Clarification from the agency

Open only to current permanent employees of the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System.

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Major duties include but are not limited to the following:

• Serves as VAPHS primary point of contact for the State Veterans Home Per Diem Program, functions as a Contracting Officer Representative, and acts as a liaison with state home personnel for sharing agreement services and per diem regulations.
• Independently evaluates GEC operations to assess efficiency and effectiveness of administrative methods, workflow, personnel utilization, communication, planning, training, space and equipment management, reporting findings to the ACOS while managing resource, HR, information, communication, and quality-improvement functions.
• Maintains, distributes, and analyzes monthly data and graphs pertaining to admissions, ASIH, discharges, send-outs, throughput, average daily census, and average length of stay for the individual nursing units and for the CLC in aggregate.
• Gathers and analyzes information for budgetary needs, overseeing all phases of budgeting within GEC service line and VISN wide programs. To include distributions of expenditures associated with staffing, education, travel and overtime.
• Responsible for the development of long-range, short-range and strategic planning, as it relates to budgetary planning, and assisting in the formulation and execution of annual budget of salaries, travel, supplies, equipment and general operating expenses.
• Responsible for all acquisition and contractual processes within GEC service line. Completing quality control components of all GEC contracts and making sure contractors are timely with documentation and services.
• Serves as timekeeper, timecard processing, time and leave approval, secondary approval for overtime and compensatory time.
• Provides formal planning direction for the GEC by identifying issues, recommending courses of action, coordinating with other VAMCs and community resources, and developing business plans that enhance service-line efficiency while ensuring staff obtain necessary training for successful implementation.
• Reviews and validates State Home admission applications, loads required documents for monthly VISN audits, completes corrective actions, and uploads State Home data to the national database used for quarterly medical center audits.
• Maintains GEC Service Line organization charts in Excel and Visio, and coordinates recruitment, orientation, and retention of clinical and nonclinical staff-including fee-basis, temporary, and permanent hires-to ensure effective staffing levels for GEC, VISN, and VACO programs.
• Conducts and coordinates performance management for GEC SL staff, developing performance standards that emphasize patient satisfaction and high-quality care while maximizing employee productivity.
• Fosters a collaborative Labor-Management environment by educating staff on bargaining unit rights, managing grievance processes, drafting responses to Unfair Labor Practice charges, and serving as the primary liaison with AFGE to negotiate and support effective labor relations, including drafting notices of change and engaging in required bargaining for the ACOS.
• Participates in process-improvement committees, represents GEC on the ICD-10 Committee to support implementation, and serves as the GEC SL representative at monthly Business Managers meetings to ensure consistent application of policies and identify needed process improvements.
• Researches and revises policies, updates SOPs, assists with DERP development and maintenance, serves as Records Liaison Officer to ensure compliance, and gathers complex data from multiple sources to support process improvement and policy and business proposal development.
• Implements and monitors the GEC patient satisfaction program, resolves Veteran concerns, and tracks productivity across clinical service lines (CLC, HBPC, ADHC, HiH, ODCC), developing provider progress report cards and monitoring performance outcomes.
• Approves supply, education, and travel orders; authorizes funds for invoices tied to major GEC contracts (MOD, GetWellNetwork, CWT, Appointment Plus, HBPC, State Veteran Home, VISN/VACO GEC programs); and verifies equipment inventories, manages turn-ins, and leads or participates in board-of-survey actions.
• Plans work to be accomplished by subordinates, sets and adjusts short-term priorities, and prepares schedules for completion of work. Assigns work to subordinates based on priorities, selective consideration and the difficulty of the work and the capability of the employees.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Work Schedule: Monday-Friday, 8:00am-4:30pm
Compressed/Flexible: Not Authorized
Telework: This position is not eligible for telework.
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Position Description/PD#: Supervisory Administrative Specialist/PD01872NR
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
• To be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. This position requires the application, assessment, and questionnaire to be fully completed. The assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the 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, 10/15/2026.

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-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-9. 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-9 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Independently manage budget and financial operations, including monitoring allocations, tracking expenditures, and supporting fiscal planning to ensure compliance with VA and federal requirements. Coordinating contracts and service agreements by reviewing documentation, verifying obligations, and ensuring vendor and service compliance. Maintaining, analyzing, and interpreting operational data for monthly reporting to inform leadership decision-making and program performance. Ability to plan, assign, and oversee work assignments to support mission needs and workflow efficiency. OR,

Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have successfully completed a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree, or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree, or an LL.M. if related that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of this position. NOTE: Transcripts must be submitted with application. OR,

Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond the first two years of progressively higher level graduate education to qualify for GS-11. NOTE: You must include copies of your transcript(s) with your application to verify eligibility.


Preferred Experience: Experience using VA data and scheduling systems. Analyzing data, negotiating and proposing contracts for clinical services, management of budgets, supply and equipment purchasing, preferred supervisory experience.

Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., resume, supporting documents), your responses on the application questionnaire, and your responses to all assessments required for this position. You will be assessed on the following Competencies for this position:

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

Supervisory Situational Judgment Test. Applicants will be required to complete a Supervisory Situational Judgment Test (SSJT) as part of the assessment process for this position. The SSJT evaluates judgment and decision-making skills that align with relevant competencies, organizational values, and best practices. Assessment results may be used as part of the evaluation, ranking and referral process. This is not a timed test, however, the assessment is expected to take approximately 45 minutes or less to complete. The assessment for this application does not include a cut score for a minimum level of required proficiency in these critical general competencies. However, you must answer each item in the assessment.

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. The work is typically performed in an adequately lighted and climate-controlled office. May require occasional travel.

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.