Foreign Affairs Officer

Position description

This position is in the Office of Foreign Missions (OFM) which is responsible for implementing the requirements of the Foreign Missions Act of 1982 (22 U.S.C. 4301-4316, as amended).

This serves as public notice for the use of OPM’s Direct Hire Authority. Applicants who meet the qualification requirements will be forwarded to the selecting official for consideration. We may select from this announcement or any other source to fill one or more vacancies.

Duties

• Reviews and adjudicates requests received from foreign missions and their members associated with the programs and services implemented by Office of Foreign Missions, Accreditation, Services, and Benefits Division (OFM/OPS/ASB).
• Responsible for considering reciprocity prior to the extension of such benefits to foreign missions and their members in the United States.
• Provides advice and guidance to OFM’s Regional Offices and other parts of the Department and federal, state and local governments, on a wide range of programmatic and policy issues.
• Ensures that foreign representatives and other clients are treated with respect and courtesy and that their requests are met in a timely manner and that problems are appropriately addressed

Qualifications

Conditions of Employment

• U.S. Citizenship is required.
• Incumbent will be subject to random drug testing.
• Must be able to obtain and maintain a Secret security clearance.
• Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit: www.dhs.gov/E-Verify/

Qualifications

Applicants must have the required experience or education as described below and meet any selective factors, when specified.

BASIC REQUIREMENTS: Have a bachelor’s or graduate degree from an accredited college or university in international law, international relations, political science, economics, history, sociology, geography, social or cultural anthropology, law, statistics, or in the humanities;

OR Have a bachelor’s or graduate degree from an accredited college or university that included a combination of courses, with at least 24 semester hours in international law and international relations, political science, economics, history, sociology, geography, social or cultural anthropology, law, statistics, or in the humanities;

OR Have 12 semester hours in one of the above disciplines and 12 semester hours in statistics / quantitative methods.

OR Have a combination of education and experience where your coursework was equivalent to a major, or a combination of related courses totaling at least 24 semester hours, (as shown above), PLUS appropriate relevant experience OR additional education.

OR Have completed at least 4 years of appropriate experience in one OR more of the fields listed above in work associated with international organizations, problems, or other aspects of foreign affairs.

(NOTE: qualifying work experience may have been gained through residence, study, teaching, business or commercial activities, military service, newspaper work, military or civil government activities, missionary or international relief work, or other experience in foreign countries.)

Note: If you are qualifying based on education, you MUST submit transcripts as verification of educational requirement by the closing date of this announcement. If you fail to provide requested information, or the information you submit is insufficient to verify your eligibility, you WILL lose consideration for this position.

IN ADDITION to meeting one of the basic entry qualifications requirements listed above, applicant applying for the GS-09 MUST also meet one of the requirements listed below:

1. Have at least 1 full year of specialized experience that has equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position. This experience is related to the work of the position and equivalent to at least the GS-07 level in the Federal service. Qualifying specialized experience must demonstrate the following:

• Experience interacting with others to respond to inquiries related to policy interpretation
• Experience preparing a variety of correspondence and reports for senior level officials

2. OR Have 2 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to master’s degree or master’s

3. OR equivalent graduate degree from an accredited college or university. This education demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities to do the work of the position to be filled.

4. OR Have a combination of graduate level education and specialized experience as described above, which is equivalent to the work of the position and to the GS-07 level in the Federal service. This education and experience must meet 100% of the qualification requirements for this position.

Note: If you are qualifying based on education, you MUST submit transcripts as verification of educational requirement by the closing date of this announcement. If you fail to provide requested information, or the information you submit is insufficient to verify your eligibility, you WILL lose consideration for this position.

Education

See the qualifications section of this vacancy announcement for education requirements, if applicable.

When an applicant has less than one year of specialized experience as described in the announcement, he or she may combine successfully completed graduate-level education with experience to meet the total qualification requirements. Generally, 18 graduate semester hours is equivalent to 1 full-time year of graduate study (your school and department determine what constitutes 1 full time year of graduate study). The percentage of specialized work experience (for example, 6 months equals 50%) and the percentage of graduate study (for example, 9 graduate hours for a GS-07 equals 50% where 18 graduate hours constitute a full time year) must total at least 100%.

Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet the education requirements if you can show that the foreign education is comparable to that received in an accredited educational institution in the United States. It is your responsibility to provide such evidence when applying. For a list of accredited organizations recognized as specializing in interpretation of foreign education credentials, visit: www.naces.org/members.php.

Application instructions

Please be sure to indicate you saw this position on globalvacancies.org