Clarification from the agency

NOTE: The 2-page Resume requirement does not apply to this position. For more information, refer to Required Documents below. This is an INTERNAL ANNOUNCEMENT and is limited to current permanent employees of the Nebraska-Western Iowa VA Health Care System.

Duties include, but may not be limited to the following:

• Uses communication, education, and leadership to support comprehension of and adaptation to organizational updates.
• Guides the evolution of clinical software and processes by ensuring clinical software are available for staff use in addition to training on these programs.
• Contributes to the development of software enhancements, guides process improvement activities, and partners with colleagues working on information technology (IT) for the better provision of patient care by clinical and business staff.
• Cultivates a healthy working relationship between the Office of Information and Technology (OIT) and Health Informatics, allowing for routine dialog to enable the sustainment and optimization of our health IT solutions and workflows, for the benefit of all staff and Veterans.
• Evaluates content quality and assures access to knowledge resources, eliminating redundancy in duplicate data sources, and improving information interoperability across the organization.
• Applies statistical (quantitative information derived mathematically), machine learning (use of artificial intelligence to derive knowledge from data to predict outcomes), visualization (representation of data via a chart or other image), inferencing (a way to understand cause-and-effect relationships) and other techniques to enable decision support.
• Utilizes or develops reports and information tools using a variety of methods and tools such as Structured Query language (SQL), SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) from the VISN and the VA Corporate Data Warehouse.
• Enables healthcare capabilities and the evolution of technology adjoined to the electronic health record (EHR) to deliver quality care by developing, implementing, monitoring, maintaining, and optimizing informatics tools and access to them.
• Serves as a subject matter expert in the visual depiction of process flow diagrams, assisting end-users with correct interpretation of symbols and diagrams that reflect their work activities.
• Ensures clinical input in the development and management of the VHA business architecture.
• Participates in actions to evaluate, test, and report on errors found when working with systems and applications.
• Applies a true end-to-end process to evaluate workflows, identify issues, develop solutions based on best practice guidelines, and resolves and communicates changes to maintain and optimize processes that deliver Health Information Technology (HIT) solutions.
• Uses communication, education, and leadership to support comprehension of and adaptation to organizational updates.
• Performs activities that support the management and delivery of educational experiences using information solutions and technology in all areas of healthcare.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 8:00am-4:30pm
Telework: Ad-hoc Available
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Position Description #: 99396/99397/99398/99399

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.
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English.
• 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 dentification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).
• Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.

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

Qualifications

Grade Determinations:

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-05 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-04. For a GS-07 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-05. For a GS-09 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-07. For a GS-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-09. For a GS-12 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-11. 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.

Specialized Experience Requirement: Do you have the required Specialized Experience equivalent to the next lower grade? For a GS-7 grade level, your specialized experience MUST be at the GS-05 grade level or equivalent in order to meet this requirement. Examples of qualifying specialized experience includes: independently plans and carries out the assignments in conformance with accepted policies and practices; adheres to instructions, policies, and guidelines in exercising judgment to resolve commonly encountered work problems and deviations; and brings controversial information or findings to the supervisor's attention for direction.

OR

Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have one (1) full year of graduate level education or superior academic achievement.

Specialized Experience Requirement: Do you have the required Specialized Experience equivalent to the next lower grade? For a GS-9 grade level, your specialized experience MUST be at the GS-07 grade level or equivalent in order to meet this requirement. Examples of qualifying specialized experience includes: Skill in applying a wide range of established practices, theories, and emerging information in health care delivery, informatics and applications; knowledge and use of clinical software packages; broad knowledge of VHA operations, national databases, EHR architecture and file structure; analytical techniques, and clinical applications development techniques; in order to provide general informatics consulting services and to develop and deliver segments of appropriate informatics educational and training programs to VHA employees.

OR

Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have a master's or equivalent graduate degree OR two (2) full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree OR LL.B. or J.D., if related?

Specialized Experience Requirement: Do you have the required Specialized Experience equivalent to the next lower grade? For a GS-11 grade level, your specialized experience MUST be at the GS-09 grade level or equivalent in order to meet this requirement. Examples of qualifying specialized experience includes: determines the most appropriate principles, practices, and methods to apply in all phases of assignments, including the approach to be taken, degree of intensity, and depth of research in management advisories; frequently interprets regulations on his/her own initiative, applies new methods to resolve complex and/or intricate, controversial, or unprecedented issues and problems, and resolves most of the conflicts that arise.

OR

Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree OR three (3) full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree OR LL.M., if related?

Specialized Experience Requirement: Do you have the required Specialized Experience equivalent to the next lower grade? For a GS-12 grade level, your specialized experience MUST be at the GS-11 grade level or equivalent in order to meet this requirement. Examples of qualifying specialized experience includes: independently performing a full range of data analysis, to include collecting, evaluating, and synthesizing of data; applies an end-to-end process to evaluate workflows, identify issues, and develop solutions based on best practice guidelines; experienced knowledge and use of national database architecture and file structure, analytical techniques, and clinical applications development techniques; acquainted with technologies that are likely to benefit healthcare delivery processes to troubleshoot functionality issues and develop solutions; and ensures the success of multidisciplinary teams to lead and manage informatics-related projects.

Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/.

The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is in the range of GS-7 to GS-12.

Physical Requirements: You will be asked to participate in a pre-employment examination or evaluation as part of the pre-employment process for this position. Questions about physical demands or environmental factors may be addressed at the time of evaluation or examination.

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

Area of Consideration - Eligible applications will be reviewed and referred in the following order:
1. Current permanent VA employees of the facility.

IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE MAY NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Your application, resume, C.V., and/or supporting documentation will be verified. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect consideration for employment.

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.

The Department of Veterans Affairs performs pre-employment reference checks as an assessment method used in the hiring process to verify information provided by a candidate (e.g., on resume or during interview or hiring process); gain additional knowledge regarding a candidate's abilities; and assist a hiring manager with making a final selection for a position.

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

Veterans and Transitioning Service Members: Please visit the VA for Vets site for career-search tools for Veterans seeking employment at VA, career development services for our existing Veterans, and coaching and reintegration support for military service members.

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

• Resume
• SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action

Special Note for Applications: To complete your application, please use the following link https://vacareers.va.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/Resume.docx to download the standard Clinical Resume Document. This one-page document does not need to be modified and must be uploaded into the two-page restricted 'Resume' document upload field.

Your full resume/CV may be uploaded without page limitation into the 'Other' document upload field.

The following documents are accepted, and may be required if applicable to your eligibility and/or qualifications for this position. Please ensure you have included all documents required for your application, such as a copy of your transcript (if using education to qualify), SF-50's (current/former Federal employees), etc.

• Cover Letter
• Resume
• SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action
• Transcript

Veterans' preference does not apply for internal or other current permanent Federal agency employees.

Next steps