Senior Outreach Education and Assistance Advisor

Summary

EBSA plays a vital role in protecting the retirement, health, and other job-based benefits of America's workers, retirees, and their families. We issue effective regulations, offer comprehensive education and assistance to workers, plan sponsors, fiduciaries, and service providers, and rigorously enforce the law. We serve workers, families, and the broader employee benefits community by protecting the security and integrity of the nation's benefit systems.

Duties

• Duties include but are not limited to the following: Serve as the senior technical advisor on ERISA and related health, retirement, and welfare benefit laws, including COBRA, HIPAA, MHPAEA, the Affordable Care Act, the No Surprises Act, and related regulations. Advise OEA, EBSA leadership, regional offices, benefits advisors, and external stakeholders on complex program and policy matters. Manage and resolve highly complex participant and compliance assistance matters, including urgent health issues, financial distress cases, high-profile disputes, congressional or media-sensitive inquiries, and matters requiring senior-level intervention. Collaborate with EBSA offices, the Solicitor's Office, other federal and state agencies, congressional liaisons, attorneys, plan officials, fiduciaries, public interest groups, and private-sector stakeholders to exchange information, resolve issues, and support consistent application of benefit laws. Draft, review, and edit standard operating procedures, training materials, outreach publications, presentations, webinars, website content, policy language, official responses, and other written products related to OEA and EBSA programs. Set well-defined and realistic personal goals; displays a high level of initiative, effort, and commitment towards completing assignments in a timely manner; works with minimal supervision; is motivated to achieve; demonstrates responsible behavior.

Qualifications

You must meet the Specialized Experience to qualify for the Senior Outreach Education and Assistance Advisor as described below. For GS-15: Applicants must have 52 weeks of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade level GS-14 in the Federal Service. Specialized Experience is the experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA's) to perform the duties of the position successfully, and that is typically in or related to the position to be filled. To be creditable, specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the next lower grade level. Applicants must meet 4 out of the 5 examples of specialized experience below. Examples of qualifying specialized experience are: 1) Experience providing technical advice to senior leadership on employee benefits laws, regulations, policies, and outreach initiatives. 2) Experience coordinating partnerships with Federal agencies, industry groups, and advocacy organizations to improve consumer education, technical assistance, and outreach efforts in employee benefits. 3) Experience analyzing legislative, regulatory, and policy issues a regarding ERISA and preparing technically accurate guidance, correspondence, and recommendations for management. 4) Experience planning and delivering training in employee benefits law and developing operating procedures, manuals, publications, and online educational materials. 5) Experience leading or supporting sensitive, high-visibility projects involving program planning, policy implementation, executive correspondence, No Surprises Act and outreach program improvements. NOTE: Specialized experience must be clearly documented in your resume; merely copying this statement into your application does not demonstrate that you possess the required experience.

Education

There is no substitution of education for the required specialized experience for this position at the GS-15 level.

How to apply

Persons who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, or have speech disabilities, please dial 711 to access telecommunications relay services. To apply for this position, you must complete the initial online application, including submission of the required documentation specified in the Required Documents section. Your application and ALL required supplemental documents MUST be received by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on the vacancy closing date to receive consideration. Important - Save your information before the 30 minute system timeout! For help, go to USAJOBS Help Center. STEP 1 - Create USAJOBS Account on www.usajobs.gov, including Resume and Saved Documents. For each employment period, include start/end month & year and note full-time or part-time (if part-time, include # of hours worked per week) otherwise, your application may be considered incomplete. STEP 2 - Complete the 1st part of the application process (USAJOBS). Once you have identified a job on USAJOBS that you wish to apply for, click on the job title and then click the Apply button. For questions about the vacancy, contact the Agency Contact at the bottom of the announcement. Proceed through the steps noted at the top of the USAJOBS page. You will be able to select a resume and documents from your USAJOBS Account that you can submit as a package as part of your DOL application. In the final step, once you have certified your application, click the Continue to agency site button. STEP 3 - Complete the 2nd part of the application process (DOL). On the Department of Labor (DOL) page, create a DOL Account if you have not already and click Apply to this vacancy. Continue through the progress steps at the top of the DOL page. The 2nd progress step is where you answer the vacancy-specific questions. The 3rd progress step Documents is where you submit the required documents (only if applicable to you) specified in the Required Documents section of this vacancy. STEP 4 - On the Review and Submit step, verify each section of your application is complete and correct. In order to submit your application, you must have a check mark next to each section listed. If there is an X, return to the appropriate section and follow the prompts. When it is ready for submission, certify your application and click the Submit Application button. STEP 5 - Edit Application as needed by 11:59 pm Eastern Time of Closing Date by returning to USAJOBS, clicking the vacancy, then Update Application. 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 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. NOTE: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date. For more detailed information on applying for positions with DOL click here to view the U.S. Department of Labor, How to Apply website.