Communications Specialist

Communications Specialist

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): North Chicago, Illinois

Salary Range: $83482 - $108533 Per Year

Job Summary: This position is organizationally aligned under the Group Practice Management Department located at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center (FHCC) in North Chicago, Illinois (556) - a complexity level 1c VHA facility.

Major Duties:

• Major duties include but are not limited to: This position is responsible for establishing and managing 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. Responsible for supporting and guiding facility VHA public affairs officers and stakeholders about My HealtheVet. 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. Works with EES to coordinate personnel and resources to evaluate the educational needs of Veterans and employees to develop MHV educational and training programs/classes. Based on the national MHV Program, develops, and updates a facility-specific MHV implementation plan that includes developing a mission/vision statement, establishing a local team, leading team efforts, identifying local providers as champions, and developing MHV roles and responsibilities. Establishes, develops, and implements local MHV-related goals, strategies to meet goals, identifies responsible parties, tracks progress, including monitoring goals/activity status, and reports status/progress to medical center management. 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 VAMC/HCS. Analyzes participation trends, customer markets, needs of the consumer, and advises the VAMC/HCS leadership team on concerns and trends. Recommends specific approaches for managing special issues and findings. Represents the VAMC/HCS at forums, conferences, and meetings. Delivers presentations to all levels of the VAMC/HCS, service organizations, and veterans, family members and caregivers. Presentations are designed to inform the audience about MHV Program, MHV products, MHV capabilities, and health care issues. 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. Conducts required coordination and obtains clearances as required for release of information. Applies advertising andmarketing techniques to material produced to include color dynamics, reading grade level, graphics and design, journalistic writing, etc. Maintains liaison with VISN and national MHV teams and coordinators to ensure correct, current, and accurate portrayal of information is provided to meet objectives. The incumbent consults with representatives of academia and industry on marketing and advertising trends and application techniques. Analyzes functional clinical and business process changes or impact to clinical guidelines in terms of policies, procedures, and user behaviors. Manages multi-disciplinary teams comprised of professional, technical and support personnel to coordinate clinical and business functions for the MHV program. Leads cross-functional teams to provide program metrics, quality improvement, operational planning, and strategic planning. Collects, develops, implements, and documents data to assist management with MHV operational decisions. Serves as the facility liaison to the MHV National Program Management Office and National Help Desk. Utilizes interpersonal communication skills to deal with Veterans who are difficult, hostile, or distressed, working with co-workers, supervisors, and high-level management, and negotiating. Identifies problems and applying analytical techniques for the purpose of resolving issues. Negotiates conflicting demands and manages multiple projects with tight deadlines. Performs other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 7:30 am - 4:00 pm Compressed/Flexible: Not Authorized Telework: Not Authorized Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Communications Specialist/PD21266A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/20/2026. 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-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-9. 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. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Administration and Management Communications Customer Service (Clerical/Technical) Database Management Systems You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Grade Determination: GS-11 Specialized Experience: 1 year equivalent to at least GS-9. The employee must be able to demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary to complete the duties of the position. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Knowledge and understanding of the full range of principles, concepts, and techniques of marketing, advertising and salesmanship and the ability to transform these requirements into a working, viable program; skill in editing web pages and creating links and using social networking technology; knowledge of and skill in automated data processing applications, e.g., desktop publishing, graphics, etc. to be able to design, establish, and operate in the operation of state-of-the-art personal computer (PC) equipment; skill in audio-visual techniques to assist in preparation of radio, television, slide show, speech materials or other methods of communication; skill in organizing and communicating ideas and thoughts effectively through written correspondence and oral presentation; skill, knowledge and ability to analyze a variety of research reports, studies, fact sheets, and other documents and translate from analytical to commonly understood language. Communication and interpersonal relations, including the ability to appropriately and courteously relate to internal and external customers. Maintenance of confidentiality of patient/employee information, electronic and print. The medical center performance improvement program. How to work and function in the medical center in a safe manner, including infection control and the correct operation of equipment. 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: Work is primarily sedentary, but may require periods of standing during presentations, briefings, speeches, health fair activities, etc., although some slight physical effort may be required. 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: All applicants are encouraged to apply online. To apply for this position, you must complete the questionnaire and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section below. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on 03/20/2026 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12907885. 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 and complete the occupational questionnaire. Click Submit My Answers to submit your application package. NOTE: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date. 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 https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/merit-hiring-plan-resources/applicant-guidance-on-the-two-page-resume-limit/ Special Employment Consideration: VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply, including those eligible for hiring under 5 CFR 213.3102(u), Schedule A, Appointment of persons with disabilities [i.e., intellectual disabilities, severe physical disabilities, or psychiatric disabilities], and/or Disabled veterans with a compensable service-connected disability of 30% or more. Contact the Agency Contact for information on how to apply under this appointment authority via the Selective Placement Coordinator. The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal/VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be well-qualified: applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are proficient in most of the required competencies of the job. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/. During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions.

Application Deadline: 2026-03-20