Clarification from the agency

This position is open to all U.S. Citizens or U.S. Nationals. Note: Federal employees with permanent status or individuals eligible for special appointing authorities may also apply to Job Announcement # 23R-BY-309589-MPA-NMAI More than one selection may be made from this announcement.

The Staff Assistant is responsible for serving as the Staff Assistant to the Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian.

In this position, you will:

• Interact with Native American constituencies to respond to requests for special tours or other accommodations, answer questions about museum programs, exhibits and policies in a diplomatic manner that demonstrates awareness of Native American culture, history, contemporary issues and tribal community structures and hierarchies.
  
  
• Interact with persons from outside organizations, including other agencies, Museums, and universities. Responds on behalf of the Director to invitations, requests for information, and other inquiries.
  
  
• Compose correspondence, reports or statistical data from brief notes or verbal instructions, drawing on knowledge of the Director’s interest and priorities, office operations, and requirements to locate information.
  
  
• Review all outgoing correspondence for procedural and grammatical accuracy, conformance to general policy, and factual correctness. Writes memoranda and updates for distribution to museum staff and key museum stakeholders.
  
  
• Manages Director’s Schedule, Meeting Preparation and Other Administrative Matters.

Conditions of employment

• Pass Pre-employment Background Investigation
• May need to complete a Probationary Period
• Maintain a Bank Account for Direct Deposit/Electronic Transfer
• Males born after 12/31/59 must be registered with Selective Service.

Conditions of Employment

Qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of the announcement.

For information on qualification requirements, see Qualification Standards Handbook for General Schedule Positions on OPM website.

Qualifications

Experience: You qualify for this position if you have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-07 level in the Federal Service.  For this position, specialized experience is defined as general administrative experience in a museum, cultural or historical organization, including administrative tasks such as maintaining a calendar, arranging meetings, assembling correspondence and reports and interacting with external constituents.

Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

Part-time and/or unpaid experience related to this position will be considered to determine the total number of years and months of experience. Be sure to note the number of paid or unpaid hours worked each week.

OR Master's or equivalent graduate degree; 

OR   2 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree. 

OR LL.B. or J.D., if related

Or a Combination: Education and experience may be combined to meet the basic qualifications. For a full explanation of this option please see the Qualification Standards. Special Instructions for Foreign Education: If you are qualifying by education and/or you have education completed in a foreign college/university described above, it is your responsibility to provide transcripts and proof of U.S. accreditation for foreign study. For instructions on where to fax these documents, see the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.

How you will be evaluated

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

Applicants for this position may be evaluated in multiple stages. The first stage is an evaluation of your responses to the online multiple-choice questions that assess your experience, education, and/or training for the job-related competencies below:

• Knowledge of Native American culture, history, and contemporary issues as well as tribal community structures and hierarchies, to interact with Native American constituencies, gained through experience.
• Knowledge of a museum, cultural or historical organization's Director's or leadership teams’ policies and programs to respond to inquiries and requests from
  other organizations, gained through experience.
  .
• Ability to manage internal and external correspondence for an organization, gained through experience.
  
  
• Knowledge to manage an organizational official’s schedule, meeting preparation and other administrative matters, gained through experience.

Applicants who meet or exceed minimum qualifications will be assigned to one of three category groups based on job-related criteria:

• Best Category - Meets the minimum qualification requirements and excels in most of the job related competencies above.
• Better Category - Meets the minimum qualification requirements and satisfies most of the job related competencies above.
• Good Category - Meets the minimum qualification requirements, but does not satisfy most of the job related competencies above to a substantive degree.

This category rating process does not add veterans' preference points or apply the "rule of three", but protects the rights of veterans by placing them ahead of non-preference eligibles within each category. A selecting official may make selections from the highest quality category (Best Category) provided no preference eligible in that category is passed over to select a non-preference eligible in that category unless the requirements of 5 U.S.C. 3317(b) or 3318(b) are satisfied. Preference eligibles who meet minimum qualification requirements and who have a compensable service-connected disability of at least 10 percent must be listed in the highest quality category, except when the position being filled is scientific or professional at the GS-9 grade level or higher. Applicants who have not submitted a resume in the USAjobs system and/or have not answered all of the vacancy questions will not be considered for this position.

Important Note:

Your resume and supporting documentation will be compared to your responses to the occupational questionnaire or other assessment tool for consistency. If a determination is made that you have rated yourself higher than is supported by your resume, you will be assigned a rating commensurate to your described experience. Your resume should provide sufficient information regarding how your education and experience relate to this position, including the major duties and qualifications criteria listed.