Health System Specialist

Clarification from the agency

ALL US CITIZENS DIRECT HIRE AUTHORITY: This position is being filled using Direct-Hire Authority (5 CFR 337.201) for this occupation.

Duties include, but are not limited to the following:

• Reviews policies and procedures that are in conformance with overall philosophy of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) related to all aspects of healthcare programs.
• Obtains data and prepare replies to correspondence for the signature for the Executive Director, Network Director, or for the appropriate VA Central Office.
• Prepares issue briefs for the approval for the Executive Director to provide timely notification of incidents or concerns to the VISN.
• Resolves problems through personal contacts, obtains expedited decisions on urgent matters, and otherwise assists services/programs in obtaining responsive action for their requests.
• Manages recruitment activities for the Executive Director and other Executive Leadership Team (ELT) members as needed of hiring priority positions including executive, senior leaders, and other direct reports, as well as coordination of temporary details into those positions. Ensures all recruitment activities are appropriately documented.
• Prepares and manages performance plans through performance to ensure timely issuance of standards. Is the primary liaison with Human Resources for timely, accurate, and efficient processing of all actions.
• Assists in prioritizing resource allocations throughout the healthcare system. Assists the ELT in assessing needs to realistic fashion, documenting them effectively, and presenting them to a diverse audience of internal and external stakeholders.
• Develops reports to build and manage all electronic organizations charts for MVAHS. Reconciles the organization charts with FTEE information to ensure appropriate reporting structures and that changes to organization structures appropriately documented.
• Supports the Resource Management Committee (RMC) activities. Tracks salary and incentive budgets for MVAHS and monitors the impact of FTEE changes to the budget in collaboration with Human Resources and Fiscal Service. Coordinates with RMC, Human Resources, and Fiscal to ensure that all RMC requests are within guidelines.
• Plans for revised space assignments to investigators and to reallocate space to meet these demands. Reviews orders to verify their need and ensures that each section receives the appropriate share of the funds available.
• Oversees a variety of administrative programs, including internal controls, records management, inventory management, publication and forms management, and timesheets.

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday; 8:00am - 4:30pm
Telework: Not eligible
Virtual: This is not a virtual position
Position Description Title/PD#: Health System Specialist/PD546-08422-0
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. citizen to apply for this job
• Subject to a background/suitability investigation
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
• Physical Requirements: The work is generally sedentary. Periods of walking, standing, bending, and carrying light items such as paper, binders, and medical charts are required.
• To be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. In addition to the application and questionnaire, this position requires an online assessment. The online assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job.
• A complete application package; Resume, etc. is required
• 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.

Upon completion of your probationary period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary 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

Qualifications

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

Health System Administration Series, 0671, has an Individual Occupational Requirement (IOR):

• Undergraduate and Graduation Education: Major study -- Hospital Administration, Public Health Administration, or related fields such as business or public administration with course work in health care administration. A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. -OR-
• Specialized Experience: Progressively responsible analytical or administrative, or clinical management or supervisory experience in the health care field. This work may have been performed in an operating health care facility or a higher organizational echelon with advisory or directional authority over such facilities. Work must have involved a close working relationship with facility managers and analysis and/or coordination of administrative, clinical, or other service activities, and provided knowledge of the following:
  • Missions, organizations, programs, and requirements of health care delivery systems;
  • Regulations and standards of various regulatory and credentialing groups; and
  • Government-wide, agency, and facility systems and requirements in various administrative areas such as budget, personnel, and procurement. -OR-
• Special Provision for In-service Placement: Successful completion of an agency-sponsored on-the-job training program may be substituted for qualifying experience, provided it included a formal individualized training plan. Such a training program must have been conducted in an operating health care system and included:
  • Assignments providing a knowledge of basic health system administration philosophies, practices, and procedures, and basic government administrative policies and requirements;
  • Practical assignments providing an opportunity to apply health system administration skills and principles (as the individual progresses, work assignments must be characteristic of the grade level to which he or she is assigned); and
  • Oversight by an experienced health system administrator with periodic evaluation of the individual's progress and appropriate adjustment of the training program.

GS-12 grade level: In addition to the IOR above, you must have one year of specialized experience (equivalent to the GS-11 grade level in the federal service); experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA's) and other characteristics to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled, in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Specialized experience includes:

• Comprehensive knowledge and experience of health care service administration, continuous quality improvement, data analysis; healthcare principles, theories, and practices; planning, administration, and other key administrative support functions.
• Comprehensive knowledge and experience in the use of financial software packages.
• Comprehensive knowledge and experience of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) operations, VHA national databases, analytical techniques, and clinical applications development techniques.
• Provides expert and professional data analysis and consulting services and develop and deliver appropriate reports, educational and training programs to all levels of employees, internal and external to the VA.
• Knowledge of and skill in adapting analytical techniques and evaluation criteria to the measurement and improvement of program effectiveness and organizational productivity to implement and administer the myriad of health informatics applications.
• Thorough knowledge of records security regulations and instructions, including the provisions of the Privacy Act of 1974 and other applicable laws, VA and VHA policy, to ensure that access to computerized files, use of access codes, and management of electronic files containing sensitive data are handled properly.
• General management experience with demonstrated capabilities in hospital administration.

There is no educational substitution for the GS-12 level.

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.

How you will be evaluated

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

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:

• Attention to Detail
• Customer Service
• Decision Making
• Flexibility
• Integrity/Honesty
• Interpersonal Skills
• Learning
• Reasoning
• Self-Management
• Stress Tolerance
• Teamwork

Your experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month and year start/end dates AND hours worked per week. 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. IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration. Cheating on the online assessment may also result in your removal from consideration.

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.

During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions.

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.?

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

Documents Accepted:

• Cover Letter
• Resume
• Separation Notice (RIF)
• SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action
• Transcript

Documents Required:

• Resume

Please review the above list(s) to ensure you have included all necessary documents required for your application.Not every applicant will require the same documents, therefore it is the applicants responsibility to ensure that their application package includes all necessary documents to determine qualifications and eligibility for appointment, such as a copy of your SF-50, transcript, ICTAP/CTAP documentation (for displaced Federal employees).You will not be contacted for additional information. Applicants will be deemed ineligible if supporting documentation is not submitted.

Beginning September 27, 2025, Federal agencies will only accept resumes up to two pages in length to comply with the Merit Hiring Plan. Resumes longer than two pages will result in ineligibility for further consideration for the position. USAJOBS will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages, and you will need to update the resumes in your profile before applying for a job. Resumes should include information relevant to the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of the position to which you are applying. VA is unable to make assumptions about qualifications if not clearly listed.

Resumes must be legible so they can be reviewed for eligibility, minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement.

Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started.

Helpful Hints for Creating a Two-Page Resume:

• Prioritize most relevant and recent experience
• Use concise, results focused language
• Align language from the job announcement
• Focus on demonstrating skills and competencies
• Remove outdated or unrelated experience
• Use the USAJOBS resume builder

Additional guidance on this new requirement and resume building tools can be found at:

• https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit
• https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/merit-hiring-plan-resources/applicant-guidance-on-the-two-page-resume-limit/

Veterans' Preference: Since the Direct-Hire Recruitment Authority is being used, traditional Veterans' Preference rules do not apply. Qualified veterans will, however, be given full consideration for this position.

Applications are accepted online. Applying online will allow you to review and track the status of your application.

Next steps