Program Analyst

Clarification from the agency

This vacancy is open to current permanent employees of the Department of Veterans Affair, Veterans Employment Opportunities Act, Military Spouses eligible, 30% or More Disabled Veterans, People with Disabilities, Schedule A, Peace Corp eligible, VA employees who are CTAP eligible, ICTAP eligible, P.L. 115.46 Sec 204 Appointment of qualified former VA career-career conditional employees, Interchange eligibles, Reinstatement, Transfers, and Land Management eligible in the Washington, DC area.

Specific duties include:

• Facilitates and leads teams of Central Office and field personnel regarding policies, activities, and the establishment of related changes to the regulations and procedures, best practices, business process improvements and business process reengineering.
• Reviews and provides technical assistance, correspondence, opinions, and other documentation to internal and external stakeholders as high-quality products.
• Composes technically accurate priority correspondence to the White House, members of Congress, other Government agencies, Veterans' Service Organizations, builders and lenders; as well as attorneys.
• Develops and delivers training to field office staff on system updates, policy and procedures, and general customer service standards.
• Assisting in planning, organizing, and independent judgment of critical business-matters of a national lending program.
• Analyzes precedent and highly complex problems relating to guaranteed loans submitted by field offices, lenders and other, and initiates appropriate correspondence or other means of affording proper solutions.
• Under guidance of the Supervisory Loan Specialist, reviews audits reports and egregious referrals, with the associated loan files to recommend concurrence or disagreement with the conclusions of the Monitoring Unit or field offices.
• Conducting assessments to ensure operational, policy-making, and external communication.
• Supporting the Assistant Director of Loan Policy and Valuation and the Chief of Loan Policy, in both internal and external contexts to explain or defend Loan Guaranty Service's in industry meetings/conferences.
• Processing requirements for VA guaranteed and direct loans; general mortgage lending industry experience.

Conditions of 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.

• 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 or trial 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.
• 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.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement:09/07/2026.

TIME-IN-GRADE REQUIREMENT: As a current Federal, GS employee you must meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

• For a GS-13 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-12 level.
• If you are a current VBA employee requesting reassignment or change to lower grade via this vacancy announcement, you must currently hold the GS- 12 or higher and the promotion potential of your current position must be at leastNone

• Formulate and recommend plans and policies for nationwide application, governing loans to be made and guaranteed for the purchase, construction, repair, alternation and improvement of homes or for the refinancing of existing home loans and governing loans to be guaranteed for the purchase of a manufactured home.
• Facilitates the processing, analysis and closing of applications for Direct Loans, and reviews, analyzes and determines recommendations for actions to be taken on individual cases submitted to Central Office by the field for the decision on the guaranty of the loan.
• Studies and analyzes proposed legislation involving housing loan policy considerations and prepares appropriate comments.
• Effectively manage and implement recommendations when proposals involve substantial agency resources or extensive changes in established procedures.
• Ability to analyze and interpret existing policies and procedures in order to effectively articulate and communicate requirements and/or decisions with Loan Guaranty staff, vendors, mortgage and real estate professionals, Veterans and other interested parties.
• Ability to function as a technical authority regarding Veteran eligibility, automatic lender qualifications, VA credit standards and credit evaluation, the mortgage lending industry and the processing requirements for VA guaranteed and direct loans.
• Ability to perform comprehensive analytical studies involving a nationwide home loan program, evaluate program effectiveness, and develop solutions to difficult operational or policy challenges.
• Ability to compose clear and concise technical and administrative correspondence through performing research and gathering information from multiple resources.

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 primarily sedentary. Some carrying of light items may be required.

For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

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.

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. 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):

• • Accountability
  • Attention to Detail
  • Customer Service
  • Decision Making
  • Flexibility
  • Influencing/Negotiating
  • Integrity/Honesty
  • Interpersonal Skills
  • Learning
  • Reading Comprehension
  • Reasoning
  • Self-Management
  • Stress Tolerance
  • Teamwork
• 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.
• 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.
• External Awareness: Identifies and keeps up-to-date on key agency policies/priorities and economic, political, and social trends which affect the organization; understands where the organization is headed and how to make a contribution.
• 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.
• Project Management: Applies principles, methods, or tools for developing, scheduling, coordinating, monitoring, evaluating, and managing projects and resources, including technical performance.
• Research: Knowledge of the scientific principles, methods, and processes used to conduct a systematic and objective inquiry; including study design, collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; and the reporting of results.
• Written Communication: Expresses facts and ideas in writing in a succinct and organized manner.
• Technical Credibility: Understands and appropriately applies principles, procedures, requirements, regulations, and policies related to specialized expertise

To apply for this position, you must provide a complete application package to include the documents detailed below. Failure to submit the required documents may result in your application being considered incomplete and you being deemed ineligible. It is your responsibility to ensure your application package (resume, supporting documents, and responses to the questionnaire) is complete, accurate, and submitted by the closing date. We will not request additional documentation or accept late or missing documents after the announcement has closed.

• Resume, limited to 2-pages, detailing specialized experience and competencies as they relate to this position
  • For each position in your resume, you must specify the start and end dates (month/year) and a description of duties. If the position was Federal, you must also indicate the grade level. Resumes containing a general summary of all positions held, not specifying start/end dates, and/or not including Federal grade level(s) are insufficient to determine basic qualifications.
• Veterans: Member-4 DD-214 and disability rating letter (if applicable)
  • If you are currently on active duty to be released within 120 days, you may submit an armed forces certification in lieu of a Member-4 DD-214.
• Current Federal Employees: A copy of your most recent NON-AWARD SF-50. The SF-50 must indicate proof of status (for example, you are a career or career-conditional employee) and should identify your position title, series, grade, step, salary, tenure and type of service (Competitive or Excepted).
  • To verify you meet Time-in-Grade requirements, also submit a SF-50 reflecting when you entered your highest grade held (e.g. Promotion, Appointment, etc.).
• Current VBA Employees: If you are outside the commuting area and seeking a reassignment/change to lower grade, you must submit a copy of your most recent SF-50 (non-award) AND the SF-50 placing you into your current position.
• Military Spouse of Active-Duty Military Member: A copy of your marriage license AND your spouse's active duty orders
• Military Spouse of Separated Veteran: A copy of your marriage license, Member-4 DD-214 AND either your spouse's 1) 100% disability rating, or 2) documentation of death during active duty.
• Other Status Candidates: Evidence of eligibility to apply (e.g. Peace Corps verification letter, Schedule A letter, PS-50, etc.).

• 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.

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