Lead Operations Specialist

Summary

This position serves as a Management and Program Analyst within the Office of Congressional & Legislative Affairs (OCLA). This position is non-supervisory and directly reports to OCLA's Chief of Staff. The incumbent will provide high-level and complex programmatic, administrative, analytical, and policy expertise to OCLA. The purpose of this position is to assist the OCLA's Chief of Staff in managing a variety of administrative and policy programs and support services.

Duties

• ***THIS IS NOT A VIRTUAL POSITION, YOU MUST LIVE WITHIN OR BE WILLING TO RELOCATE WITHIN A COMMUTABLE DISTANCE OF THE DUTY LOCATION*** This position serves as a principal advisor to OCLA's Chief of Staff, carrying responsibility for managing, evaluating, and executing highly complex administrative, technical, and operational programs and special projects. The incumbent will govern daily operational workflows, lead the deployment of agency-wide regulations, and optimize resource distribution to achieve operational excellence. This role requires advanced strategic thinking capabilities, to include experience in driving operational efficiency, substantial experience in human resources management, fiscal administration, and enterprise-level systems redesign, and the ability to translate high-level federal directives into compliant, actionable operational procedures. Duties include, but are not limited to: The incumbent plans and assists in managing major OCLA administrative programs and projects to include developing long-range program plans, goals, objectives, milestones, and evaluates the effectiveness of programs. Conducts rigorous evaluations of internal organizational systems to pinpoint bottlenecks and engineering solutions for maximum efficiency. This position's work includes developing, analyzing data, making recommendations, and implementing new or modified work methods, organizational structures, management and administrative processes and procedures for creating administering program services, knowledge management systems, guidelines and procedures, and automating work processes for the conduct of program operations. This includes development of standard operating procedures, tracking systems and supporting implementation initiatives. Formulate comprehensive strategic briefs, executive summaries, and action plans to guide executive decision-making. Present findings and recommendations to leadership and colleagues to optimize operational efficiency. Performs and manages a variety of administrative and technical workflows and processes within the office. Establishes and continually reviews, updates, and develops complex operational and support service office procedures that affect the orderly and efficient flow of work within the office and with parties and agencies outside the organization. The incumbent is responsible for ensuring OCLA is complaint with directives and requirements related to these programs. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm EST. Location: The selectee will be required to report on-site at 810 Vermont Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20420. Telework: Available - Ad Hoc telework (situational telework) as determined by the agency policy. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: PD20488A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 09/08/2026. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-14 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-13. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to some former Federal employees applying for reinstatement, as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. See the Required Document section below for more information regarding the SF-50s needed to verify time-in-grade. You may qualify based on your experience and as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-13 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Experience planning and managing major administrative programs, including developing long-range plans, goals, objectives, and milestones, and evaluating program effectiveness against established criteria. Experience developing and recommending new or revised management policies, procedures, and administrative practices, and assisting in their implementation across an organization or program office. Applying advanced analytical methods and project management techniques to independently assess complex administrative and operational issues, producing recommendations that improve organizational efficiency. Providing confidential advisory support to senior leadership on the evaluation of administrative programs, including assessing the progress and outcomes of high-visibility projects. Evidence of this specialized experience must be supported by detailed documentation of like duties performed in positions held on your resume. You will also need to provide work experience information such as hours per week, full-time/part-time status, and starting/ending dates of employment (month and year format) to establish you have one (1) full year of specialized experience at the required 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; religions; 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. Note: Resume must include job title and employer name, number of hours worked per week, start and end dates (including month and year), list of duties and responsibilities for each position held. In addition, if the experience was a federal position, you must list series and grade for each position held. Failure to include this information may result in an ineligible rating. A full year of work is considered to be 40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Requirements: The work is primarily sedentary, although some slight physical effort may be required. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at http://://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/. The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal/VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be found well qualified, applicants must meet the following qualifications: Applied advanced analytical and project management expertise to independently resolve complex, cross-cutting administrative and policy issues, producing recommendations that measurably improved operational efficiency at the department level. Directed the design, revision, and rollout of management and administrative policies and procedures adopted as standard practice across the organization, coordinating implementation with senior leadership and affected offices. Functioned as the principal advisor on program and project performance, independently evaluating the effectiveness of administrative operations and delivering findings that informed executive decision-making on high-visibility initiatives. Independently approved and adjusted the direction of ongoing projects and programs, including policy and long-range planning efforts, and applying sound judgment in situations with significant ambiguity and minimal precedent. Established long-range strategic plans, goals, objectives, and evaluation criteria for major administrative programs, and independently assessed program outcomes against those criteria to drive continuous improvement. Spearheaded the creation and continuous refinement of operational and support service procedures - including new program services, guidelines, and process automation - ensuring efficient workflow within the department and seamless coordination with external agencies and congressional offices. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/. Local Commuting Area: The local commuting area for this position is defined as a radius of 50 miles from Washington, D.C. This includes all locations that fall within a 50-mile driving distance from 810 Vermont Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20420.

Requirements

You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job To be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. In addition to the application and questionnaire, this position requires an online assessment. The online assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job. Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959 You may be required to serve a probationary period Subject to background/security investigation Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued identification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment. As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you may be required to serve a one year probationary period or two year trial 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 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 one year probationary period or two year trial period your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Education

There is no educational substitution at this grade level.

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 submit all 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. The application process is as follows: To begin, click Apply Online to create a USA JOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USA JOBS resume and/or other supporting documents. Answer the questions presented in the application and attach all necessary supporting documentation. Click the Submit Application button prior to 11:59 PM (ET) on the announcement closing date, 09/08/2026. If you are required to complete any USA Hire 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. 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. Set aside at least 3 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. 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. NOTE: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date. Visit the USA Hire Applicant Resource Center for practice assessments and assessment preparation resources at: https://support-usahire.opm.gov/hc/en-us Beginning September 27, 2025, Federal agencies will only accept resumes up to two pages in length to comply with the Merit Hiring Plan. Resumes longer than two pages will result in ineligibility for further consideration for the position. USAJOBS will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages, and you will need to update the resumes in your profile before applying for a job. Resumes should include information relevant to the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of the position to which you are applying. VA is unable to make assumptions about qualifications if not clearly listed. Resumes must be legible so they can be reviewed for eligibility, minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement. Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started. Helpful Hints for Creating a Two-Page Resume: Prioritize most relevant and recent experience Use concise, results focused language Align language from the job announcement Focus on demonstrating skills and competencies Remove outdated or unrelated experience Use the USAJOBS resume builder Additional guidance on this new requirement and resume building tools can be found at: https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit and https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/merit-hiring-plan-resources/applicant-guidance-on-the-two-page-resume-limit/ 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.