Financial Policy Specialist

Summary

These positions are located in the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), Office of Grants and Financial Management (OGFM), Policy and Oversight Division, Kansas City, Missouri. In this position, you will be an integral member of the Policy Branch assisting in establishing federal assistance policy and issuing solicitations for NIFA programs.

Duties

• Assist with interpreting and analyzing broad legislative authorities and departmental regulations related to financial assistance and program implementation.
• Provide day-to-day advice and consultation to a wide variety of managers, grants and agreement staff, or other leadership staff on an assortment of issues associated with federal financial assistance topics and issues.
• Assist in analyzing, assessing, and making appropriate recommendations (after consulting with supervisor) on issues and initiatives relating to assistance activities.
• Assist in modifying business processes, policies, and procedures as necessary.
• Assist in assessing proposed and newly enacted legislation, regulations, or policies relating to grants, agreements and assistance, and other program related issues.
• Identify new legislation and regulations and determine applicability to the program, in consultation with staff.

Qualifications

Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement including time-in-grade restrictions, specialized experience and/or education, as defined below. Time in Grade: Current federal employees applying for a promotion opportunity must meet the time in grade requirement of 52 weeks of service at the next lower grade level in the normal line of progression for the position being filled. GS-09 Grade Level Specialized Experience: Specialized experience is experience directly related to the position to be filled. The specialized experience requirements for this position are: Qualifying experience for GS-09 includes one year of specialized experience comparable to the GS-07 which is directly related to the work of this position, and which has equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. For this position, specialized experience is assisting in researching and analyzing policy issues related to financial assistance administration (e.g. grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements); complying with policies and procedures related to financial administration; and assisting with coordination of activities to publish reports, notices, or documents. OR Education: Master's or equivalent graduate degree; OR two (2) full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree; OR LL.B. or J.D., if related. Related degrees include Finance, Mathematics, Accounting, Business Administration, or Business Management. OR Combination of specialized experience and education: To use this option, applicants must have a combination of specialized experience and education beyond the first year of graduate school. GS-11 Grade Level Specialized Experience: Specialized experience is experience directly related to the position to be filled. The specialized experience requirements for this position are: Qualifying experience for GS-11 includes one year of specialized experience comparable to the GS-09 which is directly related to the work of this position, and which has equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. For this position, specialized experience is managing financial reports; analyzing policy issue agreements; and providing input for draft policies and procedures, reports, or notices. OR Education: Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree; OR 3 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree, OR LL.M., if related. Related degrees include Finance, Mathematics, Accounting, Business Administration, or Business Management. OR Combination of specialized experience and education: To use this option, applicants must have a combination of specialized experience and education beyond the second year of graduate school. GS-12 Grade Level Specialized Experience: Specialized experience is experience directly related to the position to be filled. The specialized experience requirements for this position are: Qualifying experience for GS-12 includes one year of specialized experience comparable to the GS-11 which is directly related to the work of this position, and which has equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. For this position, specialized experience is managing financial agreements; assisting with financial, compliance, and administrative reviews; researching and analyzing policy issues and legislative developments affecting various types of grants, agreements, or special projects; and drafting policies and procedures, reports, or notices. 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.

Requirements

You must be a US Citizen or US National. Males born after 12/31/1959 must be Selective Service registered or exempt. Subject to satisfactory adjudication of background investigation and/or fingerprint check. Direct Deposit - Per Public Law 104-134 all Federal employees are required to have federal payments made by direct deposit to their financial institution. Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit https://www.e-verify.gov/. As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period or 2-year trial period depending on your appointment type, unless previous federal service is creditable. During this time your employment will be evaluated, and 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 probationary or trial period your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

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. Resumes cannot exceed two pages. The application process is as follows: Click the Apply Online button. 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. 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 about 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. 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: Visit https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/howto/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. 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. Encrypted documents will not be accepted. Failure to submit required, legible documents may result in loss of consideration. Please ensure your resume does not exceed two pages. Applicants who submit a resume that exceeds two pages will be removed from consideration. Our office cannot be responsible for incompatible software, your system failure, etc.