Budget Analyst

Summary

This position is located in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Budget and Program Analysis, Program Analysis Division, Credit, Natural Resources and Operations Branch. The incumbent provides advice and guidance on the planning and implementation of USDA's budgetary priorities. This involves coordinating, planning, developing, and executing special critical and/or sensitive assignments, position papers, proposals, and recommendations for OBPA as well as USDA agencies nationwide.

Duties

• Synthesizes complex financial and program data to produce precise, transparent, and strategically aligned budget submissions that support high-stakes USDA decision making and uphold statutory and policy requirements.
• Manages fund allocations and leads the review and refinement of execution requests, ensuring all proposals are accurate, defensible, and fully aligned with Departmental priorities.
• Develops clear, data-driven responses to emerging policy and budget issues and shapes budget policy that reflects legislative requirements and advances efficient, effective use of Departmental resources.
• Oversees internal controls and financial business practices to ensure sound financial management and safeguard government resources, making informed decisions that strengthen accountability and protect Departmental funds.
• Provides authoritative guidance to Mission Area leadership, USDA officials, and budget offices, ensuring budget estimates and execution decisions are accurate, defensible, and strategically aligned with Departmental priorities.
• Independently develops, justifies, and presents complex analyses to support senior-level decision making.
• Serves as the senior budget analyst and technical authority for budget formulation, justification, and execution across the assigned portfolio, ensuring high-quality, strategically aligned budget products.
• Anticipates legislative and administrative impacts, advises leadership on strategic implications, and leads the development of improved budgetary control methods to strengthen accuracy, compliance, and resource stewardship.
• Assesses policy alternatives, costs, benefits, and budget impacts, identifying deficiencies in Departmental analyses, budgets, legislation, and regulatory or administrative proposals to strengthen accuracy, compliance, and resource stewardship.
• Provides expert guidance to program analysts on budget formulation, execution reviews, congressional impact assessments, and management improvement initiatives, ensuring analyses are timely, accurate, and aligned with Departmental priorities.
• Evaluates program activities and advises leadership on performance, long-range planning needs, and the impacts of legislative or regulatory changes to strengthen strategic decision making and program effectiveness.
• Uses advanced analytical, forecasting, and modeling techniques to assess risks, evaluate data, and inform strategic resource decisions, strengthening long-range planning and program performance.

Qualifications

Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement including time-in-grade restrictions, and specialized experience, as defined below. Time in grade: Current federal employees applying for a promotion opportunity must meet time-in-grade (TIG) requirement of 52 weeks of service at the next lower grade level in the normal line of progression for the position being filled. Minimum Qualifications: Applicants must meet the Specialized Experience requirements as shown below. If qualifying based on experience, your application or resume must clearly show that you possess the specialized experience requirements. Specialized experience is defined as experience that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled and has equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position. Specialized Experience: GS-14: One year of specialized experience, equivalent to the GS-13 level in the Federal service or equivalent responsibility in the private sector/pay systems that has equipped the candidate with the particular competencies to successfully perform as a Budget Analyst. For this position, the specialized experience is experience performing all of the following: applying advanced federal budget formulation, justification, and execution techniques across complex funding structures; providing oversight of and adjustment to existing budgets through cost-benefit analyses and long-range analyses; performing sophisticated financial, legislative, and program analyses using advanced analytical, forecasting, and modeling tools; and, preparing executive level briefings related to budget execution. 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/. If selected, you may be required to serve a probationary period as applicable to appointment type. Refer to Next Steps section for additional 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 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.