Equal Employment Specialist

Equal Employment Specialist

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Amarillo, Texas

Salary Range: $74678 - $97087 Per Year

Job Summary: The Executive Director, Amarillo VA Health Care System (AVAHCS), retains responsibility for administering the overall VHA Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Program. Within this framework, the incumbent serves as the principal advisor in EEO and Affirmative Employment; Alternative Dispute Resolution; for the Executive Director service line executives, supervisors, and employees. The Organizational Location of the Position is: Thomas E. Creek VA Medical Center, Office of the Director.

Major Duties:

• Duties include, but are not limited to: EEO Program and Harassment Prevention Program Management Advising the Director & management on specific actions in support of affirmative action and strategies for handling discrimination complaints & skill to apply knowledge to more difficult/complex problems encountered in the program. In collaboration with the ORMDI Field Office, serving as the local liaison for all aspects of the facility's complaint processing program. This includes aiding the ORMDI field office personnel (EEO Counselors, Investigators & Intake Specialists) during both the counseling/investigative stages. Includes providing documentation as requested; locating & identifying employees involved in the complaint process; discussing resolution efforts; negotiating settlements & drafting the same on behalf of management. Providing advice & assisting during post-investigative stages (e.g., hearings, appeals and compliance phases) for each formal complaint. Includes working with EEOC Administrative Judges, Regional Counsel staff, Office of General Counsel, Office of Employment Discrimination Complaint Adjudication, as well as local supervisors & managers. Incumbent is a trained & certified National Facilitator and conducts EEO training including the Prevention of Sexual Harassment, for all managers & supervisors. Conducting mandated training within 60 days of all newly hired employee's entry on duty. Conducting studies/analysis on the utilization of minorities & women in the workplace, identifying obstacles & outlining alternative solutions to identified problems such as underrepresentation. Methodically researching, complying & analyzing statistical data to evaluate progress of the EEO Program. Identifying organizational or occupational areas that need improvement & developing/implementing alternatives to resolve problems. Identifying program goals that may conflict with existing policies or practices actions, reassignments, job training, sexual harassment & reprisal. Conducting briefings to MCD & management officials making them aware of their responsibilities in relation to these plans & soliciting their support for successful implementation. Serving as the Harassment Prevention Coordinator for the Harassment Prevention Program & is primary point of contact to receive harassment allegations for the facility. Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) Program Directing/developing an ADR Program, which is any procedure or combination of procedures voluntarily used to resolve issues in controversy without the need to resort to litigation. Preparing correspondence, conducting through reviews & discussions with all parties & helping/mediating to negotiate resolution. Assisting the parties in: Briefing the process & preparing for negotiation Structuring the negotiation Clarifying the core issues in dispute Avoiding personality conflict(s) which may disrupt the negotiation Identifying the strengths & weaknesses of each party's position Keeping all parties focused & on track Examining alternative approaches, which facilitate a compromised agreement Creating/implementing communication strategies & serving as a content manager for trainings, web resources, social media & print Developing innovative strategies/recommendations for initiating & establishing goals. Implementing new initiatives/programs to strengthen, facilitate & integrate programs into the overall facility's strategies/priorities Investigating/analyzing adverse operations, trends or conditions & initiating corrective action & follows-through Work Schedule: Monday - Friday; 8:00 - 4:30pm Telework: This position is authorized for telework (Ad-hoc Eligible Only) Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Equal Employment Specialist/PD004980 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved 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, 05/08/2026. 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-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 as described below: Specialized Experience: I possess one year of specialized experience, equivalent to at least the GS-9 level in the federal service, that equipped me with the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to successfully perform the duties of this position and that is typically in and/or related to the position being filled. Specialized experience includes: knowledge of principles, concepts, laws, and regulations of human resources management (HRM), and EEO principles, concepts, federal EEO laws, regulations and policies to include: 29 CFR, Part 1614, MD-110, MD 715, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Sect. 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Age Discrimination Act of 1975, Title IX, Education Amendments of 1972, and VHA Policies, Directives, and Executive Orders, with a high level of consultative skill that is sufficient to serve as an expert and key advisor to top agency management officials on the integration of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, knowledge of working collaboratively to develop and implement recruitment and retention strategies focused on building a diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce and work environment, knowledge of program development and delivery methodologies and techniques to manage, identify, evaluate, recommend, and implement program strategies, knowledge of concepts, principles, and practices of program analysis, to analyze and evaluate previous, current, and projected operating programs for potential effectiveness in meeting their objectives, and skills in conflict resolution, team building, executive meeting facilitation, and group dynamics, ability to analyze problems and present both written and oral recommendations taking into full consideration a wide range of factors and requirements which affect the management of the healthcare delivery system. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or three full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M., if related. (Transcripts may be submitted with application package.). OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education as described above. 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/12944559. 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, 05/08/2026. 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: 2026-05-08