This position is located with the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) in the Office of the Administrator in Washington, DC. In this position you will serve as the Chief of Staff. As such, you are responsible for budget development and execution, conducts operational studies and program analysis, and provides advice and guidance to the Administrator and other senior officials on a wide variety of policy and program issues.

Duties

Serves as the top level staff advisor in formulating and executing Agency plans for submission to the Department to carry out its program, activities, and functions. Coordinating and developing the actual budget figures and justification required throughout the budget formulation/presentation stages. Assigns work to subordinates based on priorities, selective consideration of the difficulty and the requirements of the assignments, and the capabilities of employees. Identifies issues that may impact the Agency's census and survey programs; assists in developing plans and overseeing their implementation. Assists in synthesizing related Agency programs and plans into a cohesive body, avoiding duplication and overlapping functions. Applying statistical theories and methods to provide expert consultation to the NASS Administrator on Agency programs and survey and census administration. Responds to requests for information by preparing documents or making contacts to obtain needed data. Prepares and defends materials for hearings, staff level briefings and other meetings.

Requirements

• You must be a US Citizen or US National.
• Males born after 12/31/1959 must be Selective Service registered or exempt.
• Subject to satisfactory adjudication of background investigation and/or fingerprint check.
• Subject to one year supervisory/managerial probationary period unless prior service is creditable. New USDA supervisors must successfully complete all components of the required training program before the end of their probationary period.
• Direct Deposit: Per Public Law 104-134 all Federal employees are required to have federal payments made by direct deposit to their financial institution.
• Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit https://www.e-verify.gov/

Qualifications

Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement including time-in-grade restrictions, specialized experience and/or education, as defined below. Time in grade: Current federal employees applying for a promotion opportunity must meet time-in-grade (TIG) requirement of 52 weeks of service at the next lower grade level in the normal line of progression for the position being filled Basic Requirements: Degree: that included 15 semester hours in statistics (or in mathematics and statistics, provided at least 6 semester hours were in statistics), and 9 additional semester hours in one or more of the following: physical or biological sciences, medicine, education, or engineering; or in the social sciences including demography, history, economics, social welfare, geography, international relations, social or cultural anthropology, health sociology, political science, public administration, psychology, etc. Credit toward meeting statistical course requirements should be given for courses in which 50 percent of the course content appears to be statistical methods, e.g., courses that included studies in research methods in psychology or economics such as tests and measurements or business cycles, or courses in methods of processing mass statistical data such as tabulating methods or electronic data processing. OR Combination of education and experience - courses as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. The experience should have included a full range of professional statistical work such as (a) sampling, (b) collecting, computing, and analyzing statistical data, and (c) applying statistical techniques such as measurement of central tendency, dispersion, skewness, sampling error, simple and multiple correlation, analysis of variance, and tests of significance. AND Specialized Experience: Specialized experience is experience directly related to the position to be filled. Specialized experience must be described for each grade level advertised. The specialized experience requirements for this position are: Qualifying experience for GS-15 includes one year of specialized experience comparable to GS-14 which is directly related to the work of this position and which has equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. For this position, specialized experience is experience conducting administrative and program functions related to budget formulation; analyzing program operations and mission objectives in order to develop strategies and tactical plans to effect improvements; and serving as a liaison between senior officials and government agencies regarding policy and program issues. 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 and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

Education

Please see above for education qualification requirement information.

Contacts

• Address National Agricultural Statistics Service 1400 Independence Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20250 US
• Name: Matthew Knoche
• Phone: (571) 418-0373
• Email: [email protected]