Communications Specialist

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/08/2024. 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: Manages multidisciplinary teams comprised of professional, technical, and support personnel to coordinate clinical and business functions for the Connected Health programs/products; Responsible for supporting and guiding facility VHA public affairs officers and stakeholders about Connected Health’s variety of modalities; Proposes, develops, and implements strategic plans and objectives for the enhancement, maintenance, and future advancement of operations for the Connected Health program; Develops and updates a facility-specific implementation plan that includes developing a mission/vision statement, establishing a local team, leading team efforts, identifying local providers as champions, and developing roles and responsibilities; Establishes, develops, and implements local Connected Health-related goals and strategies to meet goals, identifies responsible parties, tracks progress, including monitoring goals/activity status, and reports status/progress to medical center management; Direct the daily activities and evaluate the performance of one or two Connected Health Technicians who are tasked with training staff, patients, patient families, and caregivers on the various technologies within Connected Health; Develops, implements, maintains, and documents internal and control policies and procedures. OR Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree. OR Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have a combination of specialized experience and more than 2 full years of graduate level education. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Accountability Communications Creative Thinking Customer Service Influencing/Negotiating 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: Work is primarily sedentary, but may require periods of standing during presentations, briefings, speeches, health fair activities, etc., 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/.
The Connected Health Coordinator serves as facility champion for Connected Health, leads facility teams to support existing and future Veteran communication initiatives, coordinates local implementation, training, communications, outreach, and support efforts, and evaluates and reports on Connected Health actions and activities.