Special Agent in Charge (Firearms Operations Division)

ATF is a law enforcement agency in the U.S. Department of Justice that protects our communities from violent criminals/criminal organizations, illegal use/trafficking of firearms, illegal use/storage of explosives, acts of arson/bombings, acts of terrorism, and illegal diversion of alcohol/tobacco products. We partner with communities, industries, law enforcement, and public safety agencies to safeguard the public through information sharing, training, research, & technology. Visit www.atf.gov

Duties

The position of Special Agent in Charge (SAC), Firearms Operations Division (FOD) exercises full supervisory responsibilities and authority over FOD personnel.
This position is located in Washington D.C.

• Develops and implements Firearms Operations Division policies, practices, and procedures.
• Responsible for assessing, developing, and evaluating program goals, needs, operations, and accomplishments.
• Conducts short- and long-range planning for overall FOD goals and objectives in response to changes in funding levels, policy changes or legislative changes pertaining to FOD Division programs and projects.
• Plans, coordinates, and oversees effective development of FOD programs.
• Programs involve studies and initiatives pertaining to the FOD programs, functions, or operations.
• Plans, directs, coordinates, and oversees studies and surveys to evaluate FOD programs and ensure efficiency and economy of operations.
• Submits recommendations and decisions that reflect effective analysis of laws and regulations, budgets, strategic plans, current year operating plans, staffing plans, work-studies, and other pertinent material.
• Directs the development of appropriate measurements techniques and methodologies.
• Advises the Deputy Assistant Director on significant issues or matters pertaining to FOD programs and projects, e.g., the impact of new technology, new initiatives, etc.
• Furnishes technical information and advice to Division Chief, Assistant Director and/or Deputy Assistant Director (s) in order to provide direction and uniformity in Division or Branch programs and projects.
• Represents the Bureau in interagency meetings, conferences, and ad hoc committees on FOD issues and program initiatives with policy official at the Department of Justice.
• Directs the coordination of project and programs with management officials in other Branches or Divisions within the Directorate, with management officials in other directorates at Bureau Headquarters, and with officials from the Department of Justice or other Federal, State and local law enforcement agencies.

Salary

• $150,160 - $225,700/year

Conditions of Employment

MOBILITY PLAN: New employees hired pursuant to this vacancy announcement must sign a mobility agreement. The purpose of ATF's mobility policy is to enhance career development and progression, and achieve mission and business effectiveness. To accomplish these objectives, the mobility plan will facilitate the movement of employees through special short-term assignments or permanent reassignments throughout the Bureau. Applicants who decline to sign a mobility agreement, as required, will be removed from the hiring process.

The 1811 position requires law enforcement experience and is covered by special retirement provisions, including maximum entry age requirements. The successful applicant must be able to display and maintain the required proficiency with firearms per ATF's firearms proficiency standards. Complete or have previously completed the basic criminal investigative courses at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC). Complete a medical examination (including vision, hearing, cardiovascular and mobility of extremities) by an authorized government physician and be determined physically fit to perform strenuous physically demanding duties. You will be required to undergo regular physical examinations and to maintain a level of physical fitness in accordance with ATF's standards and policies.

The individual selected will be subject to the necessary security investigation for a critical position and reporting requirements of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978. The selectee will be required to complete an executive branch Personal Financial Disclosure Report, SF 278. The selectee may also be subject to post-employment conflict of interest restrictions under 18 USC 207 (c). You must complete a one-year probationary period unless already completed.

Key Requirements:

1. Top Secret Clearance required.
2. Pass drug screening and subject to random drug test.
3. New SES appointees must successfully complete a 1-year probationary period.
4. U.S. Citizenship is required.

Qualifications

This is a non-bargaining unit position.

Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs) - Mandatory (Current members of the career SES, former career SES members with reinstatement eligibility, and OPM/QRB certified candidates need not address the ECQs). You are required to submit information describing your experience in each of the five ECQs. The narratives should be clear, concise, and illustrate your overall record (professional and volunteer experience, education and training, accomplishments, awards and potential) in these ECQs. Be sure to furnish examples and describe the context in which you applied your knowledge, discuss how you used skills relevant to the position, indicate the complexity and scope of your work, discuss the impact of your work, note the level of people with whom you interacted, and explain the sensitivity and criticality of the issues you addressed. Structure your statements in terms of the challenges you faced, the context or environment in which the actions were taken, the actions taken, and the outcome or results from such action (i.e., Challenge-Context-Action-Result {C-C-A-R} Model). Additional information on the ECQs is available at http://www.opm.gov/ses/recruitment/ecq.asp.

