Summary

What General Information Do I Need To Know About This Position?

Salary: Lakewood, CO $114,970 (Step 01) to $149,465 (Step 10); Reston, VA $117,962 (Step 01) to $153,354 (Step 10).

NOTE: First time hires to the Federal Government are typically hired at the Step 01.

This is being advertised concurrently with the following announcements: USGS-DEN-24-12497349-ST-SAS which is open to current and former federal employees.

Learn more about this agency This job is open to

Career transition (CTAP, ICTAP, RPL)

Federal employees who meet the definition of a "surplus" or "displaced" employee.

The public

U.S. Citizens, Nationals or those who owe allegiance to the U.S.

DutiesAs an IT Specialist (SysAdmin) within the Office of Accounting & Finance Management, some of your specific duties will include:

Serves as the principal OCIO/Bureau/Office point of contact for creating, configuring, maintaining, and updating all IT systems.
Develops and provides compliance oversight for implementation of systems requirements, policies, guidelines, and practices. This includes initial design, system lifecycle management, change management, and configuration management.
Provides expert advice, counsel, and instruction to employees, supervisors, and management on issues pertaining to systems and the administration of them and establishes and maintains strong relationships with internal and external counterparts from multiple IT disciplines to lead IT systems development projects and to collaborate on evaluating the effectiveness of installed systems and devising solutions to problems and issues.
Develops and presents plans for integrating new technology into existing architecture.
Assesses new systems design methodologies to improve functionally, performance quality and security.

RequirementsConditions of EmploymentKey Requirements:

Applicants must be U.S. Citizens.
Suitable for Federal employment, as determined by background investigation.
Selectee may be subject to serving a one-year probationary period.
More requirements are listed under Qualifications and Other Information.

Are There Any Special Requirements For This Position?

A background investigation will be required for this position. Continued employment will be subject to the applicant's successful completion of a background security investigation and favorable adjudication. Failure to successfully meet these requirements will be grounds for termination.
Throughout the recruitment and hiring process we will be communicating with you via email; therefore, it is imperative that the email address you provide when applying for this vacancy remains active. Should your email address change, please notify the point of contact identified in the vacancy announcement as soon as possible so that we can update our system.

Qualifications

DEFINITIONS:

Undergraduate Education: A year of undergraduate education is 30 semester hours, 45 quarter hours or the equivalent of college study. This education must have been obtained in an accredited college or university for which high school graduation or the equivalent was a prerequisite.

Graduate Education: In the absence of specific graduate program information, a year of graduate education is 18 semester hours or 27 quarter hours of graduate level college course work, or the number of credit hours the school attended has determined to represent 1 year of full-time study. This education must have been obtained in an accredited college or university.

Experience: One year of work experience is twelve months working full-time (at least 35-40 hours per week). Part-time experience can be pro-rated (i.e., a year at 20 hours per week is credited as 6 months of experience). If your position consisted of mixed duties, experience credit is given for the percentage of time that you spent on qualifying duties (i.e., if you held a position for 2 years, full-time, consisting of 25% personnel work and 75% budget work, and then applied for a budget position you could calculate your experience as follows: 2 years = 24 months. 24 months x 75% [percentage of time spent on budget duties] = 18 months of qualifying experience.)

Basic Requirements

This standard allows qualification requirements to be met through education or experience.

Education: All academic degrees and coursework must be from accredited or pre-accredited institutions. Undergraduate or Graduate Education: Degree in computer science, engineering, information science, information systems management, mathematics, operations research, statistics, or technology management or degree that provided a minimum of 24 semester hours in one or more of the fields identified above and required the development or adaptation of applications, systems or networks.

