Farm Loan Program Technician - Iowa Farm Service Agency

For more information and to apply online please visit: 

https://usajobs.gov/job/774974900

Annual Salary Range: $39,576 - $63,733

Program Technicians are employed in Farm Service Agency (FSA) County Service Centers throughout the nation. As a PT, you will work directly with farmers and ranchers in your county and state by helping process various type of farm loans. Good communication skills, both orally and in-writing, are necessary as you will explain policies to producers through correspondence and in-person interactions. You will perform a wide variety of duties such as:

• Assisting the Farm Loan Chief, Farm Loan Branch specialists, Farm Loan Team managers, and District Directors on farm loan program procedural matters.
• Providing training to individuals and groups in the preparation and processing of loan documents and on loan procedural changes.
• Providing technical assistance to the Branch in processing bankruptcy and farm foreclosure cases.

FSA's diverse culture and benefits allow for a healthy balance between your career and home life. In addition to a generous salary, FSA offers a friendly and professional working environment with a diverse workforce, flexible hours and work schedules, and other family-friendly benefits such as: 

• Earned annual leave 

• Earned sick leave 

• Paid holidays 

• Health, Vision, Dental, & Life Insurance Benefits 

• Flexible Spending Accounts for Health and Dependent Care 

• Pension Plan & Retirement Savings Account 

Qualifications

Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements of the announcement including the following specialized experience and/or education, as identified.

For the GS-5 level:

• Four years of education above high school in an accredited business, secretarial or technical, junior college, college or university in any field in which high school graduation or the equivalent is a prerequisite; OR
• Applicant must have one year of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and responsibility to the GS-4 level in the Federal service or private sector equivalent applying office methods and procedures to provide clerical and limited technical support to any program; OR
• A combination of post-high school education (in excess of the first 60 semester hours) and the specialized experience described above.

For the GS-6 level:

• One full academic year of graduate education or master's or higher level graduate degree from an accredited college or university with a major in finance, business administration, economics, accounting, engineering, mathematics, banking and credit, law, statistics, or other fields related to the position, such as agriculture, agricultural economics, farm, livestock or ranch management, or rural sociology; OR
• Applicants must have one year of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and responsibility to the GS-5 level in the Federal service or private sector equivalent applying office methods and procedures to provide clerical and limited technical support to process and service loans or agricultural programs.

For the GS-7 level:

• One full academic year of graduate education or master's or higher level graduate degree from an accredited college or university with a major in finance, business administration, economics, accounting, engineering, mathematics, banking and credit, law, statistics, or other fields related to the position, such as agriculture, agricultural economics, farm, livestock or ranch management, or rural sociology; OR
• Applicant must have one year of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and responsibility to the GS-6 level in the Federal service or private sector equivalent applying office methods and procedures to provide clerical and limited technical support to independently perform a full range of farm loan program processes.

For more information on the qualifications for this position, click here:
http://www.opm.gov/qualifications/Standards/group-stds/gs-admin.asp?

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 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

If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:

You must submit a copy of your transcripts to include course number, title, completion and grade. 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. If a relevant course is not clearly qualifying (e.g. special topic, seminar, research, thesis, obscure or misleading course title, etc.), please submit an official course syllabi and/or detailed course description from the university/college for that particular course to ensure you are properly evaluated. Please note that qualifications determinations are based solely on the information submitted for each particular vacancy announcement.

Important: If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. Click on this link for more information.

Failure to provide all of the required documents/information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.