The General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs serves as HUD's senior public affairs career staff expert on housing policy and program issues. Will advise the Assistant Secretary (AS) regarding all communication matters, providing sound guidance and strategic recommendations on the most sensitive, broad, complex, and highly visible public affairs issues. The incumbent will ensure continuity of messaging across administrations and will serve as a source of institutional memory during leadership and staff transitions to preclude disruption in the timeliness and effectiveness of public affairs support. As such, the incumbent will play an essential role in HUD strategic communications.

MAJOR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Serve as HUD's senior level technical authority on public affairs matters ensuring an enterprise-wide perspective is taken in planning, coordinating, and executing the program. This includes responsibility to:

• Develop and execute strategic communications plans, programs, and initiatives that include the development, management, and execution of strategic messages, plans, operational concepts, themes, policies, position papers and briefings to support HUD programs.
• Evaluate trends in public opinion to determine public attitudes and perceptions related to HUD policies of community interest. This may include participation in meetings with federal and state legislators, community groups, and other stakeholders to determine HUD's program needs and develop recommendations on ways to improve communication with various constituent organizations and interest groups.
• Advise OPA staff on uniquely challenging, difficult, and sensitive matters; and advise/work with senior leadership and HUD management from various other program areas on special projects and unusual cases by using expertise to guide or modify public affairs methods, techniques, and approaches to special needs.
• Conduct legal, legislative, and regulatory research, review, interpretation and analysis regarding Federal and Departmental issues and activities concerning HUD programs; Consider political, social, economic, technical, and administrative factors with potential impact on the recommended policies and public affairs program development.
• Lead and/or support broad projects and/or initiatives that require support from multiple stakeholders. Will deal regularly with internal and external stakeholders, as well as the regional Public Affairs Specialists to gain support and understanding for the project and/or initiative.

Serve as senior HUD spokesperson on national media matters. Provides direct support and counsel to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary on talking points and strategy for high-visibility and high sensitivity issues. This includes responsibility to:

• Maintain a constant awareness of media trends and issues and identifies potential problem areas, ensuring that complex, technical, and often very politically sensitive information is presented in a clear, concise, and understandable format to best represent HUD and its mission. This information often generates extreme controversy, scrutiny, and debate at the highest levels of government, the international news media, and the public, which requires HUD leadership to explain, debate, and sometimes defend the agency against negative media coverage.

• Establish and maintain effective working relationships with the White House, representatives of government, members of Congress, civic organizations, all media, special interest groups, and internal stakeholders to oversee development and dissemination of materials to pertinent publics through the media.
• Assess relevant news stories and available information (media reports, civic positions, public statements) to provide recommendations on appropriate responses
• Articulate and defend HUD's position orally and in writing to international, national, regional, and local media, as well as to other federal/state government agencies, and citizen/employee groups.

Provides administrative management/ technical supervision (less than 25% of the time) as requested by the Assistant Secretary. This includes responsibility to:

• Coordinate Department HQ media Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with other stakeholders.
• Ensure all informational material disseminated is reviewed for security, propriety, and conformance to HUD policy.
• Monitor and reviews internal control systems to ensure compliance with standards set by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to safeguard against fraud, waste, and mismanagement.
• Serve as direct supervisor for career Public Affairs directors, specialists and officers and manage website and digital staff in the Office of Public Affairs.

Conditions of employment

• U.S. Citizenship is required.
• Ability to obtain and maintain the clearance level required by the position.
• A one-year probationary period is required, if not previously completed.
• Males born after 12/03/59 must be registered for Selective Service.
• Will be required to submit a Public Financial Disclosure Report, SF-278.
• Will be required by PL 104-134 to have federal payments made by direct deposit.

Qualifications

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 managerial capability. This experience should be sufficiently broad in scope and at a major management level in a large or complex organization. The ideal candidate will have experience supervising many employees through subordinate supervisors and have experience hiring, developing, and evaluating employees. Typically, experience of this nature is at the GS-15 or equivalent level in the federal service or its equivalent in the private sector.

Your application should demonstrate that you possess the knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully fulfill responsibilities inherent in SES positions such as:

• Leading 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, developing policy and other executive functions

If your experience does not include these basic qualifications, you will not be determined qualified for this position.

YOU MUST FULLY ADDRESS EACH MTQ AND ECQ TO BE RATED FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION.
Current or former career SES employees, or OPM/QRB Candidate Development Program (CDP) candidates are not required to address the ECQs, but MUST fully address the MTQs.

In addition to the qualifying experience, applicants must possess the following technical qualifications that represent the knowledge, skills, and abilities essential to perform the duties and responsibilities of the position.