Executive Core Qualifications - Please attach written responses, limited to two pages per ECQ (i.e., for a total of ten typewritten pages for all five ECQs).
1. Leading Change - Involves the ability to bring about strategic change, within and outside the organization, to meet organizational goals. Inherent to this is the ability to establish an organizational vision and to implement it in a continuously changing environment.
2. Leading People - Involves the ability to lead people toward meeting the organization's vision, mission, and goals. Inherent to this is the ability to provide an inclusive workplace that fosters the development of others, facilitates cooperation and teamwork, and supports constructive resolution of conflicts.
3. Results Driven - Involves the ability to meet organizational goals and customer expectations. Inherent to this is the ability to make decisions that produce high-quality results by applying technical knowledge, analyzing problems, and calculating risks.
4. Business Acumen - Involves the ability to manage human, financial, and information services strategically.
5. Building Coalitions - Involves the ability to build coalitions internally and with other Federal agencies, state and local governments, nonprofit and private sector organizations, foreign governments, or international organizations to achieve common goals.

Technical Qualifications (TQs) - Mandatory - Please attach written responses, limited to one typewritten page per TQ.
1. Knowledge of federal laws, regulations and policies governing law enforcement and regulatory operations in order to plan, direct, implement and evaluate comprehensive law enforcement and regulatory programs, or high risk tactical operation and critical incidents in a field or Headquarters environment, with particular emphasis on programs related to the enforcement of Federal alcohol, tobacco, firearms, explosives and arson laws and regulations.
2. Knowledge of the legal procedures applicable to federal law enforcement operations, such as criminal court procedures, methods of obtaining and securing evidence, jurisdictional guidelines, and other legal procedures, as well as knowledge of intelligence and investigative skills and techniques in order to provide critical and timely intelligence and information to law enforcement entities in the intelligence community.
3. Demonstrated experience in forming and maintaining effective partnerships with counterparts in other Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, local political and community leaders, and other individuals or groups to plan and coordinate joint solutions to local or regional law enforcement challenges, and demonstrated knowledge to effectively coordinate efforts of public safety and security (e.g. developing and implementing the multi-agency federal law enforcement responses to assist other law enforcement entities overwhelmed by a terrorist and/or natural or man made disaster).
4. Broad management experience in planning, developing, administering, and directing an organization, including overall responsibility for short and long range program planning, allocation of human and material resources, development of operational guidelines and policies, implementation of technology solutions, and creation of new methods and procedures to solve complex management problems.

Experience required for the ES-1811 series: You must have substantive experience serving as a principal advisor to senior management on laws, regulations, policies and procedures pertaining to law enforcement and regulatory operations.

As a basic requirement, applicants must demonstrate progressively responsible leadership experience that is indicative of senior executive level managerial capability and directly related to the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities required for successful performance in this position. Typically, experience of this nature will have been gained at or above the equivalent of the GS-15 grade level in the Federal service or its equivalent with state and local government, the private sector, or non-governmental organizations. Failure to meet this basic qualification requirement and all executive and technical qualifications for the position, by the closing date of this announcement, automatically disqualifies an applicant.

Education There is no education requirement for this position. Other Information

Selective Service: If you are a male applicant born after December 31, 1959, you must certify that you have registered with the Selective Service System, or are exempt from having to do so under the Selective Service Law. See www.sss.gov.

EEO Statement: The United States Government does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, status as a parent, genetic information, disability, age, membership or non-membership in an employee organization, or on the basis of personal favoritism. Applicants who believe they have been subjected to discrimination, or retaliation for participating in EEO activity or for opposing discrimination, should contact the ATF's Office of Equal Employment Opportunity at (202) 648-8760 within 45 calendar days of when the alleged harm occurred.

