Clarification from the agency

Area of Consideration (AOC): 1st AOC - Current, permanent employees of the Miami VA Healthcare System facility and CTAP eligibles. 2nd AOC- Current, permanent employees of the VHA and Agency employees.

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The duties require a knowledge of clerical and administrative procedures and requirements; various office skills; and the ability to apply such skill in a way that increases the effectiveness of others. The Secretary (OA) carries out and coordinates all the clerical and day-to-day administrative support activities which are typically required to accomplish the work of the organization. They may also provide clerical and administrative support to other members of the executive leadership team when needed.

Duties include but are not limited to:

• Manages the executive team member's email inbox. Maintains supervisor's calendar of events.
• Receiving telephone calls and visitors, handles complains, determine nature of call or business of visitors.
• Composes correspondence. Assigns items to the appropriate personnel/organization for action/response.
• Establishes internal suspense items and maintains log of open taskers to manage the process to meet suspense dates.
• Replies to taskers requiring responses.
• Makes necessary arrangements for travel, arranging schedule of visits, making transportation and hotel reservations.
• Creates, processes and/or tracks personnel actions as assigned.
• Arranges meetings and conferences including space, time, attendees, agenda, and background material.
• Attends various meetings, takes notes, briefings, and prepares meeting minutes.
• Makes final commitments for appointments and reminds supervisor of scheduled meetings.

Work Schedule: 8:00am- 4:30pm
Telework: Not Authorized
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Position Description/PD#: Secretary (OA)/PD99950A
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized

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
• 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 will 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 or trial 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, 05/21/2026.

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-8 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-7.

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.

Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment.

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

Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-7 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.

Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Manages the executive team member's email inbox. Maintains supervisor's calendar of events, Receiving telephone calls and visitors, handles complains, determine nature of call or business of visitors, Composes correspondence, Assigns items to the appropriate personnel/organization for action/response, Establishes internal suspense items and maintains log of open taskers to manage the process to meet suspense dates, Replies to taskers requiring responses, Makes necessary arrangements for travel, arranging schedule of visits, making transportation and hotel reservations, Creates, processes and/or tracks personnel actions as assigned, Arranges meetings and conferences including space, time, attendees, agenda, and background material, Attends various meetings, takes notes, briefings, and prepares meeting minutes, Makes final commitments for appointments and reminds supervisor of scheduled meetings.

Preferred Experience: Minimum 2-3 years of experience as secretary in an executive setting or service line. Evidence of excellent writing and communication skills.

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:

• Accountability
• Attention to Detail
• Customer Service
• Database Administration
• Decision Making
• Flexibility
• Integrity/Honesty
• Interpersonal Skills
• Learning
• Manages and Organizes Information
• Planning and Evaluating
• Reading Comprehension
• Reasoning
• Self-Management
• Stress Tolerance
• Teamwork

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.

Note: 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.

Physical Requirements: The work is primarily sedentary. Work requires some walking, standing, bending and carrying light items such as books, folders, papers, etc.

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/.

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.

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 contact for an interview. Your resume and/or supporting documentation will be verified. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating or consideration for employment.

The Department of Veterans Affairs performs pre-employment reference checks as an assessment method used in the hiring process to verify information provided by a candidate (e.g., on resume or during interview or hiring process); gain additional knowledge regarding a candidate's abilities; and assist a hiring manager with making a final selection for a position.

For more information on the "Who may apply" eligibility requirements, please refer to the OHRM Status Candidates and Other Candidate Definitions document.

Placement Policy: The posting of this announcement does not obligate management to fill a vacancy or vacancies by promotion. The position may be filled by reassignment, change to lower grade, transfer, appointment, or reinstatement. Management may use any one or any combination of these methods to fill the position.

It is the policy of the VA to not deny employment to those that have faced financial hardships or periods of unemployment.

Veterans and Transitioning Service Members: Please visit the VA for Vets site for career-search tools for Veterans seeking employment at VA, career development services for our existing Veterans, and coaching and reintegration support for military service members.