Program Associate

This unique opportunity as a Program Associate allows you to use your expertise in program support to help your team meet its goals and grow your skills. You will be trusted to manage the office support activities of the division's central office as well as serve as liaison to one of the program's guiding councils.

You will join an accomplished, hard-working team in a fast-paced and fun environment, everyone working together to proudly champion the honorable mission of the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation: to obtain, maintain, and improve employment for people with disabilities.

The Department of Workforce Development (DWD) offers interesting and meaningful work with service-oriented staff, work-life balance, a casual office environment, flexibility, and many opportunities to grow your skills. Charged with building and strengthening Wisconsin's workforce in the 21st century and beyond, DWD houses a wide variety of employment programs including securing jobs for people with disabilities with its Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR).

Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) maintains 11 Workforce Development Areas (WDAs) across the state where teams of DVR staff work together to assist Wisconsin citizens with their job search efforts. In the central office in Madison, staff provide statewide program development and delivery of technological and training services to the division.

This position is headquartered out of our central office at 201 E. Washington Ave. in vibrant downtown Madison, near the Capital City bike path, on several city bus routes, and close to plenty of entertainment, recreation, shopping, and dining venues.

Employee safety is important to us. DWD continues to follow state and local guidelines related to the COVID 19 pandemic.

The state of Wisconsin offers an exemplary benefits package with ample leave time, excellent insurance options (health, dental, vision, life, and more), a top-notch retirement program, and much more. For more benefits information, view our benefits overview or more in-depth benefits e-learning. We love to Work for Wisconsin!

This position provides complex administrative support to the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR). This position performs office management activities to ensure the timely provision of services to Central Office (CO), field offices, consumers and the public. This position is responsible for receiving inbound communication, invoices and reports, interpreting or researching the issue or information provided, and resolving or routing to others within DVR. This requires considerable knowledge of the DVR program to respond to a wide variety of situations. Use of Independent judgment and discretion in differentiating priority communication is required.

This position is also in charge of ensuring proper operation of office machines, coordinating printing orders, purchasing office supplies and ergonomic equipment, coordination and scheduling of meetings, including scheduling and troubleshooting of remote meetings, AV bridges, and conference lines, and maintaining Division directories. Extensive knowledge of state procurement contracts and rules is required for this position.

This position provides program-related support as DVR's primary contact and coordinator for the Wisconsin Rehabilitation Council (WRC). This includes working with the WRC Chair to set quarterly meeting agendas, dates and locations, maintaining the Council roster, preparing and distributing meeting materials, communicating with WRC members to arrange lodging, and coordinating all meeting arrangements, including logistics and meals. This position is also responsible for ensuring travel reimbursements are made to Council members, and state travel policies are followed.

This position provides program-related support exercising independent judgment performing back-up duties in the preparation and processing of purchase requisitions and invoices for a variety of goods and administrative services. In performing these duties the position is responsible for; ensuring compliance with federal and state regulations, agency internal controls, policies, and procedures, and for entering data into the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) accounting system and other state systems. This position determines readiness for payment of invoices for received goods and services, and communicates with DVR Staff, other Department staff, vendors, and customers to resolve discrepancies between approved purchase orders and invoices.

This position also provides program-related support as a backup to the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Centralized Scanning unit assisting with the profiling of documents by assigning documents to the identified appropriate account, customer, document type and recipient using the DVR standardize naming convention. Knowledge of DVR field practices and program requirements for service provision and reporting are important to properly perform this work.

For a complete copy of the position description, click here.

Starting salary is $17.05 per hour ($34,756 annually), plus excellent benefits. For more benefits information, view our benefits overview or more in-depth benefits e-learning.

The classification title for this position is Operations Program Associate (schedule 02, range 11). A 12-month probationary period will be required. This position is not represented in a collective bargaining unit.

Pay will be set in accordance with the State of Wisconsin Compensation Plan in effect at the time of appointment. Starting pay may vary for current state employees.

All state employees are required to report their COVID vaccination status, whether vaccinated or not, and must provide supporting documentation if vaccinated. Newly hired employees will be required to submit this information within their first two weeks of employment. At this time, those who are unvaccinated are subject to weekly COVID-19 testing protocols.

Finalists for this position may be required to allow DWD to conduct a background check or other checks to determine whether the circumstances of any conviction may be related to the job being filled. For positions with access to sensitive federal tax information, FBI fingerprinting may also be required.

Applicants must be legally entitled to work in the United States (i.e. a US citizen or national or a lawful permanent resident) at the time of appointment. DWD does not sponsor visas and is not an eligible OPT employer for those with F1 visas. This is not a contract position. Any appointment made will be contingent on the applicant being able to prove valid status to work in the United States.

Veterans are encouraged to apply.

Qualifications marked with an asterisk (*) will be evaluated in the first step of the selection process to determine further consideration, so it is recommended you specifically list your experience related to each of them in your Letter of Qualifications, which does not need to be in formal letter format.

Minimally qualified applicants will have the following required qualifications:

• Experience applying modern office practices and procedures such as: responding to customers, operating office equipment (e.g., office communication systems, copier, fax machine, etc.) and managing (e.g., organizing, filing, storing) paper and electronic documents.
• Experience using office productivity software such as Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel, etc.
• Experience developing/documenting work processes or procedures.
• Experience planning/coordinating meetings and/or events.


Well-qualified applicants will also have the following preferred qualifications:

• Experience processing financial transactions (e.g., invoices, purchase orders, etc.).
• Experience using complex applications (e.g., case management systems like IRIS, finance/human capital management systems like PeopleSoft, etc.).
• Experience working with DVR or other workforce development programs (including as a participant).

If viewing this posting on an external site (such as really.com, etc.), please visit Wisc.Jobs to complete your application for this position (search 4480) or to find other job opportunities that align with your skills and interests.

After you are logged in and are viewing the announcement, click “Apply Now.” You will be asked to provide your personal information, attach a resume and letter of qualifications. Online applications that do not include all of the requested materials will not be considered.

Your resume and letter of qualifications are both required parts of the assessment to determine eligibility for the next step in the selection process, so please be sure they clearly illustrate your qualifications as they relate to the information in this job announcement. It is highly recommended that you customize your materials before submitting them. Guidance on preparing your resume and letter of qualifications is linked here.
Failure to submit all required materials and finalize the assessment will result in an incomplete application and ineligibility for this position. Materials will be evaluated by subject matter experts and the most qualified applicants will be invited to participate in the next step of the selection process.

Please note that once you submit your application, you will not be able to update your materials.

What happens next? A panel will review your application materials to determine your eligibility for further consideration in the selection process. The most qualified applicants will be invited to participate in the next step of the selection process, which is typically a virtual interview.

If you have questions, please email JenniferM.Xiong@wi.gov.

DWD is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity employer seeking a diverse and talented workforce. Veterans, women, people of color, LGBTQIA , and people with disabilities are encouraged to apply. We provide reasonable accommodations to qualified applicants and employees with disabilities.

Permanent classified state employees who are eligible for consideration (transfer, voluntary demotion, or former employees as a reinstatement) must complete the application process to apply.

Application materials must be submitted by 11:59 PM (central standard time) on February 7, 2022.