Clarification from the agency

MARAD.MMA-wide employees with competitive status only, including FAA employees eligible for competitive announcements through FAA's OPM Interchange Agreement.

The Executive Assistant:

• Maintains the supervisor’s daily and long-range calendars. Determines the priority of appointments, briefings, and meetings requiring the supervisor’s personal attention and coordinates appropriate coverage when necessary.
• Serves as point of contact between high officials of the Department of Transportation, Congress, and other government agencies, officials of the maritime industry, foreign groups and others. Receives requests, inquiries, and comments and determines the nature and importance of the information
• Tracks incoming suspense correspondence by maintaining an accurate suspense status listing. Ensures timely completion of actions and reviews completed actions for priority, content, security markings, and appropriate staff coordination.
• Performs research from a variety of sources such as regulations, memoranda, orders, circulars, reports of special boards and committees, and other reference materials. Research often requires interpretation and adaptation if there are no precise guidelines.

The ideal candidate for this position is an accomplished Executive Assistant with extensive experience managing administrative operations and high-priority DOT, Congressional, and policy actions for senior federal and higher education leadership. They possess expertise in executive calendar management, complex correspondence tracking, regulatory research, and stakeholder relations, while holding an active Secret Clearance and serving as essential Continuity of Operations (COOP) personnel.

Conditions of employment

• Must meet specialized experience stated in Qualifications section.
• Submit application and resume online by 11:59 PM EST on the closing date.
• Required documents must be submitted by the closing date.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT:

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you may be required to serve a 1-year probationary period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider:

• your performance and conduct;
• the needs and interests of the agency;
• whether your continued employment would advance the organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and
• whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.

Upon completion of your probationary period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

• SELECTIVE SERVICE: Males born after 12/31/1959 must be registered for the Selective Service.
• BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION: A background security investigation is required for all selected individuals. Appointment will be subject to the applicant’s successful completion of the security investigation and favorable adjudication. Failure to meet these requirements will be grounds for termination.
• SECURITY CLEARANCE: The position requires a Secret Clearance and serves as essential COOP personnel.
• PROBATIONARY PERIOD: You must complete a one-year probationary period (unless already completed).
• TIME-IN-GRADE: Federal applicants must have served 52 weeks at the next lower grade in the competitive or excepted service in the executive branch to satisfy time-in-grade restrictions contained in 5 CFR 300, Subpart F.

Qualifications

To meet the minimum qualifications for this position, you meet either the education or specialized experience requirements. 

To qualify for the GS-11 on Experience, you must have at least one year of experience equal or equivalent to the GS-09 it must include:

• Experience coordinating daily administrative operations for senior managers or executive leadership, including managing calendars, arranging travel schedules, and clearing executive action packages.
• Experience managing incoming and outgoing official correspondence, tracked action/suspense items to ensure timely completion, and reviewed documents for accuracy, policy compliance, and proper staff coordination.
• Experience serving as a point of contact for internal and external stakeholders (such as senior agency officials or external organizations) to receive inquiries, gather background information, and relay organizational positions.
  
  

To qualify for the GS-11 on Education alone, you must have:
3 years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree.
You can also qualify based on a combination of higher level graduate education and experience. This must be fully supported by your resume and transcripts, provided with your application.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES (KSAs): Your qualifications will be evaluated on the basis of your level of knowledge, skills, abilities and/or competencies in the following areas:

• Planning and Evaluating: The employee establish priorities, independently plans administrative services, manages calendars, tracks suspense actions, coordinates office activities, and monitors work through completion.
• Oral Communication: The employee serves as a liaison/POC with senior DOT officials, Congress, other government agencies, maritime industry officials, and stakeholders, including handling sensitive matters.
• Problem Solving: The employee researches and interprets regulations and guidance, handles non-routine administrative issues, adapts guidelines to particular situations, and develops recommendations.

For all types of consideration, 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).  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.

For additional information about applying to Federal positions, please click on the following link: https://www.opm.gov/frequently-asked-questions/employment-faq/federal-hiring/how-do-i-apply-for-federal-jobs/

Students enrolled in a qualifying degree program can apply if the anticipated graduation date is within six months of closing date of the announcement. Graduation transcript must be received before start date.

Other applicants must meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

How you will be evaluated

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

DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE: PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. To receive full credit during evaluation, your assessment responses must explicitly point back to your resume, as HR cannot make assumptions about your experience. You must write your narrative answers in full paragraph format, beginning each response with the exact position title, organization, employment dates (MM/YYYY–MM/YYYY), full-time/part-time, average hours worked per week, and federal series/grade (if applicable) as listed on your resume. Within the paragraph, clearly describe your specific individual duties, actions taken, tools used, and measurable outcomes to prove your level of expertise. HR will cross-check your narrative against your resume; if your resume does not fully support every detail and timeframe claimed in your written response, the claimed experience will be disallowed, which may result in an ineligible determination.

Eligible Federal employees also seeking consideration for noncompetitive reassignment for this position, must indicate interest in the assessment. Noncompetitive federal candidates must have competitive status on a SF-50, meet minimum qualifications, have served at the same grade or higher, and held or exceeded the promotion potential of this position.

All applicants:  Your application will be reviewed in two phases determine how you move forward in the hiring process.  Phase I: Your resume will be reviewed to determine your technical qualifications for this position based on the required specialized experience. ONLY two (2) pages of your resume will be reviewed. Additional information beyond your resume (e.g., cover letter, links embedded in your resume) will not be reviewed.  Applicants passing “Phase I” will move on to the “Phase II” of the assessment process where your application will be reviewed and rated based on the KSAs/Competencies listed in the vacancy announcement by a Subject Matter Expert (SME).