Public Affairs Specialist

In order to qualify, you must meet the eligibility and qualifications requirements as defined below by the closing date of the announcement. For more information on the qualifications for this position, visit the Office of Personnel Management’s General Schedule Qualification Standards. Your application and resume must clearly show that you possess the experience requirements. Transcripts must be provided for qualifications based on education. Provide course descriptions as necessary. Specialized Experience Requirement: For the GS-11: Applicants must have one year specialized experience equivalent to the GS-09 in the Federal service. Qualifying specialized experience includes meeting one or more of the following: Responded in oral and written form to requests for information by determining the nature of the data required and collecting and assembling the material using the appropriate format and style based on needs and organization practices; Assisted in evaluation and analysis of public comments on management issues to determine communication strategies; Identified areas to be addressed, characteristics and needs of the target audience, and communication techniques most appropriate to address an audience; Developed recommended approaches and drafted materials for supervisor’s approval, to present informational audio-visual material using new technologies and social media. OR 3 years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or equivalent doctoral degree (coursework directly related to position being filled) from an accredited college or university. OR An appropriate combination of specialized experience and graduate level education (beyond what is required for a master’s degree, i.e., more than 36 semester hours leading to a Ph.D.) as described above. For the GS-12: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience at or equivalent to the GS-11 level in the Federal service. Qualifying specialized experience includes meeting one or more of the following: Established and maintained effective working relationships at multiple levels within an organization in order to develop and disseminate coordinated messages that accurately address organizational programs; Prepared written materials to promote the organization’s position on a variety of sensitive, controversial and/or complex issues; Designed and tailored meetings and public involvement strategies to audiences that involved a degree of controversy. 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. Work Experience: Your resume must clearly document the following for each block of work experience; the beginning day, month and year the work assignment started and ended; the hours worked per week; position title, and series and grade if applicable; and description of duties performed. This information must be provided for each permanent, temporary, or seasonal appointment/work assignment or volunteer work and should be clearly documented as a separate block of time. Incomplete, inaccurate, or conflicting work history may not be credited for qualifications purposes. This can result in an applicant not being considered for the position. TIME IN GRADE REQUIREMENT: If you are a current federal employee in the General Schedule (GS) pay plan and applying for a promotion opportunity, you must meet time-in-grade (TIG) requirements of 52 weeks of service at the next lower grade level in the normal line of progression for the position being filled. This requirement must be met by the closing date of this announcement.
This position is located in Region 6, on the Malheur National Forest in Oregon. This position serves as a Public Affairs Specialist located on a Forest Service Unit. The incumbent performs a wide variety of activities in planning and implementing a comprehensive public affairs program for the Forest. For additional information about the duties of this position, please contact Lisa Galbreath at 541-306-1858 or at lisa.galbreath@usda.gov