Realty Specialist

U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Washington, DC seeks a highly skilled professional for real property program management within the Integrated Services Division.

You will work on complex property actions from requirements through instrument execution, coordinating across IT, security, and facilities teams. The role emphasizes specialized experience in leases, acquisitions, and title instruments, with rigorous evaluation of surveys, appraisals, and related documentation, ensuring compliance

Qualifications

• Specialized experience related to real property actions such as fee acquisitions, leases, and permits.
• Experience negotiating and applying guidance from legal, environmental, construction, and technical sources.
• Ability to review and approve real property instruments like surveys, title reports, and appraisals.
• Lease administration skills including enforcement, rent adjustments, and day-to-day negotiations.
• Project management experience including planning, cost estimates, and coordinating IT, security, and furniture aspects.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical expertise on real property actions from requirements development to instrument drafting and execution.
• Negotiate and apply guidance from diverse sources to ensure compliant real property actions.
• Review and approve instruments such as surveys, title reports, appraisals, and title transfer docs.
• Conduct lease administration activities including lease provisions enforcement and rent adjustments.
• Develop project management strategies, schedules, and cost estimates coordinating multiple supporting activities.

Job description

Organizational Location

This position is with the Department of Homeland Security, within U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Office of Facilities and Asset Management, Integrated Services Division, Real Property Program Management Office in Aliso Viejo, CA; Euless, TX; and Washington, DC.

The open period for this job opportunity announcement may be extended to allow for a sufficient applicant pool.

Experience

You qualify for the GS-14 grade level if you possess 1 year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade level, performing duties such as:

• Providing technical expertise to customers and external partners on a variety of real property actions to include fee acquisitions, leases, permits, and more covering the entire acquisition process from requirements development, market survey, instrument drafting and execution.
• Negotiating, resolving, and implementing advice and technical guidance from a variety of sources to include legal, environmental, construction, and technical sources.
• Obtaining, reviewing, and approving real property instruments such as surveys, title reports, appraisals, and title transfer documentation.
• Performing lease administration capabilities including enforcement of lease provisions, requests for rent adjustments, and resolution of day-to-day lease issues and negotiations.
• Developing project management strategies, schedules, requirements development, cost estimates, and coordination of various supporting activities (IT, security, furniture acquisition, etc.) to demonstrate project planning and management capabilities.

NOTE: Your resume must explicitly indicate how you meet this requirement, otherwise you will be found ineligible. Please see the "Required Documents" section below for additional resume requirements.

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). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

You must meet all qualification requirements, including education if applicable to this position, subject to verification at any stage of the application process by 10/06/2026.

In order to be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. In addition to the application and application questionnaire, this position requires an online assessment. The online assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job.

Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration. Cheating on the online assessment may also result in your removal from consideration.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) must authorize employment offers made to current or former political appointees. If you are currently, or have been within the last 5 years, a political Schedule A, Schedule C, Non-career SES or Presidential Appointee employee in the Executive Branch, you must disclose this information to the Human Resources Office.

Background Investigation

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is a federal law enforcement agency that requires all applicants to undergo a thorough background investigation prior to employment in order to promote the agency's core values of vigilance, service to country, and integrity. During the screening and/or background investigation process, you will be asked questions regarding any felony criminal convictions or current felony charges, the use of illegal drugs (e.g., marijuana, cocaine, heroin, LSD, methamphetamines, ecstasy), and the use of non-prescribed controlled substances including any experimentation, possession, sale, receipt, manufacture, cultivation, production, transfer, shipping, trafficking, or distribution of controlled substances. For additional information on the preemployment process, review the following link: Applicant Resources | CBP Careers

Residency

There is a residency requirement for all applicants not currently employed by CBP. Individuals are required to have physically resided in the United States or its protectorates (as declared under international law) for at least three of the last five years. If you do not meet the residency requirement and you have been physically located in a foreign location for more than two of the last five years, you may request an exception to determine if you are eligible for a residency waiver by meeting one or more of the following conditions:

• Working for the U.S. Government as a federal civilian or as a member of the military
• A dependent who was authorized to accompany a federal civilian or member of the military who was working for the U.S. government
• Participation in a study abroad program sponsored by a U.S. affiliated college or university
• Working as a contractor, intern, consultant or volunteer supporting the U.S. government

Probationary Period

All employees new to the federal government must serve a one year probationary period during the first year of his/her initial permanent federal appointment to determine fitness for continued employment. Current and former federal employees may be required to serve or complete a probationary period.

Agency Career Transition Assistance Program (CTAP) or the Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program (ICTAP) Eligibles

If you have never worked for the federal government, you are not CTAP/ICTAP eligible. View information about CTAP/ICTAP eligibility on OPM's Career Transition Resources website. To be considered eligible under CTAP/ICTAP, you must be placed in the Well-Qualified category for this position, as described within this announcement. In addition, you must submit the supporting documents listed under the Required Documents section of this job announcement.