Department of Veterans Affairs

Contact Representative

Topeka, Kansas, Canandaigua, New York, Waco, Texas Full time

Contact Representative

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Topeka, Kansas, Canandaigua, New York, Waco, Texas

Salary Range: $49960 - $66012 Per Year

Job Summary: This position is in the Health Resource Center (HRC), Contact Management, Help Desk section of VHA Member Services. The HRC consists of contact centers located throughout the country to answer Veteran questions related to billing, eligibility, benefits, and other Veteran support services. The primary purpose of the position is to serve as a Lead Contact Representative by providing guidance and assistance to Help Desk Contact Representatives in the performance of their duties.

Major Duties:

  • Major duties include, but are not limited to: Receives inbound telephone calls, emails inquiries, or webchats from Veterans, Caregivers, VA staff & other users related to the MyHealtheVet website, eBenefits website, the Web & Mobile Solutions Mobile applications, access VA website and Beneficiary Travel Self Service System portal. Receives inbound telephone calls from and responds to veterans, their family members and/or legal representatives, the public, and VA employees concerning VA and related non-VA benefits available to Veterans, dependents and of Veterans, and beneficiaries. Responds to questions and resolves issues pertaining to escalated calls on the Help Desk Assist Line, escalated emails from management, Contact Representatives, and other Lead Contact Representatives. Provides leadership, guidance, and technical direction to Contact Representatives to accomplish the work of the unit or team and resolves issues without the involvement of a supervisor except in unusual circumstances. Works closely with the Help Desk Program Specialist and Help Desk leadership to report tends when there are system outages and technical issues experienced with systems impacting the Help Desk. Processing, documenting, and routing possible reworks in appropriate SharePoint Tracker to correct the error; processing pending reviews, which may include contacting the Veteran to inform them that the issue is resolved or returning to the Help Desk Contact Representative for additional information. Answers or provides input to Congressional complaints within one hour of receiving the initial inquiry. Assists as a Subject Matter Expert while the Member Services Training Team trains new Help Desk team members and helps train new Help Desk Leads. Attends monthly Help Desk team meetings and discusses various topics such as Knowledge Management articles, business processes, current issues, websites changes/updates, and other pertinent information. Coaches junior staff that support the mission, vision and values of the Health Resource Center and our Customer's expectations. Recommends changes to standard operating procedures, business processes and job aids based on acquired knowledge, feedback from Contact Representatives, and personal observation. Work Schedule: Full-time, 40 hours per week, Monday through Friday, 8-hour shift between 6:45 am - 7:15 pm. Official tour of duty will be selected based on business needs and will start after training is completed. Remote: This position is not authorized for Remote work. Telework: This position may be authorized for Telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. Virtual: This position may be authorized for Virtual work. Virtual eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. Definition of Virtual work: Employee works outside of original hiring duty station at VA-owned or leased space. Return to Office (RTO): RTO exemptions will be considered and a determination will be made as part of the selection and onboarding process. Position Description/PD#: Contact Representative/PD07782A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): 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, 12/15/2025. 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 a GS-07 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-06. 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 may qualify based on your experience as described below: Specialized Experience GS-07: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-06 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Provides leadership, guidance, and technical direction to Contact Representatives to accomplish the work of the unit or team and resolves issues without the involvement of a supervisor except in unusual circumstances. Fields questions from junior staff, provides technical direction and conducts coaching reviews of work performed (accuracy, appropriateness of response and customer service). Determines most appropriate action or identifies alternatives in resolving issue(s) through in-depth research and interpretation. Handles escalated calls and provides clarification to Contact Representatives regarding standard operating procedures, business processes, job aids, and knowledge management scripting. Analyze significant characteristics of each assignment in order to resolve a variety of issues to include software, hardware, and data communication. 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 questionnaire and submission of the required documentation specified in the How to Apply and Required Documents section. 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 application questionnaire, click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12830460. 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, 12/15/2025. If you are required to complete any USA Hire Assessments, you will be notified after submitting your application. The notification will be provided in your application submission screen and via email. The notification will include your unique assessment access link to the USA Hire system and the completion deadline. Additionally, in USAJOBS you can click "Track this application" to return to your assessment completion notice. Access USA Hire using your unique assessment link. Access is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Review all instructions prior to beginning your assessments. You will have the opportunity to request a testing accommodation before beginning the assessments should you have a disability covered under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended. 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 later, you can re-use your unique assessment link. NOTE: 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 update your application, including supporting documentation: During the announcement open period, return to your USAJOBS account, find your application record, and click Edit my application. This option will no longer be available once the announcement has closed. 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: 2025-12-15