Supervisory Regional Affairs Specialist

Summary This position is located in the Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans; Office of International Affairs. Non-BU: This is a non-bargaining unit position. Responsibilities The primary purpose of this position is to support the Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Western Hemisphere and Assistant Secretary, Office of International Affairs in identifying and managing opportunities to pursue the Department's goals and further the Department's missions and objectives through cooperation and collaboration with the U.S. interagency and Latin American officials. As a Supervisory Regional Affairs Specialist, GS-0301-15, your typical work assignments may include: Planning, directing, and managing the development of DHS policies and initiatives with Latin America/ Caribbean partner nations including via engagement with DHS component agencies Assessing and revising policies and procedures as needed to find ways to improve quality, timeliness, and efficiency of work. Advising the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Under Secretary for Strategy, Policy, and Plans, and the Assistant Secretary for International Affairs on the formulation, coordination, and implementation of DHS policy and initiatives for Latin America and the Caribbean region and on the impact those policies and initiatives may have on bilateral and regional security and consequence management. Directing engagements with a wide range of external PLCY customers and stakeholders and builds relationships to enable the accomplishment of PLCY objectives and goals. Monitoring current intelligence and threat reporting, identifying impact on homeland security and opportunities for broader bilateral efforts to counter terrorism and trans-national crime. All DHS announcements have a 5 business day open period due to the number of applications received. This announcement will be open for 5 business days OR until the first 100 applications have been received, whichever happens first. View common definitions of terms found in this announcement: Common Definitions. Requirements Conditions of Employment Qualifications Specialized Experience: You qualify for the GS-15 grade level if you possess one year of specialized experience, equivalent to the GS-14 grade level in the Federal government, performing duties such as: For this position, specialized experience is defined as: 1) Developing initiatives to increase and improve the ability of the U.S government to ensure border, aviation, and migration security, and combat terrorism and transnational criminal organizations. 2) Developing regional program policies to enhance homeland security objectives to evaluate the effectiveness of government security and migration programs with concern to Latin America; AND 3) Identifying Latin American security issues as it pertains to U.S. government interests through a broad understanding of Latin American culture, history, and traditions. Substitution of education in lieu of specialized experience may not be used for this grade level. This position has a Selective Placement Factor (SPF). If your resume doesn't demonstrate possession of the SPF, you will be rated ineligible. The SPF for this position is: Spanish language proficiency is a key requirement for any candidate due to the frequency of Spanish language calls, meetings, and other engagement with Latin American officials, many of whom do not speak English. In addition, due to the dynamic nature of the region, many requests of Latin American officials (e.g., for enforcement along smuggling routes) are time sensitive, and must be made in Spanish to ensure both accuracy of the message as well as timeliness of the request; essentially there is often no time to schedule interpretation services. Finally, the ability to speak Spanish will enable the selected candidate to build personal relationships with key Latin American officials, further enabling the individual to quickly fulfill requests from DHS leaders related to Latin American affairs/issues. All qualifications and eligibility requirements must be met by the closing date of the announcement. Time-in-grade: Current General Schedule (GS) federal employees, and those that have served in GS positions within the last 52 weeks, must have served 52 weeks at the next lower grade, or a combination of the next lower grade level and an equivalent band in the federal service by the closing of this announcement. Note: Current or former Federal employees MUST submit a copy of their SF-50 Form which shows competitive service appointment ("position occupied" block 34 on the SF-50 should show a "1"), tenure group (block 24 should show a 1 or 2), grade, and salary. If you are applying for a higher grade, please provide the SF-50 Form which shows the length of time you have been in your current/highest grade (examples of appropriate SF-50s include promotions, With-in Grade/Range Increases, and SF-50s dated a year apart within the same grade/job). If you have promotion potential in your current position, please provide proof. IF YOU DO NOT SUBMIT ALL OF THE REQUIRED DOCUMENTATION, YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE CONSIDERATION AS A STATUS CANDIDATE. National Service Experience: 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. Current or Former Political Appointees: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) must authorize employment offers made to current or former political appointees. If you are currently, or have been within the last 5 years, a political Schedule A, Schedule C, Non-career SES or Presidential Appointee employee in the Executive Branch, you must disclose this information to the Human Resources Office. Education Not Applicable Additional Information The Department of Homeland Security encourages persons with disabilities to apply, to include persons with intellectual, severe physical or psychiatric disabilities, as defined by 5 CFR 213.3102(u), and or Disabled Veterans with a compensable service-connected disability of 30 percent or more as defined by 5 CFR 315.707. Veterans, Peace Corps, VISTA volunteers, and persons with disabilities possess a wealth of unique talents, experiences, and competencies that can be invaluable to the DHS mission. If you are a member of one of these groups, you may not have to compete with the public for federal jobs. To determine your eligibility for non-competitive appointment and to understand the required documentation, click on the links above or contact the servicing Human Resources Office listed at the bottom of this announcement. Pursuant to Executive Order 12564 and DHS policy, DHS is committed to maintaining a drug-free workplace and, therefore, conducts random and other drug testing of its employees in order to ensure a safe and healthy work environment. Headquarters personnel in safety- or security-sensitive positions are subject to random drug testing and all applicants tentatively selected for employment at DHS Headquarters are subject to drug testing resulting in a negative test result. Background Investigation: To ensure the accomplishment of its mission, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requires every employee to be reliable and trustworthy. To meet those standards, all selected applicants must undergo and successfully pass a background investigation for Top Secret/SCI as a condition of placement in this Special Sensitive position. This review may include financial issues such as delinquency in the payment of debts, child support and/or tax obligations, as well as certain criminal offenses and illegal use or possession of drugs.