Supervisory Program Analyst (Staff Chief for Engagement and Response)

Summary

This position is located in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Office of Budget and Program Analysis (OBPA). Oversees OBPA's Engagement and Response Branch, which serves as the Department's primary liaison to Congressional Appropriations Committees, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and other oversight partners. Serves as the Department's senior analytical authority for coordinating USDA's engagements.

Duties

• Works closely with agency leadership, program managers, analysts, and policy specialists to clarify assumptions, verify impacts, and ensure alignment across evaluative products.
• Serves as liaison to Congressional Budget Office for scoring and legislative cost estimates, and coordinate briefings for Appropriations staff.
• Ensures the branch supports senior officials in hearings, briefings, and technical assistance engagements with Appropriations Committees.
• Interprets legislative proposals and appropriations language to assess projected changes in program operations.
• Directs comprehensive assessments of resource requirements, identifying emerging program needs, and evaluating how proposed program changes, legislative directives, and shifting national priorities impact USDA’s budget posture.
• Assesses the policy implications of emerging funding trends, Congressional directives, and Executive Branch initiatives, translating these into actionable guidance for USDA program offices.
• Oversees development of strategies to shape General Provisions in appropriations bills.
• Leads Department-wide efforts to ensure that all information provided to external decision-makers is accurate, reliable, consistent, and analytically defensible.
• Provides senior leaders with deeply informed, data-backed advice that guides both near-term and long-term budget strategies.
• Leads sophisticated, Department-wide evaluative efforts that assess and interpret the effectiveness, efficiency, and outcomes of USDA programs and major policy proposals.
• Applies advanced evaluative concepts such as impact modeling, scenario analysis, trend forecasting, and workload-to-resource correlation to identify strengths, vulnerabilities, and strategic opportunities in current and proposed programs.
• Advises senior leadership on policy risks, constraints, and opportunities to strengthen USDA’s strategic posture and ensure alignment between policy development and program performance outcomes.

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 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 and/or Education 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. FOR THE GS-15 LEVEL: Specialized Experience: GS-15: One year of specialized experience, equivalent to the GS-14 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 Supervisory Program Analyst. For this position, the specialized experience is experience developing multi-dimensional analyses that integrate quantitative data sets, qualitative evidence, performance metrics, risk indicators, and program cost structures to evaluate how resource decisions influence mission delivery; and, developing high-quality, evidence-based evaluations for coordinating engagement with Appropriations and Authorizing committees. 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 or trial period as applicable to appointment type. Refer to Next Steps section for additional information. Subject to one year supervisory/managerial probationary period unless prior service is creditable. New USDA supervisors must successfully complete all components of the required training program before the end of their probationary period.

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.