NIH Administrative Fellows Program (AFP)

Welcome to the National Institutes of Health, Administrative Fellows Program, where you don’t have to be a scientist to discover NIH.

Utilize and enhance your skills in analysis, leadership, and management by supporting the nation’s premiere biomedical research agency. Employment at NIH offers exceptional benefits, stability and a unique potential for professional growth and development. This is a place to grow, be challenged, and create change that impacts our mission, 27 institutes, and over 18,000 employees. The Life at NIH page will let you see additional reasons employees love to work at NIH.

The AFP provides the opportunity for the NIH to bring new and excited employees into its administrative community. Our program includes mentorship, an individual training plan, possible rotations, a camaraderie of current Fellows, an annual AFP Leadership Symposium, and lots of opportunities to make a difference at the NIH in one of our eight target positions.

The NIH AFP started in Spring 2007 with its first class of 36 Fellows who will graduate this summer. The total number of AFPs is now up to 99 making the AFP the largest administrative intern community at NIH.

Spring 2009

The Spring 2009 recruitment is now closed. Thanks to all of our applicants who applied. If you would like to check the status of your application, please visit the HHS Careers Intern Opportunities website, log in and select the "View My Application Status" radio button. If you need technical assistance or a password reset, please contact NIH HR Systems Support at hrsystemssupport@mail.nih.gov or 301-451-1436.

The timeline for this round of interviewing and hiring is listed below. If you have questions, contact us at adminfellows@mail.nih.gov.

• 4/17 - Qualified eligible applicants are referred to the program areas.
• 5/14 & 5/15 - On-site panel interviews are conducted for each occupational track.
• 6/1 - Second round interviews and selections begin.
• Mid-August - AFP Class of 2009 Orientation is held.

We will begin recruitment activities for the Class of 2010 in October 2009.

Positions in the AFP

Administrative Officers provide vital managerial support to the nation’s foremost scientists by ensuring the seamless functioning of scientific laboratories, offices, branches, and divisions. You’ll work closely with senior leaders and scientists alike, providing guidance on matters of administrative management, infrastructure, human capital, policy interpretation, financial management, strategic management and planning.

Budget Analysts provide leadership, direction and supervision for all phases of the Federal Budget process. You’ll have hands on responsibility managing NIH’s financial resources. Throughout the process, you’ll participate in the formulation, presentation and execution of the budget and provide analyses of program, fiscal, and scientific data.

Contract Specialists negotiate and administer contracts with a wide variety of stakeholders, from pharmaceutical companies to research universities and foreign governments to small businesses. As a Contract Specialist you'll receive classroom and on the job training towards professional certification on your way to progressively greater experience and responsibility.

Ethics Specialists apply analysis and communication to ensure the Agency research is free of conflicts of interest. You’ll work closely with employees to provide crucial advice on laws and regulations; perform financial analysis; and track Agency performance. Ensure that important research is conflict-free, and that results are publically available.

Grants Management Specialists participate in the grant-making and inter-agency agreement process through highly technical and specialized projects. By understanding the needs of your customers and stakeholders, prioritize organizational objectives and deadlines, ensure best practices and policies are advanced by awardees, and perform complex financial and administrative analyses.

Health Communications Specialists develop, coordinate, disseminate, and market specialized informational and educational public health materials and products.You will confer with others to obtain the latest health information to develop and implement portions of a comprehensive health communications plan using proven principles and methods. You will have the opportunity to speak to a variety of groups, participate in meetings and conferences to promote the subject program or activity, and act as liaison with various groups or representatives.

Human Resources (HR) Specialists advise and execute human capital functions, such as recruitment and retention, organizational design, employee and labor relations, policy creation, training and development, and benefits administration. As an HR specialist you’ll shape policies and practices that allow NIH to capitalize on its greatest resources–its people.

Management Analysts employ their analytical and research abilities to improve organizational operations. Senior leaders will rely on your recommendations to make high-impact organizational decisions. You’ll be exposed to a broad array of fields: risk management, policy development, in-depth reviews of business units, management of organizational changes and emergency management.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS:

• You must be a U.S. Citizen.
• You must be able to qualify at the GS-9 level.
• You must have attended a recruitment event or spoken to an NIH recruiter prior to the closing date.

Note: You will qualify as a GS-9 if you have a graduate or higher level degree, one (1) year of specialized work experience, or a combination of education and experience. For additional information on specialized experience, please read the vacancy announcements.

If you are already an NIH employee

This program is in the Excepted Service and lasts for two years.  If you are on a competitive appointment and you are offered this fellowship, you would give up your Career/Career-Conditional status. For the 2 years you are in the Program, you would be on an Excepted Service appointment. This should not impact your Benefits or time-in-service for Retirement but it would mean that you are on a trial appointment for two years. If you meet all the requirements for successful completion of the program, you would be converted back to a Career appointment at the end of the program. If for some reason you could not or did not finish the program then NIH/your agency does have the obligation to find you another position at your current grade level, but there is no promise as to what that position may be. We target this program to the surrounding universities and colleges so we can bring much needed new talent due to the incoming wave of retirements and job-hopping that occurs here. However, if an NIH-employee wants to apply, we welcome him/her too.

If you have any questions about eligibility or the program, please e-mail us at adminfellows@mail.nih.gov.