Supervisory Transportation Specialist - INTERNAL TO AGENCY

Clarification from the agency

This vacancy is open to current employees of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) at the Department of Transportation (DOT) who have competitive status. This is an in-person, full-time position that requires reporting to a physical Federal office or facility. Employees currently assigned to a federal office or facility may be considered to remain at their current duty location if selected.

 Supervisory Transportation Specialist

• Serves as a principal advisor to FRA officials on all aspects of intercity passenger and freight rail services.
• Coordinates and manages rail policy as it applies to project and program development as well as legislative proposals and strategic planning.
• Reviews current rail policy and recommends any necessary changes to budgets and policies.
• Acts as FRA's liaison to Departmental offices and other governmental organizations on matters of passenger, freight rail and intermodal policy and development as requested by the Administrator or the Associate Administrator.
• Prepares briefs, position papers, or other analytical documents for policy makers and stakeholders on national, regional, and local issues affecting rail.
• Directs the monitoring and evaluation of performance for rail services, including financial performance, service reliability, customer service, asset condition and delivery of policy goals established by Congress and the Administration, and to assure that congressionally mandated criteria are met.
• Working with other divisions and offices in FRA and DOT, analyzes shared-use infrastructure, and assesses rail capacity and performance needs.
• Provides support to FRA's representatives on boards and commissions.

The ideal candidate: The ideal candidate possesses an in-depth understanding of project development, management, and delivery. Demonstrates an understanding of the roles of planning, environmental clearance, and grants management. The candidate has experience managing personnel and high-level stakeholder relationships. The ideal candidate should possess experience in budgeting, strategic planning, and process improvement. The position requires little to no training in complex transportation policies and programs.

Conditions of employment

• Must meet specialized experience stated in Qualifications section.
• Submit application and resume online by 11:59 PM EST on the closing date.
• Required documents must be submitted by the closing date.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT:

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider:

• your performance and conduct;
• the needs and interests of the agency;
• whether your continued employment would advance the organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and
• whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.

Upon completion of your probationary period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

• SELECTIVE SERVICE: Males born after 12/31/1959 must be registered for the Selective Service.
• GOVERNMENT TRAVEL CARD: This position involves travel.  A government contractor-issued travel card will be issued and must be retained for official business only.
• BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION: A background security investigation is required for all selected individuals. Appointment will be subject to the applicant’s successful completion of the security investigation and favorable adjudication. Failure to meet these requirements will be grounds for termination.
• PROBATIONARY PERIOD: You must complete a one-year probationary period (unless already completed).
• SUPERVISORY PROBATIONARY PERIOD:  New supervisors must complete a one-year probationary period (unless already completed).
• TIME-IN-GRADE: Federal applicants must have served 52 weeks at the next lower grade in the competitive or excepted service in the executive branch to satisfy time-in-grade restrictions contained in 5 CFR 300, Subpart F.

Qualifications

To meet the minimum qualifications for this position, you must meet the specialized experience qualifications for the grade at which you are requesting consideration.

Individual Occupational Requirement: Experience that demonstrated a knowledge of the transportation function(s) of the position to be filled (for positions above GS-5).

To qualify for the GS-15, you must have at least one year of experience equal or equivalent to the GS-14, it must include:

• Experience leading and providing oversight for transportation industries operating programs and projects.
• Experience with performance metrics for services or programs, including financial performance, service reliability, customer service, asset condition, and delivery of policy goals.
• Experience communicating with senior executives and stakeholders to include federal, state, and local officials to provide guidance, advocate, and represent an organization.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES (KSAs): Your qualifications will be evaluated on the basis of your level of knowledge, skills, abilities and/or competencies in the following areas:

• Planning and Evaluating - Organizes work, sets priorities, and determines resource requirements; determines short- or long-term goals and strategies to achieve them; coordinates with other organizations or parts of the organization to accomplish goals; monitors progress and evaluates outcomes.
• Financial Management - Understands the organization's financial processes. Prepares, justifies, and administers the program budget. Oversees procurement and contracting to achieve desired results. Monitors expenditures and uses cost-benefit thinking to set priorities.
•  Oral Communication (*) - Expresses information (for example, ideas or facts) to individuals or groups effectively, taking into account the audience and nature of the information (for example, technical, sensitive, controversial); makes clear and convincing oral presentations; listens to others, attends to nonverbal cues, and responds appropriately.
• Written Communication - Writes in a clear, concise, organized, and convincing manner for the intended audience.

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.

For additional information about applying to Federal positions, please click on the following link:  https://www.opm.gov/frequently-asked-questions/employment-faq/federal-hiring/how-do-i-apply-for-federal-jobs/

All applicants must meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

How you will be evaluated

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

DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE: PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. If your resume/ application does not support your questionnaire answers, we will not allow credit for your response(s). Your resume must contain sufficiently detailed information upon which to make a qualification determination. Please ensure that your resume contains specific information such as position titles, beginning and ending dates of employment for each position, average number of hours worked per week, and if the position is/was in the Federal government, you should provide the position series and grade level. 

Eligible Federal employees also seeking consideration for noncompetitive reassignment for this position, must indicate interest in the assessment. Noncompetitive federal candidates must have competitive status on a SF-50, meet minimum qualifications, have served at the same grade or higher, and held or exceeded the promotion potential of this position.

Your application will be reviewed in two phases determine how you move forward in the hiring process.  Phase I: Your resume will be reviewed to determine your technical qualifications for this position based on the required specialized experience. ONLY two (2) pages of your resume will be reviewed. Additional information beyond your resume (e.g., cover letter, links embedded in your resume) will not be reviewed.  Applicants passing “Phase I” will move on to the “Phase II” of the assessment process where your application will be reviewed and rated based on the KSAs/Competencies listed in the vacancy announcement by a Subject Matter Expert (SME).

• your most recent performance appraisal,
• the proof of eligibility letter from the Agency, and
• your most current SF-50, displaying current series and grade. 
• YOU MUST SUBMIT ALL 3 documents and meet the well qualified standards for this vacancy (meeting minimum requirements for position and scoring at least an 80) to be considered under CTAP.

Displaced employees may be eligible for CTAP priority consideration. For more information, please review the OPM Employee's Guide to Career Transition.

Failure to submit any of the required documents by the closing date 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.

 

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