Compliance and Enforcement Specialists (GS-1801)

Compliance and Enforcement Specialists plan and administer compliance and enforcement, litigation coordination, and compliance plans. They accomplish this through a variety of activities, including compliance reviews, program analysis, investigations, and interpretive support. Specialists also manage marketing order committee compliance efforts and focus committees on the prevention of violations to create an environment in which handlers have less incentive to violate than to comply with program requirements. These duties may involve:

  • Running a variety of analytical assignments related to marketing order and agreement program compliance and enforcement, import requirements, and Import and Export Acts.
  • Investigating alleged violations of USDA regulations and processing adverse actions against violators.
  • Leading the development of procedures, review criteria, and regulatory approaches for use in administering enforcement activities for section import requirements.
  • Identifying areas in need of improvement, and in establishing, implementing, and monitoring compliance policies, goals, and objectives as they relate to Import and Export Acts, marketing order compliance and regulatory requirements of the Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL) program and the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard.

This Position is Represented in the Following AMS Programs:

Work Environment

Compliance and Enforcement Specialists work in an office or laboratory setting usually. The work is partially sedentary with a moderate amount of physical labor required. 

Minimum Applicant Requirements

For GS-07 Level For GS-09 Level and Above

Applicants must either have:

Experience: One year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-05 level.

Experience may have been gained in quality assurance (machinist, on-line production work), as a commodity buyer, receiving clerk, farm experience (in a managerial, decision- making capacity), clerical (office manager, administrative assistant with decision-making responsibility), or food processing laboratory food work (managerial, technical).

OR

Education: One full year of graduate level education or meet superior academic achievement standards as defined in specific job announcements.

Applicants must either have:

Experience: One year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-7 level.

Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional, philanthropic, religious, spiritual, community, student, social).

OR

Education: A master's or equivalent graduate degree, 2 full years of higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree, or an LL.B. or J.D., if related.

Common Career Paths

Agricultural Marketing Specialist