Clarification from the agency

This announcement is open to current, permanent employees of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Only. This position and selectee may be non-competitively converted to permanent status, without further competition + incentives with permanent selection. NOTE: The 2-page Resume requirement does apply to this occupational series. For more information, refer to Required Documents below.

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This position serves as the Assistant Medical Center Director for the VAMC. The Assistant Director exercises line authority for multiple administrative and allied health services and sections. This position reports directly to the Director of the VAMC in the Senior Executive Service (SES). The Assistant Director shares with the Executive Leadership Team a level of responsibility for the direction and management of the medical Center and is directly responsible for facilities operations.

Duties include, but may not be limited to the following:

• Plans, coordinates, supervises, and directs various administrative and health related services.
• Participates on a day-to-day basis in top level Executive discussions, decisions, policy making and actions of all administrative functions and indirectly of all clinical matters impacting patient care.
• Resolves complex and unusual health care administration issues by independent analysis and action, with the potential to set precedent, and lead organizational change.
• Development of plans, programs, direction, and monitoring of clinic and health plan management.
• Applies specialized principles and practices of health care management to coordinate, direct, and control programs and resources for both clinics and health plan administration.
• Performs financial management and resource decision making analysis, ensuring operational spending and resources stay in balance.
• Exercises full authority for establishing priorities for healthcare operations and allocating available resources accordingly.
• Serves as fiscal advisor to the Medical Center Director in preparing formal budget submissions for approval.
• Exercises a full range of managerial and supervisory authorities and responsibilities related to human capital management.
• Provides timely and responsive decisions to the union(s) and their members on complaints and grievances and ensures that supervisors are familiar with the negotiated agreement.
• Represents the healthcare system by establishing and maintaining community partnerships, and relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Serves as a facilitator between clinical providers and administrators to meet the medical center's goals and objectives.
• Responsible for developing and maintaining good working relations with other medical centers in the local area and throughout the region, medical schools, accrediting agencies, volunteer worker groups, and the community at large.
• Lead facility implementation and oversight of President's/VA/VHA/VISN initiatives includes but not limited to Strategic Planning, High Reliability Organization, ICARE, Modernization, Veteran
• Experience, Whole Health and/or Community Care.
• Serves as an essential capacity for developing and coordinating internal measures to assure that both clinical and administrative operations are in within governing standards.

Conditions of employment

• U.S. Citizenship; non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• All applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English.
• 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.
• Must pass pre-employment physical examination.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).
• You may be required to serve a probationary period.
• Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.

Qualifications

Health System Administrator (Series 0670) GS-14 Minimum Qualifications

Specialized Experience

• You must have at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-13 level in federal service.
• Specialized experience is defined as work in health system administration that equips you with the abilities to:
  • Plan, organize, implement, and evaluate health care delivery systems or programs,
  • Analyze and improve service delivery,
  • Manage administrative operations within a health care facility or health care program, and
  • Lead teams, develop policies, or oversee budgetary/financial management in a health care environment.

Example Specialized Experience: Experience involving managing health programs, implementing performance improvement initiatives, overseeing a hospital department or medical group practice, or policy-level health administration.

Preferred Experience:
Senior leadership experience within VHA
Executive Healthcare Leadership Experience

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

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-14 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-13. 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.

Individual Occupational Requirement: The 0670 series requires specific education or experience to be met in order to be appointed into a position of this series. You must meet the pre-determined Education or Experience Individual Occupational Requirement below as set by Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

1. Undergraduate and Graduate Education in a Major study of hospital administration, public health administration, or related fields such as business or public administration with course work in health care administration.
2. Progressively responsible analytical or administrative, or clinical management or supervisory experience in the health care field. This work may have been performed in an operating health care facility or a higher organizational echelon with advisory or directional authority over such facilities. Work must have involved a close working relationship with facility managers and analysis and/or coordination of administrative, clinical, or other service activities, and provided knowledge of the following:
   • Missions, organizations, programs, and requirements of health care delivery systems.
   • Regulations and standards of various regulatory and credentialing groups; and
   • Government-wide, agency, and facility systems and requirements in various administrative areas such as budget, personnel, and procurement.

Applicants must also possess:

• Knowledge of the interrelationships and interdependencies among various medical and administrative services and programs.
• Management ability to delegate authority, evaluate and oversee people and programs, recognize and adapt to changing priorities;
• Successful completion of an agency-sponsored on-the-job training program may be substituted for qualifying experience, provided it included a formal individualized training plan. Such a training program must have been conducted in an operating health care system and included:
• Assignments providing a knowledge of basic health system administration philosophies, practices, and procedures, and basic government administrative policies and requirements.
• Oversight by an experienced health system administrator with periodic evaluation of the individual's progress and appropriate adjustment of the training program.
• Practical assignments providing an opportunity to apply health system administration skills and principles (as the individual progresses, work assignments must be characteristic of the grade level to which he or she is assigned); and
• Oversight by an experienced health system administrator with periodic evaluation of the individual's progress and appropriate adjustment of the training program.

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-14 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.
• Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Progressively responsible analytical or administrative, or clinical management or supervisory experience in the health care field. This work may have been performed in an operating health care facility or a higher organizational echelon with advisory or directional authority over such facilities. Work must have involved a close working relationship with facility managers and analysis and/or coordination of administrative, clinical, or other service activities.

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 primarily sedentary. There will be some walking within the campus area. There will be frequent transportation to and from stations and occasional travel outside the duty station is also anticipated. 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.

Your application, resume, C.V., and/or other supporting documentation will be verified. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect consideration for employment.

NOTE: A formal pay-setting process will be used to determine your salary. The salary may be at any point in the range listed for this vacancy.

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.

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.

Veterans' Preference Note: Preference eligible candidates and other Veterans will be given preference when qualification of candidates are approximately equal for Title 38 positions in VHA. When applying for Federal Jobs, eligible Veterans should claim preference for 5pt (TP), 10pt (CP/CPS/XP), or for Sole Survivor Preference (SSP) in the questionnaire. You must provide a legible copy of your DD214(s) which shows dates and character of service (honorable, general, etc.). If you are currently serving on active duty and expect to be released or discharged within 120 days you must submit documentation related to your active duty service which reflects the dates of service, character of service (honorable, general, etc.), and dates of impending separation. Additionally, disabled veterans and others eligible for 10-point preference (such as widows or mothers of eligible Veterans) must also submit an SF-15 "Application for 10 Point Veteran Preference" with required proof as stated on the form. Documentation is required to award preference. For more information on Veterans' Preference, please visit Feds Hire Vets - Veterans - Job Seekers - Veterans' Preference.