Clarification from the agency

This position is being advertised under delegated examining procedures and is open to all U.S. Citizens. Preference for eligible veterans will be applied.

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Recruitment Incentive: May be paid to new federal employees only and subject to successful completion of 12-week CITP and 15-week Special Agent Basic Training at FLETC-Glynco, GA.
Total Amount: up to $60,000**
Annual amount: $15,000 over four years***

Relocation Incentive: May be paid to eligible current federal employees only and subject to successful completion of required Special Agent Basic Training at FLETC-Glynco, GA.
Total Amount: $25,000 **
Annual Amount: $12,500 over two years***

**May not exceed 25% of total salary, including locality pay.
***Subject to federal taxes and any applicable state/local taxes

This is an excepted service Schedule B (213.3210) appointment. After completing 3 years of satisfactory service, you may be converted without further competition to a permanent appointment in the competitive service.

Organizational Location: This position is with the Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Field Operations.

Location is negotiable upon final selection. You will be asked for your location preferences once all pre-employment process have been completed.

ATF will have the final determination based on the needs of the agency.

This position starts at a salary of $51,632 (GL-5, Step 1) to $84,579 (GL-9, Step 10) with promotion potential to the GS-13 grade level. The salary listed reflects the "Rest of U.S." scale and, if applicable, will be adjusted to meet the locality pay or cost of living expenses of the duty location upon selection.

In this position, you will serve as a Criminal Investigator (Special Agent) trainee performing the below duties:

• Investigating criminal violations of Federal laws within the enforcement jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Justice.
• Conducting investigations of violations relating to explosives, firearms, arson, and alcohol and tobacco diversion.
• Preparing concise criminal investigative case reports.
• Testifying for the Federal Government in court or before grand juries.
• Gathering and analyzing evidence through investigative leads, seizures, arrests, execution of search warrants, and a variety of other means.

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this position.
• Males born after 12/31/1959 must be registered with Selective Service.
• Age Requirement: Must be at least 21 years of age and not older than 40 years of age at the time of appointment. The day immediately preceding an individual's 40th birthday will be the last day for selection consideration. However, the age restriction may not apply if you are a preference-eligible veteran or if you are currently serving or have previously served in a federal civilian law enforcement position covered by 5 U.S.C. § 8336(c) or 5 U.S.C. § 8412(d). (After subtracting the years/months of prior and current Federal service worked in a primary law enforcement position, applicants must be less than 40 years of age).
• Motor Vehicle Operation: You must have a valid automobile driver's license at the time of appointment.
• Security Clearance: You will be required to obtain a Top-Secret clearance for this position.
• You will be required to carry a firearm and maintain firearm proficiency.
• Pass the below assessment hurdles:
  • ATF Special Agent Applicant Assessment
  • Physical Task Test
  • Structured Interview
• Pass the below pre-employment requirements:
  • Drug Test
  • Medical Examination
  • Polygraph Examination
  • Background Investigation
• Attend and successfully pass the below training:
  • Criminal Investigator Training Program (CITP)
  • ATF Special Agent Basic Training (SABT)
• Mobility Agreement: You must sign a mobility statement and agree to be relocated at any time to any office in the United States, to include U.S. territories. All candidates will be required to perform a minimum of 3-5 years at their initial duty station.

Qualifications

All qualification requirements must be met at the time of application. No updates will be allowed to your application.

GL-5: You qualify for the GL-5 grade level if you havethree years of progressively responsible experience, 1 year of which was equivalent to at least the GS/GL-04 performing duties such as

• Gathering pertinent data
• Communicating effectively orally and in writing.

OR

A bachelor's degree or successful completion of a full 4-year course of study in ANY FIELD leading to a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university. Conferred date must be listed on your unofficial or official transcripts.

GL-7: You qualify for the GL-7 grade level if you possess: 1 year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade level, performing all of the following duties:

• Assisting in criminal investigations by gathering evidence, conducting record and database searches
• Participating in searches, seizures, and arrests
• Preparing reports for routine investigations

OR

Successful completion of one year of full-time graduate education from an accredited college or university in any field. Check with your school to determine how many credit hours comprise a year of graduate education. If that information is not available, use 18 semester or 27 quarter hours.