OR

Experience: Experience must be IT related; the experience may be demonstrated by paid or unpaid experience and/or completion of specific, intensive training (for example, IT certification), as appropriate. For the GS-5 through GS-15 (or equivalent) grade levels, individuals must have IT-related experience demonstrating each of the four competencies listed below:

Attention to Detail - Is thorough when performing work and conscientious about attending to detail.
Customer Service - Works with clients and customers (that is, any individuals who use or receive the services or products that your work unit produces, including the general public, individuals who work in the agency, other agencies, or organizations outside the Government) to assess their needs, provide information or assistance, resolve their problems, or satisfy their expectations; knows about available products and services; is committed to providing quality products and services.
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.
Problem Solving - Identifies problems; determines accuracy and relevance of information; uses sound judgment to generate and evaluate alternatives, and to make recommendations.

GS-13:

Applicants must meet the following to qualify for the GS-13 level: One year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-12 level in the Federal service that demonstrates accomplishment of computer project assignments that required a wide range of knowledge of computer requirements and techniques pertinent to the position to be filled.

Examples of such experience may include: Experience and knowledge regarding the design and implementation of new and innovative Information Technology solutions that support large database applications including such technologies as cloud hosting and on-prem hosting and the best practices on where each should be implemented. Senior level Linux system administration knowledge and experience in all aspects of deploying and maintaining data-intensive enterprise systems. Applicant will be expected to administer a farm of on-prem and cloud Linux systems while coordinating closely with the database, network, and application administrators working on those systems. Expertise must include Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL 8+), KVM, and leading industry storage area network (SAN) devices. Experience must demonstrate the ability to lead all Linux system administration tasks such as hardware configuration, virtualization configuration, operating system configuration, backup processes, patch management, security compliance, performance monitoring, and best practices for efficient running of those systems. Experience effectively communicating and collaborating with both technical and non-technical team members in order to develop and deliver high-quality solutions faster and more reliably while meeting all stakeholder needs.

You must meet all qualification and eligibility requirements for the position by the closing date of the announcement.

Education

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 completed in colleges or universities outside the United States may be used to meet the above requirements. You must provide acceptable documentation that the foreign education is comparable to that received in an accredited educational institution in the United States. For more information on how foreign education is evaluated, visit: https://www.usgs.gov/about/organization/science-support/human-capital/how-foreign-education-evaluated-federal-jobs .

Additional information

Other Information

This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional similar vacancies in the advertised office or other U.S. Geological Survey offices in the local commuting area.
Applicants who include vulgar, offensive, or inappropriate language or information in their application package will be ineligible for further consideration for this position.
Under Executive Order 11935, only United States citizens and nationals (residents of American Samoa and Swains Island) may compete for civil service jobs. Agencies are permitted to hire non-citizens only in very limited circumstances where there are no qualified citizens available for the position.
USGS employees are subject to Title 43, USC Section 31(a) and may not: (a) have any personal, private, direct or indirect interest in lands or mineral wealth of lands under survey; (b) have any substantial personal, private, direct or indirect interests in any private mining or mineral enterprise doing business with the United States; or (c) execute surveys or examinations for private parties or corporations.
The application contains information subject to the Privacy Act (P.L. 93-579, 5 USC 552a). The information is used to determine qualifications for employment, and is authorized under Title 5, USC, Section 3302 and 3361.
DOI uses E-Verify to confirm the employment eligibility of all newly hired employees. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, please visit www.dhs.gov/E-Verify.
The Department of the Interior (DOI) places a high value on diversity of experience and cultural perspectives and encourages applications from all interested eligible candidates. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) are fundamental principles that guide the Department and allow us to successfully achieve our mission.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER.

Agency Benefits:

USGS has determined that the duties of this position are suitable for telework and the selectee may be allowed to telework in accordance with the DOI Telework policy and with supervisor approval. The official worksite for the selectee is the duty station identified in this vacancy announcement. The selectee will typically report to this duty location on a regular and recurring weekly basis.
For additional information on our internal telework policy, please reference the Department of the Interior Telework Handbook at: https://www.doi.gov/telework/policies.
Working for the U.S. Geological Survey offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays; health, life, dental, vision, and long term care insurance, flexible spending accounts, and participation in the Federal Employees Retirement System.

A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.Review our benefits

Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) jobs

IT Specialist (SysAdmin)