Senior Advisor, Office of the Under Secretary for Benefits

The position is in the Veterans Benefits Administration's (VBA) Office of the Under Secretary for Benefits. The responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Conducting comprehensive analyses of proposed regulatory language, changes, administrative guidance, and oversight recommendations to assess directive/guidanceimplications and implementation impacts.
• Assisting in the drafting and advancement of rulemaking documents, legislative analyses, and regulatory packages requiring clearance through departmental and interagency processes.
• Advising the Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Benefits on sensitive, complex, or cross-cutting legal and policy issues with enterprise-wide impact.
• Leading the development, review, and refinement of VBA directives, regulatory language, and program directives to ensure they are legally defensible, operationally feasible, and aligned with federal requirements.
• Conducting comprehensive analyses of proposed regulatory changes, administrative guidance, and oversight recommendations to assess legal implications and implementation impacts.

Conditions of employment

• US Citizenship is required.
• Incumbents of this position will be subject to a background investigation commensurate with the risk and sensitivity level of the position.
• Successful completion of drug screening required.
• Subject to Financial Disclosure reporting requirements.
• You may be required to complete a one-year probationary period.

Qualifications

Applicants must have one or more years of experience that clearly demonstrates the following knowledge, skills, and abilities below. This training and/or experience MUST be reflected by descriptions of your experience in your resume. IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR 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; religious; 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.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities Required:

Demonstrates experience in developing, interpreting, and applying guidance, statutes, regulations, and agency directives across complex, multi-program organizations.

Demonstrates experience in advising on high-visibility legal and policy matters, and conducting detailed analysis of the design, implementation, and impact of directives, procedures, and initiatives for specialized programs.

How you will be evaluated

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

Step 1: Review of resume for minimum qualifications (not to exceed 2 pages).

Step 2. SES Panel review to determine Best Qualified applicants for referral to selective official.

Step 3. Approval by the Selecting Official (may include additional screening such as interviews, background and reference checks)

A complete application for this position includes the following items:

1. Resume which demonstrates your experience, accomplishment, training, education and awards reflecting your ability to meet each of the MANDATORY Knowledge, Skills and Abilities required for this position. Elaborate on your experience and accomplishments, highlighting your level of responsibilities, scope and complexity of programs managed, work objectives met (results of your efforts), guidance initiatives and level of contact. Ensure your resume does not exceed two (2) pages. Information beyond the two page resume will not be evaluated. DO NOT submit the application form OF-612, Optional Application for Federal Employment in lieu of a resume. DO NOT submit separate narrative responses to address the technical qualifications.

2. Complete responses to the Occupational Questionnaire.

3. Proof of competitive status: (Proof consists of an SF-50 showing career/career conditional status in the competitive service.)

4. Documentation in support of eligibility under a special hiring authority. (e.g. DD-214 for VEOA, CTAP/ICTAP, Schedule A authority, etc.).

5. Non-Competitive Consideration: You are considered a non-competitive applicant if you are on a current career Senior Level (SL) appointment; an individual with SL reinstatement eligibility; or a current career Senior Executive Service (SES) member who has competitive service reinstatement eligibility (at any grade level) to any position in the competitive service. You may be considered non-competitively for appointment to this position if you meet the qualifications requirements. Proof of non-competitive eligibility is required. Proof consists of an SF-50 showing career/career conditional status on an SL appointment, or SES Career Appointment and for SES members, proof of Qualifications Review Board (QRB) certification and proof of previous appointment showing career/career conditional status in the competitive service.

Next steps