Technical Writer-Editor

Summary

This position is part of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS); Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ). You will design, develop, produce and maintain operational and policy manuals, job aids, training materials, and other scientific and technical communication.

Duties

• The duties described are for the full-performance level. At developmental grade levels, assignments will be of more limited scope, performed with less independence and limited complexity.
• The duties may include, but are not limited to:
• Identifies and develops technical, policy, scientific, and procedural manuals and associated content , to include determining information needs for a variety of audiences.
• Determines the adequacy of manuals and applications, and notes serious deficiencies such as incomplete coverage, illogical development of ideas and concepts, or inaccurate scientific information.
• Ensures the editorial quality, readability, and logical and appropriate presentation of manuals and associated content which are addressed to a wide variety of audiences.
• Reviews and ensures that content drafted by others for the Agency meets established standards; analyzes and evaluates identified errors or deficiencies in written PPQ and CBP communications.
• Assesses whether technical or scientific matters can be clearly understood; and determines whether findings support recommendations and overall program conclusions.
• Analyzes content, organization, and presentation, and when written content is unclear or requires extensive rewriting to meet program requirements, provides recommendations; tracks the progress.
• Instructs PPQ employees on the art of effective writing and editing and periodically reports to the appropriate supervisors on the extent of counseling and instructions required.
• Performs other duties as assigned by the supervisor.

Qualifications

Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement, including specialized experience and/or education, as defined below. FOR THE GS-11 LEVEL: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience (equivalent to the GS-09 level) that may have been obtained in the private or public (local, county, state, Federal) sectors which demonstrates: Editing and proofreading scientific documents, written personally or by others, for clarity, accuracy, sentence structure, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and plain language to develop adequate, findable, and useable writing products that interpret and explain complex scientific information appropriate for the intended audience Designing, developing, and maintaining operational and policy manuals, job aids, training materials, digital content for information systems and other scientific and technical communication or developing and edit technical content for web-based audiences Developing complex or official rule making documents (Federal Register or equivalent documentation, public notices, proposed rules and final rules, policy/procedure documents, etc.), either as drafts, proposals, final versions or for public/stakeholder comment OR Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree in the fields of Communications, Marketing, Public Administration, Organizational Management, Library Science, Advertising, Public Relations, Journalism, English or related field. OR 3 years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree OR LL.M., if related Equivalent combinations of education and experience are qualifying for this grade level. TRANSCRIPTS are required if: You are qualifying for this position based on a combination of experience and education. This education must have been successfully completed and obtained from an accredited school, college, or university. COMBINATION OF EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE AT THE GS-11 GRADE LEVEL: Applicants may have combinations of successfully completed education and specialized experience to meet total qualification requirements. The total percentages must equal at least 100 percent to qualify for that grade level. 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 and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

Education

Please see above for education qualification requirement information.

How to apply

Please read the entire announcement and all the instructions before you begin an application. To apply and be considered for this position, you must complete all required questionnaires, assessments, and required documentation as specified in the How to Apply and Required Documents section. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on the closing date of the announcement to receive consideration. Resume cannot exceed two pages. The application process is as follows: 1: Create a USAJOBS account (if you do not already have one) at www.usajobs.gov. It is recommended that as part of your profile you set up automatic email notification to be informed when the status of your application changes. If you choose not to set up this automatic notification, then you will have to log into your USAJOBS account to check on the status of your application. 2: Create a Resume with USAJOBS or upload a Resume into your USAJOBS account. You may want to customize your resume to ensure it documents duties and accomplishments you have gained that are directly related to this position in order to verify that qualifications are met. In addition, your resume must support your responses to the online questionnaire (you may preview the online questionnaire by clicking on the link at the end of the How You Will Be Evaluated section of the job announcement). 3: Click "Apply Online" and follow the prompts to complete the Occupational Questionnaire and attach any additional documents that may be required. You can update your application or documents anytime while the announcement is open. Simply log into your USAJOBS account and click on "Application Status." Click on the position title, and then select "Update Application" to continue. 4: If you are required to take the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be notified after submitting your application. The notification will be provided in your application submission screen and via email. The notification will include your unique assessment access link to the USA Hire system and the completion deadline. Additionally, in USAJOBS you can click "Track this application" to return to your assessment completion notice. 5: Access USA Hire using your unique assessment link. Access is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Review all instructions prior to beginning your assessments. You will have the opportunity to request a testing accommodation before beginning the assessments should you have a disability covered under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended. 6: Set aside at least 1-2 hours to take the USA Hire Assessments; however, most applicants complete the assessments in less time. If you need to stop the assessments and continue later, you can re-use your unique assessment link. 7: Your responses to the USA Hire Assessments will be reused for one year (in most cases) from the date you complete an assessment. If future applications you submit require completion of the same assessments, your responses will be automatically reused. Visit the USA Hire Applicant Resource Center for practice assessments and assessment preparation resources at https://support-usahire.opm.gov/hc/en-us. To update your application, including supporting documentation: During the announcement open period, return to your USAJOBS account, find your application record, and click Edit my application. This option will no longer be available once the announcement has closed. To view the announcement status or your application status: Click on this: https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/how-to/application/status/. Your application status page is where you can view your application status, USA Hire assessment completion status, and review your notifications sent by the hiring agency regarding your application. NOTE: Please verify that documents you are uploading from USAJOBs transfer into the Agency's staffing system as there is a limitation to the number of documents that can be transferred. However, once in the Agency's staffing system, you will have the opportunity to upload additional documents. Uploaded documents must be less than 5MB and in one of the following document formats: GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, PDF, TXT or Word (DOC or DOCX). Do not upload Adobe Portfolio documents because they are not viewable. Only one resume will be reviewed. Applicants who submit a resume that exceeds two pages will be removed from consideration.