Program Specialist

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/11/2024. 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-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. Time-In-Grade does not apply to Non-Federal applicants or applicants applying for consideration under Non-Competitive Hiring Authorities. OR If you are a current VBA employee requesting a reassignment or change to a lower grade via this vacancy announcement, you must currently hold the grade level (or higher) of the posted announcement, and your current position has a promotional potential as high as (or higher) than the posted announcement. To verify, you must submit a copy of your most recent Notification of Personnel Action, Standard Form 50 (SF-50). You must provide a copy of your most recent SF-50 that indicates proof of status, and shows Time in Grade (for example, you were a career or career-conditional employee) and identifies your position title, series, grade, step, salary, tenure, and type of service (Competitive or Excepted). 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 also submit your most recent promotion or within-grade increase in addition to your recent SF-50. If you previously held a higher grade, you must also submit any SF-50 showing that grade. DO NOT submit Award SF-50’s and/or General Adjustment SF-50’s as they cannot be used to prove time-in-grade. AND MINIMUM QUALIFICATION 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-11 and must have been held in the Federal Government. Specialized experience is defined as experience providing advisory services, quality review services, or experience drafting and approving standard operating procedures and/or other forms of regulatory guidance covering multiple fields of Human Resources rules, regulations, and procedures, including Personnel Management, Recruitment and Staffing, Classification, Employee Benefits (OWCP, retirements, and insurance programs), and/or Employee and Labor Relations. Examples of specialized experience would typically include but are not limited to: Provide advice and guidance in the areas of classification and staffing and recruitment; Defending agency actions in front of a 3rd party hearing (FLRA, MSPB); Experience as the chief negotiator in labor negotiations. 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 principally sedentary. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management’s website at http://://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.
This position is in the VA Regional Office. The incumbent is assigned to the Office of the Director and reports to the Assistant Director. The incumbent serves as a Program Specialist responsible for providing performance management and technical support for the regional office HR program. The incumbent is the key advisor to the Director and the Division Chiefs on all human resources issues and coordinates directly with the HR Center.