Temporary Assistance Specialist 1 or Trainee 1 or 2 (NY HELPS)

Description

Duties Description

We are seeking a detail-oriented and collaborative individual for the Temporary Assistance Specialist 1 G-18 position located in the State Supplement Program (SSP) Bureau within the Employment and Income Support Programs (EISP) area. This position will focus on identifying system issues, reviewing data, and working across units to gather business rules and requirements for system changes. This includes testing solutions before deployment to ensure systems support program policies, regulations, and operational needs.

Duties May Include But Are Not Limited To

• Serve as liaison between program staff and ITS system teams, to ensure program requirements are clearly communicated and understood;
• Gather case-level issues, policy and program requirements, and system constraints: analyze data for patterns, volume, and scope of issues;
• Assess whether issues could be addressed through procedure or system changes, and provide suggestions;
• Facilitate discussions with program areas to support decision-making, and obtain input and sign-off from all units prior to change request submissions;
• Track program system decisions, change requests, and implementation status; and
• Ensure alignment across system functionalities, policies, and operational processes.
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong analytical skills, including the ability to interpret data and identify patterns and operational impacts
• Ability to gather information from multiple sources and develop clear problem explanations
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain policy and system information to different audiences
• Experience coordinating across program areas or working with multiple stakeholders
• Ability to identify issues, assess impacts, and propose solutions
  
  

Non-competitive Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

For Trainee 1, four years of experience administering temporary assistance programs* and initiatives to assess applicant or recipient needs, determine eligibility or provide services or benefits to low income individuals or families; Planning, implementing, assessing, monitoring or evaluating programs to deliver effective temporary assistance or workforce development or training programs to unemployed, underemployed, low income or disabled individuals; Managing contracts and related budgets for workforce development or training or temporary assistance programs, including contract development, negotiation and execution, and fiscal management, monitoring or program review; and Planning, developing, managing, or administering programs that provide care and service to adults, children, or families in need of assistance, including child care, foster care, medical assistance and adult residential care, aid to the refugee or immigrant population, or child and adult protective care.

• Substitutions: An associate degree may substitute for two years of experience; a bachelor’s degree may substitute for four years of experience; a master’s degree may substitute for five years of experience; and a J.D. may substitute for six years of experience.
  
  

For Trainee 2, five years of experience administering temporary assistance programs* and initiatives to assess applicant or recipient needs, determine eligibility or provide services or benefits to low income individuals or families; Planning, implementing, assessing, monitoring or evaluating programs to deliver effective temporary assistance or workforce development or training programs to unemployed, underemployed, low income or disabled individuals; Managing contracts and related budgets for workforce development or training or temporary assistance programs, including contract development, negotiation and execution, and fiscal management, monitoring or program review; and Planning, developing, managing, or administering programs that provide care and service to adults, children, or families in need of assistance, including child care, foster care, medical assistance and adult residential care, aid to the refugee or immigrant population, or child and adult protective care.

• Substitutions: An associate degree may substitute for two years of experience; a bachelor’s degree may substitute for four years of experience; a master’s degree may substitute for five years of experience; and a J.D. may substitute for six years of experience.
  
  

For the Full Performance Level, six years of experience administering temporary assistance programs* and initiatives to assess applicant or recipient needs, determine eligibility or provide services or benefits to low income individuals or families; Planning, implementing, assessing, monitoring or evaluating programs to deliver effective temporary assistance or workforce development or training programs to unemployed, underemployed, low income or disabled individuals; Managing contracts and related budgets for workforce development or training or temporary assistance programs, including contract development, negotiation and execution, and fiscal management, monitoring or program review; and Planning, developing, managing, or administering programs that provide care and service to adults, children, or families in need of assistance, including child care, foster care, medical assistance and adult residential care, aid to the refugee or immigrant population, or child and adult protective care.

