment response will be reviewed and assessed by a panel of trained Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to determine your level of proficiency in the following competencies:

  • Analytical Thinking: Gathers and analyzes information, identifies and addresses problems or issues, and makes informed decisions or recommendations. This includes the ability to conduct business process analysis and recommend specific process improvements based on results.
  • Written Communication: Prepares written materials that are accurate, clear, concise, organized, and responsive to requests; adheres to appropriate style, format, and guidelines/ requirements.
Veterans' preference is applied after applicants are assessed. Preference-eligibles will be listed at the top of their assigned category and considered before non-preference-eligibles in that category.

Referral:
If you are scored by the SMEs at or above the passing grade score and among the top qualified candidates, your application may be referred to a selecting official for consideration. You may be required to participate in one or more selection interviews.

Required Documents

A complete application includes 1. A résumé, 2. Vacancy question responses, and 3. Submission of any required documents.

Please note that if you do not provide all required information, as specified in this announcement, you may not be considered for this position (or may not receive the special consideration for which you may be eligible). Please ensure all required documents, including any required work samples, narratives, or other materials as stated in this announcement, are attached to your application package

All applicants are required to submit a résumé either by creating one in USAJOBS or uploading one of their own choosing. (Cover letters are optional.) To receive full credit for relevant experience, please list the month/date/year and number of hours worked for experience listed on your résumé. We suggest that you preview the online questions, as you may need to customize your résumé to ensure that it supports your responses to these questions. Please view résumé tips.

VETERANS' PREFERENCE DOCUMENTATION: If you are claiming veterans preference, please see applicant guide for required documentation. In order to be considered for veterans preference, you must submit all required documentation as outlined in the applicant guide.

See our tips on the application process and printable checklist to ensure each step of the application is completed.

If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:

Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.

How to Apply

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has partnered with the Treasury's Bureau of the Fiscal Service to provide certain personnel services to its organization. Fiscal Service's responsibilities include advertising vacancies, accepting and handling applications, and extending job offers.

Please review the entire announcement before applying.

The following instructions outline our application process. You must complete this application process and submit any required documents by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on the closing date of this announcement. We are available to assist you during business hours (normally 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. ET, Monday - Friday). If applying online poses a hardship, please contact us by noon ET on the announcement's closing date.

You may be entitled to a reasonable accommodation as part of the job application process if you need one due to a disability, pregnancy; childbirth; or related medical conditions, or religion. Learn more about reasonable accommodations.

If you applied for a job at CFPB and think you may have been subjected to unlawful discrimination related to your application, you have rights. Learn more about raising an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) issue.

  • To begin, click Apply to access the online application. You will need to be logged into your USAJOBS account to apply. If you do not have a USAJOBS account, you will need to create one before beginning the application.
  • Follow the prompts to select your résumé and/or other supporting documents to be included with your application package. You will have the opportunity to upload additional documents to include in your application before it is submitted. Your uploaded documents may take several hours to clear the virus scan process.
  • After acknowledging you have reviewed your application package, complete the Include Personal Information section as you deem appropriate and click to continue with the application process.
  • You will be taken to the online application which you must complete in order to apply for the position. Complete the online application, verify the required documentation is included with your application package, and submit the application.
To verify the status of your application:
-Log into your USAJOBS account (USAJOBS Login), all of your applications will appear on the Welcome screen
-Under "application status," click "Track this application" and you will be taken to the agency website where you can check your application status.

For more information regarding the job and applicant status, please refer to https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/how-to/application/status/ If you wish to make changes/updates to your application and the vacancy is still open, you can click on the job announcement and "Update Application" to be taken back to your application. No updates can be made once the announcement has closed. Please notify us if your contact information changes after the closing date of the announcement. Also, note that if you provide an email address that is inaccurate or if your mailbox is full or blocked (e.g., spam-blocker), you may not receive important communication that could affect your consideration for this position.

For additional information on how to apply, please visit the Partnership for Public Service's Go Government website.

To preview the assessment questionnaire: https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12587122

Agency contact information

Applicant Call Center
Address
MARKETS
Administrative Resource Center
Parkersburg, WV 26101
US
Learn more about this agency

Next steps

Once the online application is submitted, you will receive an acknowledgement email that your submission was successful. We will review your résumé and transcript(s) (if appropriate) to ensure you meet the basic qualification requirements. We will evaluate each applicant who meets the basic qualifications on the information provided and may interview the best-qualified applicants. After making a tentative job offer, we will conduct any required suitability and/or security background investigation.


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