A successful candidate in this position will support the Los Alamos Field Office (NA-LA), Counsel, representing the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) General Counsel (GC) and serving as a principal legal advisor for NNSA.
Summary
A successful candidate in this position will support the Los Alamos Field Office (NA-LA), Counsel, representing the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) General Counsel (GC) and serving as a principal legal advisor for NNSA.
Identify, review, and interpret new or existing case law, federal, state and local laws and regulations and proposed Federal and state legislation and regulations which may have an impact on assigned programs, projects and functions and prepares and coordinates statements of the Office's position with regard to such legislation or regulation.
Serve as the senior legal counsel to management of the Los Alamos Site Office (LASO) providing complete legal services, legal counsel, and professional legal staff work in all areas of law and legal policy arising from the operations of the Site Office.
Participate in the conduct of litigation by or against the NNSA and/or its contractors and claims against NNSA pursuant to contract, tort or statute.
Perform specialized professional legal staff work of exceptional difficulty, responsibility, and significance in the negotiation, preparation, review, and administration of major contracts, cooperative agreements, and prime contractor terms and conditions as applied to subcontractors. Represents the agency in negotiations with representatives of other federal agencies, and state and local governments.
Draft and interpret decisions, opinions, contracts and other legal instruments that resolve extremely
complex legal and factual issues, some of which involve unusual sensitivity due to the high degree of political or public interest and which require a high order of original and creative legal endeavor.
Must be able to obtain/maintain a Q level Security Clearance.
You must be a United States Citizen.
This employer participates in the e-Verify program.
Males must abide by Selective Service registration requirements.
Compliance with Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD-12) governing personal identity which will require that you provide two forms of identification.
A one-year probationary period may be required.
The incumbent must maintain an active membership in good standing in a State Bar.
Qualifications
A qualified candidate's online application and resume must demonstrate at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower NNSA Demonstration Project pay band or GS grade level in the Federal service, i.e., NQ-03 or GS-14.
Specialized experience for this position is defined as:Experience in ALL of the following areas:
Supervising a legal staff
Resolving complex legal and factual issues in the drafting and interpretation of complicated decisions, opinions, contracts and other legal instruments
Preparing and presenting cases before administrative tribunals
Providing legal services on problems having unusual sensitivity due to the high degree of political or public interest
Developing important legal public policies or programs with unique contractual relationships and complex legal and policy considerations
Examples of specialized experience include but are not limited to:
Experience in developing and recommending mitigation strategies that appropriately balance business, programmatic and operational needs with those legal risks.
Experience in leading and managing a legal program and team of legal professionals.
Experience in performing as a principal legal advisor.
Your application and resume should demonstrate that you possess the following competencies. Do not provide a separate narrative written statement. Rather, you must describe in your application how your past work experience demonstrates that you possess the competencies. identified below. Cite specific examples of employment or experience contained in your resume and describe how this experience has prepared you to successfully perform the duties of this position. DO NOT write "see resume" in your application!
Decision Making
Influencing/Negotiating
Leadership
Legal, Government and Jurisprudence
"Experience" refers to paid and unpaid experience. Examples of qualifying unpaid experience may include: volunteer work done through National Service programs (such as Peace Corps and AmeriCorps); as well as work for other community-based philanthropic and social organizations. 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.
You must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of this announcement.
CTAP candidates: To be considered "well qualified" you must meet all of the requirements as described in this section.
Education
Education
This position has a positive education requirement.
Must be a graduate from a law school accredited by the American Bar Association.
Foreign Education:
Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet 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. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must submit a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, please click Foreign Education.
Additional information
Other Information:
The U.S. Department of Energy fosters a diverse and inclusive workplace and is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
Veterans and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply. For more information, please visit the links at the bottom of this page or visit the FedsHireVets. Click HERE.
More than one selection may be made from this vacancy announcement.
Many positions require successful completion of a background investigation.
All males born after December 31st 1959 must abide by laws regarding Selective Service registration. To learn more about this law, visit the Selective Service web page, Who Must Register. If you are not registered and don't have an approved exemption, you will not be eligible for employment with the Federal government.
