Duties

Summary

Why work for the Federal Bureau of Prisons?

You can have a meaningful career with an agency that truly values a diverse workforce. You will find a diverse workforce employed from entry level jobs to senior management positions. We protect public safety by ensuring federal offenders serve their sentences of imprisonment in facilities that are safe, humane, and provide reentry programming. Employees at correctional facilities perform correctional work regardless of their specific occupation.

Learn more about this agency

Responsibilities

The principal function is that of a psychologist with regional oversight of Bureau of Prisons'(BOP) specialized Psychology Treatment Programs (PTP). The PTP Coordinator exercises full professional responsibility for their findings, interpretations, decisions, recommendations and reports. The PTP Coordinator will have professional autonomy in directing and overseeing the clinical activities in relation to PTP provided to BOP inmates, including, testing, test interpretation, clinical diagnosis, technical assist visits, clinical peer reviews, recruitment and staffing of programs, and serving as the advocate for PTP with all staff, including executive staff. The PTP Coordinator is responsible for the provision of highly-skilled mental health and drug abuse treatment protocols. He or she is the expert on offender treatment and therefore serves as the program resource person to other psychologists, staff members, and operating officials.

Travel Required

50% or less - Travel may be required for training and/or work related issues.

Supervisory status
No

Promotion Potential
14

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• U.S. Citizenship is Required.
• See Special Conditions of Employment Section.

The Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provides eligible surplus and displaced competitive service employees in the Department of Justice with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. If your Department of Justice component has notified you in writing that you are a surplus or displaced employee eligible for CTAP eligibility, you may receive selection priority if: 1) this vacancy is within your CTAP eligibility; 2) you apply under the instructions in this announcement; and 3) you are found well qualified for this vacancy. To be well qualified, you must satisfy all qualification requirements for the vacant position and score 85 or better on established ranking criteria. You must provide a copy of your written notification of CTAP eligibility with your application. Additional information about CTAP eligibility is at: Click Here

Qualifications

To be considered for the position, you must meet the following qualification requirements.

BASIC REQUIREMENTS:

Education:

Satisfactory completion of all the requirements for a doctoral degree (Ph.D. or equivalent) directly related to full professional work in clinical psychology is required.

AND

In addition to meeting the above Basic Requirements, applicant must have:

Education:

There is no substitution of education for specialized experience for this position.

Experience:

At least one year of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and complexity to the next lower grade level. To be creditable, this experience must have equipped the applicant with the particular qualifications to successfully perform the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled.

Some examples of the qualifying experience are:

• Experience in analyzing information and providing recommendations in regards to the establishment or modification of local treatment program objectives.
• Experience with Cognitive Behavioral Treatment and the utilization of skill building, goal setting behavior management principles.
• Experience in reviewing and coordinating the development of policies, programs, and treatment protocols for Psychology programs within a clinical or correctional program setting.
• Experience in providing professional expertise as it relates to the theories, principles, practices and techniques of psychology and addiction treatment.

AND

Selective Factor: Applicants applying for this position, MUST also possess the following Selective Factor.

In the event you do not possess the Selective Factor, you will be found ineligible for the position.

Selective Factor:

• Must have at least 12 consecutive months of experience as a Psychology Treatment Programs Supervisor within a Residential Program that has been operating as a modified therapeutic community for 12 months AND Applicants must hold a full, current, and unrestricted license to practice as a psychologist in a State, Territory, Commonwealth of the United States (e.g., Puerto Rico), or the District of Columbia.

ALL applicants must clearly address this experience in their resume to be found qualified and MUST also provide a copy of current and valid license documenting the date of expiration. This documentation MUST be received in the announcing office by the closing date of the vacancy announcement.

Credit will be given for paid and unpaid experience. To receive proper credit, you must show the actual time (such as number of hours worked per week) spent in the activities.

**Your eligibility for consideration will be based on your responses to the questions in the application.**

Education

See Qualifications Section for education requirements, if applicable.

