Congressional Affairs Specialist (Schedule Policy/Career)

Summary

This position is located in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Deputy Under Secretary for Operations (DUSO), Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs (OLIA), with one vacancy in Washington, DC.

Duties

As a Congressional Affairs Specialist, you will perform the following duties: Lead Legislative Affairs outreach effort to congressional offices, including state and district-based offices and Congressional case workers. Work closely with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) staff to plan briefings, hearings, meetings, and other external events involving Members of Congress, Congressional staff, and their constituents. Serve as the policy and planning authority for NOAA's policies and priorities with Congress and the Department. Develop Congressional drafts and other official documentation, hearings, meetings, briefings, and other external events involving Members of Congress and staff and their constituents, to increase the understanding of Members of Congress, Congressional staff, and their constituents about the NOAA work and mission. Utilize expert knowledge to provide summaries of feedback from Members of Congress and Congressional staff to inform the Director for Legislative Affairs and Deputy Director about inquiries and requests that come in from Congressional offices and solicit information from senior staff about NOAA's work to be shared with Congressional offices. Provide authoritative and substantive guidance on legislative issues. Recommend strategies for Congressional interaction to management based on knowledge of the interests of the appropriate legislative audience. Conduct and coordinate Freedom of Information and Discovery requests for congressional inquiries. This position will be filled under the DOC Alternative Personnel System (CAPS). Under CAPS, positions are classified by career, pay plan, and pay band. The ZA-4 is equivalent to the GS-13/14. CONDITION OF EMPLOYEMENT: Must be able to obtain and maintain a Noncritical Sensitive security clearance to carry out duties requiring access to meetings, documents/info, and/or systems labeled as confidential or secret. Throughout the recruitment and hiring process we will be communicating with you via email; therefore, it is imperative that the email address you provide when applying for this vacancy remains active. Should your email address change, please notify the point of contact identified in the vacancy announcement as soon as possible so that we can update our system.

Qualifications

Qualification requirements in the vacancy announcements are based on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Qualification Standards Handbook, which contains federal qualification standards. This handbook is available on the Office of Personnel Management's website located at: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/ EDUCATION: There is no positive education requirement for this position. SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: Applicants must possess one year of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and responsibility to the next lower grade level in the Federal Service. Specialized experience is experience that has equipped the applicant with the particular competencies/knowledge, skills and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position. This experience need not have been in the federal government. 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; knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. To qualify for the ZA-4 or GS-13 level: SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: Applicants must possess one full year (52 weeks) of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower pay band ZA-3 or GS-12 in the Federal service. Specialized experience MUST include all of the following: Assessing legislative initiatives on matters concerning programs and activities affecting environmental science and management programs; and Developing correspondence or responses to congressional inquiries.

Education

Substitution of education for specialized experience is not applicable to this vacancy.