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Secretary (OA) Director

Department of Veterans Affairs
Veterans Health Administration
Veterans Affairs Texas Valley Coastal Bend Health Care System

Summary

The incumbent serves as the principal Secretary to the Medical Center Director of the Veterans Affairs Texas Valley Coastal Bend Health Care System (VATVCBHCS). The position performs a wide range of executive administrative responsibilities including managing reports and correspondence for the Director.

Overview

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Accepting applications
Posted yesterday · Apply by 07/21/26
Due by 11:59 p.m. ET on July 21, 2026
This job will close when we have received 50 applications which may be sooner than the closing date. Learn more
Location
1 vacancy in the following location:
Work site options
Telework eligible
Yes—as determined by the agency policy.
Remote job
No
Relocation expenses reimbursed
No
Salary
$55,882 - $72,644 per year
Pay scale & grade
GS 8
Promotion potential
None
Pay scale and grade determines the salary of the job.
Work schedule
Full-time
Travel Required
Not required
Appointment type
Permanent
Occupations and job series
Supervisory status
No
Federal service type
This job is in the Competitive Service
Represented by a union
No
Drug test
No
Security clearance
Other
Position sensitivity and risk
Non-sensitive (NS)/Low Risk
Jobs require a background check and some require a security clearance. The type depends on the job.
Background check type
Financial disclosure required
No
Some jobs require financial disclosure to identify conflicts of interests.
Announcement number
CAZM-13007116-26-KS
Control number
876525200

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Duties

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Duties include, but are not limited to:
- Monitors, routes, and tracks all incoming and outgoing correspondence, ensuring accuracy, completeness, and compliance with VA and VHA correspondence requirements. On highly sensitive communication, the incumbent may receive brief oral instructions from the Director.
- Screens all incoming correspondence and reports. Obtains background information on incoming correspondence, assembles and summarizes information before giving to the Director or designee for action.
- Coordinates and assures timely completion of all reports, correspondence and personnel actions.
- Responsible for review and final preparation of all outgoing correspondence, reports etc. in accordance with VHA Directive 1216. Documents prepared in other areas are reviewed to ensure correct grammar spelling, punctuation, formatting and style. The incumbent discusses unsatisfactory correspondence directly with the originator and arranges for rewriting or personally revises and furnishes informational copies to initiating office.

Calendar and Meetings:
- Independently maintains the Director's enterprise calendar; prioritizes requests; deconflicts appointments; and ensures alignment with mission priorities.
- Tracks and documents official activities as federal records; applies NARA GRS 5.1 (Common Office Records) for calendars/appointment records; applies GRS 5.2 for transitory scheduling messages.
- Ensures calendar content that contains personally identifiable information (PII) is handled in accordance with the Privacy Act; prepares calendar extracts for public release when appropriate under FOIA, applying exemptions as necessary.

Calls and Visitors
-Screens phone calls and in-person visitors, determining priority and nature of requests prior to routing to the Director.
- Provides authoritative information on office procedures, meeting requirements, communication protocol, and accurate referral contacts.
- Ensures visitor access aligns with security and PIV/HSPD-12 credentialing procedures.
- Maintains confidentiality and provides customer service consistent with VA values and privacy requirements

File System and Records Management
-Establishes, organizes, and maintains electronic and physical filing systems for the Office of the Medical Center Director. These files must be appropriately handled, stored and destroyed in accordance with applicable federal law and records management policies.

Personnel Actions and Human Resources Support
- Assists in preparing, routing, and tracking personnel-related documents including:
-Recruitment requests and onboarding materials
-Position descriptions and job analyses
-Awards (Special Contribution, Time-Off, On-the-Spot, performance awards)

Training and Travel
- Coordinates registration, monitoring, and documentation of required training for the Director and designated staff.
- Maintains training records consistent with NARA GRS 2.6 retention requirements.
- Arranges local and long-distance travel, ensuring compliance with the Federal Travel Regulation (FTR).

Work Schedule: Monday to Friday 0800 am to 4:30 pm
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) Director/PD013330
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Authorized
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
  • 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, 07/21/2026.

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-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. 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-07 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: maintaining appointment calendar and scheduling meetings; maintaining a suspense system to assure timeliness of correspondence; arranging conferences/meetings face to face or via video-conference and advises participants of purpose; making travel arrangements for executive staff; serve as timekeeper for various T&Ls; routing correspondence timely and effectively for appropriate action and establishing time management controls to ensure meeting deadlines; order/maintain supplies and equipment; reviewing incoming mail and prepare responses for appropriate signatures. compiling statistics for all monthly and quarterly reports ; answering Veterans, visitors and other telephone calls (incoming/outgoing); taking meeting minutes; preparing responses to routine correspondence, recurring reports/requisitions; typing a variety of documents into final form, ensuring correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, format and style; preparing routine correspondence including being responsible for review and final preparation of all outgoing correspondence, reports, etc.; transcribing letters, memos and minutes from dictated material, voice recording and handwritten drafts into final form.
  • Typing Proficiency: This position requires the ability to type 40 word per minute (WPM).
You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:


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 sedentary. Some work may require movement between offices, hospitals, warehouses, and similar areas for meetings and to conduct work. Work may also require walking/standing, in conjunctions with travel to and attendance at meetings and/or conferences away from the work site. Incumbent may carry and lift light items weighing less than 15 pounds.

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

Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

Additional information

Receiving Service Credit for Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior work experience or military service experience. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed.

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

If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement.

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.

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.

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.

Veterans Health Administration

OUR MISSION: To fulfill President Lincoln's promise "To care for those who have served in our nation's military and for their families, caregivers, and survivors" - by serving and honoring the men and women who are America's Veterans. How would you like to become a part of a team providing compassionate whole health care to Veterans?

The Veterans Affairs Texas Valley Coastal Bend Health Care System is an ambulatory health care system with services in medicine, surgery, psychiatry, and rehabilitation medicine. We operate a 100-patient Home Based Primary Care program and a 200-patient Care Coordination Home Tele-Health Program, which include the Corpus Christi Outpatient Clinic, Corpus Christi Specialty Clinic, Harlingen Outpatient Clinic, Health Care Center at Harlingen, Laredo Outpatient Clinic, and McAllen Outpatient Clinic.

Through utilization of inpatient/emergency department contracts, we manage approximately 2600 inpatient admission and 5800 ER visits annually. Affiliated with the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Medical School, we have an ambulatory care program serving as a teaching/training site for medical residents.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) needs employees who possess the energy, compassion, and commitment to serve those who served our Country. Whatever the job title, every position in VA will give you a chance to make a meaningful and personal contribution to the lives of truly special and deserving people - our Veterans.

Agency contact information

Jessica Acosta
Phone
(915) 603-0433
Email
Jessica.Acosta2@va.gov
Address
VA TX Valley Coastal Bend HCS
2601 Veterans Drive
Harlingen, TX 78550
US

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