Supervisory Assistant Facilities Operations Specialist Job in Washington, DC

Vacancy No. 25R-SC-312476-MPA-FM Department Smithsonian Institution
Salary $84,601.00 to $131,826.00 Grade 11 to 12
Perm/Temp Permanent FT/PT Full-time
Open Date 6/11/2025 Close Date 6/26/2025
Job Link Apply Online Who may apply Status Candidates
Locations:
Washington, DC


Summary

This position is located in the Facilities Management (FM), Office of Facilities Management and Reliability (OFMR).  The Facilities Management provides the full range of building services through eight maintenance and operation zones averaging in size from 750,000 to 1.5 million square feet.

Duties

The Supervisory Assistant Facilities Operations Specialist is responsible for providing a variety of building management services from 250,000 to 10 million visitors per year in buildings that may include restaurants, museum gift shops, an IMAX Theater, auditoriums and daycare centers.

In this position, you will:

  • Plan and carry out building management and facilities operations and maintenance.

  • Supervise from 15 to 100 permanent SI employees (building services workers, equipment operators, maintenance mechanics, crafts and trades, administrative staff and operating engineers) as well as contractor services. Develop and plan staffing requirements, work schedules, priorities, training, and evaluation of all subordinate staff for improving employee skills.   

  • Strategize and coordinate information from the automated facility system to manager reimbursable work, work tickets and requests for building services for the tenants of units.

  • Update and obtain reports and performs analyses through the use of the automated database system.

  • Coordinate between occupants and support units for all work requests, including crafts and trades, custodial, laborer, communication services, etc. Provide oversight of coordination for receiving, evaluating, directing, processing, and following up on all work requests from occupants. Review all work requests for consistency with facility standards and policy as regards safety, security, design and appearance, facility engineering and collections management.

  • Provide information and liaison regarding physical plant programs and related matters to occupants of facilities, the SI at large, and visitors.

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

  • Pass Pre-employment Background Investigation
  • May need to complete a Probationary Period
  • Maintain a Bank Account for Direct Deposit/Electronic Transfer
  • Males born after 12/31/59 must be registered with Selective Service.

More than one selection may be made from this announcement.

Conditions of Employment

Qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of the announcement.

For information on qualification requirements, see Qualification Standards Handbook for General Schedule Positions on OPM website.

Additional Requirements:

Must be available for emergency notification on a 24-hour basis and report to the facilities as needed.

Qualifications

Experience:

For the GS-11: You qualify for this position if you have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-9 level in the Federal Service.  For this position, specialized experience is defined as administrative management, leadership, communications, facility management to include cleaning, and overall building maintenance and customer service for the tenants/occupants. 

For the GS-12: You qualify for this position if you have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-11 level in the Federal Service. For this position, specialized experience is defined as facility management to include operations and maintenance, communications, health and environmental safety, project management, leadership, and property control.   

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.

Part-time and/or unpaid experience related to this position will be considered to determine the total number of years and months of experience. Be sure to note the number of paid or unpaid hours worked each week.

Or Education for the GS-11 ONLY: Three full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree in engineering, industrial arts, property management, or business administration may be substituted to meet the experience requirements.

Or a Combination: Education and experience may be combined to meet the basic qualifications. For a full explanation of this option please see the Qualification Standards. Special Instructions for Foreign Education: If you are qualifying by education and/or you have education completed in a foreign college/university described above, it is your responsibility to provide transcripts and proof of U.S. accreditation for foreign study. For instructions on where to fax these documents, see the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.

Additional information

  • This position is not included in the bargaining unit.

Current or Former Political Appointees: Beginning January 1, 2010, agencies must seek prior approval from OPM before they can appoint a current or recent political appointee to a competitive or non-political excepted service position at any level under the provisions of title 5, United States Code. 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 that to the Office of Human Resources. Submit a copy of your applicable SF-50, along with a statement that provides the following information regarding your most recent political appointment:

  • Position title;
  • Type of appointment (Schedule A, Schedule C, Non-career SES, or Presidential Appointee);
  • Agency; and,
  • Beginning and ending dates of appointment.

Recruitment Incentive: Recruitment incentive(s) may be authorized for this position.  However, approval for incentives are contingent upon various availability. If authorized, certain incentives will require the incumbent to sign a service agreement to remain in the Federal government for a certain time period.

Note: This statement does not imply nor guarantee an incentive will be offered and paid.

Selections may be made for vacancies across the Smithsonian Institution (SI). By applying to this position, you agree to allow your application and other personal information to be shared with one or more SI hiring officials for employment consideration for same/similar positions within the location(s) identified in this announcement.

Benefits

The Smithsonian offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes, in part, vacation and sick leave, holidays, health/life insurance, accident insurance, and excellent retirement program options.

Please see Benefits at https://www.si.edu/OHR/benefits for a complete description.

