This position is designed as a SES, Career-Reserved. USDA structures its SES positions into position levels. This is a position level one with a salary range of $186,855 to $198,537 per year. Exceptions to the salary cap may be considered in certain circumstances. SES employees are also eligible to receive bonuses and performance-based awards. Visit here for additional information and benefits for SES employees.
Duties
- Provides expert legal advice to senior managers in OGC, APHIS and FSIS, and senior policy officials of the Department relating to the administration and enforcement of the programs and activities of APHIS and FSIS.
- Supervises a staff of attorneys responsible for drafting, reviewing, and approving for legal sufficiency: regulations; legislation; cooperative agreements; and memoranda of understanding and other agreements.
- Reviews and supervises the preparation of legal opinions, pleadings, declarations, administrative records, briefs, settlement agreements, and other documents in connection with litigation involving APHIS or FSIS.
- Supervises staff attorneys and develops litigation strategies in the preparation and presentation of administrative cases before Administrative Law Judges and the Judicial Officer.
- Works with the Department of Justice in both affirmative and defensive litigation in Federal courts.
- Meets with representatives of stakeholder groups and other Federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, OMB, and members of Congress and/or their staff members.
- Develops work processes and procedures, oversees the training and development of the legal and support staff, assigns work, evaluates the performance of the legal and support staff, and recruits and hires new attorneys and support staff.
Salary
Conditions of Employment
- Veterans Preference is not applicable in the Senior Executive Service.
- Initial appointments are required to serve a 1-year probationary period.
- Narrative Statements for the ECQs must not exceed 10 pages.
- Background Investigation required.
- Must maintain an active bar license of a state, territory of the United States, District of Columbia, or Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
Qualifications
YOU MUST UPLOAD YOUR RESPONSES TO THE EXECUTIVE CORE QUALIFICATIONS (ECQs) AND TECHNICAL QUALIFICATIONS (TQs).
As a basic requirement for entry into the SES, applicants must provide evidence of progressively responsible executive leadership and supervisory experience that is indicative of senior executive level management capability and directly related to the skills and abilities outlined under Executive Core Qualifications and Technical Qualifications listed below. Typically, experience of this nature will have been gained at or above the GS-14/15 grade level in the federal service or its equivalent in the private sector. As such, your resume should demonstrate that you have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully fulfill responsibilities inherent in most SES positions such as:
- Directing the work of an organizational unit;
- Ensuring the success of one or more specific major programs or projects;
- Monitoring progress toward strategic organizational goals, evaluating organizational performance and taking action to improve performance;
- Supervising the work of employees; and exercising important policy-making, policy determining, or other executive functions.
Failure to meet the basic qualification requirement and address all Mandatory Technical and Executive Core Qualification factors will result in your application being disqualified.
EXECUTIVE CORE QUALIFICATIONS (ECQs)
The ECQs were designed to assess executive experience and potential not technical expertise. They measure whether an individual has the broad executive skills needed to succeed in a variety of SES positions. All applicants must submit a written narrative to address the ECQs. Your narrative must address each ECQ separately and should contain at least two examples per ECQ describing your experiences and accomplishments/results. The narrative should be clear, concise, and emphasize your level of responsibilities, scope and complexity of programs managed, program accomplishments, policy Initiatives undertaken and the results of your actions. Applicants should not enter "Refer to Resume" to explain your answer.
The narrative must not exceed 10 pages.
NOTE: Current career SES members, former career SES members with reinstatement eligibility, and SES Candidate Development Program graduates who have been certified by OPM do NOT need to address the ECQs.
MANDATORY TECHNICAL QUALIFICATIONS (TQs)
All applicants must submit a written narrative response to the following TQs. You must address each TQ separately. Each TQ narrative must not exceed two (2) pages. Please give examples and explain the complexity of the knowledge possessed and the sensitivity of the issued you handled.
- Demonstrated ability to analyze complex legal problems and make sound decisions.
- Substantial knowledge of and demonstrated experience with USDA and/or Federal regulatory programs, including demonstrated experience with administrative law and procedure and the development and implementation of regulations.
- Substantial knowledge of and demonstrated experience in handling and supervising litigation in the Federal courts and before administrative bodies.
Education
A professional law degree (LL.B. or J.D.) from an accredited law school, Law School transcript required AND active membership of the bar in good standing in any state, territory of the United States, the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications; applicant's resumes and supporting documentation should only reflect education received from schools accredited by such institutions.
