Program Staff Advisor

Summary

This position is in the Office of International Coordination (OIC). OIC coordinates international activities within FSIS and is the FSIS point-of-contact for foreign and U.S. Federal agencies for those activities. It represents FSIS on trade agreement negotiations and international bodies, it ensures FSIS's international and domestic policies are coordinated and consistent with international trade agreements, and it ensures FSIS policies and procedures are communicated to foreign countries.

Duties

• Provides professional leadership and direction for a broad, coordinated program that focuses on critical mission-related activities and issues within a foreign country to determine food safety performance, deficiencies, or underperformance.
• Exercises broad delegations of authorities and flexibilities for assuring efficient and effective management of financial, human, and other resources in support of OIC's mission.
• Expert to whom foreign government food safety Central Competent Authority (CCA) and field service turn to for authoritative guidance and consultation regarding inspectional and investigational methods and procedures.
• Liaison to whom foreign government and foreign manufacturers may turn to for authoritative guidance and consultation regarding inspection and complying with FSIS regulatory requirements and investigation methods and procedures.
• Serves as an FSIS specialist in working with policy staff to provide in-country or in-region input development of FSIS policies and national and international standards, procedures, and guidance.
• Serves as a management official.

Qualifications

Specialized Experience: Specialized experience is experience directly related to the position to be filled. Specialized experience must be described for grade level advertised. To qualify for the Program Staff Advisor GS15, you must demonstrate in your application that you possess at least one year (52 weeks) of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-14 level in the that equipped you with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties of this position. Specialized experience must show evidence of performing administrative management functions in support of organizational operations, including budget, personnel, procurement, and office services. Your resume must show you have performed all duties similar to these: Managing, directing, supervising, staffing, coordinating, and evaluating office functions and activities; Managing the development of an organization's positions for use in regulatory harmonization efforts that impact food-safety-related issues and policies in the international food safety arena; Developing and implementing plans around outreach, communication strategies, and other cross­cutting activities in the international food safety arena; Developing and directing the implementation of program and administrative policies, goals, objectives, and priorities; Anticipating and developing strategies to address issues of potential sensitivity; Facilitating coordination and communication among groups to accomplish an organization's mission and strategic objectives; Utilizing judgement to solve problems and making recommendations that result in program changes to public policies or programs in the international food safety arena. For more information on the qualifications for this position, Click Here 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. Desirable Qualifications: Proficiency in speaking, reading, and/or writing the Chinese language is not required to perform the basic functions of this position and is not a mandatory requirement of the Position Description (PD). However, proficiency in Chinese is considered a preferred skill that will significantly enhance performance in this role. Applicants who possess professional, conversational, or fluent knowledge of Chinese are strongly encouraged to highlight this capability in their resume and application package. While failure to possess or demonstrate Chinese language skills will not result in an applicant being rated ineligible or unqualiefied, candidates who possess this preferred skill may be given preferential consideration/ranking during the evaluation process over otherwise-comparable candidates.

Education

Education cannot be substituted for experience to qualify at the GS-15 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 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 must not 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 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. Visit the USA Hire Applicant Resource Center for practice assessments and assessment preparation. 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. 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. Please ensure your resume does not exceed two pages. Applicants who submit a resume that exceeds two pages will be removed from consideration. Reasonable Accommodation (RA) Requests: If you believe you have a disability (i.e., physical or mental), covered by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended that would interfere with completing the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be granted the opportunity to request a RA in your online application. Requests for RA for the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments and appropriate supporting documentation for RA must be received prior to starting the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments. Decisions on requests for RA are made on a case-by-case basis. If you meet the minimum qualifications of the position, after notification of the adjudication of your request, you will receive an email invitation to complete the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, based on your adjudication decision. You must complete all assessments within 48 hours of receiving the URL to access the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments if you received the link after the close of the announcement. To determine if you need a RA, please review the Procedures for Requesting a Reasonable Accommodation for Online Assessments.