Duties

Summary

This position is in the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB), Cybersecurity and Communications Reliability (CCR) Division.

THIS VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT MAY BE USED TO FILL ADDITIONAL POSITIONS WITHIN 90 DAYS.

Relocation expenses will not be paid.

Learn more about this agency

Responsibilities

Incumbent provides oral and written legal advice, guidance, interpretation, opinions and assistance on a wide range of legal and policy matters; performs legal research; determines implications of novel and complex legal issues; develops factual, legal, and precedent-setting positions on disputed matters.

Responds to inquiries from the Division, Bureau, and/or Commission leadership as well as from other components of the Commission and other government agencies, Congress, and the public; addresses novel legal questions pertaining to CCR issues involving communications reliability issues; prepares memoranda or opinions outlining the facts and legal issues involved in disputed matters, and fully justifies conclusions and recommendations.

Reviews and evaluates proposed legislation, regulations and policies to analyze their effect on existing laws and regulations and on Division/Bureau programs, policies, regulations and overall operations.

Identifies facts, applies analysis, develops policy, and prepares rule making orders and decisions assuring that documents adhere to Division/Bureau/Commission policy while evaluating objectives and clearly identifying all available options. Ensures that Commission-level documents submitted for review are: legally and demonstrably supported by accurate facts, comprehensive and internally consistent, and in conformance with existing policy, precedent, decisions, processes and procedures.

Develops potential projects to address the need for communications networks to be reliable, resilient, and secure within the purview of the Division by recommending establishing new policy, or by altering or clarifying established policy and/or established legal precedents.

Resolves legal questions and addresses issues that may have no precedents or no clearly applicable precedents, requiring significant, independent legal research and coordination, and determining when to brief matters to CCR leadership. Identifies major policy issues requiring interpretation by higher legal authority and develops and prepares recommended interpretation outlining the facts and applicable law.

Performs extensive research; determines implications of novel and complex legal issues; develops factual, legal, and precedent-setting positions on disputed matters. The scope of legal problems encountered is broad, highly complex and technical.

Draft rules, regulations, and policies, including those pertaining to communications reliability (such as network outage reports, disaster information reporting and 911 reliability certifications) and public safety, homeland security, national security, disaster management, and related issues.

Represents CCR leadership at meetings, hearings and conferences to: (1) gather facts, investigate circumstances and events, and formulate the best legally supportable course of action for resolving complex issues, often in coordination with technical and other Commission staff with regard to alleged violations of statue or regulations; and (2) coordinate with Bureau/Commission offices on policy issues requiring interpretation and developing and preparing recommended interpretation outlining the facts and applicable laws.

Travel Required

Occasional travel - 2 to 3 times a year, each trip 2-5 days in duration

Supervisory status
No

Promotion Potential
15

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• Bar Membership Required.
• Writing Sample required during second level review.
• Education-Transcripts Required
• US Citizen
• Males born after 12/31/59 must be registered with Selective Service.

Please note your resume must thoroughly support your responses to the vacancy questions. Your resume is an integral part of the process for determining if you meet the basic qualifications of the position and determining if you are to be among the best qualified.

Qualifications

Applicants must meet eligibility and qualification requirements by the closing date of this announcement. Current Federal employees must meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

Professional Law Experience: Professional law experience is experience that has equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position and is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled.

Specialized Experience: Specialized experience is experience which is in or directly related to the line of work of the position to be filled and which has equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position.

Applicants must have a minimum of one year of specialized experience in or equivalent to the next lower grade level in the Federal Service.

To Qualify for the GS-12: Applicants must have a minimum of one year of professional law experience in or equivalent to the GS-11 level in the Federal Service. For this position, specialized includes the following:

Examples of specialized experience include: 1. Conducting in-depth legal research; 2. Drafting legal documents; 3. Providing input regarding the resolution of legal issues.

To Qualify for the GS-13: Applicant must possess at least two years of professional law experience and at least one year of the experience must be specialized experience at or equivalent to the GS-12 grade level in the Federal service performing the following:

Examples of specialized experience include: 1) conducting legal research and preparing legal documents; 2) developing research strategies for complex legal issues; 3) writing documents such as briefs, issue papers, rulemaking items or portions thereof, and report summaries with analyses and recommendations; and 4) making oral presentations, communicating legal research results, and defending legal positions.

