Clarification from the agency

ALL U.S. CITIZENS. DIRECT HIRE AUTHORITY

• Oversees procurement support operations and ensures supervisory and subordinate staff are managing productivity, compliance and excellent customer service; provides direction on strategies for major procurements when critical technical and schedule difficulties are encountered.
• Full range of supervisory duties to include development of 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 procurement, logistics and administrative functions and staff members and supervisors who are diverse in technical depth and drives 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 the Directorate; contracts managed by the Directorate range in type, complexity and span functional areas such as commodities, services, unique professional services in the automation/digitization areas, construction, architect/engineering and requires the Deputy to have technical breadth in those areas to provide support, help drive consistency and positive outcomes;
• Develops long and short-range organizational plans and goals through subordinate staff; ensures the teams actively participate in Directorate's strategic goals and initiatives and carries out related projects that tie to advancing VBA's procurement, logistics and administrative efforts and contribute towards quality improvement across multiple areas.
• Responsible for developing strategies to ensure leadership at all levels are provided data and are properly briefed in meaningful cadences; explains complicated procurement or logistics 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 representing the Director's position in VBA and/or Department level meetings or with other stakeholders (GAO, Congress, OIT, OGC or OGC).
• Ensures staff have methodologies to affirm proper workload distribution and ensures plans are developed to reassign work to achieve balance across procurement operations while meeting procurement action lead times.
• Oversees the Directorate's compliance program; ensures data extracted from various means are managed by the Directorate staff and gaps and trends analysis conducted and corrective action plans implemented, where necessary; ensures supervisors and staff members have the necessary knowledge to complete data calls and that the resulting products are sound.
• Independently communicates a myriad of statuses and improvement plans to leadership addressing productivity, quality and compliance and determines methods for the Directorate's achievement of HCA imposed measures and VA imposed metrics and measures. Ensures Director has reports and access to data and that data and improvement plans are captured in meaningful means.

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
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process
• The incumbent is required to have a FAC-C Professional Certification at the time of assuming the position.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement:11/12/2024.

TIME-IN-GRADE REQUIREMENT: Applicants who are current Federal employees, former Federal employees applying for reinstatement, or a current federal employee applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment must meet time in grade requirements. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials.

NOTE: This does not apply to Non-Federal Applicants, or applicants applying for consideration under Non-Competitive Authority (i.e.... "30% or more Disability", VRA, and/or Schedule A).

To verify your eligibility, you must submit a copy of your most recent Notification of Personnel Action, Standard Form 50 (SF-50). 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-14 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-13 level.

BASIC INDIVIDUAL REQUIREMENTS: You must meet one of the following basic requirements:

Individual Occupational Requirements

This is an individual qualification standard developed by the Office of Federal Procurement Policy under the authority of 41 U.S.C. 433. It does not apply to Department of Defense positions.

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

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

• Specialized Experience: 1 year equivalent to at least next lower grade level
  • This position is considered a senior level contracting and leadership position, as defined by the Federal Acquisition Institute, and therefore carries a requirement for specialized experience. Specialized experience is defined as demonstrated experience equivalent to leadership or supervisory roles as the GS-13 level in the Federal service specifically related to federal procurement. In federal procurement most activities performed by a contract specialist are inherently governmental. While not all inclusive, illustrative examples include:
    • Functioning as the source selection authority in source selection activities, approving contractual documents, including documents that define requirements, incentive plans and evaluation criteria, determining prices fair and reasonable, determining contractor responsibility, awarding contracts, administering contracts (including modifying contracts), terminating contracts, and determining whether costs are reasonable, allocable and allowable (Federal Register Policy Letter 11-01.)

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:

• Problem Solving: Analyzes problems; weighs relevance and accuracy of information; evaluates alternatives and implements solutions.
• Leadership: Inspires, motivates and guides others toward goal accomplishment; coaches, mentors, and challenges subordinate supervisors; 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.
• Managing Human Resources: 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 procurement expertise.