Clarification from the agency

Current Smithsonian Institution Internal Employees/Agency Employees Only may apply including current Smithsonian Institution employees with Federal career/career-conditional status or eligibility. More than one selection may be made from this announcement.

In this position, you will:

• Supervise the staff of the Collections Department.
• Develop and circulate annual goals and benchmarks for Collections Department in the areas of preservation, collections management, accessioning, exhibiting, lending, collecting, digitizing, and providing increased access to the collection.
• Develop new protocols and processing for capture, storing, and providing accessibility to digital collections, as well as creating new protocols and procedures for digitizing NPM’s collections. This includes analyzing, developing, and implementing best practices for digitizing NPM’s collection.
• Serve as the principal advisor to the Director on all complex collections management issues including accessioning (gifts bequests transfers purchases exchanges etc.), deaccessioning, conservation, preservation, security, environmental protections etc., and communicates with museum stakeholders or potential donors on collections management activities. 

Conditions of employment

• Requires career/career-conditional status or eligibility.
• Males born after 12/31/59 must be registered with Selective Service.

Conditions of Employment

Qualification requirements, including one year time-in-grade at the next lower grade level for promotion candidates, must be met within 30 days of the job announcement closing date. See the 'Required Documents' section for additional information.

For information on qualification requirements, see Qualification Standards Handbook for General Schedule Positions viewable on OPM Website.

Qualifications

Experience: You qualify for this position if you have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-12 level in the Federal Service.  For this position, specialized experience is defined as experience serving as a senior specialist performing collections management activities in the collections department of a museum, cultural or historical organization.

Your resume must be no more than two (2) pages and should clearly demonstrate how your experience aligns with the responsibilities and specialized experience required for this position. Do not copy language directly from the vacancy announcement, as you will be deemed ineligible for consideration. Instead, provide detailed, descriptive information about your actual experience.

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.

Part-time and/or unpaid experience related to this position will be considered to determine the total number of years and months of experience. Be sure to note the number of paid or unpaid hours worked each week.

In an effort to streamline our hiring process, SI employees whose current position of record is in the same job series 1001 and who are in a (Federal competitive or excepted service appointment) as this advertised position, are not required to submit a transcript with your application package. However, if selected, you will be required to provide a copy of your transcript before your start date in the position.

Time-in-Grade Requirements: Under competitive merit promotion procedures, any individual who is currently holding, or who has held within the previous 52 weeks, a General Schedule position under a non-temporary appointment in the competitive or excepted service, must meet "time-in-grade" requirements (have served 52 weeks at the next lower grade of the grade for which you are applying).

How you will be evaluated

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

Your application will be evaluated first for the basic qualifications described above. The applications that meet the basic qualifications will be evaluated further against the following criteria:

1. Ability to supervise staff in a museum, cultural or historical organization’s collections department.  
2. Ability to manage an organization’s collection’s department specialty areas, gained through experience.
3. Ability to manage digital collections in a museum, cultural or historical organization, gained through experience.
4. Ability to communicate effectively orally by giving presentations or presenting verbal analyses to internal and external groups and individuals on collections management activities, gained through experience. 

Important Note:

Your resume and supporting documentation will be compared to your responses to the occupational questionnaire or other assessment tool for consistency. If a determination is made that you have rated yourself higher than is supported by your resume, you will be assigned a rating commensurate to your described experience. Your resume should provide detailed information regarding how your education and experience relate to this position, including the major duties and qualifications criteria listed.