Associate Executive Director Design and Construction Job in Washington, DC

Vacancy No. VA-SES-12594146-25-DG Department Executive Director, Office of Acquisition and Logistics
Salary $147,649.00 to $221,900.00 Grade 00 to 00
Perm/Temp Permanent FT/PT Full-time
Open Date 10/31/2024 Close Date 12/1/2024
Job Link Apply Online Who may apply Public
Locations:
Washington, DC


Summary

The Department of Veterans Affairs mission is "to fulfill President Lincoln's promise to care for those who have served in our nation's military and for their families, caregivers, and survivors."

The Senior Executive Service (SES) is comprised of the men and women charged with leading the continuing transformation of government. These leaders possess well-honed executive skills and share a broad perspective of government and a public service commitment.

Duties

The Associate Executive Director oversees and directs program activities for the Office of Design & Construction and reports to the Executive Director, Office of Construction & Facilities Management. The responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

1) Provides oversight of field operations, defines and prioritizes strategy, and leads a team who will execute.

2) Manages teams of engineers, architects, and others focused on ways to facilitate rapid establishment of agile forces composed to provide evolutionary, high quality, cutting-edge delivery of facilities to serve the nation's Veterans.

3) Provides oversight and management of budget development and support for field operations through strategic planning, project leadership, process improvement, training and education, business application and technical consultation, reporting.

4) Ensures implementation of effective management strategies with a solution that positions VA for success in future growth of facilities.

5) Supports acquisition programs to meet aggressive cost, schedule and technical objectives.

6) Participates in Congressional briefings on proposed legislation and program oversight.

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

  • US citizenship is required.
  • One year probationary period required for initial SES appointment.
  • Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered for Selective Service.
  • Incumbents of this position will be subject to a background investigation commensurate with the risk and sensitivity level of the position.
  • Successful completion of drug screening required.
  • Public Financial Disclosure Report (SF-278) is required within 30 days of appointment.
  • May be subject to reassignment geographically or organizationally.
  • VA structures its SES positions into pay bands. This is a pay band 2 position and the salary range is $147,649 to $214,300. Exceptions to the cap of the range may be considered in certain circumstances.

Qualifications

To meet the minimum qualifications, applicants must possess the following technical and executive core qualifications. These qualifications would typically be gained through progressively responsible management or executive level assignments such as director of a regional office, medical facility or program manager. An individual's total experience, education and volunteer work experience must demonstrate the ability to perform the duties of the position.

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; religious; 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.

MANDATORY EXECUTIVE CORE QUALIFICATIONS (ECQs): All applicants must submit a written narrative response to each of the following ECQs and include your name on each page. Your narrative must address each ECQ separately and demonstrate the underlying competencies in the narrative. Examples should be clear, concise, and emphasize your level of responsibilities; the scope and complexity of the programs, activities, or services you managed; program accomplishments; policy initiatives undertaken; level of contacts; the sensitivity and criticality of the issues you addressed; and the results of your actions. You should use action oriented leadership words to describe your experience and accomplishments and quantify your experience wherever possible to demonstrate your accomplishments (e.g., number of employees supervised; size of budget managed; amount of money saved, etc.). Applicants should use the Challenge, Context, Action and Results (CCAR) model below when responding to each ECQ:
  • Challenge. Describe a specific problem or goal.
  • Context. Describe the individuals and groups you worked with, and/or the environment in which you worked, to address a particular challenge (e.g., clients, co-workers, members of Congress, shrinking budget, low morale, etc).
  • Action. Discuss the specific actions you took to address a challenge.
  • Result. Give specific examples of measures/outcomes that had some impact on the organization. These accomplishments demonstrate the quality and effectiveness of your leadership skills.
Your narrative response should not exceed 10 pages, be typed in 12 point font with one-inch margins. It is recommended that you include 2 recent (not older than 10 years) examples per ECQ and draft your ECQs in a Word document before uploading into the system to ensure these guidelines are met. Information that exceeds these guidelines will not be reviewed. Detailed information on each ECQ, the underlying and fundamental competencies, sample narratives and a tips sheet for writing effective ECQs are available in the "Guide To Senior Executive Service Qualifications" GUIDE (opm.gov) at: http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/senior-executive-service/executive-core-qualifications/.

