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.

Requirements

You must be a US Citizen or US National. Males born after 12/31/1959 must be Selective Service registered or exempt. Subject to satisfactory adjudication of background investigation and/or fingerprint check. Direct Deposit - Per Public Law 104-134 all Federal employees are required to have federal payments made by direct deposit to their financial institution. Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit https://www.e-verify.gov/. As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period or 2-year trial period depending on your appointment type, unless previous federal service is creditable. During this time your employment will be evaluated, and we may consider: your performance and conduct, the needs and interests of the agency, whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government, and whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service. Upon completion of your probationary or trial period your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest. The U.S. Government utilizes Trusted Workforce 2.0 to implement Continuous Vetting (CV) as a-whole-of government approach to personnel security. If selected for this position, you will be subject to continuous automated record checks of criminal, financial, and public record databases throughout your period of eligibility or employment, replacing traditional periodic reinvestigations.

Grade: GS 6 to 7. . Telework eligible. Apply by 2026-11-06 on USAJOBS.