Clarification from the agency

Open to current and former Federal employees with competitive status, VEOA Applicants, AND All U.S. Citizens.

The Transportation Specialist (Outreach Coordinator):

• Implements the Center’s communication, knowledge exchange, and collaboration initiatives at the Center. These include regularly convening stakeholders, establishing communication platforms to share information and best practices, and implementing the information into materials for industry, public safety inspectors, emergency responders, and other stakeholders.
• Coordinates LNG safety activities to Federal regulators and U.S. energy agencies through webcasts, meetings, periodic notices, and public and internal websites.
• Develops and maintains partnerships with stakeholders, including government agencies, industry groups, and other organizations to build coalitions and enhance LNG safety and promote best practices.
• Works collaboratively with the Center’s staff and partners to ensure the delivery of a broad range of strategic objectives and outcomes. Bridges organizational strategy and service delivery and advises on outreach strategy as well as the overall strategic goals and priorities for the Center’s activities. Oversees the planning and delivery of internal and external stakeholder engagement goals.
• Works with the Office of Governmental, International, and Public Affairs, the Office of Chief Counsel, the Office of the Chief Informational Officer, and other PHMSA offices to address public inquiries, to ensure Federal regulation compliance, and to further engagement and outreach activities.
• Creates and executes programs and initiatives to educate stakeholders and the public on LNG safety issues, including outreach to industry groups, emergency responders, and other relevant organizations. Recommends and presents alternatives and solutions to identify future needs that address LNG safety risks through policy/programs, development and implementation, and outreach.

The ideal candidate for this position is a results-oriented program manager with extensive experience leading strategic communications and partnerships and developing organizational strategies that help build collaborations and coalitions in the LNG sector.  The ideal candidate leads cross-functional programs to design and deliver integrated multi-channel campaigns (media, digital/social, events, stakeholder outreach), executes high-visibility brand identity and communication strategies, and maintains performance dashboards and key performance indicators.  The candidate will be data-driven, an exceptional writer and presenter, comfortable briefing senior leaders, and adept at building collaborative relationships across teams and external partners. Experience in the public sector, energy/transportation, or regulated industries, plus familiarity with analytics tools and accessibility/plain‑language standards, is highly desirable.

NOTE: At the GS-13 level, the applicant will perform the entire scope of the duties described at the GS-14 level, however assignments at the GS-13 level will involve less independence in the degree of supervisory controls and greater guidance and less independent judgment in performing the work.

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S.Citizen and eligible for consideration.
• You must meet specialized experience to qualify.
• Required documents must be submitted by the closing date.
• Submit application and resume online by 11:59 PM EST on the closing date.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT:

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will 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.
• GOVERNMENT TRAVEL CARD: This position involves travel. A government contractor-issued travel card will be issued and must be retained for official business only.
• 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.
• DEU REQUIREMENTS: Applicants selected under delegated examining procedures may be required to successfully complete a one-year probationary period (unless already completed).

Qualifications

To meet the minimum qualifications for this position, you must meet the specialized experience qualifications for the grade at which you are requesting consideration.

To qualify for the Grade 13, you must have at least one year of experience equal or equivalent to the GS-12, it must include:

• Experience designing and executing a communications program for an infrastructure initiative; developing strategy, content, and technology plans involving federal, state, industry partners, and other external stakeholders.
• Experience facilitating stakeholder activities to achieve organizational objectives and key performance indicators that increases engagement and promotes knowledge sharing through workshops and meetings.
• Experience serving as communications lead for a national program producing clear resource materials, documents and coordinating briefings.

To qualify for the Grade 14, you must have at least one year of experience equal or equivalent to the GS-13, it must include:

• Experience directing a communications strategy across regional and/or national offices; establishing strategies and priorities for communications and sharing the information with federal, state, industry partners, and other external stakeholders.
• Experience leading multi-stakeholder working groups to achieve organizational objectives that achieves consensus on national/regional initiatives and programmatic key performance indicators.
• Experience leading a national program through communications management, advising senior leadership, and coordinating multi-agency responses, materials, and briefing documents that increase stakeholder confidence.

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:

• Knowledge Management - Knowledge of the value of collected information and the methods of sharing that information throughout an organization.
• Oral Communication - Expresses information (for example, ideas or facts) to individuals or groups effectively, taking into account the audience and nature of the information (for example, technical, sensitive, controversial); makes clear and convincing oral presentations listens to others, attends to nonverbal cues, and responds appropriately.
• Partnering - Develops networks and builds alliances; collaborates across boundaries to build strategic relationships and achieve common goals.
• Written communication - Writes in a clear, concise, organized, and convincing manner for the intended audience.
• Multimedia Technologies - Knowledge of the principles, methods, tools, and techniques to develop or apply technology using text, audio, graphics, or other media.

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/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-policies/#url=e4

All 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. If your resume/ application does not support your questionnaire answers, we will not allow credit for your response(s). Your resume must contain sufficiently detailed information upon which to make a qualification determination. Please ensure that your resume contains specific information such as position titles, beginning and ending dates of employment for each position, average number of hours worked per week, and if the position is/was in the Federal government, you should provide the position series and grade level. 

To compete with U.S. Citizens:  If you meet the qualification requirements, your application will be placed in one of three categories: Best Qualified, Well Qualified, and Qualified. Within these categories, applicants eligible for veteran's preference that have provided supporting documents will receive selection priority over non-veterans. The top-rated applications will be reviewed for the quality of your experience, education and training relevant to the position.

To compete with other competitive status government employees: The top-rated applications will be reviewed for the quality of your experience, education and training relevant to the position. If referred, all relevant documents including performance appraisals and awards submitted with your application package will be forwarded to the hiring official for review.

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).