Other Information
Consideration for competitive selection for this position is open to all persons within the area of consideration who meet the basic qualifications. Race, color, age, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, political beliefs, religion, marital or family status, disability, and other non-merit factors will not be considered.
- This position is covered under the post-employment restriction of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 (P.L. 95-521). This law also requires the selectee to file an Executive Personnel Financial Disclosure Report (Standard Form 278), within 30 days of appointment.
- Applications sent in U.S. Government postage-paid envelope and submitted through Federal Agency courier services will not be considered.
- The 1993 Hatch Act Reform Amendments prohibit oral and written political recommendations for Federal jobs.
- Male applicants born after December 31, 1959, must be registered with the Selective Service System before they can be employed by an executive agency of the Federal government. This requirement does not apply to Agency employees appointed before November 8, 1985.
- All application forms are subject to the provisions of the Privacy Act and become the property of USDA. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an Equal Opportunity Employer. USDA prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication or program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA's TARGET Center at 202-720-2600 (voice and TDD).
Reasonable Accommodation: This agency provides reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process, please notify the agency at 202-260-8128. The decision on granting reasonable accommodation will be on a case-by-case basis.
Required Documents
Current career SES Members and former SES Members who have reinstatement eligibility to the career SES should submit a SF-50 showing career SES status; OPM-Certified SES Candidate Development Program graduates should submit a copy of their Qualifications Review Board (QRB) certificate. Education (if applicable): A copy of your transcript(s) or a separate course listing showing the course title, department, hours earned (quarter or semester), and grade (if applicable). If you have completed any part of your education outside of the U.S., you must submit the evaluation of your foreign education that has been prepared by an accredited organization.
Your resume should contain information sufficient to make a valid determination that you fully meet the specialized experience requirements as stated in this vacancy announcement. It is recommended that you include the following information:
- Full name, mailing address, and day and evening telephone numbers
- Educational information, including the name, city and state of colleges or universities you attended, as well as the type and year of any degrees received
- Information about your paid and nonpaid work experience related to this position including:
- Job title (include series and grade if Federal job)
- Duties and accomplishments
- Employers name and address
- Supervisors name and phone number
- Starting and ending dates of employment (month and year)
- Salary
- Indicate if we may contact your current supervisor
- Information about honors, awards, and special accomplishments
If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:
Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.
How to Apply
YOU MUST UPLOAD YOUR RESPONSES TO THE EXECUTIVE CORE QUALIFICATIONS (ECQs) AND TECHNICAL QUALIFICATIONS (TQs).Please read the entire announcement and all the instructions before you begin. Failure to submit the required documentation by 11:59 pm EST of the closing date will result in loss of consideration. The following instructions outline our application process.
- You must complete this application process and submit all required documents electronically by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on the closing date of this announcement.
- We are available to assist you during business hours (normally 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., Monday - Friday). Applying online is highly encouraged. If applying online poses a hardship, please contact our office during business hours well before the closing date for an alternate method.
- All hardship application packages with supporting documents must be submitted no later than noon on the closing date of the announcement in order to be entered into the system prior to its closing.
This agency provides reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities on a case-by-case basis; contact us if you are requesting this.
Step 1: Create a USAJOBS account (if you do not have one) at www.usajobs.gov. It is recommended that as part of your profile you set up automatic email notification to be informed when the status of your application changes. If you choose not to set up this automatic notification, then you will have to log into your USAJOBS account to check on the status of your application.
Step 2: Create a resume with USAJOBS or upload a resume into your USAJOBS account. Customize your resume to ensure it documents duties and accomplishments you have gained that are directly related to this position in order to verify that qualifications are met. Your resume must support your responses to the online questionnaire (you may preview the online questionnaire by clicking on the link at the end of the How You Will Be Evaluated section of the job announcement).
Step 3: Click "Apply Online" and follow the prompts to complete the Occupational Questionnaire and attach any additional documents that may be required. You can update your application or documents anytime while the announcement is open. Log into your USAJOBS account and click on "Application Status." Click on the position title, and then select "Update Application" to continue.
NOTE: 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.
Candidates who do not submit complete application packages as indicated in this announcement will not be considered. Please be sure to remove all PII (e.g. SSN, DOB, etc.) from all documentation. Spell out Acronyms the first time used. Applicants who cannot apply on-line may mail their applications (must be postmarked prior to the close date) or fax your application before the close date to the Agency Contact listed in the vacancy announcement.
Benefits
A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Learn more about federal benefits.
Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.
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