Recent Graduate - Employee Benefits Investigator

Recent Graduate - Employee Benefits Investigator at Employee Benefits Security Administration · Department of Labor. Grade: 9-9. Applications close 2026-10-22.

Summary

EBSA plays a vital role in protecting the retirement, health, and other job-based benefits of America's workers, retirees, and their families. We issue effective regulations, offer comprehensive education and assistance to workers, plan sponsors, fiduciaries, and service providers, and rigorously enforce the law. We serve workers, families, and the broader employee benefits community by protecting the security and integrity of the nation's benefit systems.

Duties

• For more information, click Pathways Programs, State Apprenticeship Programs, Other Apprenticeship Programs or Career One Stop. This is an appointment under the DOL Recent Graduates program. The program duration is one year. Upon successful completion of the program and at the agency's discretion, the appointee may be converted to a term or permanent position in the competitive service. Major duties include but are not limited to the following: Plan and conduct technical civil and criminal investigations involving employee benefit plans, service providers, fiduciaries, financial institutions, and related entities to assess compliance with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and related laws. Review and analyze employee benefit plan financial records, accounting systems, transactions, investments, plan operations, and fiduciary conduct to identify violations, determine the impact on plan participants, and recommend appropriate enforcement actions. Initiate and arrange meetings and discussions with plan officials, service providers, and their legal and financial representatives, including at company locations. Develop and prepare comprehensive investigative reports, work papers, findings, legal/regulatory analyses, and recommendations for voluntary compliance, civil litigation, criminal prosecution, penalties, settlement, or case closure. Location Selection Limitation: Applicants may select up to two (2) duty locations when applying to this announcement. Please carefully consider and choose only the locations you can reliably and easily commute to or otherwise access, if selected. Locality Salary Ranges: The advertised salary reflects the minimum and maximum pay for the listed locations. Upon selection, the salary will be set in accordance with the selectee's assigned duty location. Applicants may select up to two (2) duty locations. Please carefully consider and choose only the location(s) you can reliably and easily commute to on a regular recurring basis, if selected. To view the address of a specific location click here.

Qualifications

This appointment is under the DOL Recent Graduates program. The program duration is one year. *For more information, click Pathways Programs. The appointee must be a U.S. citizen to be eligible for conversion to a permanent position in the competitive service upon completion of the program. Applicants must have graduated, within the past two years, (with an associate, bachelor, master, professional, doctorate, diploma, vocational, technical degree, or certificate, etc.) from a qualifying educational institution or career or technical educational program including registered Apprenticeship Programs, Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Job Corps, Climate Corps). Students who will meet the education requirements by January 15th, 2027 may apply. You must meet the Basic Requirements listed in the Education Requirements section and the Specialized Experience to qualify for Recent Graduate - Employee Benefits Investigator, as described below. Applicants must have 52 weeks of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade level in the Federal Service. Specialized Experience is the experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA's) to perform the duties of the position successfully, and that is typically in or related to the position to be filled. To be creditable, specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the next lower grade level. Qualifying specialized experience for GS-09 includes the below. Applicants must meet at least two (2) of the four (4): Participating in investigative projects and/or audits to gather and review information to help determine whether organizations are following applicable laws and requirements. Conveying information to individuals and groups to formulate and present findings, recommendations and conclusions. Researching, reviewing and analyzing financial and accounting records, laws, regulations, court decisions, and other materials to identify important information and support the development of investigative findings. Writing reports, memorandum, analysis and other work products citing applicable laws and regulations. OR - Master's or equivalent graduate degree or 2 full years of graduate level education, or LLB. or J.D.; if related. OR - A combination of specialized experience and graduate level education that provided the specific knowledge, skills and abilities to successfully perform the duties of this position.

