Clarification from the agency

Open to current permanent employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs (including the facility and CBOCs where this vacancy is located) serving on career/career-conditional appointments, including VA Title 38, Hybrid Title 38, and Canteen employees on excepted appointments covered by the interchange agreement and those eligible under CTAP. This does not include temporary, term, or temporary intermittent.

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• The Assistant Chief is instrumental in assisting the Chief, CEVE to develop, manage, and coordinate all aspects of the facility's patient experience, patient centered care, cultural transformation, and customer satisfaction outcomes and measures.
• The Assistant Chief is responsible for developing tools and methods, manage existing tools and methods, collecting and analyzing results, interpreting results, and communicating results of all patient experience and customer feedback to clinical and administrative services within the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center, sites of care directly under its control, and as needed, other sites of care which may include Vet Centers, VISN VA sites, National VA sites, and Community Care.
• The incumbent is also responsible for working with clinical and administrative staff to develop and implement process improvements, produce and monitor action plans used to improve patient experience scores, and report patient experience scores, action plans, and outcomes for presentation to facility leadership.
• The Assistant Chief will serve as the facility expert in patient experience and customer satisfaction tools including, but not limited to Press Ganey, Veteran Signals, SHEP, secret shopper programs, PATS data management, comment cards, phone and kiosk surveys, and all other reporting measures related to patient experience and customer satisfaction.
• The incumbent is directly and through subordinate staff responsible for contributing to survey design and development, sampling distributions, clinic and provider updates, managing sampling recommendations, reviewing and modifying survey distributions based on clinic and provider workload, and all other aspects necessary to ensure that all patient experience data is valid, accurate, up-to-date, and actionable.
• The Assistant Chief will oversee all contract development, oversight, and actions related to patient experience and customer feedback contracts within the facility.
• The incumbent will work with contractors, clinicians, and administrators to develop standard and customized survey and data collection tools and solutions essential in evaluating, trending, prioritizing and improving areas within the facility that impact patient experience and customer satisfaction.
• The Assistant Chief provides administrative direction, day-to day supervision, and general objectives to achieve success through the facility Veteran's Experience Program.
• The supervisor and employee develop a mutually acceptable project plan that typically includes identification of the work, the scope of the project, and deadlines for its completion.
• Within the parameters of the approved project plan, the employee is responsible for planning and organizing the study, estimating resources and other costs, coordinating with staff and stakeholders, and conducting all phases of the project.
• The employee informs the supervisor of potentially controversial findings, issues, or problems with widespread impact.
• The Assistant Chief provides general supervision of the work to be done, and defines for the incumbent the objective, priorities, and deadlines within the scope of the incumbent's responsibilities.
• The incumbent has considerable autonomy in planning his/her work and in accomplishing the mission objectives of the Veteran's Experience, Patient Centered Care, and Cultural Transformation programs.
• The incumbent determines methods to use and approaches to take in resolving conflicts that arise. In general, the incumbent must act professionally and execute all duties with appropriate independence.

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 7:30 am - 4:00 pm
Compressed/Flexible: May be authorized
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#: Customer Service Specialist/PD109590
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
• 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
• 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 07/30/2026.

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-12 position, you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-11. 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.

Specialized Experience:

You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-11 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to:

• Plan, coordinate, and evaluate patient experience or customer experience improvement initiatives;
• Analyze customer feedback, survey results, and performance metrics to identify trends and recommend process improvements;
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary clinical and administrative staff to implement performance improvement activities; and
• Develop reports, presentations, or recommendations for leadership using performance and customer experience data.

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

• Accountability
• Customer Service
• Decisiveness
• Flexibility
• Interpersonal Skills
• Problem Solving
• Resilience

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 environment involves the normal everyday risks and discomforts of an office setting. Work is typically performed in an adequately lighted, temperature-controlled, and ventilated office and off-site at various locations. Coordination and participation in meetings and other activities outside the main facility will require presence in a variety of in-house and off-station areas and facilities throughout the service area. Frequent contact with other individuals, including Veteran patients, presents the possibility of exposure to communicable diseases.

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.