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HR Specialist (Recruitment and Placement)

Department of Energy
Department of Energy - Agency Wide
Power Marketing Administration HR Shared Service Center, Talent Acquisition Branch (21000)

Summary

This position is part of the Power Marketing Administration HR Shared Service Center. As an HR Specialist, you will be an expert advisor and technical service provider. This position interprets Federal and DOE-wide policy, legislative and regulatory guidance, or equivalent issues (e.g., reengineering and improving HR processes); develops and prepares management recommendations, interventions for significant HR issues and concerns; works with teams or independently to execute special projects.

Overview

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Accepting applications
Open & closing dates
03/10/2026 to 03/20/2026
Salary
$99,800 to - $154,280 per year
Pay scale & grade
GS 12 - 13
Location
1 vacancy in the following location:
Lakewood, CO
Remote job
No
Telework eligible
Yes—Situational, as determined by the agency policy.
Travel Required
Occasional travel - Occasional travel up to 15% annually is required, with overnight travel possible during all or part of the time.
Relocation expenses reimbursed
No
Appointment type
Permanent
Work schedule
Full-time
Service
Competitive
Promotion potential
13
Supervisory status
No
Security clearance
Not Required
Drug test
No
Position sensitivity and risk
Moderate Risk (MR)
Trust determination process
Financial disclosure
No
Bargaining unit status
No
Announcement number
26-PW-00372-12905783-MP
Control number
860526400

This job is open to

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Clarification from the agency

Current Federal employees with competitive status or other eligibility; Former Federal employees with reinstatement eligibility; CTAP/ICTAP eligibles; Veterans with VOW, VEOA, or 30% disability; Military Spouses; Individuals with Disabilities Schedule A; Peace Corps, Vista (AmeriCorps) eligibles; Those eligible under an OPM interchange agreement or other special appointing authority.

Duties

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As an HR Specialist (Recruitment and Placement) at the full performance level, you will:

  • Represent PMA HR SSC rendering expert and authoritative recruitment and placement advisory and technical services. Perform broad reaching, innovative, cross-functional analyses to develop human resources (HR) recommendations responding proactively to specific HR challenges.
  • Manage and/or accomplish the most complex recruitment and placement work assignments, complete extremely difficult and/or complicated projects, regularly requiring identification and resolution of precedent-setting and/or highly controversial operational problems.
  • Complete pre-announcement duties. Conduct recruitment conversations with hiring managers. Work with hiring managers on refining and/or developing recruitment/placement criteria to recruit for hard-to-fill highly technical, professional and/or specialized positions in areas where a shortage of qualified personnel exists.
  • Consult with and expertly advise managers about internal Merit Promotion and external Delegated Examining (DE) vacancy announcements. Establish priorities for filling positions, considering the importance of vacancies to missions, and the availability of qualified internal and/or external candidates to fill positions.
  • Expertly advise customers about recruitment and placement regulatory guidance and its applicability to hiring efforts (e.g., Veterans Preference, USERRA, SME utilization, DHA, etc.).
  • Lead or participate in identification, design, development, and implementation of more efficient ways to deliver recruitment and staffing products and services to assigned organization managers and staff through automated information systems.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

  • Must be a U.S. Citizen or National.
  • This employer participates in the e-Verify program.
  • Males born after 12/31/1959 must be registered for Selective Service.
  • Suitable for Federal employment, as determined by a background investigation.
  • May be required to successfully complete a probationary/trial period. Employees serving on a probationary or trial period may be terminated at any time during the probationary or trial period for performance, conduct, or business-related reasons in the interest of Federal service.
  • Limit your resume to no more than two (2) pages. If more than two pages are submitted, only the first two pages will be reviewed to determine your eligibility and qualifications.
  • In accordance with Executive Order 14170, applicants are encouraged to respond to the four short, free-response, essay questions in the questionnaire. Answers to these questions are not scored or rated. Your answers will be reviewed by the hiring manager and agency leadership if you are referred for selection consideration.
  • Security clearance and associated requirements - moderate risk.
  • Duties may require the employee to obtain and maintain an appropriate security clearance to provide recruitment and placement advisory services and transactions involving classified information.
  • At the GS-12 level, you must be able to obtain and maintain Delegated Examining certification with-in 1 year of your appointment.
  • At the GS-13 level, Requirement of Delegated Examining certification at time of appointment.

Qualifications

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS: A qualified candidate's online application and resume must demonstrate at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience for this position is defined as:

At the GS-12 grade level, you must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-11 grade level in the Federal service in the following:

  1. Advising management on recruitment strategies and hiring authorities including Delegated Examining (DE), Merit Promotion (MP), and government-wide special hiring authorities for excepted service and competitive service positions; and
  2. Experience in all the following staffing functions: identifying competencies and conducting job analyses, creating assessment questionnaires, creating job opportunity announcements using automated HR systems, reviewing application materials for eligibility and qualifications determinations, adjudication of veterans' preference, determining appointment eligibilities, creating ranking and certificate of eligible applicant lists; and
  3. Preparing, reviewing and processing a wide variety of personnel actions and ensure accuracy of information and compliance with all applicable regulations and guidelines; and
  4. Providing full range of staffing/recruitment and placement consultative services to managers, employees, and applicants; and
  5. Responding to human resource inquiries from internal and external stakeholders and applicants; and
  6. Conducting quality control and assurance reviews to ensure recruitment and placement actions, case files, and processed personnel actions are accurate, complete, and compliant with federal requirements and agency guidelines.

