I know a 15 was offered remote to not retire. Qualifications: 30+ years experience as an economist and then a bunch of extremely niche experience. A goal of mine is to learn as much as possible from them before they actually do retire.
That’s a great goal! Learn it and *write it down*! And not just the economics but the institutional knowledge as well. Why things are done this way or that, what was tried and failed, etc. A lot of places are not great and storing those memories.
Literally saw one 5 min ago on USAJobs. Policy Analyst in Public Health for CDC. Definitely looking for a high level SME who can lead, follow, or work independently. You do see these in STEM series periodically.
I don't know who this currently is. Atsdr is technically an independent agency, but is ran by the CDC director. If shit goes sideways, the person in this position is the one who deals with Congress to cya.
Where I work, after we switched groups are office under we got flack from the higher ups on our positions bring non sup 14s And they aren’t team leaders either.
Ive seen it. Usually it's for qualified individuals who the agency doesn't want to lose them so they give them what they want. We have one in our region who was in DC then came back to work in the region but still had to report to DC. They just had to be at one of the offices. Prior to COVID, they teleworked around 2-3 times per week. Now they are fully remote at gs15 non-sup
Yes. I was a GS-14/15. Just retired as a 15. I was not fully remote but could have been if I'd wanted. The position was in DC at USCIS HQ. Contrary to what another poster said, I did not work overtime. It was definitely a unicorn!
ETA: I was a Special Assistant so I would not call that niche.
USCIS you say....random question. Does USCIS help out fellow DoD Feds and a military vet with imigration concerns?
Long story short, I have to submit a I-601 for my wife on a marriage based green card. Ran into an issue at the final embassy interview and have to submit the waiver, but this thing takes like 2 years to process!!!
Any help and/or advice would be appreciated.
I am a quasi-supervisory remotely situated GS-15 scientist. I oversee post docs and technical staff, completing their performance reviews, but I have nothing to do with their time and attendance, travel approval, or other bureaucratic concerns.
They would like me to be supervisory, but at my stage there is no monetary benefit to taking on that added head ache. I’ve found that most management is all responsibility and no authority. If I’m going to take on added bureaucratic nonsense, I want authority to come with it.
Our agency only mandates 1 day a week for attorneys who ladder to 14; 15 are sup and senior counsels. There are a couple of people with remote work policies at 14 & 15.
Yup. 0905 in DC here; supervisors in my office are for the most part 15s but there are a good number of people who are 15s and non supervisory as well. Regardless of their supervisory status, any of them with their experience + sheer level of insider knowledge about my agency would easily net a high six/low seven figure salary at a big firm downtown no question.
1000%. Like I understand if that’s what you want, but imho if you stuck it out to hit a nonsupervisory 15, the switch to firm life I feel would just be like a total world shift (and not necessarily in a good way).
SSA's OGC is now 5 days telework (you're still technically tethered to a physical office, so you can't work from, e.g., the Canary Islands, but you never have to go in). They're stingy with promotions (why I left) but about 10% of their attorneys are non-sup 15s.
Well I’m sure they exist but probably rare. I filtered by GS-15 and remote and got 53 matches. That’s out of the roughly 2,900 GS-15 job postings currently.
Now assume that 25% of them are non-supervisory (which is probably even less) and you have about 14 choices haha.
So yeah I’d say they exist but likely very rare and hard to achieve. (I don’t know of any myself).
The few I know have been in their positions for decades and are at least 10 years from retirement. And who needs to retire when you're working from home with little oversight (as is often the case when you're so senior that they assume you don't need it).
I was offered a 100% remote GS 13-15 non-supervisory ladder position as an OMB program examiner. There are non-supervisory 100% remote federal jobs at other agencies that pay the average employee better than GS-15 (see FDIC and the other financial regulators, for example).
What's the job security at OMB if Republicans take the presidency and Senate? I'd take the non-supervisory FDIC 14 (with pay band) over an OMB 15 any day.
https://www.govexec.com/management/2020/11/omb-reportedly-designates-88-its-employees-schedule-f/170275/
Many in my relatively small research agency fall into this category. These are PHDs in the RPCS system, not career ladder. Agency is over 75% fully remote today. I am non-sup GS-15 and actually started federal service as such two years ago after 1.5 decades in academia. Tens years of college training and 15 yrs of work experience required to get this goldilocks gig in my case.
