Program Support Assistant (OA)

Summary

This position is located in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), Office of New Animal Drug Evaluation (ONADE). ONADE's major responsibility is to review information submitted by drug sponsors who desire to obtain approval to manufacture and market animal drugs. The Program Support Assistant performs a wide variety of administrative task associated with maintaining and supporting the work performed within the organization.

This job is open to

Clarification from the agency

Recent graduates who have completed a qualifying associates, bachelors, masters, professional, doctorate, vocational or technical degree or certificate from a qualifying educational institution within the previous two years; veterans unable to apply within two years of receiving their degree, due to military service obligation, have as much as six years after degree completion to apply; or students expecting to obtain a degree or certificate by June 30, 2024 may apply.

Duties

Receives and routes incoming and outgoing materials such as controlled or routine correspondence, reports, memoranda, and other forms of written communication.

Receives calls and visitors from within and outside the immediate organizational unit.

Answers questions concerning policies and procedures related to support/office services.

Performs office automation duties to prepare documents such as correspondence, forms, reports which may include technical material, graphs, and charts.

Manages the appointment and meeting schedule for the Director of the organizational unit served, and those of other senior staff members.

Performs a wide variety of administrative tasks associated with maintaining and supporting the work of the organization.

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

U.S. Citizenship or nationals is required for this appointment.

Selective Service Registration: All applicants born male, on (or after) 12/31/1959, must be registered with the Selective Service System OR have an approved exemption. Visit for more info.

FDA participates in e-Verify: All new hires must complete the I-9 form; this information will be processed through e-Verify to determine your employment eligibility. If a discrepancy arises, you must take affirmative steps to resolve the matter.

Background Investigation Requirement: All employees must pass a security investigation. Failing to pass the background check may be grounds for removal or legal action. If hired, you may be subject to additional investigations at a later time.

You must meet ALL requirements by the closing date of this announcement to be considered. Only education, experience, and qualifications attained by this date will be considered. You must continue to meet all requirements through the hiring process.

Certification of Accuracy: All information concerning eligibility and qualification is subject to investigation and verification. False representation may be grounds for non-consideration, non-selection, or appropriate legal action.

Direct Deposit: You will be required to have all federal salary payments electronically deposited into a bank account with a financial institution of your choice.

Must sign FDA Pathways Program Participant Agreement.

Must serve one year trial period or the duration of the program.

Qualifications

Applicants must meet the following eligibility requirements to participate in this Recent Graduate Program:

A. Completed all requirements for an associates, bachelors, masters, professional, doctorate, vocational, or technical degree or qualifying certificate from an accredited educational institution within the 2 years preceding the closing date of this announcement. -OR-

B. Released or discharged from active duty within the previous two years by 06/27/2024, where as a veteran who, due to a military service obligation, was precluded from applying to the Recent Graduate Program during any portion of the 2-year eligibility period following completion of degree or certificate requirements, are entitled to a full 2-year period of eligibility upon release or discharge from active duty. In no event, however, may the eligibility period extend beyond 6 years from the date on which the preference eligible veteran completed the requirements of the degree or certificate. -OR-

C. Individuals who are expected to graduate with a qualifying Associate's, Bachelor's, Master's, Doctorate, professional, vocational or technical degree or certificate program by 6/30/2024. Current students must meet all eligibility and qualification requirements before a final offer can be made.

NOTE: You must submit transcripts or official documentation to verify your eligibility under the Recent Graduate Program. Transcripts MUST reflect the degree/certificate program and the degree conferred date. If your degree/certificate has not been conferred, you must provide proof of the anticipated graduation date. Selectee's entry on duty date will be upon degree conferment.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS for GS-05:

A. Successfully completed a full 4-year course of study in any field leading to a Bachelor's degree, in an accredited college or university. (Must submit transcript). -OR-

B. Possess 3 years of progressively responsible experience gained in administrative, professional, technical, investigative or other responsible work, 1 year of which is equivalent to at least the GS-04 grade level or higher in the Federal service which includes experience gathering information for evaluation; utilizing a personal computer and a variety of software applications; performing administrative office duties. -OR-

C. Possess a combination of six months of general experience in letter B above and post high school education described in letter A above in excess of the first 60 semester hours (i.e., beyond the second year) that totals at least one year. One full academic year of study (30 semester hours/45 quarter hours) beyond the second year is equivalent to 6 months general experience. (Must submit transcript).

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS for GS-06: Applicants must have one year of experience, equivalent to at least the GS-05 level in the Federal service which includes experience maintaining an automated tracking system; researching and compiling data for evaluation; utilizing a personal computer and a variety of software applications; performing administrative office duties.

NOTE: As a general rule, education is not creditable above GS-5 for most positions covered by this standard; however, graduate education may be credited in those few instances where the graduate education is directly related to the work of the position.

TYPING PROFICIENCY: In addition to meeting the Minimum Qualifications above, applicants must be able to type at least 40 words per minute.

IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Qualifications are based on breadth/level of experience. In addition to describing duties performed, applicants must provide the exact dates of each period of employment (from MM/YY to MM/YY) and the number of hours worked per week if part time. As qualification determinations cannot be made when resumes do not include the required information, failure to provide this information may result in disqualification. Applicants are encouraged to use the USAJOBS Resume Builder to develop their federal resume.

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.

