Clarification from the agency

This announcement is open to current, permanent VA Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) employees and CTAP (Career Transition Assistance Plan for surplus/displaced employees) eligibles only. All other applicants will not be considered.

The purpose of this position is to analyze real time or live VCL call center program data to ensure that program operations are running efficiently. This position provides essential program support and makes decisions based on live data essential for efficient and effective functionality of critical VHA missions. The incumbent plays a critical role in providing program support and analysis that not only affects all employees in the department but can also have an impact on other areas of VCL whose positions support Clinical Operations.

The major duties of this position include but are not limited to:

• Reviews, monitors, and analyzes real time or live program data that is reflected through various data screens and systems to report on immediate inefficiencies in program support coverage.
• Reviews, monitors, and analyzes real time data for any technical issues with the VCL telephone, chat or text systems, customer relations data base, network outages, etc.
• Annotates trends, data, and responses and elevates to leadership.
• Monitors the Veterans Crisis Line Responders, to ensure that they are providing timely support to Veterans and callers.
• Makes immediate data driven decisions based on knowledge and appropriate use of data (I.E. adjustments of staffing from chat/text to phones, immediate employee performance, dip in productivity levels, etc.).
• Keeps employees and leadership informed of issues, trends, and developments in the areas of call center operations and best practices.
• Applies program knowledge and experience in working in a call center environment to answer staff questions, guide responders, research basic questions, provide references, and respond to various other issues that may arise.
• The incumbent provides program and project status briefings to supervisors, managers, and internal and external staff.
• Reviews and analyzes situations noting trends, patterns, and data that may suggest training or knowledge deficiencies and refers this information to a supervisors for further development.
• Performs other duties as assigned by leadership.

Work Schedule: Varied work schedule to include evenings, nights, weekends and holidays to provide 24/7 call center coverage. Tour will be determined after final selections and will be based on seniority. Tour is subject to change based on program needs. Selectees will be expected to work all shifts.
Compressed/Flexible: Not authorized
Remote: This is a remote position.
Position Description/PD#: Program Analyst/PD07834A
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job
• 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.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
• Physical Requirements: Work is performed while sitting at a desk, at conferences, briefings, meetings, in classrooms and the equivalent. The work is primarily sedentary but may require prolonged standing in front of groups. Must work multiple projects simultaneously and handle occasional high levels of stress and conflicting priorities.
• 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 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 or 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 period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 06/15/2026.

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-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-09. 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.

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 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. In order to meet the minimum qualifications for this position, you must meet 3/5of the following examples of specialized experience:

• Collecting, reviewing, analyzing and interpreting data in the moment to support operational, programmatic or organizational decision making.
• Providing program, administrative, operational, or technical support to leadership, employees, customers, or stakeholders.
• Preparing, presenting, or communicating reports, findings, recommendations or other information to leadership or stakeholders.
• Facilitating workflow coordination across teams, program and organizational functions.
• Supporting process improvement, performance management, or organizational effectiveness initiatives.

OR,

Education to Qualify: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must possess a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree which related to the work of the position or 3 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree. (TRANSCRIPTS ARE REQUIRED)

OR,

Combination of Education and Experience to Qualify: An equivalent combination of specialized experience and graduate education as described above may be used to meet the total qualification requirements for this position. Only graduate education in excess of a master's or equivalent graduate degree which related to the work of the position may be used to qualify at this level. (TRANSCRIPTS ARE REQUIRED)


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.

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:

1. Planning and Evaluating
2. Oral Communication
3. Decision Making
4. Organizational Performance Analysis

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.

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

• Resume
  • Federal positions must include series and grade. All positions must include starting and ending dates of employment (month and year) and full-time or part-time status (include hours worked per week). Duties you performed must be listed under each individual job title to match your experiences with the positions held.
• Most recent SF-50 (Current Federal Employees must provide an SF50 dated 1-11-2026 or later; WG employees must provide one dated within 1 year of the closing date). We do not accept PDF portfolio files.
  • ATTENTION: You may need to submit more than one SF-50 if we cannot verify you meet time-in-grade (TIG) by your most recent SF-50. For example, if your most recent SF-50 is a General Adjustment, we need your most recent SF-50 dated 1/11/26 and another SF-50 to verify TIG. Examples of SF-50s for TIG verification include your last within-grade increase or promotion to highest grade held. Promotion shows when you started the grade level and a within-grade increase verifies you were at that grade level for at least one year. Failure to provide your most recent SF-50 dated 1/11/2026 or later and other SF-50s to verify TIG will result in you being disqualified. We cannot verify time-in-grade based only on the grade and step you are currently on. Award 50's do not provide sufficient information and will not be accepted for the purpose of verifying time-in-grade.
• If you are a current or former Federal employee applying for a higher grade and your SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you meet the one year time-in-grade requirement so you will need to provide an SF-50 which clearly demonstrates you meet the time-in-grade requirements. 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
• Transcript(s) if applicable
• CTAP/ICTAP documentation if applicable

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

Failure to submit any of the above required documents applicable to your submission may result in loss of consideration and a rating of ineligible due to an incomplete application package. It is the applicant's responsibility to verify that their application package (resume, supporting documents, and responses to the questionnaire) is complete, accurate, and submitted by the closing date. We will not contact applicants for additional documentation, nor will we accept late or missing documents after the close of the announcement.

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.

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