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Historian

Department of State
Department of State - Agency Wide
This job announcement has closed

Summary

This is a national security position in the Europe Division, Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute (FSI/OH/E).

Overview

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Hiring complete
Open & closing dates
06/07/2022 to 06/21/2022
Salary
$61,947 to - $97,430 per year
Pay scale & grade
GS 09 - 11
Location
Washington, DC
1 vacancy
Telework eligible
Yes—as determined by the agency policy.
Travel Required
Occasional travel - You may be expected to travel for this position.
Relocation expenses reimbursed
No
Appointment type
Permanent
Work schedule
Full-time
Service
Competitive
Promotion potential
13
Job family (Series)
Supervisory status
No
Security clearance
Top Secret
Drug test
Yes
Position sensitivity and risk
Special-Sensitive (SS)/High Risk
Trust determination process
Announcement number
DFAS/FSI-2022-0053
Control number
658378600

Duties

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  • Researches and analyzes various moderately complex official and personal historical documents and records of U .S. foreign relations decisions and actions by the United States Government.
  • Researches and analyses technical content for replies to Departmental, interagency, and public inquiries concerning issues and events documented in the Foreign Relations of the United States series and/or related to the incumbent's specialty.
  • Analyzes, organizes, selects, and edits official and personal historical documents of moderate complexity as records of U.S. foreign relations decisions and actions by the U.S. Government for publication in the Foreign Relations of the U.S. series.
  • Plans, develops, and carries out complex documentary compiling projects in the field of historical U.S. foreign relations and/or international topics.
  • Coordinates with other historians on selected projects.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

  • U.S. Citizenship is required.
  • Incumbent will be subject to random drug testing.
  • Obtain/maintain eligibility to access Sensitive Compartmented Information
  • Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit: www.dhs.gov/E-Verify/

Qualifications

****ANNOUNCEMENT AMENDED TO UPDATE GS-11 SUBSTITUTION OF EDCUATION FOR EXPERIENCE & COMBINATION OF EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE STATEMENT****

Applicants must meet all the qualification requirements described below by the closing date of this announcement. If you are qualifying based on education OR if there are mandatory education requirements listed below, you MUST submit a copy of your college transcript with your application. 

Applicants must have the required experience or education as described below and meet any selective factors, when specified.

BASIC REQUIREMENTS:

Have a bachelor's or graduate degree from an accredited college or university in history;

OR

Have a bachelor's or graduate degree from an accredited college or university in a field related to history that included at least 18 semester hours in history;

OR

Have a combination of education and experience where your coursework was equivalent to a major in history, or a major in a related field, that included at least 18 semester hours in history, PLUS appropriate relevant experience OR additional education.

Note: All applicants MUST submit transcripts as verification of educational requirement by the closing date of this announcement. If you fail to provide requested information, or the information you submit is insufficient to verify your eligibility, you WILL lose consideration for this position.

Specialized Experience:

GS-09:  IN ADDITION to meeting one of the basic entry qualifications requirements listed above, the applicant MUST also meet one of the requirements listed below:

 Have at least 1 full year of specialized experience that has equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position. This experience is related to the work of the position and equivalent to at least the GS-07 level in the Federal service.

Qualifying specialized experience must demonstrate the following:

  • Experience applying scholarly methodologies of historical research and documentary editing.
  • Experience applying basic methods of historical research in collecting, evaluating, analyzing, and presenting historical facts.

OR

Have 2 full years of progressively higher- level graduate education leading to master's degree or master's OR equivalent graduate degree from an accredited college or university. This education demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities to do the work of the position to be filled.

OR

Have a combination of graduate level education and specialized experience as described above, which is equivalent to the work of the position and to the GS-07 level in the Federal service. This education and experience must meet 100% of the qualification requirements for this position.

Note: All applicants MUST submit transcripts as verification of educational requirement by the closing date of this announcement. If you fail to provide requested information, or the information you submit is insufficient to verify your eligibility, you WILL lose consideration for this position.

GS-11:  IN ADDITION to meeting one of the basic entry qualifications requirements listed above, the applicant MUST also meet one of the requirements listed below:

Have at least 1 year of specialized experience that has equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position. This experience must be related to the work of the position and equivalent to at least the GS-09 level in the Federal service.