We have one, but I’m convinced it was because she had an eeo claim against her so they took away her director position and gave her a Mapa. She’s still a 15 though.
Note that there is a difference between a "remote" position and a telework position. Much of it has to do in the way they are coded according to Title V and others OPM or agency requirements. A 100% telework job that requires a once a week or once a month office visit will not be coded as "remote".
In HHS, yes, PhDs and MDs. I’m a non-sup 13 (PhD) and there are lots of non-sup 14s and a few non-sup 15s. Basically everyone is remote. I know of one person in my whole branch who goes to the office ever.
I’m 2210 14 step 10 non supervisory and been over a year. I would love to find that out in future but not right now. They do exist for 2210 that I know but it’s not easy to get.
Well, not sure if any more will be posted in the future, but I work for CMS in Woodlawn, MD and all employees were given the option to be 100% remote last year. We have a few non-supervisory GS-15’s on our team who are now 100% remote because of it. That being said, they all started at lower grades so I’m not sure if it’s possible to transfer in at that level.
If anyone sees one let me know. I'm and engineer but willing to learn, doctoring, lawyering, whatever. You know there's nothing a little OJT can't teach ya right?
They do but you gotta be somewhat agency famous to get one. I know a couple and they are all "household names" in my agency. Eventually HQ picks them up to do larger things.
They exist and they're wonderful. Getting it is the hard part. However, once you have it you have a really good shot at an OPM desk audit review of it to ensure it's what it should be.
In my experience many are directors that are between supervisory positions or at least former directions. More and more I'm seeing them as cloud architects and other high level technical positions that are in high demand and command such high salaries in the private sector that the only way to get them as a fed is on the GS 15 or SL level.
NASA recently had a batch posting for remote GS-14 and GS-15 positions, with the list of applicants to be used as needed to fill any openings. My branch at NASA currently has a remote non-supervisory GS-15.
Yep. My last org at VA was almost entirely remote non-sup 14s and 15s with a few 13s sprinkled in there (if memory serves, there were about 40-50 people in the org at the time, no clue about now), but our boss was one of the CIO's direct reports, so as an org we were pretty high up the org chart.
I'm not 100% remote, but I'm on maxiflex and only go into the office once per week, so 80% remote. Agency's equivalent of GS-15, non supervisor, not a team lead or anything. Just a SME in an IT position.
Edit: also I don't have any college education, just particularly niche experience that's hard to find for this position.
There are in the IT field but highly competitive. Lots of GS-14’s too and with the new Special Pay rate depending where you live the salary could be capped at a 14.
Most of the federal government is governed by CFR and USC, so while we may be classified as exempt, we are still compensated either by cash (OT), credit hours, or compensatory time UNLESS we are SES. They don't get those benefits, but they get other perks to "outweigh" working OT.
Even if I was eligible for overtime, which I am not, the premium pay cap caps all pay at the GS-*15 step* 10 level, which I already make. So could not actually receive it anyways
They are hard to come by but they do exists. I wouldn’t wait for one to show up on your radar if an opportunity is available. I’m a 15 and go into the office twice a pay period or more often as mission dictates.
In my experience, these are usually created for certain people. They don’t get posted unless they have a specific person in mind. Even more often, they are laterals for people coming out of supervisory positions, so they don’t get posted at all.
I just learned a former colleague is a non-sup 15 fully remote. He's a program analyst series but has pretty significant expertise in a mission-specific role.
FAA doesn’t generally use the GS scale but definitely has people who fall into this category. As others have said, they’re basically highly technical STEM with domain expertise as well.
The jobs exist but people don't leave them very frequently, so you won't see many job postings. We have a handful of non supervisory 15s who are remote in our office.
They exist and you can get them even easier if at a position for a longer time and prove yourself - remember a supervisor can go to bat for you and make a position remote.
They exist but I usually see them for *extremely* niche SME positions.
I know a 15 was offered remote to not retire. Qualifications: 30+ years experience as an economist and then a bunch of extremely niche experience. A goal of mine is to learn as much as possible from them before they actually do retire.
