Clarification from the agency

• Current U.S. Department of Education employees serving under competitive, permanent appointments; and, • Current U.S. Department of Education employees serving under temporary appointments with reinstatement eligibility.

APPLICATION LIMIT: This vacancy announcement is limited to the first 50 applications received and will close at 11:59PM Eastern Time on the day that we receive the 50th application, or at 11:59PM Eastern Time on the listed closing date, whichever occurs first.  

We encourage you to read this entire vacancy announcement prior to submitting your application.

As a Supervisory Equal Opportunity Specialist GS-0360-14, you will be responsible for:
• Provides team and program leadership in the planning and conduct of complaint investigations, compliance reviews, proactive enforcement activities, and the provision of technical assistance.
• Supervises and participates in the activities of the case resolution team, coordinates with other OCR teams, plans and assigns work, assures that quality and quantity requirements are met, evaluates performance, deals with officials of other units in the organization, advises management officials at higher levels on group complaints, effects disciplinary actions, recommends personnel actions, and promotes team building.
• Provides professional leadership and guidance to team members, state and institutional officials in conducting, extending and improving civil rights complaint investigation, compliance review, proactive enforcement and technical assistance activities. Provides leadership in establishing and maintaining positive relationships with customers including state officials, recipients, civil rights organizations, and education groups.
• Conducts extremely complex complaint investigations that are likely to result in major precedent-setting decisions and is responsible for each phase of the case through resolution. If enforcement is necessary, the Team Leader provides expert testimony in an administrative hearing or subsequent court actions.
• Reviewing the allegations, identifies, analyzes and interprets considerable pertinent data, interviews witnesses, develops legal theories and investigative plans.

Conditions of employment

• Relocation will not be paid.
• You may be subject to serve a one-year probationary period.
• Males 18 and over must be registered with the Selective Service.
• Must be a US Citizen
• You may be subject to serve a one-year supervisory probationary period.

You must meet all qualification requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this vacancy announcement.

If you are a current federal employee, you must meet all time-in-grade and time-after competitive appointment qualifications within 30 days of the closing date of this vacancy announcement. To verify that you meet these requirements, we will review your responses to the core eligibility questions on the occupational questionnaire, as well as your submitted resume and required documents. To make an accurate determination, you will need to include on your resume your federal position title, pay plan, occupational series, grade level, agency, dates for which you held the grade level (stated as MM/YYYY to MM/YYYY, OR MM/YYYY to PRESENT), and total hours worked per week. 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).

Conditions of Employment

REMOTE ELIGIBILITY:

• If selected for this position you are eligible to work remotely. Participation must be requested and approved by the supervisor and there must be a signed remote work agreement. You must have access to high speed internet and cell phone service meeting current Agency policy from the approved work location.

OR

• You may be eligible for occasional telework in which you are required to report to the office on a regular basis. Participation must be requested and approved by the supervisor and there must be a signed telework agreement. The number of telework days approved is determined by the agency policy, emergency situations, the approval of your immediate supervisor. You must have access to high speed internet and cell phone service meeting current Agency policy from the approved work location.

Qualifications

You may meet the minimum qualifications for the GS-14, if you possess the specialize experience, education, or a combination of the two.

Specialized Experience for the GS-14
One year of experience in either federal or non-federal service that is equivalent to at least a GS-13 performing two (2) out of three (3) of the following duties or work assignments:
1. Experience serving as an authority on civil rights issues.
2. Experience providing advice to less experienced staff on effective investigative strategies to resolve cases and generating clear, legally sound work products.
3. Experience coordinating the work of other specialists in conducting complex and sensitive complaint investigations.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs)
The quality of your experience will be measured by the extent to which you possess the following knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs). You do not need to provide separate narrative responses to these KSAs, as they will be measured by your responses to the occupational questionnaire (you may preview the occupational questionnaire by clicking the link at the end of the Evaluations section of this vacancy announcement).

1. Knowledge of civil rights laws and regulations.
2. Ability to organize, prioritize and manage assignments.
3. Knowledge of basic principles of research and data gathering.
4. Ability to identify pertinent information relative to the issues.
5. Skill in mediation and negotiation.

How you will be evaluated

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

We use a multi-step process to review and evaluate applicants:

1. Eligibility and Minimum Qualifications

Once the vacancy announcement closes, we will review your submitted resume and documents to determine if you meet the eligibility and minimum qualification requirements, including any required education, experience, and/or selective placement factors. You will be rated as ineligible if you are outside of the area of consideration (i.e., who may apply) or your application is missing any required documents. You will be rated as not qualified if you do not possess the minimum qualification requirements.

2. Rating and Ranking

If you are found to meet both the eligibility and minimum qualification requirements, we will assess the quality of your experience and the extent to which you possess the required KSAs by comparing your submitted resume and documents against your responses to the occupational questionnaire. (The occupational questionnaire is the list of questions in the automated system that you will have an opportunity to answer once you apply for the position). You will be evaluated based on how well you meet the qualifications and competencies listed in this vacancy announcement (if applicable). Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., resume, supporting documents), the responses you provide on the application questionnaire, and the result of the Monster Competency Based Assessment(s) (if applicable) required for this position. You will be assessed on the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics):

Based on the outcome of this evaluation, you will be assigned a numerical score (out of 100 possible). If your responses to the occupational questionnaire are not substantiated by your submitted resume, you may be eliminated from receiving further consideration.

3. Referral and Selection

If you are found to be amongst the most highly qualified applicants, you will be referred to the selecting official. As part of the assessment and selection process, the selecting official may invite you to participate in a structured interview, check your references, and/or request that you submit a writing sample or complete a written assessment or exercise to further evaluate your qualifications for this position.

Supervisory: Oral Communications, Interpersonal Skills, Problem Solving, Decision Making, Customer Service, Leadership, Planning and Evaluating, Influencing/Negotiating, Strategic Thinking and Human Capital Management