Clarification from the agency

Current and permanent employees of the Department of Veteran Affairs and other Federal Agencies; U.S. Citizens. NOTE: The 2-page Resume requirement does not apply to this occupational series. For more information, refer to Required Documents below.

The Chief of the Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Service (ASPS) in VA Northern California Health Care System (NCHCS) has broad and overall responsibility for the service-level department. The incumbent of this position is position is responsible for (a) strategic planning, supervision, and delegation of administrative, clinical, educational and research activities of audiology and speech-language pathology personnel and operations, (b) providing independent clinical practice services to the full range of complex patient populations presenting with speech, language, voice, cognitive-communication, swallowing, hearing, tinnitus or vestibular disorders, consistent with licensed, professional qualifications, and (c) oversight of the educational program of the service.

Duties for the position may include but are not limited to:

Administrative responsibilities

• Develops, organizes, directs, manages, supervises, controls, and implements ASP and VA policies and procedures;
• Exercises supervision and administrative management, and plans short term goals, long terms goals, and the strategic direction of ASPS;
• Organizes work; sets priorities; delegates tasks and responsibilities to subordinate personnel; accepts, amends or rejects completed work; approves performance standards and ratings; prepares functional statements and position descriptions; approves leave; completes staff performance reviews; and recommends disciplinary measures as appropriate;
• Establishes, monitors and evaluates ASPS productivity, access and quality metric standards, and applies budgetary, regulatory, productivity and quality standards to effectively guide provision of clinical services;
• Plans, assesses, and evaluates ASPS programs to ensure proper coordination between care delivered by ASPS audiologists, speech-language pathologists, health technicians (hearing) and health technicians (speech-language pathology), with the overall delivery of health care within NCHCS;
• Monitors and ensures ASPS compliance with all safety, information management, computer security, reusable medical equipment, environmental, and EEO regulations and policies, and American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and The Joint Commission policies and requirements;
• Develops the ASPS budget, assures adherence to the approved budget, and provides oversight for purchases or contracts for goods and services initiated by ASPS; assures the service has sufficient personnel, space and equipment resources to complete assigned work;
• Provides oversight for all ASPS quality improvement and research activities while assuring that the methods and findings of these activities achieve the highest standards of ethical conduct, scientific rigor, and patient or participant safety.

Clinical Practice

• Consistent with professional licensure requirements and qualifications, incorporates advanced knowledge of scientific principles of contemporary audiology or speech-language pathology clinical practice, and demonstrates mature professional judgement in the differential diagnosis and treatment of the full range of complex patient populations presenting with hearing, tinnitus or vestibular disorders.
• Guides professional development of colleagues through mentorship and teaching; demonstrates leadership in defining and attending to professional practice issues; and has the ability to expand the conceptual knowledge of audiology and speech-language pathology professional practice;
• Provides consultation to colleagues, and renders professional opinions based on experience, expertise and clinical qualifications;

Education and Training

• Develops, directs and delegates activities of the ASPS educational and training programs; negotiates affiliation agreements with academic partners; and establishes training objectives;
• Participates in the training and supervision of students or trainees in ASPS and provides feedback on progress toward established educational goals.
• Other related duties as assigned.

This is an OPEN CONTINUOUS ANNOUNCEMENT and may be posted up to September 30, 2026. The initial cut-off date for referral of eligible applications will be November 10, 2025. Eligible applications received after that date will be referred at regular intervals or as additional vacancies occur on an as-needed basis until positions are filled.

Work Schedule: Full-time; Monday - Friday; 8:00 a.m. 4:30 p.m.; Subject to change to meet the needs of the Agency
Telework: Available; Ad-hoc
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Functional Statement #: 06918F
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: May be authorized for highly qualified candidates
EDRP Authorized: Former EDRP participants ineligible to apply for incentive.Contact V21CCOEEDRP@va.gov, the EDRP Coordinator for questions/assistance. Learn more
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): May be authorized for highly qualified candidates
PCS Appraised Value Offer (AVO): Not authorized

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

Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met.

