Administrative Officer

This position is located within the Department of the Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Fish & Wildlife Service Region 3, National Wildlife Refuge System. Multiple duty stations listed below: Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge located in Onalaska, Wisconsin Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge located in Middle River, Minnesota Necedah National Wildlife Refuge located in Necedah, Wisconsin Some of the major duties you will perform include but are not limited to the following: Acting as the primary financial advisor, you are responsible for analyzing, evaluating, and managing accounting and control systems to ensure proper financial balances. You allocate resources within planned limitations, striving to maximize benefits from available funds. Your role includes analyzing historical budget and financial data, along with evolving program plans, to prepare budget estimates and justifications for both current and future budget planning. You identify funding challenges, fiscal trends, and significant program deficiencies, offering solutions and recommendations as needed. Your expertise extends to advising on administrative and operational management issues, contributing analysis for management decisions, and articulating administrative requirements. You manage organizational procurement activities, advise and assist with equipment and supply needs, prepare procurement documents, conduct market research, and ensure compliance with financial management guidelines and regulatory standards. You also provide advice and guidance to supervisors and staff regarding human resources regulations, policies, and procedures. This includes preparing relevant forms and documents, ensuring electronic personnel action requests and supporting documents are submitted accurately and promptly, and monitoring their progress to completion. Additionally, you share information about available training courses and related details. You ensure that expense items are obligated and invoices are processed in accordance with the Service's financial management guidelines and with regulatory and legal requirements. You ensure travel arrangements for program staff and cooperators are made in accordance with Federal Travel Regulations, Department and Service policy. Trains staff in proper preparation of travel itineraries, travel authorizations, and travel vouchers. Trains staff in requirements for maintaining accurate records of work time, overtime, compensatory time, Sunday premium, night differential, hazardous duty, and time off. Coordinates activities of the organization with the offices that perform payroll and travel functions. All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement-10/05/2026-unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement. All candidates must also meet Time-in-Grade requirements. To receive credit for experience, your resume MUST state either "full-time" (or "40 hours a week") or "part-time" with the number of hours worked per week to ensure proper crediting of specialized experience. Failure to adequately provide information needed to determine number of hours worked in each position may result in that time not being credited when evaluating qualifying experience. For periods of time that reflect military service, the DD-214 or Statement of Service is sufficient to meet the full and/or part-time hours requirement as the service dates will be reflected. General Experience Requirement: To qualify for this position at the GS-09 grade level: Specialized Experience Requirement: you must possess at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-07 level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). Specialized experience is defined as demonstrated experience: one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the grade GS-07 in the normal line of progression for this occupation. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: 1) Monitoring funds and tracking expenditures; 2) Reconciling budget reports to prevent overspending; 3) Processing and reconciling fiscal documents such as purchase orders, travel vouchers, and procurement receipts; 4) Utilizing Excel spreadsheets and financial system databases to analyze, summarize, reconcile, and report financial data; 5) Responding to a variety of administrative requests and questions from employees, managers, and the public.You must include hours per week worked. • OR- Education: Successful completion of at least a master's or equivalent graduate degree, or two full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree in a related field, such as Business Administration or Public Administration and that provided the knowledge, skills and abilities to perform this work or a LL.B. or J.D., if related. NOTE: To qualify under this option, you must submit transcripts (official or unofficial) to verify your education. You must include transcripts. • OR- Combination of education and experience.The combination of specialized experience and directly related graduate level education (both as described above) that, when computed as percentages of their respective requirements, equals at least 100% when combined. Only graduate education beyond the first year is creditable to meet this standard. NOTE: To qualify under this option you must submit transcripts (official or unofficial) to verify your education.. Then take the number of months of full-time experience and divide by 12 months. Add the percentages together. The total must equal at least 100 percent to qualify. You must include transcripts. Volunteer 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. Must be a U.S. Citizen or National. Appointment subject to background investigation and favorable adjudication. Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered for Selective Service. Direct Deposit participation required. Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more, visit www.dhs.gov/EVerify/. You are required to wear a uniform and comply with the uniform standards. A uniform allowance will be provided. As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period during which your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest will be evaluated. This probationary period is an extension of the appointment process and therefore requires the agency to determine if continued employment would advance the public interest, meet the organization goals and mission of the agency, and/or otherwise promote the efficiency of the service. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, the agency will consider: your performance and conduct; the needs and interests of the agency; whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service. Under applicable law, the employment of an individual serving a probationary or trial period automatically terminates when that period ends unless the agency affirmatively certifies, in writing, that the individual's employment should continue and that their appointment should be finalized. In the absence of agency action to affirmatively certify continued employment beyond the probationary or trial period, such appointments are terminated. Upon completion of your Probationary period your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest. You must submit a copy of your transcript(s) to support claimed education if substituting education for experience. Transcripts must include your name, school name, grades, credit hours earned, major(s), grade point average or class ranking, and date the degree was conferred, if applicable. A typed list of courses, grades, semester/quarter hours, GPA, etc. will not be accepted. Non-submission may result in being rated not qualified for the position. Unofficial transcripts are acceptable, but if you are selected for this position and you used your education to qualify, you must provide official transcripts before you begin work. Foreign Education: To receive credit for education completed outside the United States, you must show proof that the education has been submitted to a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign educational credentials and such education has been deemed at least equivalent to that gained in conventional U.S. education programs. Recognition of Foreign Qualifications | U.S. Department of Education. https://www.ed.gov/about/initiatives/international-affairs/recognition-of-foreign-qualification