18F - Strategist

18F is hiring for GS-15 - Strategist. This page contains information related to the role as well as a link to submit your application. Check out Join TTS Hiring Process to learn more about the application process.

Location: Washington, DC; Chicago, IL; San Francisco, CA; New York, NY; Virtual (100% remote)

Salary Range: The base salary range for this position is: GS-15 Step 1 - $105,123 to GS-15 Step 10 $136,659

Please note the maximum salary available for the GS pay system is $166,500

The base salary range does not include any adjustment for locality. Your locality is most likely going to be determined by where you live since most of our positions are remote. If the position isn’t remote, then your locality will be determined by the location of the office where the position is based.

You can find more information about this in the compensation and benefits section on our site.

For specific details on locality pay, please visit OPM’s Salaries & Wages page or for a salary calculator OPM’s 2019 General Schedule (GS) Salary Calculator.

Who May Apply: All United States citizens and nationals (residents of American Samoa and Swains Islands) and applicants must not be GSA employees or contractors

Role Summary:

Strategist - GS-15

Federal government agencies often approach 18F for help with improving an internal process or redesigning the way they present information to the American public. As a strategist with 18F, you’ll lead early efforts with these agency partners to define what problem they’re trying to solve and identify what’s needed to ensure successful next steps. Your work will include aligning stakeholders, talking to end users, turning vague ideas into concrete priorities, and minimizing risk in the product development process. And you’ll do all this in a spirit of partnership, with a sense of humility and empathy for our partners and the people who use their systems.

We’re looking for senior-level candidates who have consulting experience along with a background in a user-centered design or strategy discipline such as digital strategy, service design, user experience design, content design/strategy, user research, product or software development. Experience in an agile development environment a plus.

Key Objectives

Objective #1: Lead small, cross-functional project teams that define the partner’s problem

• Navigate complex organizational relationships to bring stakeholders together around common goals and priorities
• Identify user and organizational needs through formal interviews, informal conversations, contextual inquiry, workshops, and analytics research
• Work comfortably amidst uncertainty
• Provide strategic value to partners early, reduce the risks of improperly-scoped work, and allow the team to quickly steer the project in the right direction
• Create artifacts to communicate what you learn in a way that resonates with our agency partners

Objective 2: Deliver recommendations that frame next steps

• Give agency partners and peers the advice they need to hear over what they want to hear, in a manner that respects their intelligence and experience
• Provide visibility into the project’s progress, communicate blockers and challenges, and ask for help when you need it
• Explain issues clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Help agency partners tell their own story within their organization
• Take a position on what needs to happen in order for a project to be set up for success, and communicate this position in a way that’s easy for stakeholders to understand

Objective #3: Model the behaviors we want to see partners adopt

• Teach agency teams how to take risks and validate ideas
• Demonstrate how to incorporate users into the product development process
• Help teams discover their internal creative thinkers and champions
• Hold yourself and your team accountable for measurable, high-quality, timely, and cost-effective results
• Demonstrate credibility in your area of expertise, deliver high-quality work, and accept responsibility for mistakes

Objective #4: Contribute to your team’s continued success

• Continually make a strong case for iterative, user-centered design on every project
• Contribute to team-wide reusable resources and materials
• Recognize when practices no longer serve the team and recommend a way forward
• Share your work in an unfinished state and give peer feedback in critique sessions
• Support a safe, inclusive workplace and a positive team culture where all team members value diversity and individual differences

Basic Information

Location: Washington, DC; Chicago, IL; San Francisco, CA; New York, NY; Virtual (100% remote)

Salary Range: Base salary GS-15 - $105,123 to $136,659

If you are a new federal employee, your starting salary will likely be set at the Step 1 of the grade for which you are selected. Total compensation may include locality pay based on the individual’s duty location. For more salary information including locality pay details, please visit OPM’s Salaries & Wages page.

Who May Apply: All United States citizens and nationals (residents of American Samoa and Swains Islands) and applicants must not be GSA employees or contractors

Job announcement number: 1900285JCOTR

Opening and closing period for this job application: 8:00am on Monday, February 25, 2019 EDT to 8:00pm on Friday, March 1, 2019 EDT

Job Title: Innovation Specialist

Series & Grade: 0301 - 15

Promotion Potential: GS-none

Number of vacancies: 1 (Additional vacancies may be filled from this announcement as needed)

Supervisory status: No

Travel requirement: Occasional travel may be required up to 10%-20% per year

Security clearance: Public trust. Background investigation required.

Work Schedule: Full time

Appointment Type: Excepted Service: Not to exceed 24 months (2 years); may be extended for an additional 2 years for a maximum of 4 years total.