Basic Requirements:

• United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• English Language Proficiency: Audiologist candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English as required by 38 U.S.C. § 7403(f).
• Education:
  • Doctor of Audiology (AUD) from an audiology program recognized by the Accreditation Commission for Audiology Education (ACAE) or Council on Academic Accreditation (CAA) of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). HR office staff and management officials may verify a program's accreditation from ACAE at acaeaccred.org and CAA at caa.asha.org. OR
  • Other doctoral degree in hearing science or a directly related field from an institution accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. NOTE: Effective January 1, 2007, the CAA in Audiology and 3 Speech- Language Pathology of ASHA accredits only doctoral degree or AUD programs in audiology.
• Licensure: Individuals must hold a full, current, and unrestricted license to practice audiology at the doctoral level in a United States state, territory, commonwealth, or the District of Columbia.

May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria).

Grade Determinations:

Supervisory Audiologist, GS-14

• Experience: At least three years of experience as a professional audiologist, with at least one year comparable to the next lower grade level, must fully meet the KSAs at that level.
• Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs): In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate the following KSAs:
  • Skill in promoting collaboration to accomplish goals.
  • Skill in translating management goals and objectives into efficient service operations.
  • Skill in balancing operational resources to ensure appropriate delivery of service operations.
  • Ability to supervise staff.
  • Ability to effectively interact and collaborate with local, VISN and/or national leadership.
  • Ability to establish and monitor productivity standards, production and performance priorities to achieve management goals and objectives.

Assignment: Supervisory audiologists spend 25% or more of their time providing technical and administrative supervision. Supervisory 14 audiologists in this assignment serve as service chiefs. Audiologist service chiefs at this level typically manage programs in Complexity Level 1 (high complexity) facilities. The service or organizational entity is a major component of the medical center and the services or programs supervised are highly professional, technical, and complex. They are responsible for all professional, management, and administrative aspects of the service or organizational entity. They have broad and overall responsibility for a service-level organizational unit and have full responsibility for clinical practice, program management, education, human resources management and supervision for the service. They autonomously manage substantive parts of specialized, complex, professional services that significantly impact Veterans' care. They provide leadership with objective, independent assessments and recommendations for policy, operational and administrative issues and initiatives requiring decision and action. They monitor work performance to ensure that requirements are satisfied; interpret and process a wide variety of data related to program planning and specialized needs of the Veterans, the service and the medical center; and ensure policies or issues have been fully coordinated, vetted and staffed. Audiologist service chiefs advise executive leadership on implications, key issues, and relationships to interest groups (both internal and external) and recommend courses of action. They coordinate and negotiate resolutions to complex problems. They assure compliance with accrediting agencies and regulatory requirements and corrective action is initiated as needed. They are responsible for professional and administrative management of an assigned area, including budget execution. They maintain interdepartmental relationships with other services to accomplish medical center goals. They may prepare special reports and responses, Congressional responses, briefing papers, issue briefs, and decision papers for the medical center leadership, which may be highly sensitive, confidential and of a complex nature. They develop policies and procedures and may develop performance standards, position descriptions, and functional statements. They monitor the clinical performance of staff, conduct performance appraisals, perform other clinical, and administrative responsibilities to ensure that the mission of the service and the medical center has been satisfied. They may set training objectives for staff and delegate responsibilities to subordinate sections.

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-14. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is a GS-14.

Physical Requirements: See VA Directive and Handbook 5019, Employee Occupational Health Service.

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 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

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
• DD-214/ Statement of Service
• Disability Letter (VA)
• License
• Other (1)
• Professional Certification
• Resume
• SF-15
• SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action
• Transcript

Veterans' Preference: When applying for Federal Jobs, eligible Veterans should claim preference for 5pt (TP), 10pt (CP/CPS/XP), or for Sole Survivor Preference (SSP) in the questionnaire. You must provide a legible copy of your DD214(s) which shows dates and character of service (honorable, general, etc.). If you are currently serving on active duty and expect to be released or discharged within 120 days you must submit documentation related to your active duty service which reflects the dates of service, character of service (honorable, general, etc.), and dates of impending separation. Additionally, disabled veterans and others eligible for 10-point preference (such as widows or mothers of eligible Veterans) must also submit an SF-15 "Application for 10 Point Veteran Preference" with required proof as stated on the form. Documentation is required to award preference. For more information on Veterans' Preference, please visit Feds Hire Vets - Veterans - Job Seekers - Veterans' Preference.

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