Staff Assistant/Smithsonian Institution Permanent

Summary

The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex, with 21 museums and the National Zoo.  This position is located in The National Museum of American Indian (NMAI). NMAI is committed to advancing knowledge and understanding of the Native Cultures of the western Hemisphere, past, present and future, through partnership with the native people and others.

Duties

The Staff Assistant is responsible for serving as the Staff Assistant to the Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.

In this position, you will:

• Interact with Native American constituencies to respond to requests for special tours or other accommodations, answer questions about museum programs, exhibits and policies in a diplomatic manner that demonstrates awareness of Native American culture, history, contemporary issues and tribal community structures and hierarchies.
• Interact with persons from outside organizations, including other agencies, Museums, and universities. Responds on behalf of the Director to invitations, requests for information, and other inquiries.
• Compose correspondence, reports or statistical data from brief notes or verbal instructions, drawing on knowledge of the Director’s interest and priorities, office operations, and requirements to locate information.
• Review all outgoing correspondence for procedural and grammatical accuracy, conformance to general policy, and factual correctness. Writes memoranda and updates for distribution to museum staff and key museum stakeholders.
• Manages Director’s Schedule, Meeting Preparation and Other Administrative Matters.

Requirements
Conditions of Employment

• Pass Pre-employment Background Investigation

• May need to complete a Probationary Period

• Maintain a Bank Account for Direct Deposit/Electronic Transfer

• Males born after 12/31/59 must be registered with Selective Service.

Conditions of Employment

• Qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of the announcement.
• For information on qualification requirements, see Qualification Standards Handbook for General Schedule Positions on OPM website.

Qualifications

Experience: You qualify for this position if you have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-07 level in the Federal Service.  For this position, specialized experience is defined as general administrative experience in a museum, cultural or historical organization, including administrative tasks such as maintaining a calendar, arranging meetings, assembling correspondence and reports and interacting with external constituents.

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.

Part-time and/or unpaid experience related to this position will be considered to determine the total number of years and months of experience. Be sure to note the number of paid or unpaid hours worked each week.

OR Master’s or equivalent graduate degree; 

OR   2 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree. 

OR LL.B. or J.D., if related

Or a Combination: Education and experience may be combined to meet the basic qualifications. For a full explanation of this option please see the Qualification Standards. Special Instructions for Foreign Education: If you are qualifying by education and/or you have education completed in a foreign college/university described above, it is your responsibility to provide transcripts and proof of U.S. accreditation for foreign study. For instructions on where to fax these documents, see the “Required Documents” section of this announcement.

Education

Refer to the above for education requirement.  Education can be substituted for experience. 

Additional Details