This position serves as the head of the Office of the Counselor of the Director. In this capacity, and reporting directly to the Director of CRS, the Counselor to the Director examines and defines policy and legal questions with respect to matters such as congressional requests, potential conflicts of interest and activities on the part of staff, and personnel policies. This position also serves as a principal liaison to the CRS congressional committees of jurisdiction.

The Counselor to the Director performs the human resource management functions relative to the staff supervised in the Office of the Counselor to the Director, including communicating work standards and expectations to supervisors and staff and holding them accountable to those standards.

Major duties of this position include:

• Counsels senior management staff and officials at multiple levels of the CRS and Library of Congress; senior staff of other Federal, state, and local government agencies, private sector clients, and vendors on agency matters.
• Serves on inter-agency, national, and/or international special work groups, task forces, or expert panels on special projects or studies critical to the resolution of far-reaching operating issues and problems.
• Addresses legal questions relating to CRS’s budgetary and financial services, including its procurement and contracting activities, for personal and non-personal service.
• Actively participates on boards and committees as the representative of CRS in dealing with matters which extend well beyond the assigned program responsibility. Serves as the principal representative and consultant for the agency at interagency and international meetings dealing with issues and information in the area of expertise and program responsibility.

The Counselor to the Director leads staff toward meeting the Library’s vision, mission, and goals by acting decisively, leveraging diversity and inclusiveness, demonstrating flexibility and resilience, fostering continuous improvement and innovation, fostering integrity and honesty, communicating effectively, and managing conflict and crisis. Exhibits commitment to the Library’s Supervisory Core Competencies.

This is a senior leadership position. Applications received for this position will not be considered for any other CRS vacancies. To be considered for this position you must meet the critical competency requirements of the job at the levels described below.

1. Ability to apply knowledge of the law to address policy and legal questions: As a legal advisor for an agency or organization, I have applied expert knowledge in a broad range of legal areas (e.g., ethics and conflicts of interest, labor-management relations, separation of powers, contract law, publication policies, personnel policies and issues, appropriations, budgetary and financial policies, administrative and legislative practice and procedure) to address policy and legal questions.
2. Ability to lead and manage a program/area of responsibility: I have led and managed a program for an agency or organization, including: advising top agency officials; overseeing day-to-day operations directly or through subordinate managers; working with both internal and external organizations to achieve program goals; evaluating current and proposed programs and operations and recommending actions to initiate, modify, or discontinue projects; developing and integrating policies and processes; and planning, acquiring and organizing resources and people.
3. Ability to lead people and manage a workforce: I have led and managed a professional staff. This includes setting priorities, assigning work, mentoring, as well as the ability to build and maintain exceptional staff performance.
4. Ability to provide leadership for and engagement of congressional clients on policy and statutory authority matters: I have engaged with congressional clients and oversight committee representatives on matters of policy and statutory authority, including conducting regular liaison with the oversight committees and interpreting, explaining, and discussing matters of policy and statutory authority.

Continue with the application process only if you are able to document on your resume that you meet the four requirements listed above. If you do not meet the qualification requirements for this executive level leadership position, we invite you to consider applying for other CRS positions for which your background and experience may be more appropriate. A separate application is required for each vacancy.

Conditions of employment

• See requirements listed below under Qualifications Required.

Your resume is important to this application process. It will be reviewed to determine whether you possess the qualifications referenced above. All applicants are required to submit a resume that provides specific information (to include accomplishments, work experience and education/training) that clearly describes what you would bring to the position.

Qualifications

The competencies below are required for this position. Those marked with a double asterisk (**) are considered the most critical competencies for this position.

Ability to apply knowledge of the law to address policy and legal questions.** (Applies knowledge of the theories, concepts, processes, techniques, principles and/or practices of the law to address policy and legal questions that arise from congressional requests, possible conflicts of interest and activities on the part of staff, dissemination of agency products, labor-management relations, and personnel policies; translates new legislation, regulation, and congressional guidelines and directives into program goals, actions, and policies, interpreting the impact of new legislative requirements on agency programs.)

Ability to lead and manage a program/area of responsibility.** (Acquires and administers human, financial, material, and information resources to accomplish an organization’s mission; accomplishes strategic and operational goals by ensuring the effective interaction and integration of processes; delegates and manages multiple tasks; and plans and organizes resources, people, and activities effectively and efficiently.)

Ability to lead people and manage a workforce.** (Oversees office performance by assessing staffing requirements in relation to current and anticipated needs of Congress; developing staffing plans, justifications, and requests; making policy area assignments for staff to assure the availability of intellectual capacity needed to meet the current and changing needs of Congress at a sustained level of excellence; and oversees the recruiting, hiring, mentoring, and training a diverse workforce as well as building and maintaining exceptional staff performance.)

Ability to provide leadership and engagement with congressional clients on matters of policy and statutory authority.** (Engages with congressional clients and oversight committee representatives on matters of policy and statutory authority. This includes conducting regular liaison with the oversight committees and interpreting, explaining, and discussing matters of policy and statutory authority.)

Ability to communicate in writing. (Prepares a variety of clear, cogent, and well-organized written products, including targeting the amount, form, depth and level of detail, and content of the information to the needs of various audiences.)

Ability to exercise objectivity. (Exercises objectivity, impartiality, and nonpartisanship in all phases of analysis and consultation, including looking at the dimensions of a problem and weighing them against a set of standards/criteria that are independent of the problem, and maintaining objectivity despite any personal bias or outside pressures.)

Ability to instill a collaborative work environment. (Creates, promotes, and sustains collaborative approaches to the work of the organization. Ensures an atmosphere in which input is sought from colleagues with diverse expertise, skills, and abilities and uses that input to inform and enhance the work of the organization.)

Ability to communicate effectively other than in writing. (Speaks clearly, politely, and under control to peers, staff, managers, supervisors, and external audiences to both provide and seek information.)

How you will be evaluated

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

Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs) are not required for the Library's hiring process.

The Library of Congress will evaluate applicants using applicants' resumes and a structured interview process.

All applicants are required to submit a resume that provides specific information (to include accomplishments, work experience and education/training) that clearly describes what they would bring to the position and documents that they meet the five critical competency requirements listed above. Resumes will be reviewed to determine whether candidates possess the critical competencies marked with a double asterisk (**), as referenced above.

Interviews are designed to verify or explore applicants' experience, knowledge, and training directly related to the job as documented in the resume in order to identify the best qualified applicants for selection.

For this position, applicants do not need to respond to specific competency questions but will be requested to answer one question related to how they became aware of this job opportunity.
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