Clarification from the agency

You must be a U.S. Citizen or U.S. National. Foreign nationals or legal permanent residents are not eligible for consideration. This is a direct hire authority announcement. Traditional federal rules regarding rating, ranking, and veterans' preference do not apply.

• Developing and executing solutions to communications challenges around a cross-section of high-level policy, science and regulation in real-time.
• Planning and coordinating agency communications from start to finish for agency rollouts/announcements in close coordination with agency leadership.
• Coordinating communications tactics on rollout/announcement days to ensure communications activities are effectively carried out to all key stakeholders in a timely fashion.
• Providing communications strategy and advice to agency officials on communications tactics and overall approach surrounding newsworthy issues.
• Developing digital media strategy for rollouts/announcements, including style and messaging aspects of social media and mobile editorial content.
• Researching and writing strong key messages for rollouts, working closely with program offices/units in aligning messaging for all internal and external stakeholders, including FDA employees, consumer organizations, Congress and the news media.
• Tracking the editing, approval, and production processes of communications materials for major announcements, serving as the custodian of all communications assets.
• Initiating, creating, writing and editing materials, including communications plans, about complicated public health and scientific subjects directed towards a variety of audiences.
• Measuring and reporting on the effectiveness of communications activities, including news media and social media measurement statistics, and provide recommendations for process improvements.
• Developing and maintaining strong and effective working relationships with internal clients and other government communicators.

Conditions of employment

• This position may be subject to completion of a 1-year probationary period (unless you have already satisfied this obligation).
• Citizenship Requirement: You must be a U.S. Citizen or U.S. National to be considered for this advertisement. Foreign nationals or legal permanent residents are not eligible for consideration.
• Direct Deposit: All Federal employees are required to have Federal salary payments made by direct deposit to a financial institution of their choosing.
• Background Investigation Requirement: All employees must pass a security investigation. Failing to pass the background check may be grounds for removal or legal action. If hired, you may be subject to additional investigations at a later time.
• FDA participates in e-Verify: All new hires must complete the I-9 form; this information will be processed through e-Verify to determine your employment eligibility. If a discrepancy arises, you must take affirmative steps to resolve the matter.
• If you were born male, after, December 31st 1959, you must be registered with the Selective Service System, or have an approved exemption. Learn more at www.SSS.gov.
• Additional selections may be made from this vacancy, within the same geographical area, by other organizational elements from within FDA, through shared corporate recruiting activities. Your application may be shown to multiple hiring offices.
• You may be asked to provide additional information at a later time. All interview requests and selection decisions are at the full discretion of the hiring office.
• Certification of Accuracy: All information concerning eligibility and qualification is subject to investigation and verification. False representation may be grounds for non-consideration, non-selection, or appropriate legal action.

Qualifications

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:
In order be eligible for the position of Public Affairs Specialist, (GS-1035-14), you must meet the following requirements...

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS REQUIREMENTS:
You must possess one year (52-weeks) of specialized experience, equivalent to at least the next lower grade level (GS-13) in the Federal service.
Such experience includes: Working in media relations serving as a senior communications/public affairs/public relations professional responding to and managing news media inquiries and providing strategic communications advice on controversial, sensitive and highly-complex topics dealing with human (pharmaceutical) or veterinary drugs, vaccines or other biological products for human use, medical devices, human or animal food, cosmetics, dietary supplements, or tobacco products. Alternatively, experience working as a journalist/member of the news media reporting on U.S. government public health and scientific issues.

NOTE: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date. To verify your application is complete, log into your USAJOBS account, https://my.usajobs.gov/Account/Login, select the Application Status link and then select the More Information link for this position. The Details page will display the status of your application, the documentation received and processed, and any correspondence the agency has sent related to this application. Your uploaded documents may take several hours to clear the virus scan process.

To return to an incomplete application, log into your USAJOBS account and click Update Application in the vacancy announcement. You must re-select your resume and/or other documents from your USAJOBS account or your application will be incomplete.

IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Qualifications are based on breadth/level of experience. In addition to describing duties performed, applicants must provide the exact dates of each period of employment (from MM/YY to MM/YY) and the number of hours worked per week if part time. As qualification determinations cannot be made when resumes do not include the required information, failure to provide this information may result in disqualification. Applicants are encouraged to use the USAJOBS Resume Builder to develop their federal resume.

All qualification requirements must be met by 11:59 pm (Eastern Time) on 05/11/2020. If, after reviewing your resume and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your responses when compared to your background information, you may be deemed ineligible or your score may be adjusted to more accurately reflect your skills and abilities.

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

Additional selections may be made for similar positions across the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) within the local commuting area(s) of the location identified in this announcement. By applying, you agree to have your application shared with interested selecting official(s) at HHS. Clearance of CTAP/ICTAP will be applied for similar positions across HHS.

Once the job opportunity announcement closes (at 11:59 pm ET on 05/11/2020), your resume and all supporting documents will be reviewed by HR to determine your eligibility for Federal employment and your qualification for this position specifically.

This is a direct hire announcement. Traditional rating and ranking of applications, and veterans' preference does not apply to this vacancy. We will evaluate you against the basic qualifications. Qualified applicants will be referred for consideration in accordance with the Office of Personnel Management direct hire guidelines.

Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your eligibility.