Program Support Assistant (OA)

Summary

This position is located within ARS, Northeast Area, Public Horticulture & Engagement Unit in Washington DC. In this position, you will serve as a personal assistant to the Research Leader (RL) and other professional staff, coordinating a wide variety of administrative and clerical tasks essential to the program administration of the Management Unit.

Duties

• Serves as the primary administrative business process point of contact for the Unit.
• Works with the Unit staff to arrange logistics for internal and external meetings, including setting up, testing, and maintaining AV equipment.
• Serves as the Unit’s primary cardholder, reviewing all purchase requests for accuracy and completeness.
• Advises on requirements for projects, research plans, annual progress reports, research associate proposals, manuscripts, international travel proposals and follow-up trip reports, and cooperative agreements, grants, and trusts.
• Maintains tracking logs and transaction records for budget, purchasing, and personnel actions.

Qualifications

Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement including time-in-grade restrictions, specialized experience and/or education, as defined below. Time in Grade: Current USDA federal employees applying for a promotion opportunity must meet the time in grade requirement of 52 weeks of service at the next lower grade level in the normal line of progression for the position being filled. GS-06 Specialized Experience: Specialized experience is experience directly related to the position to be filled. Specialized experience must be described for each grade level advertised. The specialized experience requirements for this position are: Qualifying experience for GS-06 includes one year of specialized experience comparable to GS-05 which is directly related to the work of this position and which has equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. For this position, specialized experience is experience providing administrative assistance for an office (including arranging travel, HR actions, budgeting, programmatic paperwork, and time and attendance); completing and tracking purchasing and procurement for the Unit; and assisting with generating administrative data from databases. GS-07 Specialized Experience: Specialized experience is experience directly related to the position to be filled. Specialized experience must be described for each grade level advertised. The specialized experience requirements for this position are: Qualifying experience for GS-07 includes one year of specialized experience comparable to GS-06 which is directly related to the work of this position and which has equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. For this position, specialized experience is experience providing administrative assistance for an office (including arranging travel, HR actions, budgeting, programmatic paperwork, and time and attendance); completing and tracking purchasing and procurement for the Unit; developing and establishing administrative procedures and controls for the Unit; and generating administrative data from databases. All applicants must be able to type 40 words per minute. 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

This position does not have an education requirement.