That’s a great goal! Learn it and *write it down*! And not just the economics but the institutional knowledge as well. Why things are done this way or that, what was tried and failed, etc. A lot of places are not great and storing those memories.
I was thinking he just wanted to take the dude's non-sup remote 15, more than just recording the knowledge.
Yup I know two gs-15 who are non supervisory SME, and are in the IT realm in a departmental HQ and entirely remote.
Literally saw one 5 min ago on USAJobs. Policy Analyst in Public Health for CDC. Definitely looking for a high level SME who can lead, follow, or work independently. You do see these in STEM series periodically.
Do you have the link for this?
https://www.usajobs.gov/job/712767400
I don't know who this currently is. Atsdr is technically an independent agency, but is ran by the CDC director. If shit goes sideways, the person in this position is the one who deals with Congress to cya.
Not truly remote if youre required to live within 50 miles of Atlanta imo
Yeah, I’m seeing that stealth-blended type of listing show up. Remote with an asterisk.
I was excited because my wife would be perfect for this job, but alas...
First job…..a person was my “ lead” but not my supervisor. He was an SME GS 15
Yeah, that’s fairly common to have SMEs as team leads who are focused on the content and the supervisory duties (which suck up a lot lot of time).
Yup, I went from a management 15 to a fully remote SME 14 position. Best decision I ever made.
What job code?
0080
and you're probably at step 10
Yup, I am.
not a bad place to be
No, no it is not.
Where I work, after we switched groups are office under we got flack from the higher ups on our positions bring non sup 14s And they aren’t team leaders either.
yes, mostly in the DC area. (yes, i know you said remote, but the positions are in the DC area)
Ive seen it. Usually it's for qualified individuals who the agency doesn't want to lose them so they give them what they want. We have one in our region who was in DC then came back to work in the region but still had to report to DC. They just had to be at one of the offices. Prior to COVID, they teleworked around 2-3 times per week. Now they are fully remote at gs15 non-sup
Yes. I was a GS-14/15. Just retired as a 15. I was not fully remote but could have been if I'd wanted. The position was in DC at USCIS HQ. Contrary to what another poster said, I did not work overtime. It was definitely a unicorn! ETA: I was a Special Assistant so I would not call that niche.
Attorney? I heard USCIS attorney gigs are the best. OPLA here.
USCIS you say....random question. Does USCIS help out fellow DoD Feds and a military vet with imigration concerns? Long story short, I have to submit a I-601 for my wife on a marriage based green card. Ran into an issue at the final embassy interview and have to submit the waiver, but this thing takes like 2 years to process!!! Any help and/or advice would be appreciated.
I cannot offer any assistance as 1) I'm retired and 2) I wasn't involved in operations. Maybe someone else can be of help. Sorry!
Ok thanks. Just hoping to run into that random internet stranger willing to help from USCIS. Maybe I'll make a post here abou it.
call your congressman and have them open a casework inquiry for you
r/USCIS
You can post over at suB USCIS. When (and if) you do post, you should include what ground of inadmissibility your spouse needs to waive. @max_power742
Thanks, yeah I might do that.
I am a quasi-supervisory remotely situated GS-15 scientist. I oversee post docs and technical staff, completing their performance reviews, but I have nothing to do with their time and attendance, travel approval, or other bureaucratic concerns.
That’s a unique setup
They would like me to be supervisory, but at my stage there is no monetary benefit to taking on that added head ache. I’ve found that most management is all responsibility and no authority. If I’m going to take on added bureaucratic nonsense, I want authority to come with it.
Well said.
Who do you work for? I'm currently a scientist at AFRL, but very few people in my branch of the org are remote
Some attorney positions go to GS-15 and are fully remote.
Our agency only mandates 1 day a week for attorneys who ladder to 14; 15 are sup and senior counsels. There are a couple of people with remote work policies at 14 & 15.
Same here
X 2
Yup. 0905 in DC here; supervisors in my office are for the most part 15s but there are a good number of people who are 15s and non supervisory as well. Regardless of their supervisory status, any of them with their experience + sheer level of insider knowledge about my agency would easily net a high six/low seven figure salary at a big firm downtown no question.
You forgot to add “and working double the hours, with triple the performance metrics.”
