Clarification from the agency

Area of Consideration (AOC): 1st AOC - Current employees of CW Bill Young VA Healthcare System (Station 516) including satellite locations, and CTAP eligibles. 2nd AOC - Current VISN 8 employees of the Department of Veteran Affairs.

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Duties include but are not limited to:

• Formulates, advises on, and participates in developing, and/or coordinating the implementation of various healthcare concepts, policies, and operations.
• Assists ELT in prioritizing resource decisions and allocation, assessing needs in realistic manner, and presenting to diverse audience of internal and external stakeholders.
• Solves unique management related problems with the assigned areas of responsibilities and through assignment of special projects that are of critical nature and/or time sensitive and typically cross multiple functional areas and services.
• Reviews budget initiatives, subsequent justifications and conducts research as appropriate to ensure executive proposals are comprehensive, accurate, timely and collaborative.
• Coordinates and participates in strategic planning through the healthcare system, and with subordinate services and program within their ELT's scope.
• Reviews facility/program audits and evaluations that include reviews conducted by VA/VHA/VISN program offices, the Joint commission, Medical Inspector, Office of Inspector General as well as number of external oversight bodies, which require attention to detail and ability to analyze qualitative responses.
• Functions independently and effectively in many areas necessitating interaction with and drawing expertise from a multitude of programs both with the healthcare system and outside the VISN.
• Serves as Executive Staff Support to assigned BPVAHCS and VISN committees.

Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 8:00am-4:30pm
Telework: This position may be authorized for ad-hoc telework.
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Position Description/PD#: Health Systems Specialist/PD11182A
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 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, 08/04/2026.

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.

Health System Administration Series, 0671, has an Individual Occupational Requirement (IOR):

• Undergraduate and Graduation Education: Major study -- hospital administration, public health administration, or related fields such as business or public administration with course work in health care administration. A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. ~OR~
• Specialized Experience: 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.
• Special Provision for In-service Placement: 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;
• 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.

In addition to meeting the above IOR requirement, applicant must also meet the following requirement:

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:

• Evaluate overall planning activities in relation to defined goals and objectives as well as conducting environmental scans and formulating gap analyses.
• Prepares correspondence for local and national inquiries by collecting and analyzing information and ensuring appropriate responses to concerns/inquiries.
• Evaluate healthcare system and VISN-wide programs, policies, and methodology to determine existing or potential deficiencies and makes recommendations for revisions and/or improvements.
• Provides executive staff support by reviewing documents for quality writing, thoroughness, and accuracy.
• Experience in medical care delivery, continuous quality improvement, data analysis, resource allocation, and budget execution.

Note: IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Verbiage displayed on your resume or application must contain your own words. You may refer to the specialized experience located within the vacancy announcement, to assist with describing work experiences; however, resumes or applications received that copied verbatim from the announcement will be evaluated and may be reviewed as falsifying your experience or application.

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

• Administration and Management
• Analysis and Problem Solving
• Attention to Detail
• Customer Service
• Decision Making
• Flexibility
• Influencing/Negotiating
• Integrity/Honesty
• Interpersonal Skills
• Learning
• Manages and Organizes Information
• Organizational Performance Analysis
• Reasoning
• Self-Management
• Stress Tolerance
• Teamwork

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, although some slight physical effort may be required.

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.