Senior Policy Analyst

Job Description

SALARY RANGE: $107,325.00 to $139,523.00 / Per Year

OPEN PERIOD: Monday, August 31, 2015 to Tuesday, September 8, 2015

SERIES & GRADE: GS-0301-14

POSITION INFORMATION: Full-time in the competitive service. - Permanent. This position is not in the bargaining unit.

PROMOTION POTENTIAL: 14

DUTY LOCATIONS: 1 vacancy in the following location:

Washington DC, DC View Map

WHO MAY APPLY: USAID employees currently in permanent, competitive, civil service positions (i.e., career or career-conditional), including those eligible under the Career Transition Assistance Program (CTAP).

NOTE: You are eligible to be considered for this position if you are a permanent, full-time employee of USAID and your most recent SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action Form, lists your tenure as “1” or “2” in Block 24, and your Position Occupied as “1” in Block 34.

SECURITY CLEARANCE: Secret

SUPERVISORY STATUS: No

JOB SUMMARY:

About the Agency

ABOUT OUR AGENCY: USAID is an independent Federal Government agency that receives overall foreign policy guidance from the Secretary of State. With headquarters in Washington, USAID fosters transformational development around the world. Our work supports economic growth and trade; agriculture and the environment; education and training; democracy and governance; global health; global partnerships; and humanitarian assistance. We operate in Sub-Saharan Africa; Asia and the Near East; Latin America and the Caribbean; and Europe and Eurasia.

RELOCATION AUTHORIZED

• No

KEY REQUIREMENTS

• Must work for USAID in the competitive civil service (see Who May Apply).
• Must submit SF-50 and performance appraisal that shows you work for USAID.
• Must be able to obtain and maintain a Secret security clearance.
• Must possess relevant experience (see qualifications below).

DUTIES:

If selected, you will serve as a Senior Policy Analyst of the USAID Bureau for Policy, Planning, and Learning’s Office of Policy (PPL/P). You will be an integral part of PPL/P’s mission—to elevate the impact USAID’s projects and programs have on meeting the USG’s international development goals. You will lead the work of a team of PPL/P policy analysts who focus on policy research, analysis, and coordination as you:

Equip leaders, program managers, and other stakeholders with the policies, processes, and other strategic tools they need to make sure that USAID’s complex global development programs are congruent with U.S. foreign policy goals and work together to achieve best results possible. Strengthen partnerships that ultimately help shape global development policy and establish Agency-wide policy that advances development effectiveness.

Be a go-to resource for senior Bureau and USAID leadership about the Agency’s efforts to formulate and promulgate new policies and program objectives, many of which have long-term downstream effects and critical impacts on how well the Agency accomplishes its program objectives.

Oversee policy research and policy recommendations on some of the USG’s most controversial or politically sensitive USAID-related issues. Help adapt USAID’s policies to reflect advancements in international development the evolving role of development in advancing U.S. foreign policy goals. Leverage your team’s talent to bring efficiency, creativity, rigor, and transparency to policy-making processes.

Advise and collaborate with all levels of management, other federal agencies, and other strategic partners on policy research, findings, and recommendations. Represent USAID’s interests on working groups, task forces, and other partnership opportunities. Coordinate clearances across Bureaus and agencies, overseeing partnerships that shape how USAID programs are designed, implemented, and evaluated in ways that further global development policy goals.

Learn more about USAID’s policy work.

QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED:

To meet basic qualifications requirements, you must have at least one year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-13 level in the Federal service. This experience could have been gained in the military, public or private sector.

We will review your application to ensure that you have the type of specialized experience we are seeking,and that this experience was equivalent in difficulty/responsibility to at least the GS-13 level in the Federal service, even if that experience was not in a Federal job.

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: For the purposes of this position, examples of specialized experience include work that demonstrates you have applied knowledge of:

• At least one professional subject-matter field pertinent to the position (e.g., international development, foreign affairs, social science), including the public policy issues related to that field.
• The decision-making process among executive and legislative players and how this shapes the political and institutional environment in which your policy issue resides and the implementation/actualization of your policy through programs.
• The qualitative and quantitative methods for analyzing your policy issue in order to explore the many facets of a policy issue, including sifting evidence and developing feasible options or alternative proposals and anticipating policy consequences.
• Methods for expressing highly complex technical policy issues that have controversial findings, comprehensive treatment of arguments supporting and opposing recommendations, or both, using language appropriate to specialists and/or non-specialists, facilitating the formulation of a decision.

EXPERIENCE THAT IS AT THE GS-13 LEVEL OR HIGHER: Examples of the types of experience that would be considered to equate to the GS-13 level include applying the policy analysis skills described above in order to:

• Independently plan and execute policy analysis projects, exercising professional judgment to resolve issues or controversies in most cases.
• Adapt broad policy statements, laws/regulations/policies, and professional knowledge bases to solve problems that have a significant impact on how policies are designed, developed, implemented, monitored, or evaluated.
• Independently resolve most issues that impede the efficiency or effectiveness of how a policy analysis issue is addressed or how a policy issue is implemented within a program, particularly those made complicated by the number and variability of programs impacted by a policy, potential differences in interpretation of policies for sensitive or visible programs, Congressional or Administration interest, or the lack of precedent available to guide issue resolution.
• Represent the interests and positions of your organization as an expert outside of your immediate office, including those of other Federal agencies and outside organizations such as contractors, program managers, or other subject-matter field colleagues.

SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT THE TERM “POLICY”: For the purposes of assessing candidates for this position, we use the term “policy” to mean Agency‐wide program policies and strategies, which serve as guidance to others about how to implement the organization’s corporate position in a key public, cross-cutting issue. It does not refer to work associated with administrative, management, or operational policies.

COUNTING ONE YEAR OF EXPERIENCE: Generally, one year of experience refers to full-time work; part-time work is considered on a prorated basis. We will evaluate only experience gained as of the closing date of this announcement.

TIME-IN-GRADE REQUIREMENT FOR FEDERAL EMPLOYEES: You must have served at least 52 weeks in a position at the GS-13 or higher grade (or equivalent in an alternate pay system) within the Federal Civil Service before you can be placed in a GS-14 position. Your 52-week period must have ended before the closing date of this announcement. If you do not have 52 weeks at the GS-13 or higher, you will not be eligible to be considered for this position.

CTAP candidates may be considered if well qualified. Well-qualified means an eligible employee who possesses the competencies at a proficiency that clearly exceeds the minimum requirements of the position. To be considered well-qualified, a CTAP candidate must:

• Meet the qualification and eligibility requirements of the position, including any medical qualifications, suitability, and minimum education and experience requirements;
• Meet all selective factors (where applicable);
• Meet quality ranking factors above the minimum level, which equates to a score of91 or higher in the online assessment;
• Be physically qualified with reasonable accommodation to perform the essential duties of the position;
• Meet any special qualifying U.S. OPM-approved conditions; AND
• Be able to satisfactorily perform the duties of the position upon entry without additional training.

A well-qualified candidate will not necessarily meet the definition of highly or best qualified when evaluated against other candidates who apply for a particular position. In the absence of selective and quality ranking factors, selecting officials will document the job-related reason(s) for qualification determinations.

HOW YOU WILL BE EVALUATED:

We use a multi-step process to evaluate and refer applicants. First, we will assess whether you: 1) are eligible to be considered as a permanent, competitive service career or career-conditional USAID employee; 2) meet the basic qualifications requirements for the position (see the Qualifications Required” section, above); and 3) whether you meet the time-in-grade provisions.

Next, applicants who meet all three of these criteria are rated on the degree to which they possess the competencies required for success in this position (see Job-related Competencies, below). This rating–which ranges from 70 to 100–assesses the education, experience, and training as reported in your resume and your responses to the assessment questions. At this stage, applicants deemed most highly qualified are referred to the hiring manager for further consideration.

Your application is the only evidence we will use to determine whether you meet all requirements for this position. Please ensure that your responses to the assessment questions are supported by your resume. Discrepancies between the two could affect your rating.If your application is incomplete, we may rate you as ineligible.

JOB-RELATED COMPETENCIES: Candidates will be assessed to determine the degree to which they possess the competencies below.

• Foreign assistance programming:Knows the mission and functions of the U.S. Government’s role in international development, including how political, financial, and technological systems work to influence development policy decisions; this includes the programs, policies, strategies, frameworks, and other materials that articulate and unify U.S. foriegn asisstance programming.
• Planning and evaluating:Organizes work, sets priorities, and determines resource requirements; determines short- or long-term goals and strategies to achieve them; coordinates with other organizations or parts of the organization to accomplish goals; monitors progress and evaluates outcomes.
• Leadership:Influences, motivates, and challenges others; adapts leadership styles to a variety of situations.
• Problem solving:Identifies and analyzes problems; uses sound reasoning to arrive at conclusions; finds alternative solutions to complex problems; distinguishes between relevant and irrelevant information to make logical judgments.
• Communication:Expresses ideas and facts to individuals or groups in a clear, convincing and organized manner, both orally and in writing; listens and responds to others; facilitates an open exchange of ideas.

To preview questions please click here.

BENEFITS:

You can review our benefits at:https://careerconnector.jobs.treas.gov/cc/usaid/vacancy/preview!benefits.hms?orgId=664&jnum=128546

OTHER INFORMATION:

Policy Statement: Equal Employment Opportunity

Policy Statement: Reasonable Accommodation for Applicants with Disabilities

Special Provisions & Hiring Programs for Applicants with Disabilities

Special Provisions & Hiring Programs for Veterans

This announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies within 5 months of the closing date.

This is a Testing Designated Position (TDP) under the Agency’s approved Drug-Free Workplace Program. All applicants selected for this position will be subject to random drug testing once they begin working for the Agency.

HOW TO APPLY:

The following instructions outline our application process. You must complete this on-line application process and submit any applicable required documents by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on the closing date of this announcement. If applying on-line poses an extreme hardship, you must notify the agency contact name herein no later than two business days prior to the closing date of this vacancy announcement. You will be provided an alternative application method. After this time, requests to apply via alternative methods may not be granted.

