Information Technology Specialist (Applications Software)

WHAT IS IT-Taxpayer Services/Online Accounts?
A description of the business units can be found at: https://www.jobs.irs.gov/about/who/business-divisions

• Position(s) are to be filled in the following area(s):
  • IT - Taxpayer Services / Online Accounts
• Consider each location carefully when applying. If you are selected for a location, that location will become your official post of duty.

REVIEW THE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BELOW FOR FURTHER DETAILS

Qualifications:

Federal experience is not required. Experience may have been gained in the public sector, private sector or through Volunteer Service. One year of experience refers to full-time work; part-timework is considered on a prorated basis. To ensure full credit for your work experience, please indicate dates of employment by month/day/year, and indicate number of hours worked per week, on your resume.

You must meet the following requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

Basic Qualifications
Basic requirements, all grades. Applicants must have Information Technology related experience demonstrating each of the following four competencies: 1) Attention to Detail, 2) Customer Service, 3) Oral Communication, and 4) Problem Solving.

Specialized Experience GS-14 Level: You must have one year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-13 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience for this position includes: Leading or coordinating IT projects, application-related efforts, operational initiatives, or system-related activities that affect multiple users, teams, programs, or business processes. Applying advanced IT principles, concepts, methods, and practices to evaluate requirements; resolve technical issues; guide system, application, or code testing and configuration decisions; and ensure technical documentation and federal cybersecurity, privacy, or regulatory requirements are addressed. Engaging customers, stakeholders, users, product or business owners, and technical teams to define business or technical requirements, communicate technical impacts, and guide delivery of secure, reliable, scalable IT solutions. Evaluating system, service, or application performance, availability, reliability, security controls, usability, and operational effectiveness; identifying risks, issues, defects, or gaps; and leading corrective actions or improvement efforts. Analyzing competing technical approaches and providing authoritative recommendations to management, stakeholders, or IT specialists on the selection, design, configuration, implementation, or improvement of IT solutions with organizational impact.

Experience leading teams that design and develop agency-wide applications which included review and approval of technical requirements for projects; developing project plans; providing guidance to team members and serving as primary liaison between customers and vendors and IT management throughout the development process.

• Leading, coordinating, or providing technical direction for the modernization, design, development, integration, testing, deployment, maintenance, or enhancement of enterprise applications and related technology platforms.
• Guiding technical decisions involving APIs, web services, microservices, application integrations, databases, automated testing strategies, CI/CD and DevSecOps practices, containerized or cloud-based architectures, observability, performance monitoring, code quality, vulnerability remediation, and secure software development practices.
• Evaluating, guiding, or supporting the appropriate use of modern software engineering tools, including approved AI-assisted development tools where appropriate, to improve software delivery, documentation, testing, code quality, analysis, or maintainability while ensuring alignment with federal cybersecurity, privacy, accessibility, records management, and organizational policy requirements.
• Advising management and stakeholders on technical strategy, modernization opportunities, risk mitigation, architecture tradeoffs, operational resilience, scalability, and long-term maintainability of agency-wide applications.

AND

You must also meet the following requirements

• MINIMUM AGE REQUIREMENT: Minimum age for federal employment is 18 years old, or at least 16 years old and have:
  • Graduated from high school or been awarded a certificate equivalent to graduating from high school; or
  • Completed a formal vocational training program; or
  • Received a statement from school authorities agreeing with your preference for employment rather than continuing your education.

For more information on qualifications please refer to OPM's Qualifications Standards.

Responsibilities:

The following are the duties of this position at the full working level. If this vacancy includes more than one grade and you are selected at a lower grade level, you will have the opportunity to learn to perform these duties and receive training to help you grow in this position.

• Identifying resource requirements and assigning tasks to project members, reporting progress, and ensuring customer and management involvement throughout the software development process.
• Revolving critical issues affecting the configuration of the IT infrastructure and coordinating the demonstration of new and enhanced applications to customers and management.
• Drafting project plans for a multifunctional development project in software analysis, design, development, and implementation.
• Identifying and correcting weaknesses in critical performance parameters, and variances in achieving cost, schedule, and performance goals.
• Investigating, evaluating, and selecting tools and methods for improving productivity and software quality throughout the life cycle.

Salary : $125,776