Flexible Spending Accounts - https://www.fsafeds.com/
Health Insurance - http://www.opm.gov/insure/health/index.asp
Leave - http://www.opm.gov/oca/leave/index.asp
Life Insurance - http://www.opm.gov/insure/life/index.asp
Long Term Care Insurance - http://www.ltcfeds.com
Retirement Program - https://www.opm.gov/retirement-services/

How You Will Be Evaluated

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

Applicants for this position may be evaluated in multiple stages. The first stage is an evaluation of your responses to the online multiple-choice questions that assess your experience, education, and/or training for the job related competencies below:

  • Knowledge of Facility Management principles, issues, methods, and problems related to building management and facilities operations and maintenance for facilities with heavy public visitation, facilities which must be maintained within exacting environmental conditions and/or research facilitates of historic or monumental nature.
  • Ability to supervise, manage and motivate a diverse range of personnel.
  • Knowledge of techniques and skills involved in facility management including building maintenance, operations, cleaning, and construction.
  • Skill in development implementation, application, and maintenance of computerized methods of planning, financial management, facilities management and environmental control systems.
  • Ability to communicate clearly and concisely in writing, to a wide range of individuals and organizations (i.e. memos, reports and emails).
  • Ability to communicate clearly, concisely and persuasively in speech to a wide range of individuals and organizations.

BASIS OF RATING:  Once the announcement closes, your application will be automatically evaluated and rated by the system and a Human Resources Specialist. To determine if you are qualified for this job, a review of your application and supporting documentation will be made and compared against your responses to the occupational questionnaire. The numeric rating you receive is based on your responses to the questionnaire. The score is a measure of the degree to which your background matches the knowledge, skills, and abilities required of this position. If, after the Human Resources Specialist reviews your resume and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that the score you have received is not a true reflection of your qualifications and/or experience, your score can and will be adjusted to more accurately reflect the information you provided that support your abilities. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating. Your resume should provide detailed information regarding how your education and experience relate to this position, including the major duties and qualifications criteria listed.

Veterans Employment Opportunities Act (VEOA):  If you are applying for a VEOA appointment, you must be a veteran and must be honorably separated and either a preference eligible or have substantially completed 3 or more years of active service. ("Active Service" under this law means active duty in a uniformed service and includes full-time training duty, annual training duty, full-time National Guard duty, and attendance, while in the active service, at a school designated as a service school by law or by the Secretary concerned.) A veteran who is released under honorable conditions shortly before completing a 3-year tour is also eligible.

Noncompetitive Appointment Authorities:  The following links contain information on the eligibility requirements to be considered under a noncompetitive appointing authority:


You may preview questions for this vacancy.

Required Documents

Your application package should include the following documents:

  • Resume - Your resume can be uploaded and attached to your application or created using the USA Jobs on-line resume builder. Ensure your resume contains the job title (including the occupational series and grade if it is Federal), job-related qualifications, starting and ending dates (month and year), hours worked per week, and salary for each employment period. It is your responsibility to ensure all information is submitted. Failure to include this information may result in disqualification for the position.

         For assistance with creating a resume, please click here.

  • Current and former employees MUST submit a copy of their Standard Form (SF)-50, “Notice of Personnel Action,” that indicates proof of status and time-in-grade eligibility. The SF-50 must include your position title, series, grade, step, salary, type of service (competitive or excepted in block 34), and tenure (1 or 2 in block 24). Please provide a SF-50 that shows the length of time you have been in your current/highest grade level.  Examples of appropriate SF50s include: Appointments, Reassignments, Within-grade/range increases or Promotion actions.  NOTE: Pay adjustments and award SF-50s do not include the length of time in your current position, therefore, they are NOT acceptable SF-50’s on their own. You may need to provide more than one SF-50. 
  • Time-in-Grade Requirements: Under competitive merit promotion procedures, any individual who is currently holding, or who has held within the previous 52 weeks, a General Schedule position under a non-temporary appointment in the competitive or excepted service, must meet "time-in-grade" requirements (have served 52 weeks at the next lower grade of the grade for which you are applying).
  • Proof of Veteran's Preference - DD214 (Member 4 Copy) if you are requesting a special appointment authority, such as VRA or VEOA
  • Proof of severe disability if you are requesting special placement consideration.
    Proof of eligibility for a military spouse appointment, such as a permanent change station military order.
  • Proof of eligibility for any other special appointing authority not specifically mentioned here.

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

Click on the "Apply Online" button on the upper right side of the page. Please Note:

  • You must apply for this position online through the 'Apply Online' button and submit required supplemental documents (if they are relevant to you).
  • You may submit required documents by uploading them online during the application process.
  • The complete application package, including any required documents, is due in the Smithsonian Office of Human Resources on the closing date of the announcement by 11:59 PM Eastern Time.
  • If you are unable to apply online, paper applications may be accepted with prior approval of the Contact Person listed below.

Agency contact information

Susie Cunningham
Address
SMITHSONIAN
Office of Human Resources
POB 37012, 600 Maryland Avenue, MRC 517
Suite 5060
Washington, District of Columbia 20013-7012
United States

Next steps

At the end of the application process you will be able to create and save a PDF file that contains your responses to the assessment questions. You may save this file as initial receipt of your application. After the job announcement closes, you will receive an email from the Smithsonian with confirmation of receipt. The Smithsonian receives many applications for each job. Each application is reviewed carefully which may take a few weeks. We will send you an e-mail to update you as we go through phases of the application review process. You may also check your application status by logging into www.usajobs.gov and selecting the tab "My USAJOBS;" e-mailing vacancy.info@si.edu; or by contacting the Office of Human Resources Representative listed. Additional Information:

  • Tips on applying for Smithsonian jobs are available at https://www.si.edu/OHR/howtoapply.
  • The Smithsonian does not pay relocation expenses but recruitment incentives may be authorized.
  • The Smithsonian embraces diversity and equal employment opportunity (www.si.edu/oeema).


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


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