Administrative Specialist

Summary This position is located in the Farm Service Agency, located in Texas State Office. Serves as Executive Assistant to the State Executive Director and Deputy State Executive Director. Provides administrative support and strategic support and evaluates administrative reports and management practices in State and County Offices implementing improvements while providing a variety of administrative services to the State and County Offices and Federal General Schedule employees. Duties

• Serves as the primary point of contact for Ask FSA inquiries and coordinates responses in a timely basis with subject matter experts in the office.
• Serves as an administrator for all correspondence generated in the division requiring State Executive Director’s response as well as other agency documents.
• Responds to administrative issues and inquiries and resolves a variety of conflicts regarding administrative policies and processes among organizational issues.
• Evaluates procedures and determines when changes need to be made and independently effects the changes.
• Composes and prepares a variety of correspondence, weekly reports, records, briefing materials, and statistical and narrative material related to support of the program areas, staff and the mission of Farm Service Agency.
• Provides administrative assistance in accomplishing assignments for the office, and is expected to use tact, diplomacy and confidentiality for management in all responsibilities including labor-management relations.
• Provides administrative assistance with appeals and mediation cases Qualifications In order to qualify, you must meet the eligibility and qualifications requirements as defined below by the closing date of the announcement. For more information on the qualifications for this position, visit the Office of Personnel Management's General Schedule Qualification Standards. Your application and resume must clearly show that you possess the experience requirements. If education is required or being used to qualify, you must submit a copy of your transcripts. Specialized Experience Requirement For the GS-09 grade level: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-07 grade level in federal service or comparable experience not gained through federal service. Specialized experience is defined as: Experience that demonstrates a fundamental knowledge in administrative specialties such as contracting and procurement, management analysis, human resources management, budget and financial management, support services, and work measurement. OR Education at the GS-09 grade level: Master's or equivalent graduate degree or 2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree in a field which demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of the position, such as: human resources, social or behavioral sciences, or in such fields as business or public administration or industrial management, psychology, labor relations, education. OR Combination of Education and Experience: A combination of education and experience as listed above. For the GS-11 grade level: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-09 grade level in federal service or comparable experience not gained through federal service. Specialized experience is defined as: Experience independently performing a range of administrative specialties, such as contracting and procurement, management analysis, human resources management, budget and financial management, support services, and work measurement. OR Education at the GS-11 grade level: Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree in a field which demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of the position, such as: business or public administration or industrial management, psychology, labor relations, education. OR Combination of Education and Experience: A combination of education and experience as listed above. For the GS-12 grade level: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-11grade level in federal service or comparable experience not gained through federal service. Specialized experience is defined as: Experience performing and coordinating a full range of administrative specialties such as contracting and procurement, management analysis, human resources management, budget and financial management, support services, and work measurement. In addition, experience includes planning, managing, executing, evaluating and facilitating the full range of administrative programs and operations. Education cannot be substituted for specialized experience at the GS-12 level. 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 College Transcript: If qualifying based on education, you must submit a copy of your college transcript with course number and department (i.e., Bio 101, Math 210, etc.), course title, number of credit hours, and grade earned. 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 to ensure proper evaluation. Your education must have been successfully obtained from an accredited school, college or university recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to be credited toward qualifications. You may verify accreditation by visiting the U.S. Department of Education Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs website. We will verify your education accordingly. Foreign Education: You must submit verification that education completed in a foreign institution, was recognized by an accreditation body accepted by the U.S. Department of Education. You must include a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript. There are private organizations that specialize in this evaluation and a fee is normally associated with this service. For a list of private organizations that evaluate education, visit the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES) website. Your transcripts must be in English or include an English translation. You may submit an unofficial copy of your transcript at the initial phase of the application process. However, if selected, you will be required to submit official transcripts prior to entering on duty. Please refer to the "How to Apply" section for instructions on submitting transcripts.