ONLY if education is a requirement/substitution for specialized experience, applicant MUST upload legible transcripts as verification of educational requirement. Transcripts MUST be uploaded and electronically linked from USAJOBS at the time you apply and MUST include identifying information to include School Name, Student Name, Degree and Date Awarded (if applicable). All academic degrees and coursework must be completed at a college or university that has obtained accreditation or pre-accreditation status from an accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. For a list of schools that meet this criteria, Click Here .

Foreign Education: For information regarding foreign education requirements, please see Foreign Diploma and Credit Recognition at the U.S. Department of Education website: Recognition of Foreign Qualifications .

If you are selected for this position and qualified based on education (i.e. basic education requirement and/or substitution of education), you will be required to provide an OFFICIAL transcript prior to your first day on duty.

Additional information

This position IS NOT included in the bargaining unit.

The representative rate for this position is $134,782 per annum ($64.58per hour).

Special Conditions of Employment Section:

The incumbent is subject to geographic relocation to meet the needs of the agency.

Appointment is subject to satisfactory completion of a urinalysis, physical, and background investigation. All applicants are subject to National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and credit checks.

The addresses listed on the USAJOBS account/resume must be the primary residence at the time of application. You may be required to provide proof of residence.

Additional selections may be made if vacancies occur within the life of the certificate.

Current Federal Law Enforcement Employees:

Individuals selected who are under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) or Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and who have not had three years "primary" law enforcement retirement coverage, will not be covered by law enforcement retirement while in this position. To regain coverage, individuals must return to a position with "primary" coverage.

How You Will Be Evaluated

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

If your composite score exceeds the average score for this job, your resume and supporting documentation will be compared to your online assessment questionnaire responses and utilized to determine whether you meet the job qualifications listed in this announcement. If you rate yourself higher than what is supported by your application materials, your responses may be adjusted and/or you may be excluded from consideration for this job. If you are found to be among the top candidates, you will be referred to the selecting official for employment consideration.

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

• Your resume, which is part of your USAJOBS profile;
• Your responses to the eligibility questions;
• Your responses to the online assessment questionnaire;
• Your supporting documentation, if required.

Time-in-Grade: Federal employees must meet time-in-grade requirements for consideration. You must meet all qualification requirements upon the closing date of this announcement.

What Competencies/Knowledge, Skills and Abilities are Required for this Position?

The following Competencies/Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSA's) are required:

• Ability to communicate in writing.
• Ability to communicate orally, both in presentations and during individual interactions.
• Ability to analyze information and make recommendations, particularly in regards to the formulation of policy, plans and/or programs.
• Ability to provide treatment to mentally ill, emotionally ill, cognitively impaired and organic disordered inmates in a correctional setting.
• Knowledge of Research Practices in Their Application with a variety of Mentally-ill.

To preview questions please click here .

Background checks and security clearance

Security clearance
Other

Drug test required
No

Required Documents

• Resume showing relevant experience (cover letter optional)
• In order to receive credit for experience contained in a resume, your employment history must be documented in month/year format (MM/YYYY), reflecting starting date and ending date and include the number of hours worked per week. Failure to follow this format may result in disqualification.
• Current or former Federal employees NOT employed by the Bureau of Prisons MUST submit a copy of their SF-50 Form which shows competitive service appointment, tenure group, and salary. If you have promotion potential in your current position, please provide proof. If you are applying for a higher grade, and your experience was gained at a Federal agency other than the Bureau of Prisons, you MUST provide the SF-50 Form which verifies the length of time you have been in your highest grade and supports your claim for time in grade.
• Employees applying with an interchange agreement must provide proof of their permanent appointment.
• Current federal employees NOT employed by the BOP and former federal employees MUST submit a copy of their latest yearly performance appraisal/evaluation.
• CTAP, Click Here , if applicable.
• A college transcript which includes the School Name, Student Name, Degree and Date Awarded, if applicable. (Note: If you are selected for this position, official transcript(s) will be required prior to your first day.)
• Full, current, and unrestricted license

Failure to provide these documents could possibly result in removal from consideration for this vacancy. If uploading documentation, do not identify/save your documents utilizing a special character such as %, #, @, etc. Documentation should be identified/saved as VA Letter, DD214, or Transcripts.

We cannot be held responsible for incompatible software, delays in mail service, applicant application errors, etc.

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.