To Qualify for the GS-14: Applicant must possess at least three years of professional law experience and at least one year of the experience must be specialized experience at or equivalent to the GS-13 grade level in the Federal service performing the following:

Examples of specialized experience include: 1) conducting legal research and preparing legal documents; 2) developing research strategies for complex legal issues; 3) writing complex documents such as briefs, issue papers, orders, rulemaking items, and report summaries with analyses and recommendations; 4) making oral presentations, communicating legal research results, and defending legal positions; and 5) experience providing legal guidance to attorneys and other professionals.

To Qualify for the GS-15: Applicant must possess at least four years of professional law experience and at least one year of the experience must be specialized experience at or equivalent to the GS-14 grade level in the Federal service performing the following:

Examples of specialized experience include: 1. Experience interpreting communication laws, statutes, regulations and/or rule making documents; 2. Experience analyzing legal issues, identifying potential problems and proposing solutions; 3. Experience preparing legal documents (e.g., briefs, issue papers, and report summaries with analysis and recommendations; 4. Experience communicating legal issues/positions while representing the bureau in meetings with both internal stakeholders for the purpose of providing, receiving, persuading or negotiating legal positions; and 5. Experience providing advice, guidance, direction and leadership to other attorneys or professionals in meetings, discussions, or legal proceedings.

PART-TIME OR UNPAID EXPERIENCE: 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.

Education

You must meet the minimum basic educational requirements for Attorney positions. Education requirements include: a professional law degree JD, LL.B., and/or LL.M.

Additional information

EEO Policy Statement Reasonable Accommodation Policy Statement Veterans Information Legal and Regulatory Guidance

THIS VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT MAY BE USED TO FILL ADDITIONAL 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.

All candidates will be considered without regard to political or religious affiliation, marital status, race, color, sex, national origin, nondisqualifying physical or mental handicap, age, or any other nonmerit factor. THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER.

All applicants will be rated on the extent and quality of experience and education relevant to the duties of the position. Applicants who do not respond to the application questions and/or do not submit a supporting resume will be rated ineligible. Please note your resume must thoroughly support your responses to the vacancy
questions.

There are several parts to the application process that affect the overall evaluation of your application including:

1. the core questions
2. the vacancy questions
3. supplemental documentation (e.g., DD-214, SF-50, SF-15, transcripts); and
4. your resume.

Applicants will be rated ineligible, if they do not respond to job specific questions provide supplemental documents and submit resume. For more information, please click on Rating Process

You will be evaluated for this position on the following Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and Other characteristics (KSAOs):

Ability to research, interpret, apply and develop rules and regulations in order to provide sound, technical legal advice on related Public Safety matters.

Ability to communicate in writing in order to produce a range of legal and other types of documents that involve content technical in nature (e.g., briefs, issue papers, policies and regulations).

Ability to communicate legal and technical information orally to diverse audiences for the purpose of receiving, persuading or negotiations of legal positions.

Ability to establish and maintain internal and external relationships.

To preview questions please click here .

Background checks and security clearance

Security clearance
Not Required

Drug test required
No

Required Documents

***ALL SUPPLEMENTAL DOCUMENTS MUST BE RECEIVED IN THE FCC'S HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICE BY THE CLOSING DATE OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. ONCE YOU APPLY TO THIS VACANCY YOU WILL BE PROMPTED BY THE SYSTEM TO EITHER UPLOAD DOCUMENTS OR PRINT FAX COVERSHEETS - THE FAX NUMBER WILL BE LISTED ON THIS SHEET. IF FAXING, ALL DOCUMENTS REQUIRED SHOULD BE FAXED SEPARATELY ON THE FAX COVERSHEET PROVIDED. ONCE FAXED, YOU SHOULD RECEIVE AN EMAIL CONFIRMATION WITHIN AN HOUR. IF YOU DO NOT RECEIVE AN EMAIL CONFIRMATION, YOUR FAX HAS NOT BEEN SUCCESSFULLY RECEIVED AND YOU SHOULD FAX AGAIN.

IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO FAX THE REQUIRED DOCUMENTATION, CONTACT THE HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICE AT 418-0130 PRIOR TO THE CLOSING DATE OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT.***

Supplement Documents Required:

Employees must provide a legible Personnel Action, SF-50, that verifies your status and highest permanently held grade along with your most recent annual performance appraisal.

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.