Clarification from the agency

U.S. Citizens

The Director, Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA), is responsible for managing a national effort to leverage federal resources and stimulate private capital investments in water infrastructure by providing billions of dollars of credit assistance in the form of direct loans and loan guarantees to entities for water infrastructure projects. WIFIA is located within the Office of Wastewater Management. Major program responsibilities include:

• Performs all functions necessary to make loans ranging from $5 million to over $700 million to water infrastructure projects across the country. This activity is administered directly by headquarters staff without assistance from regional offices or states.
• Manages a bank located at EPA headquarters that lends billions of dollars annually to finance water infrastructure projects of national and regional significance.
• Serves as a direct lender to public and private borrowers nationwide, offering large dollar value loans each with flexible terms that are individually customized to each borrowers' circumstances.
• Monitors projects and borrowers from loan closing to final repayment, typically 40 years, to ensure compliance with their loan's terms.
• Develops programmatic policy and procedures to make sure that EPA is investing in water infrastructure projects that are financially and environmentally sound.
• Educates stakeholders on a national level, primarily municipalities, states, utilities, and corporations all around the country to develop a pipeline of projects seeking financing.
• Implements the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act in compliance with the Federal Credit Reform Act, National Environmental Protection Act, Buy America, Build America, Davis-Bacon, American Iron and Steel, and other federal requirements.

• Planning, developing, organizing, directing and implementing programs for which the Director is assigned Agency-wide responsibility, including selecting, assigning, and providing leadership, direction and guidance to a multidisciplined staff to achieve assigned major program objectives.
• Assessing needs, defining goals, developing program plans, establishing the organizational structure of the WIFIA division, delegating authority and responsibility, and establishing overall WIFIA division operating policies, priorities, and procedures.
• Coordinating division activities with related or interdependent efforts with internal and external stakeholders.
• Ensuring that extramural resources, both procurement (contracts) and assistance (grants, cooperative agreements and interagency agreements), are efficiently and appropriately managed to maximize use of the Agency's resources.
• Supervising a large staff of employees organized into units headed by subordinate managers and supervisors.

Conditions of employment

You must be a U.S. Citizen.

If you are selected, you must complete a 1-year SES probationary period, if not previously completed.

The Ethics in Government Act, P.L. 95-521, requires the applicant selected for this position to submit a financial disclosure statement, OGE-278, prior to assuming the SES position, annually, and upon termination of employment.

REAL ID requirements became effective on 05/07/25. If you are selected for this position and plan to use your driver's license or identification card during the onboarding process (i.e., for employment eligibility verification or to obtain your EPA identification card), the document must be a REAL ID-compliant state-issued driver's license or identification card that includes the REAL ID-compliant star marking, or must be an Enhanced Driver's License (EDL). You will receive information about alternative acceptable documents (e.g., passport) prior to onboarding. For more information about REAL ID, see Dept. of Homeland Security and REAL ID FAQs.

This position is designated as High Risk and requires a background investigation. Unless an appropriate background investigation is already on record with the Office of Personnel Management, you must undergo a background investigation. All conditions of the pre-employment security process must be met before an official letter of employment can be issued with a report for duty date.

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Qualifications

The work of this position is classified in the Program Management, 0340 series where the qualifications include both general management skills and characteristics that are applicable to all SES positions and technical or program responsibilities specific to this position. Applicants must have substantive general experience which provides a good basic or general knowledge of the principles of organization, management and administration; and substantive specialized (operating administrative or managerial) experience in a type of work or a combination of functions directly related to this position.

All applicants must have one year of specialized experience at a level close to the work of this job that demonstrates the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities required to successfully perform in this role. Typically this experience can be found in work within this field or a field that is closely related.

As a basic requirement for entry into the Senior Executive Service, applicants must also provide evidence of progressively responsible leadership experience that is indicative of senior level management capability and directly related to the skills and abilities outlined under the Executive Core Qualifications and Technical Qualifications listed below.

A. Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs) - Mandatory for competitive applicants - Failure to address these factors within the required 2-page resume will result in your application being disqualified, unless you are a noncompetitive eligible applicant.

ECQ 1 - COMMITMENT TO THE RULE OF LAW AND THE PRINCIPLES OF THE AMERICAN FOUNDING. Involves demonstrated knowledge of the American system of government, commitment to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law, and commitment to serve the American people.
ECQ 2 - DRIVING EFFICIENCY. Involves demonstrated ability to strategically and efficiently manage resources, budget effectively, cut wasteful spending, and pursue efficiency through process and technological upgrades.
ECQ 3 - MERIT AND COMPETENCE. Involves demonstrated knowledge, ability, and technical competence to effectively and reliably produce work that is of exceptional quality.
ECQ 4 - LEADING PEOPLE. Involves demonstrated ability to lead and inspire a group toward meeting the organization's vision, mission, and goals, and to drive a high-performance, high-accountability culture. This includes, when necessary, the ability to lead people through change and hold individuals accountable.
ECQ 5 - ACHIEVING RESULTS. Involves demonstrated ability to achieve both individual and organizational results, and to align results to stated goals from superiors.

Your responses should be clear and concise and show a level of accomplishment and a degree of responsibility. Leadership competencies for each ECQ can be found in OPM's Guide to SES Qualifications.

B. Technical Qualifications (TQs) - Mandatory for all applicants - Failure to address these factors within the required 2-page resume will result in your application being disqualified.

TQ 1 - Demonstrated experience managing a federal credit program or a private financing program; and/or leading a complex financial assistance program.

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 required documents to ensure you meet the basic qualification requirements. If you meet basic qualification requirements, your application will be evaluated based on the experience described in your resume with the required Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs) and Technical Qualifications (TQs). It will then be forwarded to a three-member Rating Panel consisting of SES members for further review. The Rating Panel will decide which Best Qualified applicants will be issued to the Selecting Official by the Human Resources Office.