Supervisory Health System Specialist

Clarification from the agency

This position is open to current, permanent employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Health Administration and CTAP applicants.

• Responsible for the management and administration of processes and tools that enable the organization to identify, document, and access intellectual capital and develop an understanding of the needs and requirements of information end-users.
• Consults with customers to gather and evaluate functional requirements and translates these requirements into technical solutions. Provides guidance to customers about applicability of information systems to meet business needs.
• Provides reports, progress updates, and presentations to key senior executives and leaders within VA and VHA, on all aspects of clinical applications; provides guidance for interim, phase, milestone, and final project reviews; identifies project documentation requirements and procedures; and supports development and implementation of product release plans.
• Oversees all schedules and timelines, change control procedures, resource estimation and management and project maintenance procedures and directs multiple teams to accomplish this work with members at all levels of the organization including program offices, medical facilities, VISNs, and VHACO.
• Collaborates with contributors spanning numerous cross-administration teams from knowledge management, business and technical architecture, development partnerships, strategic plan and change management and is accountable for the collaborative work products
  and deliverables of these teams.
• Expert in healthcare administration, healthcare IT program portfolio and project management who possesses strong executive leadership skills, has the ability to establish an organizational vision, and influence others to translate vision into action in a continuously changing environment and is able to formulate objectives and priorities and implement plans consistent with the long-term interests of the organization, while capitalizing on opportunities and managing risks.
• Directs and facilitates planning, development, implementation, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of all respective efforts to include ongoing review of scope and schedules, project guidelines, requirements, and deliverables; and active, independent problem solving, including requirement refinement, corrective action, and plan modification.

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm
Telework: This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. Ad hoc is defined as occasional, non-recurring telework.
Virtual: This position may be authorized for Virtual Work. Virtual Work eligibility is for current VA employees that are already subject to the return to the in-person work mandate in their current position.
Definition of Virtual Work: Employee works outside of original hiring duty station at a VA-owned or leased space.
Return to Office (RTO): RTO mandates are in effect and selectees will be required to report to in-person work unless they are approved for an exception or an exemption. Any approval for an RTO exception, exemption, or extension will happen after a tentative job offer, but before a final job offer.
Position Description/PD#: Supervisory Health System Specialist/PD872500
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized.
Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not authorized.
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not authorized.
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
• 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 identification 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)

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

To be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. This position requires the application, assessment, and questionnaire to be fully completed. The assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/02/2026.

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 by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-14 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-13. 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.
Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment.

Selective Placement Factor (SPF):

• Training and mastery of applying, lean and agile methods for continuous improvement.
• Experience applying system engineering thinking and methods.
• Experience working on an enterprise product that is used by a very large user-base.
• Prior experience with JLV

You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below:

Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-13 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to:

• Managing the technical, business, cultural, and architectural strategy for migrating from the current to the future health informatics environment, as well as supervising staff responsible for the business-side support of existing clinical applications currently utilized nationally in the field.
• Directing and managing activities and teams to define overall project requirements, plan and coordinate design, development, and implementation, resolve a wide range of management and technical issues, and review and refine final products prior to submission.
• Identifying and evaluating highly effective methodologies and benchmarks best practices from industry and other government organizations, leads teams to develop and test methods, evaluates test results and selects methods that will result in quality design and high customer satisfaction.
• Expert regarding technical advice and guidance to senior management officials in the appropriate application of information services to agency mission and programs including providing advice regarding emerging issues and the impact of emerging issues on the agency business requirements.
• Planning and coordinating agency wide implementation of process improvement methods and concepts that improve the quality of health care and clinical software products.

AND

The Individual Occupational Requirement: For the 0671 Occupational Series you must have

Undergraduate and Graduate Education: Major study -- hospital administration, public health administration, or related fields such as business or public administration with course work in health care administration.

OR

Specialized Experience: Progressively responsible analytical or administrative, or clinical management or supervisory experience in the health care field. This work may have been performed in an operating health care facility or a higher organizational echelon with advisory or directional authority over such facilities. Work must have involved a close working relationship with facility managers and analysis and/or coordination of administrative, clinical, or other service activities, and provided knowledge of the following:

• Missions, organizations, programs, and requirements of health care delivery systems;
• Regulations and standards of various regulatory and credentialing groups; and
• Government-wide, agency, and facility systems and requirements in various administrative areas such as budget, personnel, and procurement.

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.

Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment.

Physical Requirements: The work is primarily sedentary, but occasionally involves walking, bending, climbing stairs. The work also involves coping with complex, persistent demands from a variety of sources that can be regarded as a high-pressure work situation.

For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://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.

IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE.

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 for this position:

• Conflict Management
• Influencing/Negotiating
• Manages Resources
• Partnering
• Planning and Evaluating
• Administration and management
• Human factors design thinking
• Stakeholder management
• Operations support
• Analysis and problem solving

Supervisory Situational Judgment Test. Applicants will be required to complete a Supervisory Situational Judgment Test (SSJT) as part of the assessment process for this position. The SSJT evaluates judgment and decision-making skills that align with relevant competencies, organizational values, and best practices. Assessment results may be used as part of the evaluation, ranking and referral process. This is not a timed test, however, the assessment is expected to take approximately 45 minutes or less to complete. The assessment for this application does not include a cut score for a minimum level of required proficiency in these critical general competencies. However, you must answer each item in the assessment.

Narrative responses are not required at this time. If you are referred for consideration, you may be asked to submit additional job related information, which may include, but not limited to; responses to the knowledge, skills and abilities; completion of a work sample, and/or contact for an interview. 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.

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.

For more information on the "Who may apply" eligibility requirements, please refer to the OHRM Status Candidates and Other Candidate Definitions document.

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

• Resume
• SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action

The following documents are accepted, and may be required if applicable to your eligibility and/or qualifications for this position. Please make sure you have included other documents required for your application, such as a copy of your transcript (if using education to qualify), SF-50's (current/former Federal employees), documentation to support Veterans Preference claims, or ICTAP/CTAP documentation (for displaced Federal employees). You will not be contacted for additional information.

• Cover Letter
• Other (1)
• Performance Appraisal
• Professional Certification
• Resume
• Separation Notice (RIF)
• SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action
• Transcript

SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action (if applicable for Time in Grade and/or Eligibility):

• 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.

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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