Paralegal Specialist

Summary

This position is located in the Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center - PDC in Fort Worth, Texas. This position provides support working with attorneys in the processing, and the closing and disbursing of all disaster loans along with receiving work assignments and general direction and supervision from the Assistant Center Director-Accounts / Deputy Assistant Center Director-Accounts or their designee.

Duties

As a/an Paralegal Specialist at theGS- 0950-11, some of your typical work assignments may include: Reviews home loans, business loans, and economic injury loans to a variety of ownership entities, such as individuals, sole proprietor, partnerships, limited partnerships, corporations, limited liability corporations, and limited liability partnerships. Reviews borrowers' correspondence and initiates appropriate action to borrower request, such as loan modifications, progress inspections, or document issuance, and drafts written responses. Addresses inquiries and concerns from borrowers and/or their authorized representatives regarding loan closing documentation and loan requirements. Manages a portfolio of loans and performs all loan closing duties including the most recent, difficult and complex cases while complying with portfolio management requirements directives. Proficient in using desktop computers, common word processing programs, electronic spreadsheet programs, the Internet, and other electronic presentation programs in performance of daily duties. IMPORTANT NOTES: Additional selections may be made from this announcement if identical vacancies occur within 180 days from the closing date. This is a Permanent position, which is a competitive service status position with a full-time work schedule. This position is not included in a bargaining unit. THIS POSITION IS LOCATED AT THE FORT WORTH OFFICE AND IS ONLY ELIGIBLE FOR AD HOC TELEWORK

Qualifications

Generally, time in Non-Pay status is not creditable towards the specialized experience requirement listed below. You must meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of this announcement. You may qualify based on experience, education or a combination of both. Experience: To receive credit, you must indicate the month and year as well as the average hours worked per week for each employer. Average work hours must be stated on resume to quantify each period of work experience or that experience will not be credited toward meeting the specialized experience requirement. You must address the specific specialized experience required for each grade level of this position on your resume or application or you will be rated "Ineligible" for that grade level. GS-11: To qualify you must have at least 1 full year (52 weeks) of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and complexity to the GS-09 level in the Federal service that has equipped you with the particular knowledge, skill, and ability to perform successfully in this position. This specialized experience must demonstrate the following: Providing customer service by responding to internal or external customer inquiries. Utilizing Microsoft Office applications or equivalent, such as Outlook, Word, Internet Explorer, PowerPoint, Excel, and/or Access to produce documents. Reviewing residential AND business loan documents for compliance within established statutes or regulations. Assisting borrowers with closing residential AND business loans. Providing guidance as a team lead monitoring workload or leading a project. Do not copy and paste the duties, specialized experience, or occupational assessment questionnaire from this announcement into your resume as that will not be considered a demonstration of your qualifications for this position. Additional information on the qualification requirements is outlined in the OPM Qualifications Standards Handbook of General Schedule Positions. It is available for your review on OPM's Qualifications web site:Paralegal Specialist Series 0950 Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work. 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. A combination of education and experience as indicated above. Three academic years of progressively higher-level graduate education OR Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree OR LL.M., in a field directly related to the position (e.g. Finance, Business Administration, Law). Education must be in a field which demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform the duties of the position. OR A combination of experience as described above and graduate level education as described in above, when combined, are equivalent to 100% of the qualification requirement. Only graduate level education in excess of two full years (36 semester hours) may be used in this calculation. To compute, first determine the total number of graduate level hours that exceed 36 semester hours, and then divide that number by 18 to arrive at a percentage. Then, divide the total number of months of qualifying experience by 12 to arrive at a second percentage. Add the two percentages together. The sum of the percentages must equal at least 100% to qualify. All qualification requirements must be met by 11:59 pm (Eastern Time) on 7/6/2026.

Education

If you do not meet the specialized experience requirements, you may also qualify with education. You MUST submit transcripts with this application if you wish to qualify based on education. APPLICANTS PLEASE NOTE: 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 (particularly positions with a positive education requirement.) Therefore, applicants must report only attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Verify School Accreditation. All education claimed by applicants will be verified by the appointing agency accordingly. *** Foreign Education: 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. *** For further information, click on: Foreign Education.If you are selected for this position and qualified based on education (i.e. basic education requirement and/or substitution of education), you will be required to provide an OFFICIAL transcript prior to your first day on duty.

How You Will Be Evaluated

Applicants meeting basic eligibility requirements will be further evaluated based on additional assessments. In order to be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. One of the required assessments for this position is an online assessment that measures critical general competencies required to perform the job. Your application will be evaluated under the Category Rating method based on your assessments. You will receive a score based on the responses to the assessment questions. If, after reviewing your resume and or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications and or experience your score can and will be adjusted to more accurately reflect your abilities. If you meet basic requirements for the position, your application will be evaluated and placed into one of three categories: 1. Best-Qualified: highly proficient with an overall comprehensive level of knowledge, skills and abilities related to the job based on a complete review of experience, education, and training as described in an applicant's responses to the assessment questions and resume. 2. Well-Qualified: competent in the position with an overall accomplished level of knowledge, skills, and abilities related to the job based on a complete review of experience, training, and education as applicable, as described in an applicant's responses to the assessment questions and resume. 3. Qualified: an overall basic level of knowledge, skills, and abilities related to the job based on a complete review of experience, education, and training, as described in an applicant's responses to the assessment questions and resume. Your qualifications will be evaluated on the following competencies: Attention to Detail, Customer Service, Decision Making, Flexibility, Integrity/Honesty, Interpersonal Skills, Learning, Reading Comprehension, Reasoning, Self-Management, Stress Tolerance, and Teamwork Candidates eligible for veterans' preference will be placed ahead of other candidates in the appropriate category for which they have been rated. Additionally, preference eligibles who have a compensable service-connected disability of at least 10 percent and who meet Minimum Qualification Requirements will automatically be placed in the Best Qualified Category.