Job Summary

This is a Schedule A position under 5 CFR 213.3102(r) to hire unique technical skills to develop innovative digital tools and services in the Excepted Services, US Digital Service 18F Fellowship Program. The 18F office is charged with developing innovative digital tools and services and uses lean startup and agile development principles to collaborate with other agencies to fix technical problems, build products, and improve how government serves the public through technology.

As an Innovation Specialist, the team member serves the government and makes an impact on a massive scale. The position requires that fellows perform work of an exceptional degree of difficulty across a wide range of topics at the convergence of technology, policy, and delivery. The incumbent leverages their experience deploying high quality, user centric platforms and services to lead major initiatives, consult on systems and policy proposal, and provide technical, policy, and programmatic guidance to government.

This position is located within the General Services Administration (GSA), Federal Acquisition Service (FAS), Technology Transformation Service (TTS), Office of 18F.

GSA has been repeatedly named as one of the ‘Best Places to Work’ in the federal government. You will have access to many benefits including:

• Health insurance (choose from a wide range of plans)
• Life insurance coverage with several options
• Sick leave and vacation time, including 10 paid holidays per year
• Thrift Savings Plan (similar to a 401(k) plan)
• Flexible work schedules and telework
• Transit and child care subsidies
• Training and development
• Flexible spending accounts
• Long-term care insurance
• Training and development

Key Requirements

1. You must be a U.S. Citizen or National (residents of American Samoa and Swains Islands)
2. Suitable for federal employment, determined by a background investigation
3. You may be required to serve a trial period
4. Direct Deposit of salary check to financial organization required
5. Register with Selective Service, if you are required by https://www.sss.gov/Registration-Info/Who-Registration

Employment Requirements

• Serve a one year trial period, if required
• Undergo and pass a background investigation. You must be granted this clearance before you can start the job
• Have your identity and work status eligibility verified if you are not a GSA employee. We will use the Department of Homeland Security’s e-Verify system for this
• Any discrepancies must be resolved as a condition of continued employment
• Complete a financial disclosure report to verify that no conflict, or an appearance of conflict, exists between your financial interest and this position

Duties

Typical duties for the fellow include but are not limited to: Conceiving/recommending projects/studies to advance the state of the art in the specialty area; applying forward­ thinking design and development principles to product or services development, delivery and program management, such as lean startup, user­centered design, and agile development; Analyzing and scoping the technical and policy requirements needed to implement complex digital solutions; Assessing the state of digital services provided by the Federal Government, and working to align strategies and practice; conferring with key government/private officials and top experts in the field, representing the agency at technical symposia and/or conferences; Developing authoritative papers/reports; developing and leading adoption of government­wide standards for digital services, leading to their adoption across citizen and business­facing government services; Demonstrating thought leadership and contributing best practices in a variety of technologies and principles; Contributing to a talent strategy that includes recruiting innovators and entrepreneurs to participate in solving complex and esoteric challenges.

Evaluation

We will use a method called Category Rating to assess your application.

Here’s how it will work:

You will be scored based on a review of your application materials, measuring your possession of each of the following competencies

• Problem Solving: Research, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information to define problems and propose solutions effectively
• Collaboration: Work closely with others to accomplish shared goals and build strong working relationships
• Communication: Convey information and ideas clearly, succinctly and effectively with a variety of audiences to establish a shared vision and understanding
• Leadership: Lead cross-functional teams to meet organization and project objectives
• TTS Core Values Alignment: Work with integrity, transparency and resiliency in a civic-minded or high-impact environment

If found to be eligible and at least minimally qualified for the position, your score will be used to place you in a category (Best Qualified, Well Qualified, or Qualified).

If your resume does not support your possession of the competencies listed above, we may lower your score, which could place you in a lower category.

Within each category, veterans will receive selection priority over non-veterans if supported by appropriate documentation.

Qualifications

All applications will be reviewed by a panel of subject matter experts against a scoring rubric created for this role. In order to properly be able to evaluate your previous experience, we recommend being as detailed as possible in your resume and following our general guidance on creating federal style resume.

To qualify for this role, you must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-14 in the Federal service. Specialized experience is:

1. Experience navigating highly ambiguous or uncertain situations to deliver results for clients. This experience must include ALL of the following:
   • Leading client-facing consulting projects or initiatives
   • Collaborating with cross-functional teams to achieve organizational or project objectives
   • Getting buy-in from stakeholders to effect change
2. Experience applying user-centered design disciplines to the development of products or services. This experience must include at least ONE of the following:
   • Leading teams in the user research or user-centered design of digital products or services
   • Leading teams in the development of digital products or services using agile development methodologies
   • Leading the development of content strategies for web or digital products.

Qualification determinations cannot be made when resumes do not include the required information, so failure to provide this information may result in disqualification.

For each job on your resume, provide:

• the exact dates you held each job (from month/year to month/year or “present”)
• number of hours per week you worked (if part time)