1. Leading Change: The ability to bring about strategic change, both within and outside the organization, to meet organizational goals. Inherent to this ECQ is the ability to establish an organizational vision and to implement it in a continuously changing environment. (Underlying Competencies: Creativity and Innovation, External Awareness, Flexibility, Resilience, Strategic Thinking, and Vision)

2. Leading People: The ability to lead people toward meeting the organization's vision, mission, and goals. Inherent to this ECQ is the ability to provide an inclusive workplace that fosters the development of others, facilitates cooperation and teamwork, and supports constructive resolution of conflicts. (Underlying Competencies: Conflict Management, Leveraging Diversity, Developing Others and Team Building)

3. Results Driven: The ability to meet organizational goals and customer expectations. Inherent to this ECQ is the ability to make decisions that produce high-quality results by applying technical knowledge, analyzing problems, and calculating risks. (Underlying Competencies: Accountability, Customer Service, Decisiveness, Entrepreneurship, Problem Solving and Technical Credibility)

4. Business Acumen: The ability to manage human, financial and information resources strategically. (Underlying Competencies: Financial Management, Human Capital Management and Technology Management)

5. Building Coalitions: The ability to build coalitions internally and with other Federal agencies, state and local governments, nonprofit and private sector organizations, foreign governments, or international organizations to achieve common goals. (Underlying Competencies: Partnering, Political Savvy and Influencing/Negotiation)

TECHNICAL QUALIFICATION (TQ)s: In addition, all applicants must submit a written narrative response to the following specific TQ(s). Please label and include your name on each page. Please give examples and explain how often you used your skills, the complexity of the knowledge possessed, the level of people you interacted with, the sensitivity of the issues you handled managing a large public or private sector organization that administers complex, rules-based benefits or services, etc. It is recommended that you draft your TQ(s) in a word document and then upload into the system.

TQ1: Demonstrated knowledge and experience in managing the planning, design, construction, and facilities operations of multiple medical facilities and a variety of land use projects (cemetery, public parks, national monuments, etc.) across a geographical area.

TQ2. Demonstrated experience in implementing a program or project management program in a complex built environment and managing construction projects from requirements definition through activation.

Education

Basic Requirements:
A. Degree: Engineering. To be acceptable, the program must: (1) lead to a bachelor's degree in a school of engineering with at least one program accredited by ABET; or (2) include differential and integral calculus and courses (more advanced than first-year physics and chemistry) in five of the following seven areas of engineering science or physics: (a) statics, dynamics; (b) strength of materials (stress-strain relationships); (c) fluid mechanics, hydraulics; (d) thermodynamics; (e) electrical fields and circuits; (f) nature and properties of materials (relating particle and aggregate structure to properties); and (g) any other comparable area of fundamental engineering science or physics, such as optics, heat transfer, soil mechanics, or electronics.

