Skip to main content

This job has expired

Supervisory Attorney Advisor

Employer
USAJobs
Location
Washington, D.C
Closing date
Sep 28, 2021
Duties

Summary

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), headed by the Administrator of PHMSA, is the administration within the Department of Transportation responsible for numerous transportation-related programs, including hazardous materials safety and pipeline safety. This position is that of PHMSA's Supervisory Attorney-Advisor for Pipeline Safety Law in the Office of Chief Counsel, the incumbent supervises the work of the Pipeline Safety Division.

Learn more about this agency

Responsibilities

This position is that of PHMSA's Supervisory Attorney-Advisor for Pipeline Safety Law, with comprehensive responsibility for the direct supervision of staff. Under the direction and supervision of the Deputy Chief Counsel and Chief Counsel of PHMSA, you will lead and supervise the Pipeline Safety Law Division of the Office of Chief Counsel (PHC) and you will serve as the primary legal advisor to PHMSA's Associate Administrator of the Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) and the managers and staff of that organization.

As a Supervisory Attorney Advisor, you will:
  • Supervise or perform all legal functions relating to the regulation of gas and hazardous liquid pipeline facilities under the multiple statutes that comprise Federal pipeline safety law.
  • Supervise or perform all legal functions relating to enforcement activity under the pipeline safety laws.
  • Supervise or perform legal functions relating to rulemaking activity under the pipeline safety laws.
  • Supervise or perform all litigation support services in coordination with the DOT Office of General Counsel and Department of Justice.
  • Represent the Department, PHMSA, and the Chief Counsel at conferences, seminars, inter-agency negotiations, public hearings and meetings, administrative and judicial hearings, and in numerous other forums.
  • Provide legal advice, opinions and services with respect to all aspects of the pipeline safety program, including issues concerning the Pipeline Safety Act, Administrative Procedure Act, Oil Pollution Act of 1990, Freedom of Information Act, Federal Advisory Committee Act, Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act, and applicable Federal statutes and Executive Orders protecting the environment.

This position is perfect for an experienced supervisor with over 5 years of experience in a busy counsel's office in the federal government or the private sector. The candidate will be responsible for managing the case load of the office and attorney work product and therefore must be a strong program and project manager who has demonstrated skill in creating action plans, tracking milestones and ensuring outcomes are accomplished on time and within agreed upon parameters. In addition, the candidate should have strong litigation and enforcement experience, in addition to strong knowledge of pipeline safety laws, environmental laws and rulemaking and regulatory expertise.

Travel Required

Not required

Supervisory status
Yes

Promotion Potential
15

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

  • You must be a U.S.Citizen and eligible for consideration.
  • Submit application and resume online by 11:59 PM EST on the closing date.
  • This is an Excepted Service position.
  • Required documents must be submitted by the closing date.


CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT:
  • SELECTIVE SERVICE: Males born after 12/31/59 must be registered for Selective Service.
  • TRIAL PERIOD: This is an Excepted Service position. This job will be filled by an alternative hiring process and is not in the competitive service. Applicants selected for an excepted service position may be subject to a two-year trial period.
  • ETHICS/CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT: All employees are subject to the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch, set out in Title 5 of the Code of Federal Regulations, section 2635, including restrictions on owning financial interests that may conflict with performance of their duties. Some employees, like those involved in contracting or regulating non-Federal entities, are subject to Executive Branch Financial Disclosure requirements set out in Title 5 of the Code of Federal Regulations, section 263.
  • PCS/RELOCATION/RECRUITMENT: Permanent Change of Station (PCS), Relocation, and Recruitment Incentive authorization varies by position/selection.


Qualifications

To qualify, your experience should include experience and education equal or equivalent to the following:

To qualify for the GS-15, you must have: A law degree, bar membership in good standing and at least 1 year of professional attorney experience.

This experience must include:
  • Experience conducting briefings for and providing legal advice and assistance to executives and senior staff in carrying out the activities of their respective programs.
  • Experience managing attorneys in a legal department or program office.
  • Experience in Pipeline safety law, administrative law, rulemaking, legislation, litigation and environmental law.
  • Experience coordinating legal issues and professional application of legal principles, precedents and rulings.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES (KSAs): Your qualifications will be evaluated on the basis of your level of knowledge, skills, abilities and/or competencies in the following areas:
  • Oral Communication (*) - Expresses information (for example, ideas or facts) to individuals or groups effectively, taking into account the audience and nature of the information (for example, technical, sensitive, controversial); makes clear and convincing oral presentations; listens to others, attends to nonverbal cues, and responds appropriately.
  • Written Communication - Writes in a clear, concise, organized, and convincing manner for the intended audience.
  • Legal, Government, and Jurisprudence - Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, legal practices and documents, Government regulations, Executive orders, agency rules, Government organization and functions, and the democratic political process.
  • Manages Human Resources - Plans, distributes, and monitors work assignments; evaluates work performance and provides feedback to others on their performance.
  • Problem Solving (‡) - Identifies and analyzes problems; weighs relevance and accuracy of information; generates and evaluates alternative solutions; makes recommendations.

