Supervisory Accountant

Clarification from the agency

This position is only open to current Western Area Power Administration employees on a career or career-conditional competitive service appointment.

As a Supervisory Accountant, you will:

• Supervise all regional accounting functions as they relate to Western Area Power Administration's (WAPA) centralized accounting system, including elements of cost, fiscal, and systems accounting.
• Apply Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and guidelines from OMB, U.S. Treasury, GAO, DOE, WAPA, and other relevant sources to manage financial and budgetary information.
• Work directly with other WAPA personnel to propose and implement financial management system enhancements that will best suit regional needs and requirements. Collaborate in the development, testing, and implementation of new or updated systems that connect with the financial management system or significantly affect regional accounting processes.
• Perform special studies, projects, and analyses related to programmatic, accounting, financial, and administrative systems as may be assigned. These studies and projects are broad in scope and cover a wide array of subjects and functional activities.
• Serve as the Region's point of contact for both internal and external audits of WAPA records. Work closely with auditors to ensure timely resolution of audit issues and manages responses to management letters, audit findings, internal control weaknesses, and related matters.
• Coordinate with other federal agencies such as U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on accounting and financial management issues.
• Perform the full spectrum of personnel management duties, including assigning and reviewing work, giving advice, counsel, and instruction to employees, setting standards of performance and evaluating employees, taking needed disciplinary actions, arranging for training of employees, managing leave requests, certifying payroll, interviewing and selecting candidates for position vacancies, recommending other personnel actions, hearing and resolving complaints, finding ways to improve product quality, and promoting teamwork.

Conditions of employment

• Must be a U.S. Citizen or National.
• This employer participates in the e-Verify program.
• Males born after 12/31/1959 must be registered for Selective Service.
• Suitable for Federal employment, as determined by a background investigation.
• May be required to successfully complete a probationary/trial period. Employees serving on a probationary or trial period may be terminated at any time during the probationary or trial period for performance, conduct, or business-related reasons in the interest of Federal service.
• Limit your resume to no more than two (2) pages. If more than two pages are submitted, only the first two pages will be reviewed to determine your eligibility and qualifications.
• In accordance with Executive Order 14170, applicants are encouraged to respond to the four short, free-response, essay questions in the questionnaire. Answers to these questions are not scored or rated. Your answers will be reviewed by the hiring manager and agency leadership if you are referred for selection consideration.
• Security clearance and associated requirements - moderate risk/tier 2.
• Total salary varies depending on location of position.

Qualifications

https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/0500/accounting-series-0510/

Applicants must demonstrate that they meet the Basic Requirement AND Specialized Experience/Education requirements as noted below.

BASIC REQUIREMENT:

A. Degree: Bachelor's or higher degree in accounting; or a degree in a related field such as business administration, finance, or public administration that included or was supplemented by 24 semester hours in accounting. The 24 hours may include up to 6 hours of credit of business law. (The term "accounting" means accounting and/or auditing for this occupational series. Similarly, "accountant" should be interpreted, generally, as "accountant and/or auditor".)

OR

B. Combination of Education and Experience: At least four years of experience in accounting, or an equivalent combination of accounting experience, college-level education, and training that provided professional accounting knowledge with a background that also includes one of the following:

1. Twenty-four semester hours in accounting or auditing courses of appropriate type and quality. This can include up to 6 hours in business law;
2. Certificate as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) or Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), obtained through written examination; or
3. Completion of the requirements for a degree that included substantial course work in accounting or auditing, e.g., 15 semester hours, but that does not fully satisfy the 24-semester hour requirement of Paragraph A above, provided that (a) the applicant has successfully worked at the full performance level in accounting, auditing, or a related field, e.g., valuation engineering of financial institution examining; (b) a panel of at least two higher level professional accountants or auditors has determined that the applicant has demonstrated a good knowledge of accounting and of related and underlying fields that equals in breadth, depth, currency, and level of advancement that which is normally associated with successful completion of the 4-year course of study described in Paragraph A above; and (c) except for literal nonconformance to the requirement of 24 semester hours in accounting, the applicant's education, training, and experience fully meet the specified requirements.

