ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT ASSISTANT

Summary The primary purpose of this position is to serve as an assistant for clerical and administrative activities pertaining to correspondence, budget, purchasing, human resources, timekeeping, travel and related administrative areas for the State Office. PLEASE NOTE: This vacancy is limited to the first 200 applications received and will close at 11:59 pm ET on the closing date identified above or the day we receive the 200th application, whichever occurs first. Responsibilities Identifies, manages and resolves problems concerning assigned areas of responsibility. Manage multiple staffing priorities independently. Gather data and create documents for organizational activities like letters, memo, reports, and administrative forms. Provide review and editing for documents developed by others, such as bulletins and technical guidance. Schedules meetings, prepares agendas, makes arrangements for meeting facilities and notifies participants of schedule changes. Initiate, prepare, and communicate instructions regarding administrative procedure. Establishes, organizes and maintains a filing system of official material and records. Protect sensitive information concerning organization activities and employees, ensuring confidentiality to prevent inadvertent disclosure. Review travel for multiple staff verifying travel requirements in software accurately. Prepares materials to be used in presentations or training conducted by the supervisor and staff. Serves as purchase card holder, purchase supplies, equipment and services within delegated authority using mandatory or open market sources, ensuring proper and timely documentation and reconciling. Independently coordinate procurement request for goods and services. Requirements Conditions of Employment Qualifications Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement including specialized experience and/or education, as defined below. This position is being concurrently announced under Merit Promotion Announcement Number NRCS-25-12607955-MP-RMS. This announcement is open to all qualified Status candidates. Applying to both announcements may expand the possibilities of consideration since different referral criteria apply to each type of announcement. See the above announcement for more information. Specialized Experience for GS-07: To qualify for the GS-07 level, you must possess at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-06 level or higher in Federal service, or comparable experience not gained through Federal service. Specialized experience is defined as performing a variety of administrative support services in support of a business or program office, assisting in preparing operating budgets, making purchases of office supplies, equipment, vehicle and tracking expenditures, providing timekeeping services and reconciling time and attendance documents, making travel arrangements, and reviewing incoming and outgoing correspondence and other administrative documents. OR Education: A half year (i.e., 9 semester hours) of graduate level education in a field which demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of the position, such as a degree in Office administration, business administration, education, or communications. OR Combination of Education and Experience: A combination of education and experience may be used to qualify for this position as long as the computed percentage of the requirements is at least 100%. To compute the percentage of the requirements, divide your total months of experience by 12. Then divide the total number of completed graduate semester hours (or equivalent) by 9. Add the two percentages. Specialized Experience for GS-08: To qualify for the GS-08 level, you must possess at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-07 level or higher in Federal service, or comparable experience not gained through Federal service. Specialized experience is defined as performing a variety of administrative support services in support of a business or program office, preparing operating budgets for review, making purchases of office supplies and equipment and tracking expenditures, providing timekeeping services and reconciling time and attendance documents, making travel arrangements and reviewing travel reimbursement claims, and reviewing incoming and outgoing correspondence and other administrative documents. OR Education: One and a half years of graduate level education in a field which demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of the position, such as a degree in Office administration, business administration, education, or communications. OR Combination of Education and Experience: A combination of education and experience may be used to qualify for this position as long as the computed percentage of the requirements is at least 100%. To compute the percentage of the requirements, divide your total months of experience by 12. Then divide the total number of completed graduate semester hours (or equivalent) beyond one year (total semester hours minus 18) by 9. Add the two percentages. For more information on the qualifications for this position, click here: General Schedule Qualification Standards (opm.gov) 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 If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements: You must submit a copy of your transcripts to include course number, title, completion and grade. Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. If a relevant course is not clearly qualifying (e.g. special topic, seminar, research, thesis, obscure or misleading course title, etc.), please submit an official course syllabi and/or detailed course description from the university/college for that particular course to ensure you are properly evaluated. Please note that qualifications determinations are based solely on the information submitted for each particular vacancy announcement. Important: If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. Click on this link for more information. Failure to provide all of the required documents/information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating. Additional Information Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP), Reemployment Priority List (RPL), or Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP): Visit the OPM website for information on how to apply as a CTAP, RPL, or ICTAP eligible. To exercise selection priority for this vacancy, CTAP/RPL/ICTAP candidates must meet the basic eligibility requirements and all selective factors. CTAP/ICTAP candidates must be rated and determined to be well qualified (or above) based on an evaluation of the competencies listed in the How You Will Be Evaluated section. When assessed through a score-based category rating method, CTAP/ICTAP applicants must receive a rating of at least 85 out of a possible 100. Promotion Potential: If you are selected for a position with further promotion potential, you will be placed under a career development plan, and may be non-competitively promoted if you successfully complete the requirements and if recommended by management. However, promotion is neither implied nor guaranteed. Physical Demands: The work is primarily sedentary; there is some walking, bending, standing, and carrying of light items. Work Environment: The work environment involves the normal risks and discomforts of an office. PLEASE NOTE: In the interest of filling these positions as efficiently as possible, we are requiring the following: If called for an interview, applicants must be available to interview within 3 business days of being contacted. If a tentative job offer is extended, selectee will have 2 business days in which to accept or decline. This position is eligible for telework within the local commuting area of the position and other flexible work arrangements. Current USDA policy includes telework for an 8 hour work day, 4 days per week; other flexibilities are possible dependent upon availability and/or the position and its associated duties. Employee participation is at the discretion of the supervisor. Recruitment and/or relocation incentives may be authorized.