Clarification from the agency

This vacancy is open to current and former Department of Veteran Affairs employees in the local Atlanta commuting area who are eligible for priority consideration under the Career Transition Assistance Program (CTAP).

Specific duties include:

• Estimates and reports on progress in meeting established milestones and deadlines for completion of assignments, projects, and tasks.
• Identifies current and future claims processes needed to fulfill the goals and responsibilities of VBA to the Veteran. Defines and examines alternative requirements, analyzes changing conditions, performs trend analysis, and calculates system impacts to prioritize modernization efforts.
• Serves as expert and close advisor to the Director. Provides consultative advice and guidance in the formulation and development of highly complex, controversial, and analytical studies and projects impacting program operations.
• Identifies and defines problems, conducts analyses, develops alternatives, and provides recommendation, programmatic information, and guidance regarding business process improvement opportunities related to production optimization.
• Applies expert knowledge and skill of business processes to conduct complex functional activities for programs/projects that often require the development of new and innovative approaches.
• Interprets findings resulting from studies that are independently developed. Completes analyses of data and identifies programmatically significant findings as they relate to the development of production optimization requirements. Performs requirement cost analyses such as development of life cycle or other
• cost analyses of projects, or performance of cost benefit of system enhancements.
• Uses analytical and assessment techniques to serve as the focal point and representative for resources, studies, analysis and assessments of system requirements focusing on services and benefits programs to Veterans and their families.
• Works with VBA business lines and staff offices to ensure integration and implementation of modernization efforts to improve operational efficiency and customer experience within VBA systems. Manages multiple projects concurrently where effort involves coordination among multiple resources, other divisions, or agents outside of the organization. Applies project management principles to the design and integration of new and evolving business processes.
• Evaluates data from business analytic software to solve problems and to identify opportunities to improve business processes and customer satisfaction.
• Analyzes and evaluates, on a quantitative and/or qualitative basis, the effectiveness of proposed requirements for system implementation in meeting established goals, measures, and objectives.
• Provides higher management with evaluated information and qualitative analysis necessary for effective direction of program requirements and resourcing.
• Participates in discussions, meetings, conferences and conference calls with agency administrators, senior subject matter experts, technical personnel, and contracting personnel to secure and provide information; investigates facts; presents conclusions, recommendations, and alternatives; obtains concurrence; develops alternate courses of actions; and mutually resolves problems.
• Advises management of unique conditions and issues which affect program activities and provides guidance on interpretation and implementation of new and revised legislation, policies, regulations, and procedures.
• Investigates and develops methods to assist in the implementation of processes for the most effective collection information and prioritization of requirements.
• Conducts or directs special projects or analysis and participates in reviews to identify and solve production optimization issues.
• Develops and presents briefing materials for complex requirements for presentation to VBA management and leadership to influence decisions. Briefs expert level analysis of complex programs to provide decision-making bodies, committees and/or panels clear, informed optimization strategies and recommendations based on reliable and accurate information.
• Works with VBA Business Lines and Staff Offices to identify, address and isolate business process problems. Determines courses of action necessary to remedy deficiencies and recommend alternative courses of action.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Promotion Potential: The selectee may be promoted to the full performance level without further competition when all regulatory, qualification, and performance requirements are met. Selection at a lower grade level does not guarantee promotion to the full performance level. The grade progression for this position is GS-13, GS-14
Work Schedule: Full time, Monday through Friday
Compressed/Flexible: At Discretion of Agency.
Telework: Available.
Virtual: This is a virtual position. If selected, employee will have to report to the nearest Atlanta VBA facility as approved in your telework agreement.
Position Description Title/PD#: Program Analyst; PD41410-A
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized.
Financial Disclosure Report: Not Required.

Conditions of employment

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period or a 2-year trial 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 or trial period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
• You may be required to serve a probationary period
• 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 I-9 Acceptable Documents.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement: 03/26/2026.

GRADE REQUIREMENT: To receive CTAP selection priority, your grade level upon Reduction in Force must be at least GS-13 with promotion potential of at least GS-14.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: 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-13) in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Specialized experience is defined as experience extracting data from VBA's EDW or Tableau Server, and analyzing the data using Microsoft Excel, Tableau Desktop, R, Python, or SAS tools. Candidates must have experience analyzing datasets with a one-to-many data relationship.

Volunteer Experience: 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.
Full vs. Part-Time Employment: Full-time employment is considered to be at least 35 hours per week. Part-time experience will be credited on a pro-rated basis; when including part-time employment in your resume you must specify the average hours worked per week.
Physical Requirements: The work is sedentary. Some work may require walking and standing in conjunction with travel to attend meetings and conferences away from the work site. Work may require carrying light items such as papers, books, or small parts. The work does not require any special physical effort.

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.

• Attention to Detail: Is thorough when performing work and conscientious about attending to detail.
• Data Management: Knowledge of the principles, procedures, and tools of data management, such as modeling techniques, data backup, data recovery, data dictionaries, data warehousing, data mining, data disposal, and data standardization processes.
• Creative Thinking: Uses imagination to develop new insights into situations and applies innovative solutions to problems; designs new methods where established methods and procedures are inapplicable or are unavailable.
• Problem Solving: Identifies and analyzes problems; uses sound reasoning to arrive at conclusions; finds alternative solutions to complex problems; distinguishes between relevant and irrelevant information to make logical judgments.

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 an interview.

You will be assessed on the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics):

To apply for this position, you must provide a complete Application Package to include the documents detailed below. Resumes may not exceed two pages and must be legible for review of eligibility, minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement. Your resume and supporting documentation will be verified. Failure to submit the documents as specified may result in loss of consideration for this job announcement.

• Resume
  • Contact Information:
    • Name and how best to contact you, including email address and phone number
  • Relevant Work Experience:
    • For each relevant work experience, make sure you include:
      • Job Title and Employer (including series and grade for any Federal positions)
      • Start and end dates with month/year (e.g., 05/2019 - 08/2022)
      • The number of hours you worked per week
    • Ensure work experience descriptions are aligned with the job announcement and address all required qualifications. Brief descriptions should demonstrate your ability to perform the tasks at the required level as stated in the job announcement
  • Current Federal Employees:
    • Your most recent APPOINTMENT SF-50. The most recent 1XX or 5XX SF-50 proving status. This SF50 should identify your appointing legal authority, position title, series, grade, step, salary, tenure and type of service (Competitive or Excepted).
    • Your SF-50 reflecting when you entered your highest grade and step (e.g. Within Grade Increase, Promotion, Appointment, etc.) in order to verify time-in-grade requirements.
• Current VBA Employees: If you are seeking a reassignment/change to lower grade, you must submit a copy of your most recent appointment SF-50 and an SF-50 that reflects when you entered your highest grade and step as described above.
• Your official notice from the VA to support your CTAP eligibility
• Copy of your most recent Annual Performance Appraisal

Please use this checklist to make sure you have included other documents required for your application, such as a copy of your transcript (if using education to qualify), or ICTAP/CTAP documentation (for displaced Federal employees). You will not be contacted for additional information.

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