Education

FOREIGN EDUCATION

Applicants using part, or all of their education completed outside of the U.S. to meet the qualification requirements, must have their foreign education evaluated by an accredited organization to ensure that the foreign education is comparable to education received in accredited educational institutions in the U.S. We will only accept the completed foreign credential evaluation.

To be acceptable, the foreign credential evaluation must include/describe at a minimum, the following information: (1) The type of education received by the applicant; (2) The level of education in relation to the U.S. education system, and state that its comparability recommendations follow the general guidelines of the International Evaluation Standards Council; (3) The content of the applicant's educational program earned abroad, and the standard obtained; (4) The status of the awarding foreign school's recognition and legitimacy in its home country's education system; and (5) Any other information of interest such as what the evaluation service did to obtain this information, the qualifications of the evaluator, and any indications as to other problems such as forgery. Note: Some positions require the completion of specific courses or a specified number of credit hours. Therefore, the foreign credential evaluation should provide information similar to that of an official transcript, to include a list of the courses taken, quarter and/or semester hours awarded, the cumulative grade point average (GPA), honors received, if any, date degree awarded.

Applicants can request an evaluation from a member organization of one of the two national associations of credential evaluation services listed below:

(NACES)

(AICE) Credential evaluations are not free, and applicants are responsible for the cost of the selected service.

For more information about this requirement, please visit the

SUBMITTING YOUR TRANSCRIPTS: Positions which are scientific or technical in nature often have very specific educational requirements. A transcript is required to verify educational achievement. Pay careful attention to the Qualifications and Education sections to identify vacancies where a transcript is required. Even if you hold a similar position or are a current employee, you are not exempt from transcript requirements.

Electronic Transcript Caution: If you have obtained your transcripts electronically, the file might contain security measures that could prevent our application system from reading the file. Therefore, you should consider asking the institution to provide the file in a non-secured electronic format. Alternatively, you could scan or take a photo of the printed copy of the transcript. If your uploaded transcript cannot be read by our system, you may receive consideration and credit for the information we can access.

Additional information

More information on the Pathways Programs for Recent Graduates can be found at:

The Pathways Recent Graduates may be non-competitively converted to a term, career-conditional, or career appointment following successful completion of at least one year of continuous service, demonstrated successful job performance, and after meeting all other qualification requirements in accordance with 5 CFR 362.305. To be eligible for conversion to a permanent or term position, Recent Graduates must:

Successfully completed at least 1-year of continuous service in addition to all requirements of the Program.

Received a performance rating of at least "Achieved Expected Results".

Meet the Office of Personnel Management's qualifications for the position to which the Recent Graduate will be converted.

Received a written favorable recommendation for conversion by his/her first-level supervisor.

Positions will require 40 hours of formal training per year.

Must be a citizen of the United States. ADDITIONAL CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT:

If you are serving, or have served in the last 5 years (from 06/27/2024) as an Executive Branch political, Schedule C, or Non-career SES appointee, HHS/FDA may be required to obtain approval by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) prior to beginning employment. You can find out if you have held one of these appointment types by looking at your Standard Form 50s in your Electronic Official Personnel Folder (eOPF), in Section 5 where the legal authorities are listed. If you have served or are currently serving, you must provide a copy of your SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action, documenting this appointment. In addition, you will be required to respond to the question in the assessment and certify your responses to the questionnaire.

Incentives may be authorized; however, this is contingent upon funds availability. If authorized, certain incentives will require you to sign a service agreement to remain in the Federal government for a period of up to 3 years. Note: This statement does not imply nor guarantee an incentive will be offered and paid. Incentives include the following: moving expenses, recruitment or relocation incentive; student loan repayment, superior qualifications appointment, creditable service for annual leave for prior non-federal work experience or prior uniformed military service, etc.

Financial disclosure statement, OGE-450: This position may require financial disclosure reporting and will be subject to FDA's prohibited financial interest regulation. If you are hired, you may be required to divest of certain financial interests. You are advised to seek additional information on this requirement from the hiring official before accepting any job offers. For more information please visit the FDA Ethics web page: .

Pre-employment physical required: No

Drug testing required: No

License required: No

Mobility agreement required: No

Immunization required: No

Annual leave for non-federal service authorized: No

Bargaining Unit Position: Yes - 3591- National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) Additional selections may be made within the same geographical area FDA-wide.

How You Will Be Evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

Once the job opportunity announcement closes (at 11:59 pm Eastern Time on 06/27/2024), a of your and will be conducted, the information will be compared against your responses to the assessment questionnaire to determine your for Federal employment, and then whether you are for this particular position. If, after reviewing your resume and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your responses when compared to your background information, you may be deemed ineligible, or your score may be adjusted to more accurately reflect your skills and abilities.

If you are referred to the hiring manager for consideration, you may be further evaluated based on an interview; review of requested work samples, writing samples, most recent performance evaluation(s), professional references, or results of an oral presentation or work-related test. Failure to comply with any of the additional assessment requirements will result in removal from further consideration.

Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your eligibility.

About Category Rating (Like) Procedures (Basis for Rating):

The answers you provide to the applicant self-assessment questions will be used, in conjunction with the supporting documents you include, and your resume, to determine your specifically.

Your application score is used to place you into one of three quality categories: "Best Qualified", "Well Qualified", and "Qualified". (The category assignment is a measure of the degree in which your background matches the competencies required for this position.)

The cut-off score for each quality category may vary from announcement to announcement, and is determined by each agency, in advance of the advertisement going live.

Category Rating does not add points but