Clarification from the agency

This vacancy announcement is open to the public. This position allows for situational and recurring telework, but does not qualify for full-time or remote telework. The duty station is in the Thurgood Marshal Federal Judiciary Building at One Columbus Circle NE in Washington, DC, across the street from Union Station with easy access to Metro (red line), VRE, MARC, and Amtrak.

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO), Department of Administrative Services, Human Resources Office (HRO), Benefits Division is seeking a self-motivated and experienced Human Resources Specialist (Employee Benefits) to join its team. This position reports to the Benefits Division Chief.

The Benefits Division provides a wide variety of HR services, including retirement counseling and services, federal benefits program management, and human resources advisory assistance.

The Human Resources Specialist must have excellent communication, strong interpersonal, organizational, and analytical skills. The ideal candidate must have experience in a team environment, and the ability to work collaboratively with internal and external stakeholders.

The duties of this position include, but are not limited to:

1. Serving as a primary contact for judiciary human resources staff and employees nearing retirement, offering authoritative guidance on benefits, retirement options, and associated processes.
2. Providing counseling and guidance on federal benefits and retirement program issues.
3. Developing clear, comprehensive benefits and retirement program communication materials, including guidance documents, job aids, and informational resources to support employee understanding and decision making.
4. Developing and delivering benefits and retirement program presentations and training to a wide range of audiences using multiple delivery methods, including in-person sessions, webcasts, video, and teleconferences.
5. Providing in-depth retirement counseling to employees nearing retirement, as well as survivors and beneficiaries, ensuring understanding of options, timelines, and post-retirement benefits.
6. Processing retirement applications and death cases, calculating annuity estimates and prior federal and military service deposits/redeposits, processing individual retirement records, and researching and adjudicating Federal Erroneous Retirement Coverage Corrections Act cases.
7. Recommending and assisting management with implementing process improvements, setting work priorities, creating and updating standard operating procedures, and making program reconciliations.
8. Conducting inquiries, updating contact information, initiating reconciliation corrections, and generating reports via OPM's Centralized Enrollment Clearinghouse System portal.
9. Researching and providing guidance on Title 5 statutes, policies, regulations, and guidance regarding federal retirement programs, including the Thrift Savings Plan.
10. Providing program management and assistance on federal benefits programs, including Federal Employees Health Benefit Program, Federal Employees Group Life Insurance Program, Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program, Flexible Spending Benefit Program, and Federal Long-Term Care Program.
11. Performing retirement estimates and benefits calculations using the Government Retirement & Benefits Platform, and ensuring accuracy and alignment with applicable rules and employee service histories.

Conditions of employment

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

1. All information is subject to verification. Applicants are advised that false answers or omissions of information on application materials or inability to meet the following conditions may be grounds for non-selection, withdrawal of an offer of employment, or dismissal after being employed.
2. Selection for this position is contingent upon completion of OF-306, Declaration of Federal Employment during the pre-employment process and proof of U.S. citizenship for competitive status positions or conversion to a competitive status position with the AO. If non-citizens are considered for hire into a temporary or any other position with non-competitive status or when it is confirmed by the AO Human Resources Office there are no qualified U.S. citizens for a competitive status position (unless prohibited by a law or statue), non-citizens must provide proof of authorization to work in the U.S. and proof of entitlement to receive compensation. Additional information on the employment of non-citizens can be found at USAJOBS Help Center | Employment of non-citizens/. For a list of documents that may be used to provide proof of citizenship or authorization to work in the United States, please refer to Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification.
3. All new AO employees will be required to complete an FBI fingerprint-based national criminal database and records check and pass a public trust suitability check.
4. New employees to the AO will be required to successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights/responsibilities, visit https://www.e-verify.gov/.
5. All new AO employees are required to identify a financial institution for direct deposit of pay before appointment.
6. You will be required to serve a trial period if selected for a first-time appointment to the Federal government, transferring from another Federal agency, or serving as a first-time supervisor. Failure to successfully complete the trial period may result in termination of employment.
7. If appointed to a temporary position, management may have the discretion of converting the position to permanent depending upon funding and staffing allocation.

Qualifications

Applicants must have demonstrated experience as listed below. This requirement is according to the AO Classification, Compensation, and Recruitment Systems which include interpretive guidance and reference to the OPM Operating Manual for Qualification Standards for General Schedule Positions.

Specialized Experience: Applicants must have at least one full year (52 weeks) of specialized experience which is in or directly related to the line of work of this position. Specialized experience must demonstrate experience in ALL areas defined below:

• Providing counseling and guidance on benefits and retirement programs.
• Developing and delivering effective communication materials, presentations, and training on benefits and retirement programs.
• Processing retirement applications and death cases, including calculating annuity estimates, and service credit.

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 resume and supporting documentation and compare this information to your responses on the occupational questionnaire to determine if you meet the minimum qualifications for this job. If you meet the minimum qualifications for this job, we will evaluate your application package, to assess the quality, depth, and complexity of your accomplishments, experience, and education as they relate to the requirements listed in this vacancy announcement.

You should be aware that your ratings are subject to evaluation and verification. If a determination is made that you have rated yourself higher than is supported by your resume and/or narrative responses, you will be assigned a rating commensurate to your described experience. Failure to submit the mandatory narrative responses will result in not receiving full consideration and/or rating credit. Deliberate attempts to falsify information may be grounds for not selecting you, withdrawing an offer of employment, or dismissal after being employed.