OR

B. Combination of education and experience -- college-level education, training, and/or technical experience that furnished (1) a thorough knowledge of the physical and mathematical sciences underlying engineering, and (2) a good understanding, both theoretical and practical, of the engineering sciences and techniques and their applications to one of the branches of engineering. The adequacy of such background must be demonstrated by one of the following:
1. Professional registration or licensure -- Current registration as an Engineer Intern (EI), Engineer in Training (EIT)1, or licensure as a Professional Engineer (PE) by any State, the District of Columbia, Guam, or Puerto Rico. Absent other means of qualifying under this standard, those applicants who achieved such registration by means other than written test (e.g., State grandfather or eminence provisions) are eligible only for positions that are within or closely related to the specialty field of their registration. For example, an applicant who attains registration through a State Board's eminence provision as a manufacturing engineer typically would be rated eligible only for manufacturing engineering positions.
2. Written Test -- Evidence of having successfully passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE)2 examination or any other written test required for professional registration by an engineering licensure board in the various States, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico.
3. Specified academic courses -- Successful completion of at least 60 semester hours of courses in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences and that included the courses specified in the basic requirements under paragraph A. The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of an engineering program as described in paragraph A.
4. Related curriculum -- Successful completion of a curriculum leading to a bachelor's degree in an appropriate scientific field, e.g., engineering technology, physics, chemistry, architecture, computer science, mathematics, hydrology, or geology, may be accepted in lieu of a bachelor's degree in engineering, provided the applicant has had at least 1 year of professional engineering experience acquired under professional engineering supervision and guidance. Ordinarily there should be either an established plan of intensive training to develop professional engineering competence, or several years of prior professional engineering-type experience, e.g., in interdisciplinary positions. (The above examples of related curricula are not all inclusive.)

Additional information

Veteran Preference does not apply to the Senior Executive Service.: https://www.opm.gov/faqs/topic/Senior-Executive-Service/index.aspx.

Drug Testing: All applicants tentatively selected for VA Senior Executive Service employment in any 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.

Incumbents of this position will be subject to a background investigation commensurate with the risk and sensitivity level of the position.

Benefits

A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.

Review our benefits

Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.

How You Will Be Evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

Step 1: ECQ qualifications

Step 2: Technical Qualification(s)

Step 3: VA Executive Resources Board

Step 4: Nominating Organization may conduct interviews

Step 5: Approval by the Selecting Official (may include additional screening)

Step 6: OPM Qualifications Review Board certification

Required Documents

A complete application for this position includes the following items:

1. Resume not to exceed 5 pages;

2. Written narrative response to address each Technical Qualification(s) not to exceed 2 pages each; and

3. Written narrative responses to address each Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs) not to exceed 2 pages each for a total of 10 pages; or

4. Proof of non-competitive eligibility consists of an SF-50 showing career status in the SES
(if applicable) and proof of certification of your Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs) from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) administered Qualifications Review Board (QRB).

Non-Competitive Consideration: You are considered a non-competitive applicant if you are a current career Senior Executive, graduate of a Senior Executive Service (SES) Candidate Development Program (CDP) or an individual with SES reinstatement eligibility and your ECQs have been certified by the OPM QRB. You may be considered non-competitively for appointment to this position if you meet the mandatory technical qualifications requirements.

Non-competitive applicants do not need to submit ECQ narratives but you must clearly state your status in your resume and submit a written narrative response to the Technical Qualification (s); not more than 2 pages per each TQ with a font size no smaller than 12 points. Proof of non-competitive eligibility is required. The agency has the option of considering you non-competitively or including you in the competitive process.

How to Apply

Your complete application must be received by 11:59 pm EST on the closing date, 11/14/2024 in order for you to be considered. Please read all instructions before you begin.

To begin click the Apply Online button and follow the prompts to register and submit all required documents. To return to your saved application, log in to your USAJOBS account at http://www.usajobs.opm.gov/ and click on "Application Status". Click on the position title and select Apply Online to continue.

Agency contact information

Demetrius Gloster
Address
Executive Director, Office of Construction and Facilities Management
425 I Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
US
Learn more about this agency

Next steps

The Corporate Senior Executive Management Office (CSEMO) will review all applications to determine if applicants meet the technical qualifications of this position and the SES ECQs. Those who meet the qualifications will be referred to the Executive Resources Board (ERB), a panel of SES members to determine the "best qualified" candidates. Once a selection is made, the selectee's application will be forwarded to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for approval by an OPM independent Qualifications Review Board (QRB), unless the selectee is a current/former SES executive or has successfully completed an OPM approved SES Candidate Development Program and is QRB certified.


Note: We cannot accept applications on behalf of Federal Agencies. Application instructions are listed within the Job Description.