More on that ISCD Job Posting

I’ve gotten some feedback on my blog post about the USAJobs.gov listing for a Supervisory Chemical Security Inspector, but you’ll have to pardon me for not naming the sources for fairly obvious reasons.

The Job

First off it appears that there has been a reorganization of job titles at ISCD. This ‘Supervisory Chemical Security Inspector’ used to be called Branch Chief for the Field Operations Branch, or maybe it still is (more on that later). That means that the person holding this position would be responsible for all of the inspectors in the field.

That certainly means that the November job posting and this job posting were positively for the same position; you can only have one person holding that position. With the short time frame between the two postings (just about six weeks from the close of the original post and the opening of the second), it would seem that there were either no qualified applicants or the qualified applicants already had gotten other jobs by the time they were contacted for interviews.

Shenanigans

Actually I have heard rumblings of a potentially different reason; instead of a lack of qualified candidates, there was the lack of a submission by ‘the’ qualified candidate; the one that was preselected for the job. Now I have heard similar complaints about other hiring shenanigans like this over the years at ISCD, but this would be the first such suggestion I have heard under Director Wulf.

One supporting indicator for that accusation is the apparent fact that the my blog post about the position caught a number of people in ISCD by surprise; they were unaware that the position had been re-advertised. Since the experience requirements almost eliminate the possibility that someone outside of ISCD would be ‘qualified’ for the post, it would seem odd that there wasn’t a higher level of awareness of the job post.

The other side of that narrowly defined level of experience necessary for a successful application is that it would discourage applicants from other federal government agencies from applying. Any such potential applicant would read the various CFATS background requirements and conclude that there would be no chance of getting the position.

It is hard for an outsider like myself to verify such claims; application data is protected by various privacy protection rules and statutes. It would take an Inspector General’s investigation to tell for sure, but the circumstances would certainly be explained by the accusation.

Expanding the Experience Pool

I did hear an interesting comment from an NPPD insider about another reason why it might not have been a good idea to so narrowly define the experience requirements. With the problems that ISCD has had with their implementation of  the CFATS inspection process, it might be a good idea to get someone into the Division that had experience in a ‘successful regulatory program’. That’s an idea worthy of consideration.

Deputy Director ISCD Job Opening

I ran across the official job posting on USAJobs.gov for the position of Deputy Director of ISCD last night during a routine Google search. The posting was opened on August 15^th and closes on August 31^st.  Applications may be submitted on-line.

The job description is lengthy and includes all of the typical bureaucratic requirements. For example the DD:

“Provides guidance and direction to subordinates in the broad areas of Equal Opporuty(sic)/Equal Employment Opportunity (EO/EEO), human resources programs, and employee development to ensure ISCD's efforts in these areas achieve the goals of the designated programs.”

There are a couple of interesting omissions in job description and requirements. First there is no mention of having any background in chemical security operations or planning or even any kind of security enforcement. Oh well, I suppose that an executive at this level is more of a program manager and doesn’t really need to know what the troops in the field are doing. Then again, this may be why ISCD is clueless as to why the SSP questionnaire is not eliciting the types of information needed for the reviewers to authorize the SSPs; there is no one at the management level with the requisite expertise to make that evaluation.

The second oddity is that the job description does not include any mention of the Ammonium Nitrate Security Program. Now I know that DHS is woefully behind schedule on completing this program, but this will (maybe?) be an important part of the ISCD mission if the program ever actually gets off the ground.

Anyway if you are an American Citizen and are looking for a new job in the $119,554.00 to $179,700.00 per year range, take a look at this job posting.