Program Analyst

Clarification from the agency

This vacancy is open to current, permanent (career/career conditional) employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs and CTAP eligibles only.

Specific duties include:

• Lead release, configuration, and deployment management activities for the VR&E IT portfolio within a DevSecOps framework.

• Plan, coordinate, and oversee secure, automated software releases using CI/CD pipelines and modern deployment patterns.

• Maintain integrated release schedules and coordinate activities across business stakeholders, OIT, cybersecurity, contractors, and governance bodies.

• Facilitate release planning ceremonies, readiness reviews, go/no-go decisions, and post-implementation assessments using DevSecOps performance metrics.

• Manage configuration governance through CCB/CAB meetings and maintain CM processes and tools to ensure alignment with approved baselines.

• Assess proposed changes for operational and security impacts and guide release sequencing to minimize risks.

• Lead deployment readiness activities, including plans, rollback procedures, validation steps, communications, and automated verification.

• Develop and execute comprehensive testing strategies, including automated functional, security, performance, and UAT testing within CI/CD workflows.

• Coordinate compliance, cybersecurity, and ATO-related documentation, ensuring releases align with VA, federal, and NIST requirements.

• Provide executive leadership with release dashboards, risk analyses, performance metrics, stakeholder updates, and recommendations to improve DevSecOps operations and IT portfolio governance.

Promotion Potential: This position is at the full performance level.
Work Schedule: Full time, Monday through Friday
Compressed/Flexible: Not Available
Telework: Available, This position is eligible for situational (ad hoc) telework only. The selectee is required to report to the official duty station each scheduled workday. Telework may be approved only on a case-by-case basis with supervisory approval. Routine or recurring telework is not authorized for this position.
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Position Description/PD#: Program Analyst; 422920
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized
Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Conditions of employment

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you may 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.

• 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

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:11/06/2026.

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.

• For a GS-13 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-12 level.

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.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENT: You may qualify based on your experience as described below:
GS-13 Grade Level:

• Specialized Experience: Applicants must have at least one year of specialized experience at the GS 12 level that demonstrates:

• Experience planning, coordinating, and overseeing implementation of system or program updates, ensuring changes are delivered in a controlled, timely, and organized manner and aligned with organizational requirements and stakeholder needs.

• Experience developing and executing testing strategies for new or updated systems, including creating test plans, coordinating stakeholders involved in validation activities, documenting results, tracking issues, and recommending readiness for implementation.

• Experience applying organizational policies, federal requirements, and compliance standards to evaluate the readiness, risks, and operational impacts associated with system changes or program improvements.

• Experience analyzing system performance, operational data, or program outcomes to identify trends, risks, or improvement opportunities and preparing reports, briefings, or recommendations that inform leadership decisions.

• Experience coordinating with technical staff, business owners, and leadership to support effective implementation of system or process changes, resolve issues, align priorities, and ensure stakeholders understand upcoming operational impacts.

• Education Substitution: There is no education substitution at this grade level.

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 and is typically performed in an office or telework environment, although
some slight physical effort 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/.

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):

• Data Management - Knowledge of the principles, methods, and techniques for establishing internal control activities (for example, authorizations, verifications, reconciliations), monitoring their use, and evaluating their performance (for example, identification of material weaknesses or significant deficiencies).

• Internal Controls -Assures that effective internal controls are developed and maintained to ensure the integrity of the organization.

• Requirements Analysis -Knowledge of the principles and methods to identify, analyze, specify, design, and manage functional and infrastructure requirements; includes translating functional requirements into technical requirements used for logical design or presenting alternative technologies or approaches.

• Enterprise Architecture -Knowledge of principles, concepts, and methods of enterprise architecture to align information technology (IT) strategy, plans, and systems with the mission, goals, structure, and processes of the organization.

• Performance Measurement - Knowledge of the principles and methods for evaluating program or organizational performance using financial and non-financial measures, including identification of evaluation factors (for example, workload, personnel requirements), metrics, and outcomes.

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.

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
  • Optional Details:
    • When relevant, include:
      • Current Security Clearance
      • Job-related training
      • Language skills
      • Organizations and affiliations
      • Professional publications
      • Eligibility for special programs (e.g., military spouses, individuals with disabilities, etc.)
• A copy of your most recent NON-award SF-50. The SF-50 must indicate proof of status and should identify your position title, series, grade, step, salary, tenure and type of service (Competitive or Excepted).
• Your SF-50 reflecting when you entered your highest grade 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 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.
• 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.
  NOTE: Award and General Adjustment SF-50's do not provide sufficient information will not be accepted for the purpose of verifying time in grade. Recommended SF-50's include Within Grade Increases (WGI), Promotions and Appointments.

Additional Documents accepted:

• Most recent Performance Appraisal (VA Form 0750)
• Award SF-50s
• CTAP documentation - RIF notice, SF-50 showing VA employee, and performance appraisal

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