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Commonwealth of Pennsylvania |
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POSITION DESCRIPTION FOR JOB POSTING |
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Position Number: 00097850 |
Description Activated On: 2/4/2026 10:34:38 AM |
Position Purpose: Describe the primary purpose of this position and how it contributes to the organization’s objectives. Example: Provides clerical and office support within the Division to ensure its operations are conducted efficiently and effectively. This position performs highly responsible budgetary work in the development of federal and state appropriation requests for the Department’s budget and rebudget processes. It is responsible for and utilizes the SAP accounting system to review and analyze various federal and state appropriations. |
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Description of Duties: Describe in detail the duties and responsibilities assigned to this position. Descriptions should include the major end result of the task. Example: Types correspondence, reports, and other various documents from handwritten drafts for review and signature of the supervisor. The employee in this position performs highly complex budgetary work involving multiple and varied appropriations, allocations, allotments, spending plans, commitment items, and expenditures in the development, monitoring, and analytics of all federal funds within the department. The agency's federal budget contains approximately $4 billion in federal dollars. The total number of appropriations in the agency consists of approximately 110, many of which are federal, in which this individual will play a role. The individual will review complex policies, legislation, and regulations across multiple programmatic agency areas, with a direct impact on major operations, as governed by the Pennsylvania School Code and Fiscal Code. This individual will support and coordinate across multiple, varied business and agency needs to resolve conflicts related to goals, visibility, and public or political interests. The position will support and coordinate with all program staff in determining the budgetary impacts of program expansions and changes, as well as current needs. This position serves as a liaison among various programs, including federal program areas. Responsibilities will include extensive federal monitoring and reporting requirements that must be satisfied to demonstrate monies are being spent for their specified purpose within appropriation timeframes. The employee actively supports and participates in the implementation of current year spending plans for all bureaus and offices who manage administrative and grant funding. The employee coordinates, supports, and meets with program managers, directors, and administrative personnel to follow up on complex fiscal transactions that need to be completed, provide updates to the spending plans, and discuss future plans regarding fiscal management (contracts, etc.). Work involves providing consultative services to program areas as needed related to their federal grants and appropriations. The employee will be responsible for monitoring complex spending plans as necessary inclusive to program areas requests for procurements/grants needs. Responsible for the establishment of all federal appropriations and executive authorizations granted to the Department of Education. This involves the review, analysis, and verification of federal funding sources (including new grant awards, supplemental grant awards, and carryover funds), reviewing expenditure/encumbrances pattern for prior, current, and future spending, and ensuring accuracy in program description narratives for all program years. Responsible for and the primary architect in the preparation and review of the Request for Appropriation of Federal Funds (RAFFs) hearing materials book for use in defense of the Governor’s Budget Request and for eventual passage by the Legislature. Meets with bureau and office personnel, individually and in group settings, to provide direction and guidance on the use of administrative, state use, and/or local monies for the Department’s federal programs. Reviews, analyzes, and finalizes federal carryover funds associated with over 70 federal grants administered by the Department. Reviews, analyzes, and determines the administrative, state-use, and/or local impact of all federal grants administered by the Department. Reviews and approves time sheets submitted by various bureaus to ensure consistency with federal regulations and the departmental cost allocation plan. Responsible for establishing and maintaining the federal internal order crosswalk. This requires communication/correspondence with the Comptroller’s Office, Office of Administration, IES and various bureaus. Coordinates the preparation and submission of the General Education Provisions Act (GEPA) report for Washington, D.C. This requires communication/correspondence with the Washington, D.C. report coordinator, Comptroller’s Office, and various bureau personnel. Review all information for accuracy and resolve outstanding issues before submission and after submission, as necessary. Reviews, analyzes, and approves all purchasing and personnel documents initiated by program offices responsible for federal funds. Responsible for and utilizes knowledge of SAP accounting structure, including grant accounting and various other programs in order to review and analyze, on a daily basis, various funds. Conducts periodic conferences with bureau and office personnel to review and make recommendations regarding expenditure patterns. Reviews and approves complex accounting transactions submitted to Central Budget to expend and close out federal grants. Performs complex workload budgetary analysis, such as review and approval of contracts and procurement requests. Performs complex financial analysis and develops related reports for state-level decision makers, including the Secretaries of Education and Budget, appropriate Deputy Secretaries, Director and Assistant Director, and Division Chief of Budget of the Bureau of Budget and Fiscal Management, including Governor’s Budget Office and legislative staff. Prepares complex fund distributions and fund amendments by electronic submission in order to properly allocate and allot appropriated funds. Participates in complex expenditure adjustments for project costs incorrectly coded or items not occurring as direct charges. Review, analyze, and fiscally approve complex budgets, procurement, and personnel documents initiated within such appropriations. This requires support and coordination, working with program officials, Comptroller personnel, and support operations staff. Provide complex technical advice and direction to Department staff in preparation of complex and varied budgets and expenditure of funds. Formulates and implements solutions to funding issues and makes recommendations to the supervisor regarding action to be taken. Provide complex technical advice and direction to Department staff in preparing year-end process and analyze year-end requests. Make adjustments to requests if not supported by analysis. Responsible for electronically approving, as the Secretary of Education’s designate, transmittal vouchers and advancement transmittals pertaining to Department appropriations. Conducts essential fiscal and budget training to agency staff. The employee is the point of contact for Central Budget in PDE’s Financial Accounting Information (FAI) system. FAI's roles are budget-centered, such as establishing new account codes, executing chargebacks, and running annual reports for the Comptroller’s Office. Any other duties, as assigned by my supervisor, which may include review and analysis of state funding under this supervision. Work is subject to general review by the Fiscal Management Specialist 4 and 5, although considerable individual discretion is exercised. |
Decision Making: Describe the types of decisions made by the incumbent of this position and the types of decisions referred to others. Identify the problems or issues that can be resolved at the level of this position, versus those that must be referred to the supervisor. Example: In response to a customer inquiry, this work involves researching the status of an activity and preparing a formal response for the supervisor’s signature. The work assigned by the Fiscal Management Specialist 4 and 5 shall be carried out with considerable independence. When major impacts on funding sources are forecasted, this work involves researching the status of activities against the appropriation(s) and preparing recommendations for the supervisor’s decision. Based on analysis and testing, the individual will formulate options, creative possibilities, and alternatives to recommend a course of action that prompts a superior to take action. Process daily agency workflow, which shall be analyzed and acted upon within designated approval thresholds set forth by PDE Central Budget leadership. Works independently with comptroller’ office, administrative officers, program managers, and other staff as required. |
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Requirements Profile: Identify any specific experience or requirements, such as a licensure, registration, or certification, which may be necessary to perform the functions of the position. Position-specific requirements should be consistent with a Special Requirement or other criteria identified in the classification specification covering this position. Example: Experience using Java; Professional Engineer License Experience: Licenses, registrations, or certifications: 1. N/A 2. N/A 3. N/A 4. 5. 6. |
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Essential Functions: Provide a list of essential functions for this position. Example: Transports boxes weighing up to 60 pounds.
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