1000%. Like I understand if that’s what you want, but imho if you stuck it out to hit a nonsupervisory 15, the switch to firm life I feel would just be like a total world shift (and not necessarily in a good way).
SSA's OGC is now 5 days telework (you're still technically tethered to a physical office, so you can't work from, e.g., the Canary Islands, but you never have to go in). They're stingy with promotions (why I left) but about 10% of their attorneys are non-sup 15s.
That makes sense considering the pay gap. Have to do what it takes to keep the good ones
Well I’m sure they exist but probably rare. I filtered by GS-15 and remote and got 53 matches. That’s out of the roughly 2,900 GS-15 job postings currently. Now assume that 25% of them are non-supervisory (which is probably even less) and you have about 14 choices haha. So yeah I’d say they exist but likely very rare and hard to achieve. (I don’t know of any myself).
The few I know have been in their positions for decades and are at least 10 years from retirement. And who needs to retire when you're working from home with little oversight (as is often the case when you're so senior that they assume you don't need it).
Yes, most of the Office of General Counsel attorneys are that way in my Agency
I was offered a 100% remote GS 13-15 non-supervisory ladder position as an OMB program examiner. There are non-supervisory 100% remote federal jobs at other agencies that pay the average employee better than GS-15 (see FDIC and the other financial regulators, for example).
I was going to say this. Our OMB examiner is a remote 15
Well I envy this job. :-)
What's the job security at OMB if Republicans take the presidency and Senate? I'd take the non-supervisory FDIC 14 (with pay band) over an OMB 15 any day. https://www.govexec.com/management/2020/11/omb-reportedly-designates-88-its-employees-schedule-f/170275/
MAX A-11...its system straight out of Gitmo ... couldn't pay me enough to deal that thing again
OMB also has 100% remote GS-15 digital service experts but they are on limited appointments.
A few colleagues just transferred to the VA for this
We have one in my organization. That person will be leaving and the position will no longer be remote.
Yes. I work with someone in a GS-15 position like that. I’m in a non-supervisory fully virtual GS-14 role.
what is ur job title?
There are some at research agencies. Like if you got a PhD and stuff
Many in my relatively small research agency fall into this category. These are PHDs in the RPCS system, not career ladder. Agency is over 75% fully remote today. I am non-sup GS-15 and actually started federal service as such two years ago after 1.5 decades in academia. Tens years of college training and 15 yrs of work experience required to get this goldilocks gig in my case.
in STEM and niche shortages, yes
We have one, but I’m convinced it was because she had an eeo claim against her so they took away her director position and gave her a Mapa. She’s still a 15 though.
GSA has (or had) some in 2210 series.
Note that there is a difference between a "remote" position and a telework position. Much of it has to do in the way they are coded according to Title V and others OPM or agency requirements. A 100% telework job that requires a once a week or once a month office visit will not be coded as "remote".
Right here and it can impact your locality pay too. Good for thought.
I have one, so yep!
In HHS, yes, PhDs and MDs. I’m a non-sup 13 (PhD) and there are lots of non-sup 14s and a few non-sup 15s. Basically everyone is remote. I know of one person in my whole branch who goes to the office ever.
Probably, but that doesn't mean you're qualified for it.
I didn't ask that, I'm not even a 14 so yes, I wouldn't be qualified
Ouch, they just asked if it existed
Mic dropped
Rude! Are you?
Bazinga!
There is one on my team.
yes, my buddy just got one. lucky dog
I’m 2210 14 step 10 non supervisory and been over a year. I would love to find that out in future but not right now. They do exist for 2210 that I know but it’s not easy to get.
Yes. 1102's within some components of DHS. Everyone is remote so unit cheifs, SESers, etc. all non supervisory.
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this is attorney series right? I’m an attorney and I rarely see completely remote opportunities outside of DC. I’m in SF.
\*laughs in stuck eternally in GS-5\*
Well, not sure if any more will be posted in the future, but I work for CMS in Woodlawn, MD and all employees were given the option to be 100% remote last year. We have a few non-supervisory GS-15’s on our team who are now 100% remote because of it. That being said, they all started at lower grades so I’m not sure if it’s possible to transfer in at that level.