Please note that all required documents must be received by the closing date, via online or alternative methods, and that we will determine your eligibility and qualifications based solely on the materials received by the closing date.

Step 1 - Review the Job Announcement

Before you apply, we suggest you review the entire job announcement. Pay close attention to the Major Duties section and the How You Will Be Evaluated section where you will see the areas upon which your application will be evaluated and a link for previewing online questions.

Step 2 - Create or Upload a Resume with USAJOBS (www.usajobs.gov)

Create or upload a resume in USAJOBS. You may wish to customize your resume to ensure it supports your responses to the online questions and addresses the competencies listed in the “How You Will Be Evaluated” section of the job announcement. For more resume tips, click here. Please note that although you must enter your Social Security Number (SSN) for USAJOBS, we will see only the last four digits for identification purposes.

Step 3 - Apply Online

Click the “Apply Online” button on this announcement and then select the resume you wish to submit with your application. You will be redirected to the Department of the Treasury’s CareerConnector website to complete the application process.

Step 4 - Answer the Online Questions and Submit Your Online Application

If this is your first time on Treasury’s CareerConnector website, you will be prompted to register by answering questions related to your eligibility for Federal employment. The system will save these responses and take you back to the main screen so that you can answer the job-specific questions. Select “Take me to the assessment” and click on the “Next” button to answer the job-specific questions. You must answer all the questions and click the “Finish” button.

Step 5 - Review and Confirm Your Submission

You will now have the option to upload a document or print fax cover-sheets for documents (see Step 6 for details). Once you click “Done,” you will see a summary of your application for your review. You may also print a copy for your records. When you click “Finish” at the bottom of the page, you will then be directed back to USAJOBS where you can confirm that your application has been submitted and track your application status.

Step 6 - Submit Documents

You can submit any applicable required or optional documents (see below) by document upload, fax, or e-mail. Whichever method you choose, please include the job announcement number with your documents. To protect your privacy, we encourage you to remove your SSN from any documents that you submit.

Method 1 - Upload Documents from Your Computer: You may upload documents in one of two ways:

1. Once you finish answering the questions in the job announcement, you will be prompted to upload your document(s) to your application. You will be given the choice to either upload the document as part of the application process or you can select a document that you’ve already loaded on USAJOBS. Or
2. You can upload a document to an existing application by logging into your USAJOBS account profile. Click on “My Applications” and search for the vacancy. Once you’ve located the vacancy, click on the vacancy and select “Apply Online.” Move through your existing application to the Documents page and select Upload in order to add a document to your application. Be certain to review your complete application for confirmation that the document uploaded. In the Application Review section, you may verify acceptance of your documents in Career Connector if you see them listed on the “Vacancy Documents” screen. Then, click on “Finished” to be returned to USAJOBS.

Method 2 - Fax: Print a fax cover-sheet in Career Connector by following the “Faxing Supporting Documentation” instructions. The fax number will be provided on the cover-sheet.

If you are having difficulty within the Career Connector system and need technical assistance please email the help desk at careerconnectorhelp@treasury.gov. The help desk is available to assist you from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm EST daily, excluding Federal holidays.

REQUIRED DOCUMENTS:

Please include all of the documents applicable to your application, below, before the closing date of the announcement. These documents will help us determine whether you are eligible to apply as a an internal USAID candidate—if we lack these documents from you, we may consider you ineligible for this announcement.

• Be sure that it shows you qualify for the position and supports your responses to the assessment questionnaire. For tips on creating a Federal resume, click here.
• Your most recent SF-50.You must submit an SF-50 that shows you work for USAID in a position that makes you eligible to be considered for this position (e.g., you have a tenure code of “1” or “2” in Box 24, and a code of “1” in Box 34). Avoid sending SF-50s that do not also include your job title and grade (such as an SF-50 for an award). We cannot consider you further without this documentation.
• Your most recent performance appraisal.We will use this information only to confirm that you are performing at the “Fully Successful” level or above.

AGENCY CONTACT INFO:

Kelly Anderson
Phone: 202-712-1564
Fax: 0000000000
Email: kanderson@usaid.gov Agency Information:
United States Agency for International Development
1300 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington , DC
20523-0016
US
Fax: 0000000000

WHAT TO EXPECT NEXT:

Applicants are evaluated using an automated applicant assessment system. After determining basic eligibility and qualifications, the supplemental questionnaire will be used to identify the best qualified applicants to be referred to the hiring manager for consideration and possible interviews. USAID must be able to conduct reference checks as a part of the assessment process. After making a tentative job offer, we will conduct a suitability/security background investigation. A final job offer is contingent upon a favorable suitability determination and a favorable SECRET level security clearance investigation and determination.

You may check the status of your application for this position at any time by logging onto the USAJOBS “My Account” tab and clicking on “Application Status.” You will receive final notification via email when this vacancy has been filled. Please notify us if your contact information changes after the closing date of the announcement. Also, note that if you provide an email address that is inaccurate or if your mailbox is full or blocked (e.g., spam-blocker), you may no