A Recruitment/Relocation Incentive may be authorized for a highly qualified applicant in accordance with Agency policy.
A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.
Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.
How you will be evaluated
You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.
We will review your application to ensure you meet the job requirements. If you meet the qualifications requirements, your application will be referred to the selecting official for further review.
If your resume is incomplete or does not support the responses you provided in your online questionnaire, or if you fail to submit all required documentation before the vacancy closes, you may be rated 'ineligible', 'not qualified'.
A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.
Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.
Please carefully review the following list to determine what documentation you need to submit. Some documents may not apply to all applicants. If you are unsure, click the link for each document type to read more.
ALL APPLICANTS:You must submit a resume supporting your specialized experience and responses to the online questionnaire.
Your resume shall list all work experience (paid and unpaid); you must list the full name and address of the each employer.
For all types of work experience, you shall indicate the start and end dates (include month, day, and year); you must also list the average number of hours per week that you worked.
For paid work experience, you shall indicate your starting salary for each position and the highest salary you earned (if different).
Your resume should also include any education and training you have completed (list the program title, subject area, number of hours completed, and completion date).
You may list all incentive awards on your resume.
You will be notified at the time you click 'Apply Online' which is required. It is important that you are complete and thorough in your resume.
If any of the above information is not included in your resume, we may not be able to fully credit you for your experience.
For more information about what to include in your resume, please view this USAJOBS Resume Tutorial video on YouTube.
Current and former Federal employees: Most recent SF-50 (Standard Form 50 - Notice of Personnel Action). To properly verify status eligibility, your SF-50 must show the following. If you do not submit an appropriate SF-50, we cannot verify your status eligibility!
Full position title;
appointment type;
occupational series;
pay plan, grade, and step;
tenure code; and
service computation date (SCD).
If your current position SF50 does not indicate you have competitive service status or does not reflect the pay plan and grade of the highest position you have held in the competitive service, in addition to your current SF50, you must provide your previous SF-50s that provide the proof of competitive status and highest grade held on a permanent basis.
For Professional, Scientific and Engineering Positions: If qualifying on the basis of an alternate method, i.e., professional license, you must submit official documentation to support your claim with your application package.
Applicants using education to qualify (if allowed): Documentation verifying your educational claims which can include unofficial transcripts. Education cannot be substituted for experience in some positions at higher grade levels. Please see the Education section for more information.
Positive Education requirement: For those positions that have a positive education requirement, you must provide an unofficial transcript to show proof. See the Education section for more information.
Performance Appraisals: Submit your two (2) most recent performance appraisals. Your performance appraisals and incentive awards will be given due consideration in the selection process based on their relation to the duties of the position and the consistency with which they may be considered in evaluating you against other applicants. If the performance appraisals are not available, please provide a written statement of explanation and upload as a separate document.
To be considered for this position, you must submit your complete application no later than 11:59pm U.S. Eastern Time on the closing date of this announcement. If you do not submit a complete application prior to the closing time (regardless of when you started) the online application system will not allow you to finish! Requests for extensions will not be granted, so please begin the application process allowing yourself enough time to finish before the deadline. Our online application system displays a countdown timer at the top of the screen for your reference. For your security, your session in our online application system will "time-out" if you are inactive for a certain period of time. We recommend that you preview the assessment questions before you apply and prepare all of your information prior to beginning the application. If you do get "timed-out" you will have to log back in to USAJOBS and re-visit the vacancy announcement, you can then click "Update Application" to finish where you left off.
Steps to submit a complete application:
You must have a USAJOBS account and be logged in.
You must have a complete resume associated with your USAJOBS account. Please note that some DOE offices do not accept uploaded resumes and instead require that you submit a USAJOBS-formatted resume using the Resume Builder.
You will be prompted to select a resume and any documentation you have attached to your USAJOBS account before you are transferred to the Department of Energy's online application system. Please be aware that any document you select before being transferred to our system, will not automatically be received. You must take steps to download your documents from USAJOBS during the "Documents" step within our online application system (see Step 6).
