Communications Specialist

Communications Specialist

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Louisville, Kentucky

Salary Range: $74678 - $97087 Per Year

Job Summary: This position serves as the My HealtheVet (MHV) Change Agent Coordinator at the Robley Rex VA Medical Center in Louisville, Kentucky. This position functions as facility champion, leads facility teams to support existing and future Veteran communication initiatives, and coordinates local implementation, training, communications, outreach, web health content and support efforts.

Major Duties:

• ***THIS IS NOT A VIRTUAL POSITION, YOU MUST LIVE WITHIN OR BE WILLING TO RELOCATE WITHIN A COMMUTABLE DISTANCE OF THE DUTY LOCATION*** My HealtheVet (MHV) is a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)-sponsored website for Veterans, their families, advocates, and VA employees. MHV is a web-based application designed for Veterans and their families with the goal of optimizing Veterans' healthcare. Through MHV, Veterans can build their own Personal Health Record by self-entering personal and health-related information, as well as their health readings. MHV online prescription refill is available to all Veterans receiving medications at Veterans Affairs Medical Centers/Healthcare System (VAMC/HCS), and MHV provides one central location for obtaining information about VA benefits, programs, and services. Secure Messaging (SM) through MHV is a secure Web-based message service that allows the healthcare team to communicate non-urgent health related information with patients and will fundamentally change the way Veterans manage their health care as well as improve the patient-provider relationship. MHV Change Agent Coordinator plans, organizes drives, directs, evaluates, and reports local MHV-related actions/activities. MAJOR DUTIES: Leads the facility's efforts to integrate MHV and SM among healthcare providers and patients. Establishes and manages communications plans that identify target audiences, appropriate messages, activities, and resources needed for effective communication, and effective communications plan for change management, incorporate multiple channels to manage expectations and disseminate project progress. Oversees MHV's online presence and web content and leads innovations to keep facilities MHV on the cutting-edge. Ensures accountability via written communication as it relates to MHV as each of these communication skills contributes importantly to the way VHA communicates with Veterans, Congress, our dedicated volunteers, the public and employees. Establishes and manages the training plans and design and perform needs assessments within the project relative to functional and training needs and project effectiveness. Formulates a marketing strategy from research, reports, products and organizational data. Designs, conducts and evaluates innovative means to advertise and market products of the MHV and Social Media Program. This includes creative writing and direct communication with all levels of personnel internal and external to the VA. Analyzes participation trends, customer markets, needs of the consumer and advises the leadership team on concerns and trends. Recommends specific approaches for managing special issues and findings. Develops multimedia campaign materials (e.g., printed articles, brochures, videos) to enlighten target population. Researches and writes articles, news releases and briefs for inclusion in publications and for release to other media. Uses the world wide web to maximize outreach efforts. Applies advertising and marketing techniques to material produced to include color dynamics, reading grade level, graphics and design, journalistic writing, etc. Performs other related duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00am to 4:30pm Recruitment & Relocation Incentives: Not authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not approved

Qualifications: To qualify for this position at the GS-11 level, you must meet the following criteria: SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: One year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade level (GS-9) in the Federal service. Specialized experience is defined as experience performing web-based marketing activities, such editing and maintaining web pages, creating hyperlinks, and utilizing social media and networking technologies to communicate information to target audiences; experience using automated data processing applications such as desktop publishing and graphic design software to develop, design, and maintain digital and print communication products; and experience applying audio-visual techniques to support the development and delivery of multimedia communications, such as radio, television, slide presentations, speeches, or other outreach materials. NOTE: Experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month and year start/end dates AND hours worked per week -OR- EDUCATION: A Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree from an accredited college or university. Such education must demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work. Transcripts must be submitted with application. Education cannot be credited without documentation. -OR- COMBINATION: An equivalent combination of specialized experience as described above and successfully completed education beyond the master's level. Transcripts must be submitted with application. Education cannot be credited without documentation. 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 to Apply: Please read the entire announcement and all the instructions before you begin an application. To apply for this position, you must complete the initial online application, to include the initial online assessment and submission of the required documentation specified in the Required Documents section above. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on the closing date of the announcement to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire, click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12914066. The application process is as follows: To begin, click Apply Online to create a USA JOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USA JOBS resume and/or other supporting documents. Answer the questions presented in the application and attach all necessary supporting documentation. Click the Submit Application button prior to 11:59 PM (ET) on the announcement closing date, 03/25/2026. After submitting the online application, you will be notified whether or not you are required to take additional online assessments through the USA Hire Competency Based Assessment system. This message will be delivered to you via email notification. The email may be routed to your "Spam" or "Junk" folder. IMPORTANT: If you are asked to take the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be presented with a unique URL to access the USA Hire system. Access to USA Hire is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Be sure to review all instructions prior to beginning your USA Hire Assessments. Click here for Computer System Requirements. Set aside at least 3 hours to take the USA Hire assessments; however, most applicants complete the assessments in less time. If you need to stop the assessments and continue at a later time, you can re-use the URL sent to you via email and also found in your USAJOBS account under the "Track my application" link for the corresponding application. Your responses to the USA Hire Assessments will be reused for one year (in most cases) from the date you complete an assessment. If future applications you submit require completion of the same assessments, your responses will be automatically reused. Visit the USA Hire Applicant Resource Center for practice assessments and assessment preparation resources at https://support-usahire.opm.gov/hc/en-us. To view the announcement status or your application status: https://help.usajobs.gov/how-to. Your application status page is where you can view your application status, USA Hire assessment completion status, and review your notifications sent by the hiring agency regarding your application. Beginning September 27, 2025, Federal agencies will only accept resumes up to two pages in length to comply with the Merit Hiring Plan. Resumes longer than two pages will result in ineligibility for further consideration for the position. USAJOBS will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages, and you will need to update the resumes in your profile before applying for a job. Resumes should include information relevant to the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of the position to which you are applying. VA is unable to make assumptions about qualifications if not clearly listed. Resumes must be legible so they can be reviewed for eligibility, minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement. Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started. Helpful Hints for Creating a Two-Page Resume: Prioritize most relevant and recent experience Use concise, results focused language Align language from the job announcement Focus on demonstrating skills and competencies Remove outdated or unrelated experience Use the USAJOBS resume builder Additional guidance on this new requirement and resume building tools can be found at: https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit.

Application Deadline: 2026-03-25