Financial Administrative Specialist

Financial Administrative Specialist

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Minneapolis, Minnesota

Salary Range: $66624 - $86609 Per Year

Job Summary: This position is located within the Research Service Line at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System (MVAHCS) in Minneapolis, MN. The Financial Administration Specialist functions as a fiscal, budgetary, logistics, and contracting expert.

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*** The major duties include but are not limited to: Ensures obligations incurred and resulting expenditures on funds are in accordance with pertinent health services research laws and regulations; Ensures regulatory provisions are applied to the appropriation and budgetary process of research applications; Supports the VA grant submission process by overseeing grant budget design and development; Prepares budget estimates, projections, and justifications using a variety of budget processes and tailors planning spreadsheets for first year and subsequent budget years, reviews investigator commitments, and evaluates commitment overlap; Coordinates and leads grant budget reviews and administratively submits grant proposals; Provides fiduciary monitoring of grant resources by maintaining and managing the budgets for the Research Service Line and numerous grant projects that involve many research investigators and a broad range of funding agencies; Monitors charges to the Research Service Line fund control points requesting reports periodically to review obligated and unobligated funds and pursues corrections with the Fiscal Office; Monitors receipts of funding, salaries, supplies, and services, analyzing the distribution of funds comparing estimated funds expected to actual funds received and notifying VA Central Office (VACO) or the funding agency of discrepancies; Prepares budget documents for newly funded grants and project modifications; Performs budget work for the Research Service Line in support of one or more of the phases or systems involved in budget administration including the formulation, presentation, or execution of a budget; Performs studies and audits on control and use of funds throughout each fiscal year; Analyzes historical financial operating data and spending patterns; Applies qualitative and quantitative analytical methods and techniques to analyze and evaluate research plans and funding for one or more future budget years, including but not limited to cost-benefit analyses, risk sensitivity analyses, probability assessments, quantitative analyses, and qualitative analyses; Oversees procurement of all goods and services within the Research Service Line using various approaches; Creates bills of collection and sends and monitors receipt for payment by other institutions; Approves payment of invoices for billing by other organizations via Inter-government Personnel Agreements (IPAs); Holds a government purchase card and creates purchase orders, pays invoices, advises on contracting and travel budget spending, and corresponds with investigators and project staff; Manages procurement and purchase card activities totaling more than $300,000 annually; and, Performs all other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Recruitment & Relocation Incentives: Not authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved Telework (Ad hoc): This position may be authorized for ad hoc telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process.

Qualifications: To qualify for this position at the GS-9 level, you must meet one of the following: Experience: You must have at least one (1) full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade level (GS-7) in the Federal Service that has given you the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities required to successfully perform the duties of a Financial Administrative Specialist, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. Specialized experience includes but is not limited to: Developing and managing budgets, tracking income and expenses, utilizing accounting software such as QuickBooks, performing budget and/or financial forecasting and/or analysis; and developing financial plans using spreadsheets and word processing programs. 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: Successfully completed a master's or equivalent graduate degree or two (2) full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.B., J.D., if related, that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of the Financial Administrative Specialist position. This education must have been obtained in an accredited in an accredited college or university. NOTE: Transcripts (unofficial or official) must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation. ~OR~ Combination: Equivalent combinations of successfully completed graduate level education (beyond the first year or 18 semester hours) and specialized experience, as described above, which may be used to meet total experience requirements for this grade level. The education portion must include graduate courses that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do to the work of the Financial Administrative Specialist position. NOTE: Transcripts (unofficial or official) must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation. 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. 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/. Physical Requirements: The work of the position is primarily sedentary. The person in the position uses a computer and standard office equipment to complete tasks. However, physical mobility and moderate strength are needed to move about the office floors comprising the main hospital building and to lift, carry, and distribute items such as records, files, and supplies. Some walking or travel between building locations may be required several times per week in all seasons and any weather conditions for the purpose of attending meetings, and transporting and disseminating office supplies, records, or files. The person in the position may transport these items by carrying them, pushing a cart containing the items, or other means as necessary.

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/12854010. 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, 01/05/2026. 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. If initial application submission is updated and resubmitted with a new resume, only the most current resume will be reviewed for consideration. 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: 2026-01-05