Clarification from the agency

The area of consideration is current, permanent employees of the CW Bill Young Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center and satellite offices and those employed by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).

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Duties consist of the following, but are not limited to:

• Receives telephone calls and visitors from VA headquarters; VISN, members of Congress or Congressional staff members; executives in private enterprise, contractors, VA employees, union representatives, etc.
• Personally handles many matters, including complaints that employees or patients feel warrant the supervisor's attention.
• Give out administrative and technical information to callers upon determination of their right to receive it.
• Assigns items to the appropriate personnel or organization for action/response.
• Provides administrative assistance to and coordinates with tasked parties to assemble appropriate responses.
• Maintains supervisor's calendar of events, reminding him/her of appointments, furnishing briefs of subject matter and/or purpose of meeting.
• Makes appointments for the supervisor and having complete authority for commitments of time.
• Forecasts potential requirements, resolves problems and plans exhibiting conflicting elements and projects time for recurring requirements to ensure maximum time management.
• Makes all necessary arrangements for travel, arranging schedule of visits, making transportation and hotel reservations, notifying organizations and officials to be visited, keeping in touch with supervisor enroute, writing thank you letters after return as needed, and submitting travel vouchers and reports.
• Serves as buffer and acts as liaison between Service Chiefs , staff and the senior executive team member for the assigned Directorate by providing accurate, timely advice on procedures, reports, requirements, and other matters necessary to implement the policies, directives, and instructions.
• Provides advice and recommendations to the orchestration of events and activities.
• Coordinates on Action Items and various responses to higher levels.
• Creates, processes and/or tracks personnel actions as assigned.
• Serve as a time-keeper or back-up timekeeper for the Directorate and/or assist other Directorates as needed.
• Reviews correspondence and documents prepared for signature of or requiring coordination by superior(s) for conformance with regulations, grammar, format, and special policies of the facility.
• Prepares complex but non-technical answers to queries and actions, on own initiative, or from brief comments from the supervisor(s).
• Reads incoming publications, regulations, and directives which may be important to the activities of superiors or members of the staff.
• Composes correspondence on own initiative, based on a knowledge of superiors views and desires.
• Maintains files in accordance with governing regulatory procedures.
• Maintains personal files for the supervisor.
• Arranges meetings and conferences including space, time, attendees, agenda and backgroundmaterial.
• Updates and files all policies and memorandum for the Directorate.
• Obtains and monitors the use of supplies, equipment, or services for the office.
• Uses office automation systems and various Microsoft software packages/programs, to accomplish work.
• Prepares a variety of narrative and statistical material, correspondence,letters, memorandum, reports, labels, etc., in final form for the supervisor's signature.

Performs other duties as assigned.

Promotion Potential: The selectee may be promoted to the full performance level without further competition when all regulatory, qualification, and performance requirements are met. Selection at a lower grade level does not guarantee promotion to the full performance level.

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 8:00am-4:30pm
Telework: This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process.
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Position Description/PD#: Secretary (OA)/PD99950A
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): 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, 06/01/2026.

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-07 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-06 and for a GS-08 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-07 . 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.

Proficiency Requirements

• In addition to meeting experience or education requirements, this position requires a typing requirement of 40 words per minute.

You may qualify based on your experience as described below:

For the GS-07: Carefully read the following descriptions of the required specialized experience for the position. Your resume must support your response. Applicants must have one (1) full year of specialized experience related to this position. This experience must have been equivalent to at least the GS-06 grade level in the Federal Service.
Specialized experience: Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to:

• Maintaining email for assigned personnel
• Operating a wide variety of office productivity software such as Excel, Word, and PowerPoint
• Maintaining a file system
• Arranging meetings and conferences
• Reviewing incoming publications and directives referring those of importance or interest as appropriate

For the GS-08: Carefully read the following descriptions of the required specialized experience for the position. Your resume must support your response. Applicants must have one (1) full year of specialized experience related to this position. This experience must have been equivalent to at least the GS-07 grade level in the Federal Service.
Specialized experience: Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to:

• Personally handles many matters, including complaints that employees or patients feel warrant the supervisor's attention
• Research, gather, and assemble information for reports and reporting purposes
• Operating a wide variety of office productivity software such as Excel, Word, and PowerPoint
• Makes all necessary arrangements for travel, arranging schedule of visits, making transportation and hotel reservations, notifying organizations and officials to be visited, keeping in touch with supervisor enroute, writing thank you letters after return as needed, and submitting travel vouchers and reports.
• On own initiative and discretion, establishes priorities, sets up, reschedules, or refuses appointments, accepts or declines invitations to meetings, and arranges for representation by a subordinate official when that is desirable.
• Manages the executive team member's email inbox for the assigned directorate. Assigns items to the appropriate personnel or organization for action/response.
• Arranges meetings and conferences including space, time, attendees, agenda and background material.

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

• Accountability
• Administration and Management
• Attention to Detail
• Clerical
• Computer Skills
• Customer Service
• Decision Making
• Flexibility
• Integrity/Honesty
• Interpersonal Skills
• Learning
• Reading Comprehension
• Reasoning
• Self-Management
• Stress Tolerance
• Teamwork
• Writing

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.