At the GS-13 grade level, you must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-12 grade level in the Federal service in the following:
  1. Experience serving as a subject-matter expert to management on a wide variety of complex, sensitive, and difficult HR issues, including providing authoritative interpretations of policy, regulations, and law; and
  2. Proficiency in using automated personnel systems relevant to federal HR (e.g., USA Staffing, HR systems within federal agencies) to process actions, as well as the ability to independently extract, troubleshoot, and resolve difficult issues/problems requiring consideration of the total human resource management program; and
  3. Proven expertise in managing the entire recruitment and staffing process for federal agencies, from developing strategic recruitment plans and crediting plans with hiring managers to managing competitive/excepted service appointments, priority placement programs (e.g., PPP, CTAP/ICTAP), and veterans' preference; and
  4. A comprehensive background in applying, interpreting, and ensuring compliance with Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and Department of Energy (DOE) regulations. This includes experience developing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and responding to audits specific to federal HR programs; and
  5. Experience planning, evaluating, and leading HR projects and initiatives within a federal agency context. This involves conducting studies, developing solutions to complex problems, and creating guidance and standards for new or changing programs relevant HR operations.

Time-in-Grade: Current career or career-conditional GS employees of the Federal government, or former career or career-conditional GS employees, who have a break in service of less than one year, are required to meet the time-in-grade restriction of one year of Federal experience at the next lower grade, with few exceptions outlined in 5 CFR 300.603(b). Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to current career or career-conditional federal employees applying for a Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment.

Limit your resume to no more than two (2) pages. If more than two pages are submitted, only the first two pages will be reviewed to determine your eligibility and qualifications.

Education

For this position, education cannot be substituted for experience.

Additional information

  • This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional similar vacancies across DOE.
  • For general information on government-wide Telework polices visit: www.telework.gov.
  • Applicants may request Reasonable Accommodation (RA) when applying or competing for a job due to a medical condition or to exercise religious beliefs. If you need reasonable accommodation in the application or selection process, please contact the Agency Contact listed on this vacancy announcement.
  • If selection is made at a lower grade, promotion up to the full performance level may be made without further competition. However, promotion(s) will depend on the performance of the incumbent and are not guaranteed.
  • Permanent Change of Station (PCS) costs are not authorized.
  • This position may be eligible for creditable service towards annual leave. Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. DOE may offer newly-appointed Federal employee's credit for their job-related non-federal experience or active duty uniformed military service. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed.
  • Salary: The salary range indicated in this announcement will be adjusted to include locality payment for selected duty location. General Schedule locality pay tables may be found under Salaries & Wages.

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

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, the first two pages of your resume and supporting documentation will be used to determine whether you meet the job qualifications.

The Department of Energy uses an application tracking system to evaluate the scores provided from the USA Hire Assessment to place you into an initial quality category via OPM's Category Rating procedures. These categories are "Best Qualified", "Well Qualified", and "Qualified."

Minimum Qualifications: Once the application process is complete, the Human Resources Office will review the first two pages of your resume and supporting documentation to determine whether you meet the minimum job qualifications.

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', or your score may be adjusted accordingly.

Your qualifications will be evaluated on the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics):

  • Accountability
  • Attention to Detail
  • Customer Service
  • Decision Making
  • Flexibility
  • Influencing/Negotiating
  • Integrity/Honesty
  • Interpersonal Skills
  • Learning
  • Reading Comprehension
  • Reasoning
  • Self-Management
  • Stress Tolerance
  • Teamwork



All qualified Non-competitive applicants and the best qualified Merit Promotion and VEOA applicants will be referred to the hiring manager for consideration.

Career Transition Assistance Programs: To receive selection priority for this position, you must: 1) meet the eligibility criteria; and 2) be rated "well-qualified".

You must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date (03/20/2026) of this announcement.

USAHire: To be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. In addition to the application and application questionnaire, this position requires an online assessment. The online assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job.

Reasonable Accommodation Requests: If you believe you have a disability (i.e., physical or mental), covered by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended, that would interfere with completing the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be granted the opportunity to request a reasonable accommodation in your online application. Requests for Reasonable Accommodations for the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments and appropriate supporting documentation for Reasonable Accommodation must be received prior to starting the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments. Decisions on requests for Reasonable Accommodations are made on a case-by-case basis. If you meet the minimum qualifications of the position, after notification of the adjudication of your request, you will receive an email invitation to complete the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments. You must complete all assessments within 48 hours of receiving the URL to access the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, if you received the link after the close of the announcement. To determine if you need a Reasonable Accommodation, please review the Procedures for Requesting a Reasonable Accommodation for Online Assessments here.

To preview the Assessment Questionnaire, click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12905783.

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