In addition to meeting the Basic Requirement above, applicants must also meet the appropriate Minimum Qualifications requirement below for the grade level(s) to which they are applying.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS: A qualified candidate's online application and resume must demonstrate at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade level [GS-12] in the Federal service. Specialized experience for this position is defined as:

1. Serving as a technical expert in financial and accounting processes and procedures by assisting team members, coworkers on assigned projects or tasks;
2. Providing support for newer staff on interpreting policies and regulations;
3. Identifying trends or deviations to develop corrective action plans; and
4. Gathering, analyzing, and applying problem solving methods to complete financial projects in an efficient manner.

Time-in-Grade: Current career or career-conditional GS employees of the Federal government, or former career or career-conditional GS 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). Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to current career or career-conditional federal employees applying for a Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment.

How you will be evaluated

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

Once the application process is complete, the first two pages of your resume and supporting documentation will be used to determine whether you meet the job qualifications.

The Department of Energy uses an application tracking system to evaluate the scores provided from the USA Hire Assessment to place you into an initial quality category via OPM's rating procedures. These categories are "Best Qualified", "Well Qualified", and "Qualified."

Minimum Qualifications: Once the application process is complete, the Human Resources Office will review the first two pages of your resume and supporting documentation to determine whether you meet the minimum job qualifications.

If your resume is incomplete or does not support the responses you provided in your online questionnaire, or if you fail to submit all required documentation before the vacancy closes, you may be rated 'ineligible', 'not qualified', or your score may be adjusted accordingly.

Your qualifications will be evaluated on the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics):

• Accountability
• Customer Service
• Decisiveness
• Flexibility
• Interpersonal Skills
• Problem Solving
• Resilience

All qualified Non-competitive applicants and the best qualified Merit Promotion applicants will be referred to the hiring manager for consideration.

Career Transition Assistance Programs: To receive selection priority for this position, you must: 1) meet the eligibility criteria; and 2) be rated "well-qualified".

You must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date (09/21/2026) of this announcement.

USAHire: 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.

Reasonable Accommodation Requests: If you believe you have a disability (i.e., physical or mental), covered by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 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.

To preview the Assessment Questionnaire, click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/13059362.

To apply for this position, you MUST provide a complete application package which includes:

• Your two (2) page RESUMEshowing all relevant work experience (paid and unpaid) including: duties performed; full name and address of the each employer; start and end dates (month/day/year); work schedule (part-time, full-time, number of hours if intermittent); salary; and any completed education and training (program title, subject area, number of hours completed, and completion date).
• Transcripts. Unofficial transcripts or any report listing institution, course title, credits earned (semester or quarter hour) and final grade is acceptable. It is your responsibility to provide adequate proof that you meet the educational requirements.
• Current Federal employees: Most recent non-award SF-50 (Standard Form 50 - Notice of Personnel Action). To properly verify status eligibility, your SF-50 must show the following. If you do not submit an appropriate SF-50, we cannot verify your status eligibility.
  • Full position title;
  • appointment type;
  • occupational series;
  • pay plan, grade, and step;
  • tenure code; and
  • service computation date (SCD).
  • If your current position SF50 does not indicate you have competitive service status or does not reflect the pay plan and grade of the highest position you have held in the competitive service, in addition to your current SF50, you must provide your previous SF-50s that provide the proof of competitive status and highest grade held on a permanent basis. . If you do not submit an appropriate SF-50, we cannot verify your status eligibility.

If applicable:

• Veterans: DD-214 Member Copy 4 showing type of discharge/character of service; current active duty members- certification of expected discharge or release from active duty under honorable conditions dated within 120 days; SF-15 Form and related documentation; VA letter. For more information visit the USAJOBS Help Center & OPM CHCOC website for VOW information.
• 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.) For more information see the OPM Guide to Career Transition.

Failure to submit any of the above mentioned required documents may result in loss of consideration due to an incomplete application package. It is your responsibility to ensure all required documents have been submitted.

Next steps

Additional locations