Clarification from the agency

Open to current permanent VA Palo Alto Health Care System employees, and current or former employees eligible for Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP).

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The primary purpose of this position is to provide leadership, strategic direction, and supervision for the facility-wide Integrity and Compliance Program to ensure an effective, standardized, and risk-based approach to compliance with applicable laws, regulations, VA and VHA policy, and ethical business practices. The incumbent is responsible for designing and overseeing internal controls, monitoring and auditing activities, and "tone at the top" communications that integrate compliance into day-to-day health care operations, while directly supervising staff who conduct audits, investigations, inspections, and related program activities.

Duties include but are not limited to:

• Provides overall leadership and technical direction for the facility's Integrity and Compliance Program, ensuring alignment with VHA Directive 1030, national OIC compliance frameworks, and VISN guidance.
• Develops, recommends, and implements facility-wide Compliance and Integrity program goals, objectives, and performance measures for operational units throughout the health care system.
• Leads the development of multi-year program plans, tasks, milestones, and schedules to ensure proper sequencing of compliance activities and tracking of progress, resources, and costs across the life cycle of compliance initiatives.
• Advises the Deputy Medical Center Director and executive leadership on the design and effectiveness of the Integrity and Compliance Program, including risk posture, emerging compliance issues, and required program enhancements.
• Ensures program policies, procedures, and guidance are updated to reflect changes in laws, regulations, VHA/VA directives, and national compliance program requirements, and evaluates the impact of these changes on facility operations.
• Establishes and maintains the facility's risk-based internal control framework for compliance, including methods for identifying, prioritizing, and mitigating key compliance and integrity risks across clinical and administrative operations.
• Directs the design and implementation of facility-wide risk assessments and internal control reviews over prioritized risk areas (e.g., billing, documentation, controlled substances, privacy, research, business practices) to prevent compliance failures.
• Structures the organization and work processes to achieve program objectives efficiently, balancing workloads among staff, setting priorities, and adjusting
  assignments and staffing in response to changing program needs and emerging risks.

Work Schedule: Full-Time, Monday-Friday, 8:00am-4:30pm
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Position Description/PD#: Supervisory Health System Specialist - Compliance Officer/PD03412O
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Authorized
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 identification 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-13 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-12. 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 as described below:

• Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-12 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: working within a health care setting providing leadership, strategic direction, and oversight of compliance activities; ensuring a standardized and effective approach to compliance using the compliance framework, compliance and Integrity standards, processes, and resources; and experience using complex analytical problem-solving methods, principles, and theories to identify extensive program data and conduct a variety of studies and investigations.

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

• Administration and Management
• Auditing
• Compliance
• Compliance Inspection

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, performed in an office environment, although some walking, standing, or bending is required during meetings, training sessions, and occasional site visits within the medical center.

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.