Clarification from the agency

1st Area of Consideration: 127 Employees 2nd Area of Consideration: VHA Wide

Major Duties:

• Manages Suicide Prevention Actively Managed portfolio, totaling over $30 million in funding for projects and initiatives focused on rigorous research to prevent Veteran suicide.
• Establishes funding opportunity announcements to cover the range of relevant research as well as priority areas.
• Supports a transparent and equitable process for establishing priorities with major stakeholders including but not limited to the Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, other relevant clinical program offices, VA investigators and Veterans.
• Works with other units within ORD to ensure that funded research has appropriate infrastructure and regulatory support.
• Serves as the authoritative officer in aspects relating to VA's Suicide Prevention portfolio and related mental health programs of research for all of ORD.
• Interprets data generated from research studies as the subject matter and statistical expert.
• Responsible for overseeing aspects of the program including committing resources, gaining compliance with policies and procedures, resolving complex issues, interacting across VA/VHA program and VISN offices and with external stakeholders and partners and identifying impactful research findings that could influence the direction of the research portfolio.
• Briefs senior leadership and other Agency collaborators on actionable results from studies.
• Works with senior investigators and statisticians to analyze study data for presentations, reports, and publications in scientific and medical journals.
• Interacts with Congress, The White House, and Office of Science and Technology Policy to respond to inquiries, provide scientific remarks, and prepare reports.
• Continuously monitors the national enterprise to foster translation of discoveries and ensure execution of clinical trials across multiple sites.
• Oversees analysis of secondary data sources such as large administrative databases for Veteran and organizational data or disparate data sources that may contribute to the goals of the Suicide Prevention Program and related mental health research across VA.
• Provides strategic planning, monitoring, and evaluation to ensure portfolio management and analysis.
• Continuously monitors and evaluates oversight policies, guidelines, operating procedures and program implementation
• Expands clinical trials and precision health networks to enable systematic real-world impact Position Description 4 4 355 on care for Veterans.
• Recommends policies and procedures related to clinical care using scientific findings to Position Description 35331 establish evidence.

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 dentification 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)

• 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.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/13/2026.

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-15 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-14.

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.
All applicants MUST meet the following Individual Occupational Requirements:
Basic Requirement: You must posses a Bachelor's or graduate/higher level degree: major study in an academic field related to the medical field, health sciences or allied sciences appropriate to the work of the position. This degree must be from an educational program from an accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education(external link) at the time the degree was obtained.
In addition to the Individual Occupational Requirements, you MUST also meet the GS-15 specialized experience requirements.
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-14 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Managing the direction of mental health research programs by program planning, development, and implementation; oversees the completion of projects by developing program evaluations to set objectives and plans; AND serves as an advisor in the research that leads to reducing disparities in mental health care.

Note: Evidence of specialized experience must be supported by detailed documentation of duties performed in positions held on your resume. You must provide work experience information such as hours per week, salary, and starting/ending dates of employment (month and year format) to establish you have one (1) full year of Specialized Experience at or comparable to the required grade level.

To be considered Best Qualified, the following experience must be verifiable in your resume/application:
*Quality Ranking Factor: Expertise in suicide prevention, mental/behavioral health research and in management of mental /behavioral health research programs across the translational spectrum

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 primarily is sedentary.

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.

NOTE: The initial application review cut-off for this job announcement is 50 applications. The first 50 applications received will be considered first. Applications received after the initial cut-off number (50 applications) may not receive consideration unless otherwise requested by management. If management requests additional certificates, applicants will continue to be reviewed in groups of 50 in the order they applied. Submitting multiple applications will change the order in which your application is reviewed.

NOTE: This is a TEMPORARY promotion not to exceed 1 year. This promotion may be extended up to a maximum of 4 additional years (60 months of total service). This temporary promotion may be made permanent without further competition. A temporary promotion does not guarantee that the promotion will be made permanent.

To apply for this position, you must provide a complete Application Package which includes:

• Resume
• SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action

• Cover Letter
• DD-214/ Statement of Service
• Disability Letter (Schedule A)
• Disability Letter (VA)
• License
• Other (1)
• Performance Appraisal
• Professional Certification
• Resume
• Separation Notice (RIF)
• SF-15
• SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action
• Transcript

• Most recent SF-50 if you are a current or former Federal employee
• An SF-50 showing 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
• Award 50's do not provide sufficient information and will not be accepted for the purpose of verifying time-in-grade.
• Examples of appropriate SF-50's include:
  • Within grade increases at the highest grade held; or
  • Promotions with an effective date more than one year old; or
  • SF-50's at the highest grade held with an effective date more than one year old.

Next steps