The Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) is responsible for the fiscal management, integrity, and accountability of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The mission of the OCFO is to provide guidance and oversight of the Department’s budget, financial management, and financial operations. This includes grants, assistance awards, and resource management systems. The OCFO ensures that the funds necessary to carry out the Department’s mission are obtained, allocated, and expended in accordance with the Department’s priorities and relevant laws and policies.
The OCFO is comprised of ten divisions that ensure mission success: Budget, Program Analysis & Evaluation, Financial Operations, Financial Management, Risk Management & Assurance, Resource Management & Transformation, Financial Assistance Policy & Oversight, Cost Analysis, Workforce Development, and the Departmental GAO/OIG Liaison. The OCFO is always looking to expand our talented workforce.
Below are descriptions of the roles and responsibilities of various OCFO careers in DHS Headquarters and Components. Visit USAJOBS to review current OCFO job announcements.
- Budget Formulation, Justification and Presentation: Manages budget requirements by forecasting, developing, and justifying budgets in compliance with statutory and regulatory guidance. Prepares, reviews, and reconciles financial statements and reports to meet reporting requirements and to support management decisions.
- Budget Performance: Understands departmental objectives, systems used for measuring budget performance and execution against those mission objectives, and reporting.
- Governance: Manages, allocates, and monitors financial resources in compliance with laws, regulations, and policies, with sufficient transparency and appropriate internal controls to ensure these resources are efficiently applied to meet organizational goals and objectives, while considering the Federal Government’s fiduciary duty to the Nation.
- Federal Budget: Knowledge and understanding of the Federal Budget process and its elements, with specific focus on the planning, programming, budgeting, and execution (PPBE) system.
- Analysis: Ability to apply proven research techniques and methodologies creatively and proactively to a variety of situations using critical thinking, reasoning, and data analysis to provide independent and objective alternatives that inform decisions.
- Governance Systems: Manages, allocates, and monitors financial resources in compliance with laws, regulations, and policies, with sufficient transparency and appropriate internal controls to ensure resources are efficiently applied to meet organizational goals and objectives, while considering the Federal Government’s fiduciary duty to the Nation
- Cost Estimating: The application of the principles, methodologies, techniques, and best practices to develop life cycle cost estimate models, special studies, and reports.
- Engineering and Applied Mathematics: The comprehension and application of engineering, economic, mathematic, and scientific methods and techniques used to analyze systems, processes, and/or operational scenarios.
- Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution: The knowledge, comprehension, and application of the Department of Homeland Security’s Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution System and its interrelationship to Cost Estimating and Analysis.
- Acquisition: The knowledge, comprehension, and application of the management process that provides effective, affordable, and timely goods and services across the entire life cycle to support the Department of Homeland Security strategic goals.
- Financial Statements and Financial Reporting: Prepare, review, and reconcile financial statements and financial reports to meet reporting requirements and to support management decisions. Apply financial analysis, forecasting and planning methods, techniques, and products sufficient to ensure financial aspects of command forecasts, reports, plans, and strategies are consistent with DHS-wide goals and strategic initiatives
- Tools/Systems: Utilize integrated federal financial management systems and sub-systems to extract data, identify and resolve system problems and maintain data integrity. Knowledge of the standards, architecture, and specifications of automated financial systems, including source documents, system flows, system interfaces, and related internal controls.
- Governance: Apply federal accounting standards, fiscal law, policies, regulations, principles, internal controls, and procedures to financial management activities. Manage, allocate and monitor financial resources in compliance with laws, regulations, and policies, with sufficient transparency and appropriate internal controls to ensure these resources are efficiently applied to meet organizational goals and objectives, while considering the Federal Government’s fiduciary duty to the Nation.
- Accountability: Ensures that effective controls are developed and maintained to assure the integrity of the organization. Holds self and others accountable for rules and responsibilities. Can be relied upon to ensure that projects within areas of specific responsibility are completed in a timely manner and within budget. Monitors and evaluates plans, focuses on results and measuring attainment of outcomes.
- Compliance: Knowledge of procedures for assessing, evaluating, managing, and monitoring financial assistance programs or projects for compliance with statutes, regulations, policies, and procedures.
- Creative Thinking: Develops innovative ideas and solutions; designs new methods where established policies or procedures are inapplicable, unavailable, or could be improved to promote efficiency and effectiveness.
- Financial Analysis: Knowledge of financial management and budgeting methods, policies, procedures, systems, and practices to assess the financial capability of non-Federal entities applying for or receiving Federal financial assistance.
- Financial Assistance Analysis: Knowledge of statutes, regulations, policies, and procedures of financial assistance programs, including their order of precedence and their application in the financial assistance life cycle (e.g., soliciting, receiving, reviewing, and processing proposals, and awarding and administering grants closeouts and audits.
- Organizational Awareness: Knows the agency's and organization's mission and functions, including the strategic plan, structure, technological systems, and leadership; understands external economic, political, and social trends that affect the organization.
- Planning and Evaluation: Aligns planning activities to support objectives and/or performance goals of the agency and program mission, as appropriate; monitors progress and evaluates outcomes to inform decisions and accomplish goals.
- Project and Program Management: Knowledge of the principles, methods, and tools for developing, scheduling, coordinating, and managing projects or programs and resources; including monitoring and inspecting costs, work, and recipient performance.
- Relationship Management: Builds relationships that promote effective implementation of financial assistance activities; works with stakeholders to assess their needs, to provide information or technical assistance, and to address their issues; is committed to providing high-quality customer service.
- Analytics: Understand iterative, methodical exploration of an organization’s data with emphasis on statistical analysis, use of applications and tools, and providing written and oral presentations. Business analytics is used by organizations committed to data-driven decision making.
- Fraud Detection/Prevention: Understand the process of managing the risk of fraud occurring in Federal programs and operations; testing the design of the process to identify detection controls, if any, as well as transactions to determine if any loss or fraud resulted; ensuring processes are in place to mitigate/avoid the potential for fraud, waste, and abuse to occur.
- Internal Controls/Governance: Understand the fundamental skills to evaluate an organization’s processes and policies and validate that they are following laws and regulations and to ensure the integrity of resources and accounting information.
- Budget: Understand the Federal Budget Process: OMB Circular A-11.
- Audit: Understand the development of opinions and reasonable assurance about whether financial statements, systems, programs, and processes are stated in accordance with specified criteria, standards of procedure, and policies; test the effectiveness and the integrity of the process and provide continual feedback on process improvement.
- Accounting: Understand generally accepted accounting principles, standards, and practices (for example, double entry accounting, accrual accounting); understand government accounting processes, workflow, financial reporting and accounting analytical techniques to validate that accounting reports accurately reflect financial operations.