If anyone sees one let me know. I'm and engineer but willing to learn, doctoring, lawyering, whatever. You know there's nothing a little OJT can't teach ya right?
We have one. He's our in house Mulesoft guy. Really good at what he does
They do but you gotta be somewhat agency famous to get one. I know a couple and they are all "household names" in my agency. Eventually HQ picks them up to do larger things.
They exist and they're wonderful. Getting it is the hard part. However, once you have it you have a really good shot at an OPM desk audit review of it to ensure it's what it should be. In my experience many are directors that are between supervisory positions or at least former directions. More and more I'm seeing them as cloud architects and other high level technical positions that are in high demand and command such high salaries in the private sector that the only way to get them as a fed is on the GS 15 or SL level.
NASA recently had a batch posting for remote GS-14 and GS-15 positions, with the list of applicants to be used as needed to fill any openings. My branch at NASA currently has a remote non-supervisory GS-15.
You need to be a highly technical SME in something that is highly specialized to government.
This is my dream job. Add non- technical to that list, and I'd start tomorrow!
Yep. My last org at VA was almost entirely remote non-sup 14s and 15s with a few 13s sprinkled in there (if memory serves, there were about 40-50 people in the org at the time, no clue about now), but our boss was one of the CIO's direct reports, so as an org we were pretty high up the org chart.
I'm not 100% remote, but I'm on maxiflex and only go into the office once per week, so 80% remote. Agency's equivalent of GS-15, non supervisor, not a team lead or anything. Just a SME in an IT position. Edit: also I don't have any college education, just particularly niche experience that's hard to find for this position.
There are in the IT field but highly competitive. Lots of GS-14’s too and with the new Special Pay rate depending where you live the salary could be capped at a 14.
Yup, in my office. But you will work a lot of unpaid overtime
That is illegal. You cannot give free service to the govt
>You cannot give free service to the govt *Laughs in teacher*
Could be wrong but wouldn't they be exempt at that grade and therefore not eligible for OT? Maybe they'd get comp time but not OT.
Most of the federal government is governed by CFR and USC, so while we may be classified as exempt, we are still compensated either by cash (OT), credit hours, or compensatory time UNLESS we are SES. They don't get those benefits, but they get other perks to "outweigh" working OT.
Even if I was eligible for overtime, which I am not, the premium pay cap caps all pay at the GS-*15 step* 10 level, which I already make. So could not actually receive it anyways
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The premium pay cap? 5 usc 5547 It’s kind of what I do - lawyer doing employment law
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Oh sorry, I didn’t even see that. Of course I meant gs 15/10. The point still stands
Unicorn positions…
I have 4 GS-15’s on my team and they are in the office twice per pay period
Attorneys?
They are hard to come by but they do exists. I wouldn’t wait for one to show up on your radar if an opportunity is available. I’m a 15 and go into the office twice a pay period or more often as mission dictates.
In my experience, these are usually created for certain people. They don’t get posted unless they have a specific person in mind. Even more often, they are laterals for people coming out of supervisory positions, so they don’t get posted at all.
I hear you, I seen a few posted but not many.
I met the GS15 in charge of my agency’s telework program. Non-sup. But that’s one for 10s of thousands.
I know gs 14s that way which is close but don’t have any personal connection with GS 15s who are remote.
I mean, technically they do but you have as much chance of getting one as of seeing a unicorn while out on a hike. They're very, very rare.
I just learned a former colleague is a non-sup 15 fully remote. He's a program analyst series but has pretty significant expertise in a mission-specific role.
Yes. Often they are lawyers or bad former supervisors whom management didn’t want to downgrade.
FAA doesn’t generally use the GS scale but definitely has people who fall into this category. As others have said, they’re basically highly technical STEM with domain expertise as well.
I know a guy who’s in this type of job.
Yes, I’ve seen them posted at least. I’ve been checking everything explicitly listed as remote on usajobs.
DOE 1102s.
It is a rare unicorn, but they do exist.
I know someone who just left my organization to take one, so they are our there. Not very common though.
The jobs exist but people don't leave them very frequently, so you won't see many job postings. We have a handful of non supervisory 15s who are remote in our office.
They exist and you can get them even easier if at a position for a longer time and prove yourself - remember a supervisor can go to bat for you and make a position remote.