Recent Graduate - Employee Benefits Investigator

Employee Benefits Security AdministrationPasadena, California, San Francisco, California, Plantation, Florida, Atlanta, Georgia, Chicago, Illinois, Fort Wright, Kentucky, Boston, Massachusetts, Silver Spring, Maryland, Kansas City, Missouri, New York, New York, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Dallas, Texas, Seattle, Washingtonusajobspublished 10/15/2026

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EBSA plays a vital role in protecting the retirement, health, and other job-based benefits of America's workers, retirees, and their families. We issue effective regulations, offer comprehensive education and assistance to workers, plan sponsors, fiduciaries, and service providers, and rigorously enforce the law. We serve workers, families, and the broader employee benefits community by protecting the security and integrity of the nation's benefit systems.

Major duties

For more information, click Pathways Programs, State Apprenticeship Programs, Other Apprenticeship Programs or Career One Stop. This is an appointment under the DOL Recent Graduates program. The program duration is one year. Upon successful completion of the program and at the agency's discretion, the appointee may be converted to a term or permanent position in the competitive service. Major duties include but are not limited to the following: Plan and conduct technical civil and criminal investigations involving employee benefit plans, service providers, fiduciaries, financial institutions, and related entities to assess compliance with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and related laws. Review and analyze employee benefit plan financial records, accounting systems, transactions, investments, plan operations, and fiduciary conduct to identify violations, determine the impact on plan participants, and recommend appropriate enforcement actions. Initiate and arrange meetings and discussions with plan officials, service providers, and their legal and financial representatives, including at company locations. Develop and prepare comprehensive investigative reports, work papers, findings, legal/regulatory analyses, and recommendations for voluntary compliance, civil litigation, criminal prosecution, penalties, settlement, or case closure. Location Selection Limitation: Applicants may select up to two (2) duty locations when applying to this announcement. Please carefully consider and choose only the locations you can reliably and easily commute to or otherwise access, if selected. Locality Salary Ranges: The advertised salary reflects the minimum and maximum pay for the listed locations. Upon selection, the salary will be set in accordance with the selectee's assigned duty location. Applicants may select up to two (2) duty locations. Please carefully consider and choose only the location(s) you can reliably and easily commute to on a regular recurring basis, if selected. To view the address of a specific location click here.

Qualifications

This appointment is under the DOL Recent Graduates program. The program duration is one year. *For more information, click Pathways Programs. The appointee must be a U.S. citizen to be eligible for conversion to a permanent position in the competitive service upon completion of the program. Applicants must have graduated, within the past two years, (with an associate, bachelor, master, professional, doctorate, diploma, vocational, technical degree, or certificate, etc.) from a qualifying educational institution or career or technical educational program including registered Apprenticeship Programs, Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Job Corps, Climate Corps). Students who will meet the education requirements by January 15th, 2027 may apply. You must meet the Basic Requirements listed in the Education Requirements section and the Specialized Experience to qualify for Recent Graduate - Employee Benefits Investigator, as described below. Applicants must have 52 weeks of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade level in the Federal Service. Specialized Experience is the experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA's) to perform the duties of the position successfully, and that is typically in or related to the position to be filled. To be creditable, specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the next lower grade level. Qualifying specialized experience for GS-09 includes the below. Applicants must meet at least two (2) of the four (4):

Participating in investigative projects and/or audits to gather and review information to help determine whether organizations are following applicable laws and requirements.
Conveying information to individuals and groups to formulate and present findings, recommendations and conclusions.
Researching, reviewing and analyzing financial and accounting records, laws, regulations, court decisions, and other materials to identify important information and support the development of investigative findings.
Writing reports, memorandum, analysis and other work products citing applicable laws and regulations.

OR - Master's or equivalent graduate degree or 2 full years of graduate level education, or LLB. or J.D.; if related. OR - A combination of specialized experience and graduate level education that provided the specific knowledge, skills and abilities to successfully perform the duties of this position.

Education

To be eligible for an appointment, you must meet requirement A or B. A. Completed all requirements for a diploma, associate, bachelor, master, professional, doctorate, vocational, or technical degree or certificate from a qualifying educational institution or career or technical education program (including registered Apprenticeship Programs, Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Job Corps, Climate Corps) within the previous two years; OR B. Was released or discharged from active duty within the previous two years, where the applicant is a veteran who, due to a military service obligation, was precluded from applying for a recent graduate position during any portion of the two-year eligibility period following completion of his/her degree or certificate requirements, provided that not more than six years have transpired since the applicant completed the requirements for a degree or certification.

****NOTE: You must submit an academic transcript from your academic institution showing the date that you most recently completed the academic requirements described above. If you will graduate by 1/15/2027, please submit documentation of enrollment of courses for verification. *For Accredited Post-Secondary Institutions, click Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs *For Registered State Apprenticeship Programs Information, click State Apprenticeship Programs *For Other Apprenticeship Programs, click Apprenticeship Programs *For Industry-Endorsed Certificate Programs, click Career One Stop Certificate Finder Any applicant falsely claiming an academic degree from an accredited school will be subject to actions ranging from disqualification from federal employment to removal from federal service. If your education was completed at a foreign college or university, you must show comparability to education received in accredited educational institutions in the United States and comparability to applicable minimum coursework requirements for this position. Click Evaluation of Foreign Education for more information.