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, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

For additional information about applying to Federal positions, please click on the following link: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-policies/#url=e4

All applicants must meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

Education

MANDATORY EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS:

In order to qualify for this position, candidates must have successfully completed a full course of study in a school of law accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) and have a professional law degree, and must currently be a member in good standing of the bar of a State or Territory of the United States or the District of Columbia.

Additional information

TELEWORK: Managers may exercise discretion to allow a limited amount of regular or task-based telework for this position.

This vacancy may be used by any DOT agency to fill similar positions within 90 days.

How You Will Be Evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE: PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. If your resume/ application does not support your questionnaire answers, we will not allow credit for your response(s). Your resume must contain sufficiently detailed information upon which to make a qualification determination. Please ensure that your resume contains specific information such as position titles, beginning and ending dates of employment for each position, average number of hours worked per week, and if the position is/was in the Federal government, you should provide the position series and grade level

For this announcement, all applicants will be reviewed to determine if they meet the basic qualifications for this position, specifically the educational and specialized experience requirements.

Applicants will not be rated or ranked.

All applications that are verified to meet the basic qualifications will be referred to the selecting official.

The answers you select in the on-line process must be substantiated in your application package. If upon review, it is determined that your described work history, competencies, and/or supporting documents do not support your answer choices, you may not be referred to the selecting official. Please ensure that your work history provides enough details to support your answers.

To preview questions please click here .

Background checks and security clearance

Security clearance
Other

Drug test required
No

Position sensitivity and risk
Non-sensitive (NS)/Low Risk

Trust determination process
Suitability/Fitness

Required Documents

ALL Applicants must provide a resume that fully supports the required specialized experience and respond to the vacancy questions by the closing date of the vacancy. Formatted resumes can be uploaded when you arrive at the DOT application system. For assistance with the resume builder, please visit: https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/how-to/account/documents/resume/build/

The following is a list of documents that are only required based on the type of position. Please review each of the following sections to determine which documents you need to provide with your application.

RESUME - Needs to be created within USA Jobs Resume Builder. It must show relevant experience, education and fully support the required specialized experience.

COMPLETED QUESTIONNAIRE.

PROOF OF BAR MEMBERSHIP.

TRANSCRIPTS - Transcripts are REQUIRED as there is a stated education requirement for the series. The transcripts need not be official, but must show that you meet the stated education requirements, including specific major or class requirements.
  • If you have previously held a government position in the same series as this position, you may be able to provide an SF-50 showing that you have already qualified and worked in the federal service in this series.

WRITING SAMPLE: If selected for an interview, a writing sample may be requested.

VETERANS: Your last DD214 (member 4 copy), Certificate of Release or Discharge From Active Duty, that shows the type of discharge and all dates of active duty is required to verify your eligibility. It need not be official.
  • If you are applying to a vacancy opened to all US Citizens under category rating and wish to be considered as a preference eligible, you need to submit a copy of your DD214 (member-4 copy).
  • If you are claiming preference eligibility as a disabled veteran, you must submit proof of entitlement of this preference which is normally a valid letter from the Department of Veterans Affairs certifying to the present existence of the service-connected disability and indicating the percentage of your disability. An SF-15 is desired, but not required.
  • If you are applying to a vacancy opened Status and you are requesting consideration under Veteran's Employment Opportunity Act (VEOA) ( https://www.fedshirevets.gov/job/shav/#veoa ), you need to provide a copy of your last DD214 (member-4 copy), which verifies your military service dates, reason for separation, OR certification of separation that shows a discharge date within 120 days of the closing of this announcement, and eligibility for consideration under the Veterans Employment Opportunity Act.

Failure to submit any of the required documents by the closing date of the vacancy will result in your removal from consideration for this position. Please review your application prior to final submission and ensure you have submitted all appropriate documents. Uploading documents to USAJobs does NOT ensure inclusion with your application to our system. You must verify that the documents are in the system with your application prior to final submission.

If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:

Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education .

Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.

Get job alerts

Create a job alert and receive personalized job recommendations straight to your inbox.

Create alert