If you are a first-time applicant to the Department of Energy, you'll be asked to register an account first. If you are a returning applicant, you will skip this step and go straight to the application portion.
You must respond to all applicant assessment questions, carefully following all instructions provided.
You will then be asked to upload additional supporting documentation. If you selected documents from USAJOBS prior to being transferred to our application system (Step 3), you will need to click the "USAJOBS" link to complete the transfer process. These documents ARE NOT automatically transferred! It is ultimately your responsibility to make sure all required documents are either faxed, uploaded, or transferred from USAJOBS successfully. If you are unsure that your documents went through, please contact the HR Specialist listed on the announcement BEFORE the vacancy closes.
After reviewing your submission in the final step, you must click "Submit Application" at the bottom of the page. If you leave the application before clicking Submit, your application will not be received.
NEED HELP?
If you experience any difficulties with the online application process (anything after you have clicked the 'Apply Online' button): contact the HR Specialist listed on this announcement between normal business hours. If you are receiving any kind of error message, please be ready to provide a screenshot or at a minimum, the error message text and number. If necessary, we will put you in touch with the technical support number if we are unable to assist you personally.
If you are having trouble with USAJOBS (searching for jobs, account password/profile issues, or Resume Builder): please visit the USAJOBS Resource Center. We regret that we are unable to support any issues with USAJOBS, as this service is not maintained by the Department of Energy.
If you are experiencing a significant hardship which hinders your ability to apply online please contact the HR Specialist listed on this announcement during normal business hours to discuss your situation.
Los Alamos Field Office
24600 20th St SE
Kirtland AFB, NM 87117-5507
US
Next steps
After each step in the recruitment process, your status will be updated in our application tracking system. Once this happens, if you have elected to receive e-mail updates, you will be notified through your USAJOBS registered e-mail address. If you have not elected for e-mail updates, you can review your current application status in USAJOBS at any time. Please check that your USAJOBS profile contact information is current and correct each time you apply to a job--this will ensure we are able to contact you as quickly as possible.
In addition to changing your status online, we will send you e-mail notifications at each major step in the process, to include: application received, eligible or not eligible, referred or not referred, selected or not selected.
The Federal hiring process is set up to be fair and transparent. Please read the following guidance.
Please carefully review the following list to determine what documentation you need to submit. Some documents may not apply to all applicants. If you are unsure, click the link for each document type to read more.
ALL APPLICANTS:You must submit a resume supporting your specialized experience and responses to the online questionnaire.
Your resume shall list all work experience (paid and unpaid); you must list the full name and address of the each employer.
For all types of work experience, you shall indicate the start and end dates (include month, day, and year); you must also list the average number of hours per week that you worked.
For paid work experience, you shall indicate your starting salary for each position and the highest salary you earned (if different).
Your resume should also include any education and training you have completed (list the program title, subject area, number of hours completed, and completion date).
You may list all incentive awards on your resume.
You will be notified at the time you click 'Apply Online' which is required. It is important that you are complete and thorough in your resume.
If any of the above information is not included in your resume, we may not be able to fully credit you for your experience.
For more information about what to include in your resume, please view this USAJOBS Resume Tutorial video on YouTube.
Current and former Federal employees: Most recent SF-50 (Standard Form 50 - Notice of Personnel Action). To properly verify status eligibility, your SF-50 must show the following. If you do not submit an appropriate SF-50, we cannot verify your status eligibility!
Full position title;
appointment type;
occupational series;
pay plan, grade, and step;
tenure code; and
service computation date (SCD).
If your current position SF50 does not indicate you have competitive service status or does not reflect the pay plan and grade of the highest position you have held in the competitive service, in addition to your current SF50, you must provide your previous SF-50s that provide the proof of competitive status and highest grade held on a permanent basis.
For Professional, Scientific and Engineering Positions: If qualifying on the basis of an alternate method, i.e., professional license, you must submit official documentation to support your claim with your application package.