Qualifying specialized experience must demonstrate the following:

  • Experience planning and carry out long-range historical studies, preparing scholarly narratives or documentary histories for publication.
  • Experience applying modern scholarly digital historical research methods, digital documentary editing standards, and best practices for digitizing historical textual materials.

OR

Have 3 full years of progressively higher- level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree OR Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree. This education must demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities to do the work of the position to be filled.

OR

Have a combination of graduate level education and specialized experience which is equivalent to the work of the position and equivalent to the GS0-9 level in the Federal service. This education and experience must meet 100% of the qualification requirements for this position.

Note: All applicants MUST submit transcripts as verification of educational requirement by the closing date of this announcement. If you fail to provide requested information, or the information you submit is insufficient to verify your eligibility, you WILL lose consideration for this position.

Education

See the qualifications section of this vacancy announcement for education requirements.

When an applicant has less than one year of specialized experience as described in the announcement, he or she may combine successfully completed graduate-level education with experience to meet the total qualification requirements. Generally, 18 graduate semester hours is equivalent to 1 full-time year of graduate study (your school and department determine what constitutes 1 full time year of graduate study). The percentage of specialized work experience (for example, 6 months equals 50%) and the percentage of graduate study (for example, 9 graduate hours for a GS-07 equals 50% where 18 graduate hours constitute a full time year) must total at least 100%.

Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet the education requirements if you can show that the foreign education is comparable to that received in an accredited educational institution in the United States. It is your responsibility to provide such evidence when applying. For a list of accredited organizations recognized as specializing in interpretation of foreign education credentials, visit: www.naces.org/members.php.

Additional information

  • For reasonable accommodation at the U.S. Department of State, please contact the Office of Accessibility and Accommodations at (202) 663-3474 or OAA@state.gov.
  • If eligible, telework agreements may be permitted with supervisory approval. 
  • Multiple positions may be filled from this announcement.  If eligible, applicants to this announcement may be referred to other similar positions in other Bureaus/Offices in the Department for up to 240 days.  Telework eligibility and security clearance requirements may vary for such similar positions. 

How you will be evaluated

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

Once the application process is complete, a review of your resume will be conducted and compared against your responses to the assessment questions to determine if you are qualified for this job.  Note:  Responses to questions that are not fully supported by the information in your resume may result in adjustments to your rating. 

Applicants who meet the minimum qualification requirements, as described in the “Qualifications” section of this announcement, will be assigned to one of three quality categories:

  1. Qualified - In addition to meeting minimum qualifications, applicants must demonstrate a basic level of the required competencies (knowledge, skills and abilities) for the position.
  2. Well Qualified - In addition to meeting minimum qualifications, applicants must demonstrate proficiency in some but not all of the required competencies (knowledge, skills, and abilities) for the position.
  3. Highly Qualified - In addition to meeting minimum qualifications, applicants must fully demonstrate proficiency in all of the required competencies (knowledge, skills and abilities) for the position.

Highly Qualified applicants may be referred to the hiring manager for further consideration and possible interview.  The category assignment is a measure of the degree in which your background matches the competencies (knowledge, skills, and abilities) required for this position. Your qualifications will be evaluated on the following competencies:

  • Ability to conduct historical research.
  • Knowledge of the history of U.S. foreign relations.
  • Skill in editing.
  • Knowledge of U.S. Foreign relations archival collections, internet collection, computerized information banks, and published materials.
  • Ability to set priorities.
  • Ability to interact effectively with others.

Veterans: Qualified veterans who have a compensable service-connected disability of at least 10% are listed in the Highly Qualified category, except when the position being filled is scientific or professional at the GS-09 grade level, or higher. This position is considered scientific/professional. Other 10-point preference eligible and veterans with 5-point preference who meet the eligibility and qualification requirements are placed above non-preference eligible applicants within the category in which they qualify.  View information on veterans' preference on OPM’s Fed Hire Vets website.

Agency and Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program (CTAP and ICTAP) Eligibles: If you have never been a Federal employee, you are not CTAP or ICTAP eligible. View information about CTAP and ICTAP eligibility on OPM's Career Transition Resources website. You must be rated in the Well-Qualified category for this position and submit the supporting documents listed under the required documents section of this job announcement to receive consideration for selection priority. 


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