Required Documents

Failure to submit any of the required documents by the closing date/time of the vacancy will result in your removal from consideration for this position. Please review your application prior to final submission and ensure you have submitted all appropriate documents. Uploading documents to USAJobs does NOT ensure inclusion with your application to our system. You must verify that the documents are in the system with your application prior to final submission. 1. Your Resume - Resume length must not exceed 2 pages and must contain the following information: Name, address, telephone number, email address. Job Title (if Federal Service, provide series and grade; if not in GS plan, provide GS equivalent grade) If qualifying based on related unpaid (e.g. volunteer service) experience, you must provide hours worked per week and beginning/ending dates (mm/dd/yyyy to mm/dd/yyyy) If other than full-time you must provide hours worked per week. PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Your resume must contain sufficiently detailed information upon which to make a qualification determination. Should you submit multiple resumes, only the latest uploaded resume will be reviewed. 2. In addition to the online application (resume and responses to the occupational questionnaire), you are required to submit the following forms, if applicable. It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure all documents are legible: If you are using education as a substitution for experience (the announcement will state whether this is allowed), or if there is an educational requirement for this position, you must submit a copy of your transcripts (unofficial or official) that clearly describes your qualifying education. If selected, official transcripts will be required; If you are claiming Veteran status, you must submit a copy of all required documents to support your claim (including a DD-214 showing character of service)--see VetGuide; Veterans who are still in the service may be granted tentative preference on the basis of information contained in their applications, but they must produce a DD-214 (showing the character of service) or other proof of service to receive consideration for veterans' preference. For more information on Veterans' Preference, please visit FedsHireVets.gov. CTAP/ICTAP/RPL Applicants: Surplus or displaced employees eligible for CTAP, RPL, or ICTAP priority must provide proof of eligibility (RIF separation notice, notice of proposed removal for declining a transfer of function or directed reassignment to another commuting area, notice of disability annuity termination), SF-50 documenting separation (if applicable), your most recent SF-50 noting position, grade level, and duty location with your application per 5 CFR 330, and your most recent performance appraisal.

How to Apply

Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions will affect your rating. If, after reviewing your resume and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications and/or experience your rating may be adjusted to more accurately reflect your abilities. Please read the entire announcement and all the 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 below. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on the closing date of the announcement to receive consideration. 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 11:59PM (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 both on screen and via email notification. 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 on the Additional Application Information page that can be located in the application record in your USAJOBS account. 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 Update Application. This option will no longer be available once the announcement has closed. To verify the status of your application both during and after the announcement open period, log into your USAJOBS account at https://www.usajobs.gov/ All of your applications will appear on the Welcome page. The application record in your USAJOBS account provides an Additional Application Information page that provides information regarding the documentation you submitted and any correspondence we have sent related to this application. The Application Status will appear along with the date your application was last updated. For information on what each Application ...

Generally, time in Non-Pay status is not creditable towards the specialized experience requirement listed below. You must meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of this announcement. You may qualify based on experience, education or a combination of both. Experience: To receive credit, you must indicate the month and year as well as the average hours worked per week for each employer. Average work hours must be stated on resume to quantify each period of work experience or that experience will not be credited toward meeting the specialized experience requirement. You must address the specific specialized experience required for each grade level of this position on your resume or application or you will be rated "Ineligible" for that grade level. GS-11: To qualify you must have at least 1 full year (52 weeks) of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and complexity to the GS-09 level in the Federal service that has equipped you with the particular knowledge, skill, and ability to perform successfully in this position. This specialized experience must demonstrate the following: Providing customer service by responding to internal or external customer inquiries. Utilizing Microsoft Office applications or equivalent, such as Outlook, Word, Internet Explorer, PowerPoint, Excel, and/or Access to produce documents. Reviewing residential AND business loan documents for compliance within established statutes or regulations. Assisting borrowers with closing residential AND business loans. Providing guidance as a team lead monitoring workload or leading a project. Do not copy and paste the duties, specialized experience, or occupational assessment questionnaire from this announcement into your resume as that will not be considered a demonstration of your qualifications for this position. Additional information on the qualification requirements is outlined in the OPM Qualifications Standards Handbook of General Schedule Positions. It is available for your review on OPM's Qualifications web site:Paralegal Specialist Series 0950 Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work. 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. A combination of education and experience as indicated above. Three academic years of progressively higher-level graduate education OR Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree OR LL.M., in a field directly related to the position (e.g. Finance, Business Administration, Law). Education must be in a field which demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform the duties of the position. OR A combination of experience as described above and graduate level education as described in above, when combined, are equivalent to 100% of the qualification requirement. Only graduate level education in excess of two full years (36 semester hours) may be used in this calculation. To compute, first determine the total number of graduate level hours that exceed 36 semester hours, and then divide that number by 18 to arrive at a percentage. Then, divide the total number of months of qualifying experience by 12 to arrive at a second percentage. Add the two percentages together. The sum of the percentages must equal at least 100% to qualify. All qualification requirements must be met by 11:59 pm (Eastern Time) on 7/6/2026.