MANDATORY TECHNICAL QUALIFICATIONS (MTQs): All applicants must submit a written narrative addressing each MTQ separately, not to exceed one (1) page per MTQ. Applicants who fail to adhere to the one (1) page per MTQ limit will be disqualified and no longer in consideration. You must fully address each MTQ to be rated for further consideration.

MTQ 1- Demonstrated experience planning, coordinating, and executing all facets of enterprise wide communications programs that engage internal and external stakeholders utilizing a wide array of communications methods in federal and private sector organizations in the housing industry.

MTQ 2 - Demonstrated experience providing communications counsel to public and private sector organizations in the housing industry on key facets of U.S. housing policy including housing finance, federally backed mortgage insurance programs, block grant programs, and affordable housing efforts.

MTQ 3 - Demonstrated experience in private and public sector housing industry organizations creating and leading employee communications efforts that create a stronger connection between the work employees perform and enterprise priorities.

EXECUTIVE CORE QUALIFICATIONS (ECQs): All applicants must submit a written narrative addressing each ECQ, not to exceed two (2) pages per ECQ for a total of no more than 10 pages. If your ECQs exceed 10 pages, your application will be disqualified and you will no longer be considered. You must fully address each ECQ to be rated for further consideration. Current or former career SES employees, or OPM/QRB Candidate Development Program (CDP) candidates are not required to address the ECQs.

Introduction: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has identified five 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 - not whether they are the most superior candidates for a particular position. Successful competence in the SES requires competence in each ECQ. Candidates must demonstrate executive experience in all five (5) ECQs. Your application should reflect an overall record of the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to succeed in the SES.

Examples of good qualifications statements and the use of the C-C-A-R model (Challenge/Context/Action/Results), the preferred method of writing your ECQs, is provided in OPM's Guide to SES Qualifications.

Format: For each of the five ECQs, provide two examples of your qualifications using the four C-C-A-R elements.

1. Challenge - Describe a specific problem or goal.

2. Context - Talk about the individuals and groups you worked with, and/or the environment in which you worked to tackle a particular challenge (e.g., clients, co-workers, members of Congress, shrinking budget, low morale).

3. Action - Discuss the specific actions you took to address a challenge.

4. Results - Give specific examples of the results of your actions. These accomplishments demonstrate the quality and effectiveness of your leadership skills.

NOTE: Your responses to the five ECQs must describe the context and the results of your achievements in lay terminology, free of jargon and excessive reliance on acronyms.

ECQ 1 - LEADING CHANGE - This core qualification involves the ability to bring about strategic change, both within and outside the organization, to meet organizational goals. Inherent to this ECQ is the ability to establish an organizational vision and to implement it in a continuously changing environment. (Leadership Competencies: creativity and innovation, external awareness, flexibility, strategic thinking and vision).

ECQ 2 - LEADING PEOPLE - This core qualification involves the ability to lead people toward meeting the organization's vision, mission, and goals. Inherent to this ECQ is the ability to provide an inclusive workplace that fosters the development of others, facilitates cooperation and teamwork, and supports constructive resolution of conflicts. (Leadership Competencies: conflict management, leveraging diversity, developing others and team building).

ECQ 3 - RESULTS DRIVEN - This core qualification involves the ability to meet organizational goals and customer expectations. Inherent to this ECQ is the ability to make decisions that produce high-quality results by applying technical knowledge, analyzing problems, and calculating risks. (Leadership Competencies: accountability, customer service, decisiveness, entrepreneurship, problem solving and technical credibility).

ECQ 4 - BUSINESS ACUMEN - This core qualification involves the ability to manage human, financial, and information resources strategically. (Leadership competencies: financial management, human capital management and technology management).

ECQ 5 - BUILDING COALITIONS - This core qualification involves the ability to build coalitions internally and with other Federal agencies, State and Local governments, nonprofit and private-sector organizations, foreign governments, or international organizations to achieve common goals. (Leadership Competencies: partnering, political savvy and influencing/negotiating).

Detailed information on the Executive Core Qualifications is available here.

How you will be evaluated

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

Applicants will be evaluated against the Mandatory Technical Qualifications (MTQs) and Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs). As a supplement to your application, please provide examples of relevant experience, training, and personal achievements, which address each of the ECQs and MTQs. The examples should be clear and concise and show levels of accomplishment and degree of responsibility. FAILURE TO FULLY ADDRESS THE REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS (MTQs and ECQs) AND/OR ADHERE TO THE PAGE LIMIT WILL RESULT IN YOUR APPLICATION BEING DISQUALIFIED.

VETERANS PREFERENCE DOES NOT APPLY TO THE SENIOR EXECUTIVE SERVICE.