Clarification from the agency

This vacancy announcement is open ONLY to current, permanent of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employees and current/former VA employees who are CTAP eligible.

• Serves as an expert advisor to VBA's senior leaders, including the Under Secretary for Benefits. The Director is responsible for executing acquisition in direct response to VBA's requirements and implementation of goals and objectives.
• Ensures socioeconomic goals and programs set by the Department of Veterans Affairs are addressed through planning and in compliance with competition and regulatory requirements set by the FAR, VAAR, or other policies, rules and regulations.
• Represents VBA at meetings, conference, intra-agency and inter-agency events;
• Advises leaders within VBA on problems involving the relationship of the work to programs and the impact on these programs.
• Develops performance standards appropriate to the grade and series, mid-year and final performance evaluations, and other supervisory human capital actions required at the leadership level.
• Oversees staff and supervisors who are diverse in technical depth and empowers staff to drive solutions in situations where disparate knowledge and perspectives exist.
• Functions with mastery in federal procurement as practiced within the Department of Veterans Affairs such that accurate technical direction is provided to leadership, customers and other stakeholders.
• Ensures subordinate staff have the technical depth and agility to manage a myriad of contracts ranging in type, complexity and span functional areas such as commodities, services, unique professional services in the automation/digitization areas, construction, architect/engineering.
• Develops long and short-range organizational plans and goals through subordinate staff; ensures staff actively participate in Directorate's strategic goals and initiatives and directs projects that tie to advancing VBA's procurement efforts and the quality and compliance of procurement products.
• Ensures strategies are developed so that leadership at all levels are provided data and are properly briefed in meaningful cadences; explains complicated procurement challenges to senior leadership within VBA or with key stakeholders within VA.
• Serves as a subject matter expert for procurement matters and facilitates decision making in VBA and/or Department level meetings or with other stakeholders (GAO, Congress, OIT, OGC or OGC).
• Ensures Directorate is managing expectations in critical areas such as PALT, socio-economic considerations, category management and that plans are developed, where necessary, to advance government wide initiates in these critical areas.
• Oversees facilitation of a comprehensive acquisition career management program in accordance with the OMB directive that mandates establishment of certification, training, education, and experience requirements for VA's contracting workforce, as well as succession planning to ensure workforce continuity.
• Establishes goals and metrics that supplement VA imposed metrics and measures.

Promotion Potential: The grade progression for this position is GS-15.

Work Schedule: Full time
Compressed/Flexible: At the discretion of Agency.
Telework: At the discretion of Agency.
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Position Description/PD#: Supervisory Contract Specialist; 38015-0
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Approved
Financial Disclosure Report: Not Required.

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
• You may be required to serve a probationary period
• Subject to background/security investigation
• Selectees are required to service a one-year supervisory probationary period if not previously completed in a Federal position.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement:10/25/2023.

TIME-IN-GRADE REQUIREMENT: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements.

To verify your eligibility, you must submit a copy of your most recent Notification of Personnel Action, Standard Form 50 (SF-50). The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. You must provide a copy of your most recent SF-50 that indicates proof of status, and shows Time in Grade (for example, you were a career or career-conditional employee) and identifies your position title, series, grade, step, salary, tenure, and type of service (Competitive or Excepted). If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must also submit your most recent promotion or within-grade increase in addition to your recent SF-50. If you previously held a higher grade, you must also submit any SF-50 showing that grade. DO NOT submit Award SF-50's and/or General Adjustment SF-50's as they cannot be used to prove time-in-grade.

• For a GS-15 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-14 level.

Basic Requirements for GS-13 and Above:

1. Completion of all mandatory training prescribed by the head of the agency for progression to GS-13 or higher-level contracting positions, including at least 4-years' experience in contracting or related positions. At least 1 year of that experience must have been specialized experience at or equivalent to work at the next lower level of the position, and must have provided the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the work of the position.

and

1. A 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree, that included or was supplemented by at least 24 semester hours in any combination of the following fields: accounting, business, finance, law, contracts, purchasing, economics, industrial management, marketing, quantitative methods, or organization and management.
2. Exceptions: Employees in GS-1102 positions will be considered to have met the standard for positions they occupy on January 1, 2000. This also applies to positions at the same grade in the same agency or other agencies if the specialized experience requirements are met. However, they will have to meet the basic requirements and specialized experience requirements in order to qualify for promotion to a higher grade, unless granted a waiver under Paragraph D.

OR

1. Waiver: When filling a specific vacant position, the senior procurement executive of the selecting agency, at his or her discretion, may waive any or all of the requirements of Paragraphs A and B above if the senior procurement executive certifies that the applicant possesses significant potential for advancement to levels of greater responsibility and authority, based on demonstrated analytical and decision making capabilities, job performance, and qualifying experience. With respect to each waiver granted under this Paragraph D, the senior procurement executive must document for the record the basis of the waiver. If an individual is placed in a position in an agency on the basis of a waiver, the agency may later reassign that individual to another position at the same grade within that agency without additional waiver action.

AND;

MINIMUM QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENT: You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below:

GS-15 Grade Level: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-14 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.

• Experience in executing contracts but also leading others to accomplish an organizational mission.

Combining Education & Experience: If you do not fully meet the length of experience and education described for a specific grade level (e.g. have six months of experience and some coursework but not a degree), the two can be combined to total 100% of the requirement. Click here for more information.

Volunteer Experience: 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; religions; 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.

Full vs. Part-Time Employment: Full-time employment is considered to be at least 35 hours per week. Part-time experience will be credited on a pro-rated basis; when including part-time employment in your resume you must specify the average hours worked per week.

Physical Requirements: The work is sedentary. Some work may require walking and standing in conjunction with travel to attend meetings and conferences away from the work site. Work may require carrying light items such as papers, books, or small parts.

For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at http://://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Applicants who do not fully address the specialized experience needed for the position (as described above in the job announcement) in their resume will not be referred for consideration.

After you have met the minimum qualifications, you will be rated on the following competencies based on your application for this position:

• Organizational Awareness - Knows the organization's mission and functions, and how its social, political, and technological systems work and operates effectively within them; this includes the programs, policies, procedures, rules and regulations of the organization.

• Leadership - Inspires, motivates and guides others toward goal accomplishment; coaches, mentors, and challenges subordinates; adapts leadership styles to a variety of situations; models high standards of honesty, integrity, trust, openness, and respect for the individual by applying these values to daily behaviors.

• Communication - Ability to establish and maintain effective communication (oral and written) with persons both at all organizational levels and with officials of other departments and agencies on policy, technical and administrative matters.

• Vision - Plans, distributes, coordinates and monitors work assignments for others. Evaluates work performance and ensures equity.

• Interpersonal Skills - Treats others with respect. Considers and responds appropriately to the needs of complex situations.

• Technical Competence - Applies principles, procedures, regulations, and policies related to acquisition expertise.

Narrative responses are not required at this time. If you are referred for consideration, you may be asked to submit additional job related information, which may include, but not limited to; responses to the knowledge, skills and abilities; completion of a work sample, and/or an interview.