IT Specialist-(System Administrator/Customer Support)

Clarification from the agency

This job is open to the Public and CTAP/ICTAP eligibles. ALL US CITIZENS DIRECT HIRE AUTHORITY: This position is being filled using Direct-Hire Authority (5 CFR 337.205) for this occupation.

Major Duties:

As a Major Incident Coordinator (IC) ensures work priorities, methods, deadlines and quality are met during the assigned shift. Works various tours as assigned to ensure 24/7 coverage, remains available to the maximum extent possible during the daily tour of duty to receive customer requests for assistance via e-mail, Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) Tool, and telephone. This includes but is not limited to:

• Central communications point for all incidents managed by the organization and accountable for the end to end incident management process. Accurately documents and maintains these incidents and acts upon them appropriately within specified timeframes in accordance with applicable guidelines, VA policies, directives, regulations, schedules, Performance Service Level Agreements (PSLAs), and contracts including time-frames. Appropriate action would include addressing the customer's needs individually or as part of a team or channeling them to other responsible personnel.
• Monitors Operational Level Agreements (OLA) and Underpinning Contracts (UC) targets of the support group.
• Drives efficiency and effectiveness of the Incident Management process by producing major incident communications and management information. Incumbent ensures a high degree of accuracy and completeness in the data entered to ensure proper documentation to support incidents and aid in the resolution process.
• Evaluates issues reported by customers, ensuring the incident is classified with the potential cause, urgency and business impact.
• Estimates and reports on expected milestones for completion of tasks. Reports all production incidents and/or problems to supervisors and managers, collects and analyzes incident data, monitors chat rooms, checks and reports on work in progress.
• Reviews work of less experienced VA staff, provides supervisors with input on their performance, progress, and training needs.
• Coordinates the processing and monitoring of enterprise level incidents from inception to problem resolution.
• Identifies Incidents for review. Identifies potential problems through proactive trend analysis of major incidents.
• Performs moderately complex investigative work and ensures effective decisions are made during the investigation of major incidents.
• Works with internal and external customers to gather more information about problems and coordinate with assigned resources.
• Coordination and management of Major Incident Management process activities.
• Participates in Incident review following major incidents. Works with VA personnel, contractors or vendors ensuring AAR reports are completed accurately and in a timely manner. Ensures a high degree of accuracy and completeness in all forms of communication to ensure proper documentation to support episodes and aid in the resolution process

***Additional duties required, within scope of the position description.***

This position is primarily aligned to the following NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework work roles: 411-Technical Support Specialist and 451-System Administrator.

For more information about these work roles, where they fit within the larger Cyber Workforce, and how they can support your unique career journey, please visit the Cyber Career Pathways tool on the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies website: https://niccs.us-cert.gov/workforce-development/cyber-career-pathways

Position Description/PD#: IT Specialist-(System Administrator/Customer Support)/PD18094A
Bargaining Unit: No
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized
Financial Disclosure Report: Not Required
Travel Required: Up to 25% travel may be required, as needed. for this position.
Work Schedule: 8:00AM to 4:30PM; Tour of duty may be subject to change based on organizational needs.
Compressed/Flexible: As determined by the Agency Policy
Telework: (AdHoc) Authorized at Manager's discretion.
Virtual/Remote: This is NOT a virtual, NOR a remote position.

Physical Demands: The work is sedentary. Some work may require walking and standing in conjunction with travel and to attendance at meetings and conferences away from the work site.

Working Conditions: Work is performed in a typical computer operations environment. Rooms are well-lighted, air-conditioned office spaces with moderate noise from common office equipment.

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.
• Selectee is subject to background/suitability investigation.
• Selected applicant will be required to complete an online onboarding process.
• This position is subject to pre-employment and random drug testing.
• Complete the initial online assessment and USAHire Assessment, if required.
• To be considered for this position, applicants must complete all required steps in the process.
• 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.
• 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.
  
  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.

This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 09/09/2026.

***You must meet the Minimum Qualification Requirements AND Specialized Experience to qualify for this series as described below.***

Minimum Qualifications Requirements

Basic Requirements Experience:Experience must be IT related; the experience may be demonstrated by paid or unpaid experience and/or completion of specific, intensive training (for example, IT certification), as appropriate. For all positions individuals must have IT-related experience demonstrating each of the five competencies listed below. The employing agency is responsible for identifying the specific level of proficiency required for each competency at each grade level based on the requirements of the position being filled.

To qualify for this position, you must have information technology-related experience demonstrating all of the four competencies listed below. Ensure that this experience is clearly described in your resume:

1. Attention to Detail - Is thorough when performing work and conscientious about attending to detail.
2. Customer Service - Works with clients and customers (that is, any individuals who use or receive the services or products that your work unit produces, including the general public, individuals who work in the agency, other agencies, or organizations outside the Government) to assess their needs, provide information or assistance, resolve their problems, or satisfy their expectations; knows about available products and services; is committed to providing quality products and services.
3. Oral Communication - Expresses information (for example, ideas or facts) to individuals or groups effectively, taking into account the audience and nature of the information (for example, technical, sensitive, controversial); makes clear and convincing oral presentations; listens to others, attends to nonverbal cues, and responds appropriately.
4. Problem Solving - Identifies problems; determines accuracy and relevance of information; uses sound judgment to generate and evaluate alternatives, and to make recommendations.

-AND-

Specialized Experience for GS-2210-11: 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. Specialized experience is experience that has equipped the applicant with the particular competencies/knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position and is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. Such experience is typically gained in the IT field or through the performance of work where the primary concern is IT.

Specialized experience for this position is defined as: Experience coordinating and managing enterprise-level IT incidents and customer support operations; monitoring, troubleshooting, and resolving complex system, network, and application issues; providing technical support for enterprise IT infrastructure; documenting and analyzing incident data and trends; coordinating with technical teams, vendors, and stakeholders to restore services; applying IT service management (ITIL) principles and incident management processes; developing and maintaining operational procedures and documentation; and communicating technical information and incident status to leadership and customers.

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.

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.

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.

You will be evaluated based on how well you meet the qualifications listed in this vacancy announcement. 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 (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics):

The USA Hire Assessment includes a cut score based on the minimum level of required proficiency in these critical general competencies. You must meet or exceed the cut score to be considered. You will not be considered for the position if you score below the cut score or fail to complete the assessment.

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 an assessment may also result in your removal from consideration. In order to be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process.

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 include your name, contact phone number and contact email address,and 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.

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. It is the policy of the VA to not deny employment to those that have faced financial hardships or periods of unemployment.

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.

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

• Resume

Other accepted documents:

• Cover Letter
• DD-214/ Statement of Service
• Other (1)
• Other (2)
• Performance Appraisal
• Reasonable Accommodation Documentation
• Resume
• Separation Notice (RIF)
• SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action

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). Applicants will be deemed ineligible if supporting documentation is not submitted. You will not be contacted for additional information.

If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement.

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.

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

https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit

-AND

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

The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified (have a final rating of 85 or more) for this vacancy. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/.

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