This position is located with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Rocky Mountain Region in Billings, Montana. This position provides Leads assistance in the implementation on training new employees, refresher training, and guidance of any special projects in LTRO. This is a Bargaining Unit position, for more information see USA Jobs What are bargaining units?

Duties

Oversees the research, audit, and findings of specified areas of Trust property, allotments duplication of allotments, dual allotments. Leads preparation of complex property cases showing the proper legals description of the property, the past and or present ownership of the property, exceptions, encumbrances, liens, burdens upon or defects with the property. Responsible for the technical direction of the land law examiners, realty specialists and cartographic technicians. Advisor to the LTRO Manager on property land and title matters and instructs members of the LTRO in property land title principles and procedures encountered in property land maintenance.

Requirements

• U.S. Citizenship Required
• Preference in filling vacancies is given to qualified Indian candidates in accordance with the Indian Preference Act of 1934 (title 25, USC Section 472). Form BIA -4432 must be submitted with the application if claiming Indian Preference.
• You will be required to have federal payments made by Direct Deposit
• You may be required to successfully complete a probationary/trial period
• A background security investigation will be required for all new hires. Appointment will be subject to the applicant's successful completion of a background security investigation and favorable adjudication.
• If you are a male applicant born after 12/31/1959 and are required to register under the Military Selective Service Act, the Defense Authorization Act of 1986 requires that you be registered or you are not eligible for appointment in this agency.
• Incumbent is required to operate a government motor vehicle, must possess a valid driver's license, and have a safe driving record within the 3- year period immediately preceding submittal of GSA Form 3607.
• TELEWORK: Indian Affairs has determined that the duties of the position are suitable for telework and the selectee may be allowed to telework with supervisor approval.
• NOTE:TRAVEL AND RELOCATION EXPENSES WILL NOT BE AUTHORIZED. ANY RELOCATION EXPENSES ASSOCIATED WITH REPORTING FOR DUTY WILL BE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SELECTED EMPLOYEE.

Qualifications

You must first meet one of the following Individual Occupational Requirements to be eligible for this position: Individual Occupational Requirements for the Land Law Examining Series 0965 Graduate Education: Major study - graduate education (including law school) that included or was supplemented by 12 semester hours of course work related to the administration of land laws. Examples include course work in land surveying, cartography, land use law, real estate law, land appraising, land use planning, water rights, mining laws, or legal instrument review and interpretation. For some positions, graduate study alone may not provide the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to perform the work. Applicants for such positions may be required to have specialized experience at the appropriate grade level. OR Specialized Experience: Experience in or directly related to examination or adjudication of cases involving laws and regulations dealing with lands and resources. Examples of qualifying specialized experience include: Adjudication or examination of applications and claims for the disposal, use of, or title to public lands, issuance of leases, licenses, or permits for land or resources use, and resolving conflicts arising from use. General practice of law that included substantial involvement in examinations of titles or other legal transactions involving acquisition, lease, or disposal of land. Title searching, abstracting, or interpreting land records, survey plats, or tract indexes and books, provided the work demonstrated an understanding of the laws, regulations, and policies associated with land management programs. Work as a land appraiser that involved appraisal of undeveloped or marginal-type land. In addition to meeting the Individual Occupational Requirement above, applicants must also meet the following qualification requirement in order to be considered for this position. Please be sure to include this information in your resume. No assumptions will be made about your experience. GS-12 MINIMAL QUALIFICATIONS: 1 year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-11 grade level performing duties such as: Comprehensive knowledge of the broad array of federal, state, Indian land and real property laws, and related regulations, policies, manuals and directives in order to properly process and adjudicate the most complex, unusual and unprecedented cases. This includes Special Acts of Congress, as well as laws that are very old or seldom used. Thorough knowledge in all subject areas of real property title law to include encumbrances, including mortgages, financing statements, liens of all types; leasing surface, subsurface; probate and non-probate conveyances and other judicial procedures; condemnation; declarations of taking; succession and descent; wills, federal and state land patents; acknowledgements; abstracts; title insurance; boundaries; surveying; plats; and including but not limited to; legal descriptions; rights of way and other easements, including those acquired by prescription; subordination's; eminent domain; administrative law and procedures; contracts; adverse possession; accretion and reliction; riparian rights; freehold and lesser estates in land; mineral rights; and standards of property title law. Provide guidance and information to research, analyze and interpret technical points of law relating to real property titles in all standard legal reference works including statutes, codes, digests, reported case law, treaties, law journals, legal encyclopedias, texts; Sheppards Citator, Attorney General opinions, Department of the Interior Decisions, and Code of Federal Regulations, past and current. Provide guidance and implementation of the Privacy Act and Freedom of Information Act as they apply to records/data with the Trust Programs including but not limited to Land Titles and Records. Comprehensive knowledge of the legal and judicial reference system relating to leasable, locatable, and saleable minerals in order to lease proficiently and accurately license, patent, permit, sell, and exchange these minerals, and to provide expert advice and guidance to others. Communicate effectively both orally and in writing in discussing or presenting in order to convey decisions on applications; to provide responses to questions from other examiners, the public, and other agencies; and to justify decisions on very complex or controversial adjudications. Utilize computer equipment and several software applications to input, manipulate, update, maintain data and request reports, and identify potential issues and address to contractor All qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of this announcement. Merit Promotion candidates must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the announcement closing date. Preference in filling vacancies is given to qualified Indian candidates in accordance with the Indian Preference Act of 1934 (title 25, USC Section 472). Additional selections may be made from this announcement if identical vacancies occur in the same location within 90 days from the closing date.

Education

If you are qualifying based on your education, you MUST provide transcripts or other documentation to support your educational claims. Unless otherwise stated: (1) official or unofficial transcripts are acceptable, or (2) you may submit a list with all of your courses, grades, semester, year, and credit for the course. All materials must be submitted by the closing date of the announcement.

If more than 10 percent of your undergraduate course work (credit hours) were taken on a pass/fail basis, your claim of superior academic achievement must be based upon class standing or membership in an honor society.

One academic year of graduate education is considered to be the number of credits hours your graduate school has determined to represent one academic year of full-time study. Such study may have been performed on a full-time or part-time basis. If you cannot obtain your graduate school's definition of one year of graduate study, 18 semester hours (or 27 quarter hours) should be considered as satisfying the requirement for one year of full-time graduate study.

If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet the qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education which shows the education credentials have been evaluated by a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign education programs and such education has been deemed equivalent to that gained in an accredited U.S. education program; or full credit has been given for the courses at a U.S. accredited college or university. For further information, visit: FOREIGN EDUCATION

Contacts

• Address BIA Center for Recruitment Rocky Mountain Regional BIA Center for Recruitment Rocky Mountain Regional 2021 4th Avenue North Billings, MT 59101 US
• Name: Cyndi Shields
• Phone: 4062477956
• Email: [email protected]