• Substitutions: An associate degree may substitute for two years of experience; a bachelor’s degree may substitute for four years of experience; a master’s degree may substitute for five years of experience; and a J.D. may substitute for six years of experience.
• Temporary Assistance Programs are: Family Assistance (FA), Jobs Program, Safety Net Assistance, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), SSI State Supplement Program, Emergency Assistance to Families or Adults (EAF,EAA), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as Food Stamps), Employment Services for Recipients of Public Assistance or SNAP, Energy Assistance, Low Income Housing Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP), Emergency Rental Assistance Program/Landlord Rental Assistance Program (ERAP/LRAP, Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer Benefits (P-EBT), Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer Benefits (Summer EBT), and Medicaid
  
  

OR

55 B/C: This position is eligible for 55b/c appointment, and candidates with 55b/c eligibility are encouraged to apply. To be eligible for a 55b/c appointment, candidate must be currently enrolled in the Civil Service 55b/c program and must meet the minimum qualifications listed above. Information about the 55b/c program can be found here: https://www.cs.ny.gov/rp55/

Competitive Qualifications

Eligible for a lateral transfer or eligible for transfer under Section 70.1 of the Civil Service Law by having one year of permanent competitive service in an appropriate title. Information regarding transfer eligibility is available on the Civil Service Career Mobility Office website at https://careermobilityoffice.cs.ny.gov/cmo/gotit/.

Please note: Titles which require special qualifications must also meet the following criteria:

A bachelor's or higher degree; AND two years of professional experience performing one or more of the following:

• administering temporary assistance programs* and initiatives** to assess applicant/recipient needs, determine eligibility and/or provide services or benefits to low income individuals or families;
• planning, implementing, assessing, monitoring and/or evaluating programs to deliver effective temporary assistance and/or workforce development/training programs to unemployed, underemployed, low income or disabled individuals;
• managing contracts and related budgets for workforce development/training and/or temporary assistance programs, including contract development, negotiation and execution, and fiscal management, monitoring or program review; planning, developing, managing, or administering programs that provide care and service to adults, children, and/or families in need of assistance, including child care, foster care, medical assistance and adult residential care, aid to the refugee and/or immigrant population, or child and adult protective care.
• Temporary Assistance Programs are: Family Assistance (FA), Jobs Program, Safety Net Assistance, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), SSI State Supplement Program, Emergency Assistance to Families or Adults (EAF, EAA), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as Food Stamps), Employment Services for Recipients of Public Assistance or SNAP, and Energy Assistance.
• Temporary Assistance initiatives may include, but are not limited to, the development of systems applications for determining eligibility and benefit levels for temporary assistance programs.
  
  

Non-qualifying experience: experience limited to clerical screening of applications, data entry, distribution of forms/brochures to prospective social services applicants, administrative duties in support of temporary assistance programs and any function in which the major responsibility of the position does NOT entail the direct planning, oversight, or provision of assistance is not considered qualifying. In addition, experience in staff development activities internal to an organization or auditing of employment and training programs.

OR

Reachable on the appropriate eligible list Albany.

Additional Comments

A full-time, permanent or contingent permanent appointment will be made. If certified by Civil Service, mandatory reemployment list candidates must be considered first for appointment to this title. Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States.

Your resume must indicate how you meet the minimum qualifications for this position. Non-specific submissions may be disqualified from further consideration if the information you provide does not meet the minimum qualifications.

Telecommuting up to 50% may be available in accordance with The Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance policy and can be discussed during the interview.

Interested applicants should send an email with their resume attached to jobpostings@otda.ny.gov and reference posting #26-054. DO NOT REFERENCE THE VACANCY ID NUMBER.

• $ 53,764 (Trainee 1- NS equated to SG-14)
• $ 59,994 (Trainee 2- NS equated to SG-16)
• $ 66,951 (Full Performance level SG-18)
  
  

NYS OTDA seeks to promote a diverse workforce that is a representation of the various cultures, voices, backgrounds, ideas, and talents of the citizens and communities that we serve. In alignment with New York State’s Executive Orders 187 and 31, OTDA is committed to advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility by fostering an inclusive workplace.