Education

To be eligible for an appointment, you must meet requirement A or B. A. Completed all requirements for a diploma, associate, bachelor, master, professional, doctorate, vocational, or technical degree or certificate from a qualifying educational institution or career or technical education program (including registered Apprenticeship Programs, Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Job Corps, Climate Corps) within the previous two years; OR B. Was released or discharged from active duty within the previous two years, where the applicant is a veteran who, due to a military service obligation, was precluded from applying for a recent graduate position during any portion of the two-year eligibility period following completion of his/her degree or certificate requirements, provided that not more than six years have transpired since the applicant completed the requirements for a degree or certification. NOTE: You must submit an academic transcript from your academic institution showing the date that you most recently completed the academic requirements described above. If you will graduate by 1/15/2027, please submit documentation of enrollment of courses for verification. *For Accredited Post-Secondary Institutions, click Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs *For Registered State Apprenticeship Programs Information, click State Apprenticeship Programs *For Other Apprenticeship Programs, click Apprenticeship Programs *For Industry-Endorsed Certificate Programs, click Career One Stop Certificate Finder Any applicant falsely claiming an academic degree from an accredited school will be subject to actions ranging from disqualification from federal employment to removal from federal service. If your education was completed at a foreign college or university, you must show comparability to education received in accredited educational institutions in the United States and comparability to applicable minimum coursework requirements for this position. Click Evaluation of Foreign Education for more information.

How to apply

Persons who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, or have speech disabilities, please dial 711 to access telecommunications relay services. To apply for this position, you must complete the initial online application, including submission of the required documentation specified in the Required Documents section. Your application and ALL required supplemental documents MUST be received by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on the vacancy closing date to receive consideration. Important - Save your information before the 30 minute system timeout! For help, go to USAJOBS Help Center. STEP 1 - Create USAJOBS Account on www.usajobs.gov, including Resume and Saved Documents. For each employment period, include start/end month & year and note full-time or part-time (if part-time, include # of hours worked per week) otherwise, your application may be considered incomplete. NOTE: In alignment with the Presidential Memorandum titled Merit Hiring Plan, dated May 29, 2025, applicants may only submit a resume limited to two (2) pages. Only the résumé uploaded under the 'Resume" document type in USAJOBS will be reviewed. If the resume submitted exceeds two (2) pages, the application will be deemed ineligible for further consideration. STEP 2 - Complete the 1st part of the application process (USAJOBS). Once you have identified a job on USAJOBS that you wish to apply for, click on the job title and then click the Apply button. For questions about the vacancy, contact the Agency Contact at the bottom of the announcement. Proceed through the steps noted at the top of the USAJOBS page. You will be able to select a resume and documents from your USAJOBS Account that you can submit as a package as part of your DOL application. In the final step, once you have certified your application, click the Continue to agency site button. STEP 3 - Complete the 2nd part of the application process (DOL). On the Department of Labor (DOL) page, create a DOL Account if you have not already and click Apply to this vacancy. Continue through the progress steps at the top of the DOL page. The 2nd progress step is where you answer the vacancy-specific questions. The 3rd progress step Documents is where you submit the required documents (only if applicable to you) specified in the Required Documents section of this vacancy. STEP 4 - On the Review and Submit step, verify each section of your application is complete and correct. In order to submit your application, you must have a check mark next to each section listed. If there is an X, return to the appropriate section and follow the prompts. When it is ready for submission, certify your application and click the Submit Application button. STEP 5 - Edit Application as needed by 11:59 pm Eastern Time of Closing Date by returning to USAJOBS, clicking the vacancy, then Update Application. If you are required to complete any USA Hire Assessments, you will be notified after submitting your application. The notification will be provided in your application submission screen and via email. The notification will include your unique assessment access link to the USA Hire system and the completion deadline. Additionally, in USAJOBS you can click "Track this application" to return to your assessment completion notice. Access USA Hire using your unique assessment link. Access is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Review all instructions prior to beginning your assessments. You will have the opportunity to request a training a testing accommodation before beginning the assessments should you have a disability covered under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended. Set aside about 2 hours to take the USA Hire Assessments; however, most applicants complete the assessments in less time. If you need to stop the assessments and continue later, you can re-use your unique assessment link. Your responses to the USA Hire Assessments will be reused for one year (in most cases) from the date you complete an assessment. If future applications you submit require completion of the same assessments, your responses will be automatically reused. Visit the USA Hire Applicant Resource Center for practice assessments and assessment preparation resources at https://support-usahire.opm.gov/hc/en-us. To update your application, including supporting documentation: During the announcement open period, return to your USAJOBS account, find your application record, and click Edit my application. This option will no longer be available once the announcement has closed. To view the announcement status or your application status: Visit https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/howto/application/status/. Your application status page is where you can view your application status, USA Hire assessment completion status, and review your notifications sent by the hiring agency regarding your application. NOTE: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date.