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Secretary (OA)

Department of Veterans Affairs
Veterans Health Administration
Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System

Summary

This position is located within the Office of the Director of the Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System (CAVHCS) located in both Montgomery and Tuskegee, AL and serves as the principal clerical assistant and advisor to the Executive Director. The incumbent ensures that the different and varied administrative support functions for which he/she is responsible for are handled in a manner to enhance the efficiency of the Executive Suite as a whole for a multi-facility healthcare system .

Overview

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Accepting applications
Open & closing dates
03/24/2026 to 04/03/2026
This job will close when we have received 50 applications which may be sooner than the closing date. Learn more
Salary
$61,722 to - $80,243 per year
Pay scale & grade
GS 9
Location
1 vacancy in the following location:
Tuskegee, AL
Remote job
No
Telework eligible
No
Travel Required
50% or less - You may be expected to travel for this position. This is a dual campus facility. Weekly travel is required between CAVHCS campuses located in Montgomery and Tuskegee, Alabama. Occasional travel to CAVHCS Community Based Outpatient Clinics located in Alabama and Georgia will be required.
Relocation expenses reimbursed
No
Appointment type
Permanent
Work schedule
Full-time
Service
Competitive
Promotion potential
None
Job family (Series)
Supervisory status
No
Security clearance
Not Required
Drug test
No
Position sensitivity and risk
Non-sensitive (NS)/Low Risk
Trust determination process
Financial disclosure
No
Bargaining unit status
No
Announcement number
CBTB-12898443-26-CO
Control number
862432100

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Duties

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Duties include, but are not limited to the following:

  • Serve as the principal administrative, clerical and personal assistant to the Director.
  • Serve as the administrative liaison providing administrative and technical support to the all subordinate Executive Leadership Team and to assist and train other Executive Secretaries and Administrative staff by carrying out and coordinating all the clerical and day-to-day administrative support activities which are typically required to accomplish the work of the organization.
  • Maintains the Directors daily calendar.
  • Schedule appointments, audio and video conferences, and meetings.
  • Confirms conference rooms, coordinate attendance, reserves equipment, prepares, and distributes agendas and minutes.
  • Coordinate training and travel for the Director.
  • Prepares training request and documents attendance.
  • Ensure official documents that require the Director's signature are appropriately mailed from the Director's Officer to VACO, VISN & or other outside agencies from the Director's Office.
  • Received, review, and distributes all of the Director surface mail, inter-office mail, electronic mail and facsimile mail, delegating responsibility for replies as appropriate.
  • Monitors, recommends, and implements changes in correspondence processes affecting work in the Office of the Director.
  • Advises the Director of significant items of interest in correspondence, files, and reports.
  • Responds to correspondence not requiring the Director's personal attention.
  • Maintains the Director's personal correspondence files.
  • Prepares letters, memoranda, messages, agendas, and minutes either self-composed, from handwritten notes, dictation or recorded media with responsibility for content format, grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
  • Review correspondence prepared by others for the signature of the Director for content, format, grammar, neatness, punctuation and spelling.
  • Guide staff in the preparation of correspondence and informs them of procedural changes.
  • Responds to inquiries and administrative problems brought to the Director's Office by staff, Central Office, State and local government, other hospitals, other Federal agencies and Congressional staff.
  • Exercises exclusive control over the Director's appointments, with complete authority for commitments of time.
  • Screens all calls and visitors, answering most questions and completing most business involving established policy or routine matters without referring people to the Director.
  • Screens all publications, directives, and periodicals, and brings those of significance to the Director's attention.
  • Performs other related duties as assigned.

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm CST. Work schedule subject to change based on agency needs.
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Position Description/PD#: Secretary (OA)/PD09306A
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

  • You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job
  • To be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. In addition to the application and questionnaire, this position requires an online assessment. The online assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job.
  • Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
  • Physical Requirements: The work required does not inherently include any physical requirements essential for successful job performance that could not otherwise be performed with accommodation or workplace adjustment. A pre-placement physical examination is not required.
  • Subject to background/security investigation
  • Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued dentification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
  • Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP)
As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you may be required to serve a 1-year probationary period or 2-year trial period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider:
  • your performance and conduct;
  • the needs and interests of the agency;
  • whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and
  • whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.
Upon completion of your probationary period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 04/03/2026.

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 by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-09 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-08. 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. 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 provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade.

Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-08 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: direct support of executive leadership within an organization; experience with preparing executive travel arrangements; experience using automated software applications such as Microsoft Office; experience with preparing written materials such as memos, policy documents, presentations and briefing documents; experience with maintaining administrative files and records; experience with maintaining staff timecards.


Proficiency Requirement: In addition to meeting the above Time-In-Grade and Specialized Experience requirements above, applicants for this position must show possession of the following skill, as appropriate. Applicants may meet this requirement by passing the appropriate performance test, presenting a certificate of proficiency from a school or other organization authorized to issue such certificates by the Office of Personnel Management local office, or by self-certifying their proficiency. Performance test results and certificates of proficiency are acceptable for 3 years. Agencies may verify proficiency skills of self-certified applicants by administering the appropriate performance test.

  • 40 words per minute typing speed

Preferred Experience:
Direct support of executive leadership (Executive Director, Associate or Deputy Director, CEO, COO) within VA, federal or private sector.
Management of executive travel to include scheduling and invoicing reconciliation.
Experience with customer service engaging with leadership, external stakeholders to include Veterans and city, state and federal elected officials.
Management of electronic databases and Microsoft Office Applications; Share Point management, update and design; Teams; Planner.
Preparing executive level work products to include memos, policy documents, presentations and briefing documents following required style guides for formatting.
Records liaison management of electronic, digital and paper records in shared folders, SharePoint and filing systems following established records control schedules.
Human Resources records management to include paper personal files, electronic personnel systems for position management, recruitment and personnel actions, organizational charts, time keeping and management of leave records, new employee onboarding and employee separation processing and documentation.

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

Education

There is no educational substitution at this grade level.

Additional information

Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer. For more information about the Act and the complaint process, visit Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP) at The Fair Chance Act.

Reasonable Accommodation (RA) Requests: If you believe you have a disability (i.e., physical or mental), covered by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended that would interfere with completing the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be granted the opportunity to request a RA in your online application. Requests for RA for the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments and appropriate supporting documentation for RA must be received prior to starting the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments. Decisions on requests for RA are made on a case-by-case basis. If you meet the minimum qualifications of the position, after notification of the adjudication of your request, you will receive an email invitation to complete the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, based on your adjudication decision. You must complete all assessments within 48 hours of receiving the URL to access the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments if you received the link after the close of the announcement. To determine if you need a RA, please review the Procedures for Requesting a Reasonable Accommodation for Online Assessments.

This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies.

TheCareer Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be well-qualified: applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are proficient in most of the required competencies of the job. Information about CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/.

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

How you will be evaluated

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

Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., resume, supporting documents), your responses on the application questionnaire, and your responses to all assessments required for this position.

Your experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month and year start/end dates AND hours worked per week. A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration. Cheating on the online assessment may also result in your removal from consideration.

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.

During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions.

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