To qualify for this position, all qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of this announcement 08/25/2025.
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 the GS-15 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-14. 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.
Applicants must meet all requirements when a request is received to fill a vacancy. You may qualify based on your experience as described below:
Basic Requirements Experience:Experience must be IT related; the experience may be demonstrated by paid or unpaid experience and/or completion of specific, intensive training (for example, IT certification), as appropriate. For all positions individuals must have IT-related experience demonstrating each of the five competencies listed below. The employing agency is responsible for identifying the specific level of proficiency required for each competency at each grade level based on the requirements of the position being filled.
- Attention to Detail - Is thorough when performing work and conscientious about attending to detail.
- Customer Service - Works with clients and customers (that is, any individuals who use or receive the services or products that your work unit produces, including the general public, individuals who work in the agency, other agencies, or organizations outside the Government) to assess their needs, provide information or assistance, resolve their problems, or satisfy their expectations; knows about available products and services; is committed to providing quality products and services.
- Oral Communication - Expresses information (for example, ideas or facts) to individuals or groups effectively, taking into account the audience and nature of the information (for example, technical, sensitive, controversial); makes clear and convincing oral presentations; listens to others, attends to nonverbal cues, and responds appropriately.
- Problem Solving - Identifies problems; determines accuracy and relevance of information; uses sound judgment to generate and evaluate alternatives, and to make recommendations.
-AND-
- Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-14 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Specialized experience is defined as: Possesses mastery of IT cybersecurity through the development of new theories, principles, concepts, standards, and practices and emerging issues across the VA and in coordination with other federal agencies to advance cybersecurity and ensure the protection of VA and Veterans data. Demonstrates mastery of cybersecurity engineering expertise through the following skills and competencies. Holds technical expertise in network security knowledge, including VPN, firewall, network monitoring, intrusion detection, endpoint security, web server security, and wireless security, cloud, OT, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Has detailed work experience with incident detection, incident response, and forensics, and experience with Firewalls (functionality and maintenance), Intrusion Prevention/Detection Systems (IDS/IPS), Security Incident and Event Management (SIEM), User and Entity Behavioral Analytics (UEBA), Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP), Heuristics Based Analytics (HBA), Cloud Security, Office 365 Security, VSX, and Endpoint Security. Mastery of IT theories, principles, concepts, standards, and practices sufficient to develop new theories, concepts, principles, standards, and methods in the specialty area(s). Advises other IT experts throughout the agency or in other agencies on a variety of situations and issues that involve applying or adapting new theories, concepts, principles, standards, methods, or practices, that are developed by the employee or result from the employee's leadership; serves as a senior expert and consultant to top agency management officials to advise on integrating IT programs with other programs of equivalent scope and complexity. Mastery of IT security theories and concepts, practices, and emerging issues; and project management methods and concepts sufficient to plan, develop, and coordinate agency-level information assurance or information security programs and strategies, e.g., the agency workforce security training program or security audit program; and formulate agency-level IT security program initiatives in response to critical IT security issues.
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.
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.