Department: Department of Veterans Affairs
Location(s): North Chicago, Illinois
Salary Range: $83482 - $108533 Per Year
Job Summary: This position is located in the Command Suite of the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center (FHCC). The primary purpose of this position is to serve as the principal advisor to the SES Director, Deputy Director, and executive leadership on all equal employment/affirmative action/diversity issues.
Major Duties:
Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/09/2026. 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-12 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-11. For a GS-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-09. 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 and/or education s described below: GS-11 Specialized Experience: Applicants must have at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-09 level which provides the knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position being filled. Specialized experience may include but is not limited to utilizing oral and written communication, interacting with facility management, government agencies, Regional Counsel, ORM, and employees at all levels, conflict management, understanding of Labor Law and Administrative Law, decision-making and interpersonal skills, conducting Climate Assessments and Mediations, maintain confidentiality, and handling conflict while remain unbiased in stressful situations. OR Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree Or 3 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M., if related. OR Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have a combination of specialized experience and education beyond. Only graduate education in excess of the amount required for the next lower grade level may be used to qualify applicants for positions at GS-11. 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/. GS-12 Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS - 11 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include but are not limited to: knowledge of the laws, regulations, Executive Orders , court decisions and issues related to the Federal Equal Opportunity Program and skill in applying this knowledge to analyze facts, identify problems, report findings, make conclusions and recommend corrective actions to solve difficult problems; competency developing and monitoring Affirmative Action Plans; skill in providing assistance in resolving EEO complaints including procedures for accepting, investigating and settling complaints and the legal rights and obligations of the parties; skill in counseling employees regarding their civil rights and employment opportunities; knowledge of Federal personnel administration areas and processes such as appeals and grievances, management-employee relations, and recruitment and selection to identify systemic problems and develop recommendations; skill in the use of computer systems sufficient to be able to research information, extract data, prepare reports, presentations and correspondence; and interpersonal relation and communication skills sufficient to be able to effectively work with external contacts, managers and employees at all levels within the community and organization. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Analysis and Problem Solving Communication Critical Thinking Leadership Managing Diverse Workforce 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. 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/12894597. 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, 03/09/2026. 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: 2026-03-09