Please click on the following link to read important information. Department of Justice EEO Policy Statement https://www.justice.gov/jmd/page/file/1393306/download

Reasonable Accommodation (RA) Requests: If you believe you have a disability (i.e., physical or mental), covered by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended, that would interfere with completing the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be granted the opportunity to request RA in your online application. Requests for RA for the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments and appropriate supporting documentation for RA must be received prior to starting the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments. Decisions on requests for RA are made on a case-by-case basis. If you meet the minimum qualifications of the position, after notification of the adjudication of your request, you will receive an email invitation to complete the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments. You must complete all assessments within 48 hours of receiving the URL to access the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, if you receive the link after the close of the announcement. To determine if you need RA, please review the Procedures for Requesting a Reasonable Accommodation for Online Assessments here.

Selected individual must obtain Office of Personal Management (OPM) Senior Executive Certification.

A one-year probationary period is required for new members of the Senior Executive Service (SES).

Federal Regulations state no ATF employee, his/her spouse, or his/her minor child shall have, directly or indirectly, any financial interest, including compensated employment, stock, or proprietary interest in the alcohol, tobacco, firearms or explosives industries. You should be aware that you may be asked to relinquish any ownership of or interests in the alcohol, tobacco, firearms or explosives industries before a determination can be made whether access to ATF information, information technology systems, and/or facilities can be authorized."

Required Documents

• ALL APPLICANTS: You must submit a resume NOT TO EXCEED 2 PAGES containing the following pieces of information for each job entry listed in your employment history:

1. Official position title;
2. Employer name and contact information;
3. Start and end dates (including month and year);
4. Your Pay Plan/series/grade and step and a detailed list of duties & accomplishments

• Narrative Statement of Executive Core Qualifications, if applicable.
• Narrative Statement of Technical Qualifications.
• SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action (if applicable for Time in Grade and/or Eligibility):
  • Most recent SF-50 if you are a current or former Federal employee
  • An SF-50 showing your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade
  • Award 50's do not provide sufficient information and will not be accepted for the purpose of verifying time-in-grade.
  • Examples of appropriate SF-50's include:
    • Within grade increases at the highest grade held; or
    • Promotions with an effective date more than one year old; or
    • SF-50's at the highest grade held with an effective date more than one year old.

• The page of your performance evaluation that indicates your overall, current rating of record and the date of that rating. Actual written narrative submissions are not required. A copy may be asked for at a later time.

Applicants who fail to submit all required information and documents will not receive consideration for the position.

Your complete online application and any required supplemental documentation must be received by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on the closing date of this announcement. It is also your responsibility to ensure all documents are received on time and the materials are readable. If applying on-line poses a hardship to any applicant, please contact us at the telephone number listed on this announcement. Applicants must contact us prior to the closing date to speak to someone who can provide assistance for on-line submission. Requests for extensions will not be granted. Paper applications submitted without prior approval from the agency point of contact may be handled as incomplete.

How to Apply

Please read the entire announcement and all instructions before you begin an application. To apply for this position, you must complete the initial online application, to include the initial online assessment and submission of the required documentation specified in the Required Documents section. You must submit a complete application package by 11:59 PM (ET) on 7/1/2025 to be considered. The application process is as follows:

1. To begin the application process, click the Apply Online button.
2. Answer the questions presented in the application and attach all necessary supporting documentation.
3. Click the Submit Application button prior to 11:59 PM (ET) on the announcement closing date.
4. After submitting an online application, you will be notified whether or not you are required to take additional online assessments through the USA Hire Competency Based Assessment system. This message will be delivered to you via email notification. The email may be routed to your "Spam" or "Junk" folder.
5. If you are asked to take the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be presented with a unique URL to access the USA Hire system. Access to USA Hire is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Be sure to review all instructions prior to beginning your USA Hire Assessments. Click here for Computer System Requirements
6. Note, set aside at least 3 hours to take these assessments; however, most applicants complete the assessments in less time. If you need to stop the assessments and continue at a later time, you can re-use the URL sent to you via email and also found in your USAJOBS account under the Track this application link for the corresponding application.

To update your application, including supporting documentation, at any time during the announcement open period return to your USAJOBS account. There you will find a record of your application, the application status, and an option to Edit My Application. This option will no longer be available once the announcement is closed.

To verify the status of your application both during and after the announcement open period, log into your USAJOBS account. Your applications will appear on the Welcome page. Navigate to the job application and click Track this application to view your application status. The link will take you to the hiring agency application system, which has the most up-to-date status of your application. There you can review any notifications sent to you related to this application, including the invitation to take the USA Hire assessment. The Application Status will appear along with the date your application was last updated. For information on what each Application Status means click here.

Benefits

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