OR

A bachelor's degree in any field with Superior Academic Achievement (SAA). To qualify for SAA, you must meet one of the following:

1. A grade point average of "B" (a GPA of 3.0 or higher out of a possible 4.0) for all completed undergraduate courses, or those completed in the last two years of undergraduate study.
2. A grade point average of "B+" (a GPA of 3.5 or higher out of a possible 4.0) for all courses in the applicant's major field of study, or those courses in the applicant's major completed in the last two years of undergraduate study.
3. Rank in the upper one-third of the applicant's class in the college, university, or major subdivision.
4. Membership in a national honor society (other than freshman honor societies) recognized by the Association of College Honor Societies.

GL-09: You qualify for the GL-9 grade level if you possess 1 year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade level, performing all of the following duties:

• Serving subpoenas, arrest, and search warrants
• Conducting interviews, interrogations of suspects and witnesses
• Providing status reports of ongoing criminal investigations to higher level management

OR

A master's or equivalent graduate degree or 2 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree in any field; a J.D. or an LL.B. degree from an accredited college or university may substitute for experience required at this level. Check with your school to determine how many credit hours comprise two years of graduate education. If that information is not available, use 36 semester or 54 quarter hours.

NOTE: Your resume must indicate how you meet the qualifications above, otherwise, you will be found ineligible. Please see the "Required Documents" section below for additional resume requirements.

Combining Experience and Education: To combine your education and experience, you must convert each to a percentage and then add the percentages. The combined total of your percentage of education and experience must equal at least 100% in order to qualify. If your education is currently described in quarter hours, convert the quarter hours into semester hours by multiplying the quarter hours by the fraction 2/3. To calculate your percentage of graduate education, divide the number of graduate semester hours by 18. To determine your percentage of qualifying experience, you must divide your total number of months of qualifying experience by the required number of months of experience. Add your percentages of education and experience. The two percentages must total at least 100%. 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). You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

Drug Testing: You must satisfactorily complete a drug test prior to being hired. More information on the ATF Drug Policy can be found here.

Medical Examination: Individuals must meet the established medical standards and/or physical requirement for the position, proving they are medically and physically capable of performing the essential job functions and duties of the position safely.

Polygraph Examination: You will be required to successfully complete a polygraph examination. Applicants who have significant responses or who manipulate the polygraph process will be removed from the hiring process. Researching polygraph is unnecessary and highly discouraged, as many websites recommend methods that, if employed, may be deemed as a manipulation of the polygraph process.

Polygraph Reciprocity: ATF may accept the results of a prior federal polygraph exam in lieu of an ATF polygraph exam.

Background Investigation: You will be required to undergo a background investigation prior to employment. During the screening and/or background investigation process, you will be asked questions regarding any felony criminal convictions, the use of illegal drugs and the use of non-prescribed controlled substances including any experimentation, possession, sale, receipt, manufacture, cultivation, production, transfer, shipping, trafficking, or distribution of controlled substances.

If you are a current or former Federal employee:

1. You must submit your most recent SF-50 (Notification of Personnel Action) or equivalent agency form. Do not submit an award SF-50, these do not contain sufficient information about your appointment. Your SF-50 should list the full position title, series, grade and step,organization, duty location, service computation date, effective date, and your service type and tenure status.
2. An SF-50 showing your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Examples of appropriate SF-50's include:
   • Within grade increases at the highest grade held; or
   • Promotions with an effective date more than one year old; or
   • SF-50's at the highest grade held with an effective date more than one year old

How you will be evaluated

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

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above. This vacancy will utilize a multiple hurdle assessment process to determine the qualifications of applicants.

• Hurdle 1 - Minimum Qualifications
• Hurdle 2 - Special Agent Applicant Assessment (SAAA).
• Hurdle 3 - Physical Task Test (PTT).
• Hurdle 4 - Structured Interview rated by a Subject Matter Expert (SME) panel for related position competencies against a pre-determined rating schedule.

• Writing
• Reasoning
• Integrity
• Conscientiousness
• Dependability/Reliability
• Use of Force
• Judgment
• Cooperativeness

1. You must submit a transcript, which may be unofficial, as long as it contains a full listing of courses, credit earned, grade and grade-point-average, subject area, degree(s) earned, and dates of award. Note: If you are selected for this position, official transcripts will be required prior to your first day.
2. Your transcript must come from a nationally accredited educational institution recognized by the Department of Education.
3. Please do not submit electronic transcripts with documentation security protection. These may prevent our application system from accepting and processing the document.
4. If submitting a foreign transcript, you must have the transcript reviewed by an approved foreign education review organization recognized by the Department of Education. Your transcript must also be in English or have an English translation included.