Applicants using education to qualify (if allowed): Documentation verifying your educational claims which can include unofficial transcripts. Education cannot be substituted for experience in some positions at higher grade levels. Please see the Education section for more information.
Positive Education requirement: For those positions that have a positive education requirement, you must provide an unofficial transcript to show proof. See the Education section for more information.
Performance Appraisals: Submit your two (2) most recent performance appraisals. Your performance appraisals and incentive awards will be given due consideration in the selection process based on their relation to the duties of the position and the consistency with which they may be considered in evaluating you against other applicants. If the performance appraisals are not available, please provide a written statement of explanation and upload as a separate document.
To be considered for this position, you must submit your complete application no later than 11:59pm U.S. Eastern Time on the closing date of this announcement. If you do not submit a complete application prior to the closing time (regardless of when you started) the online application system will not allow you to finish! Requests for extensions will not be granted, so please begin the application process allowing yourself enough time to finish before the deadline. Our online application system displays a countdown timer at the top of the screen for your reference. For your security, your session in our online application system will "time-out" if you are inactive for a certain period of time. We recommend that you preview the assessment questions before you apply and prepare all of your information prior to beginning the application. If you do get "timed-out" you will have to log back in to USAJOBS and re-visit the vacancy announcement, you can then click "Update Application" to finish where you left off.
Steps to submit a complete application:
You must have a USAJOBS account and be logged in.
You must have a complete resume associated with your USAJOBS account. Please note that some DOE offices do not accept uploaded resumes and instead require that you submit a USAJOBS-formatted resume using the Resume Builder.
You will be prompted to select a resume and any documentation you have attached to your USAJOBS account before you are transferred to the Department of Energy's online application system. Please be aware that any document you select before being transferred to our system, will not automatically be received. You must take steps to download your documents from USAJOBS during the "Documents" step within our online application system (see Step 6).
If you are a first-time applicant to the Department of Energy, you'll be asked to register an account first. If you are a returning applicant, you will skip this step and go straight to the application portion.
You must respond to all applicant assessment questions, carefully following all instructions provided.
You will then be asked to upload additional supporting documentation. If you selected documents from USAJOBS prior to being transferred to our application system (Step 3), you will need to click the "USAJOBS" link to complete the transfer process. These documents ARE NOT automatically transferred! It is ultimately your responsibility to make sure all required documents are either faxed, uploaded, or transferred from USAJOBS successfully. If you are unsure that your documents went through, please contact the HR Specialist listed on the announcement BEFORE the vacancy closes.
After reviewing your submission in the final step, you must click "Submit Application" at the bottom of the page. If you leave the application before clicking Submit, your application will not be received.
NEED HELP?
If you experience any difficulties with the online application process (anything after you have clicked the 'Apply Online' button): contact the HR Specialist listed on this announcement between normal business hours. If you are receiving any kind of error message, please be ready to provide a screenshot or at a minimum, the error message text and number. If necessary, we will put you in touch with the technical support number if we are unable to assist you personally.
If you are having trouble with USAJOBS (searching for jobs, account password/profile issues, or Resume Builder): please visit the USAJOBS Resource Center. We regret that we are unable to support any issues with USAJOBS, as this service is not maintained by the Department of Energy.
If you are experiencing a significant hardship which hinders your ability to apply online please contact the HR Specialist listed on this announcement during normal business hours to discuss your situation.
Los Alamos Field Office
24600 20th St SE
Kirtland AFB, NM 87117-5507
US
Next steps
After each step in the recruitment process, your status will be updated in our application tracking system. Once this happens, if you have elected to receive e-mail updates, you will be notified through your USAJOBS registered e-mail address. If you have not elected for e-mail updates, you can review your current application status in USAJOBS at any time. Please check that your USAJOBS profile contact information is current and correct each time you apply to a job--this will ensure we are able to contact you as quickly as possible.
In addition to changing your status online, we will send you e-mail notifications at each major step in the process, to include: application received, eligible or not eligible, referred or not referred, selected or not selected.
Fair and transparent
The Federal hiring process is set up to be fair and transparent. Please read the following guidance.
