Health Science Specialist

Health Science Specialist

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Los Angeles, California

Salary Range: $124085 - $161313 Per Year

Job Summary: The incumbent will apply health services research, public health, and evaluation expertise to the design, implementation, and analysis of research projects aimed at end-of-life and advance care planning for veterans receiving long term care in the VA Healthcare System.

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*** NOTE: This is a TERM appointment (not-to-exceed 4 years). Term appointments are non-status, nonpermanent appointments of limited duration (more than 1 year but not more than 4). Term employees are eligible to earn leave and generally have the same benefits as permanent employees including health and life insurance, within-grade increases and Federal Employees Retirement System and Thrift Savings Plan coverage. Term appointments may be extended without further competition (up to the 4-year maximum). The appointment to a Term position does not confer eligibility for promotion or reassignment to other positions or the ability to be non-competitively converted to permanent employment. Develop and/or co-develop programs, such as innovative research complex issues related to Healthcare Equity, quality and effectiveness in diverse populations. Submit and receive grant proposals merit funding to develop and oversee successful strategies for recruitment and retention of diverse Veteran population. Monitor the production of reports and papers for publication and/or dissemination to facility partners. Design studies that use a wide range of qualitative and mixed methods data collection techniques. Evaluate data collection, such as participant recruitment, interview, and development of data analysis plans. Provide conceptual and/or methodological support to address issues, such as health equity, social determinants, evaluation methods, data collection and/or analysis approaches, and dissemination strategies. Implement team-based analysis for setting up, maintaining data files, training team members and collaborating data analysis process as required. Monitor the production of reports and papers for publication and/or dissemination to operations partners. Oversee projects in a multidisciplinary setting and work with diverse stakeholders, such as clinicians, quality managers, health services and/or implementation researchers, administrators, and Veterans. Maintain updated records and systems design in accordance with the requirements set forth by entities. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00am-4:30pm Recruitment & Relocation Incentives: Not authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI):Not Approved

Qualifications: BASIC EDUCATION REQUIREMENT: Must possess a successful completion of a full four (4) year course of study in an accredited college or university leading to a bachelor's or higher degree that included a major field of study or specific course requirements related to the medical field, health sciences or allied sciences appropriate to the work of this position? This degree must be from an educational program from an accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education at the time the degree was obtained. (TRANSCRIPT REQUIRED-Copies of Degrees/Diplomas or course listings are not adequate information) AND SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENT: In addition to meeting the Basic Education Requirement, you must also possess specialized experience as indicated below in order to qualify for this position. Specialized Experience: Must possess one (1) year of specialized experience equipped with the knowledge, skills and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the Supervisory Health Science Specialist position. This experience must have been equivalent to at least the GS-12 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience includes experience as follows: Leading multi-disciplinary inquiry and projects related to healthcare delivery issues, such as long-term care and end-of-life care; experience in providing local, regional, national scientific and technical guidance and leadership; experience developing, implementing, and analyzing research projects focused on documenting, understanding, and reducing or eliminating disparities to improve the quality of end-of-life and long-term care. (This experience must be documented in your resume.) You will be rated on the following Competencies as part of the assessment questionnaire for this position: Data Management Project Management Research IMPORTANT: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. All experience listed on your resume must include the month and year start/end dates. 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. 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; religious; 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. Physical Requirements:The work is mainly sedentary however, inspections of facilities including laboratories, animal care units, clinical research areas, or other research associated sites will require walking or some driving to arrive at distal sites. Typically, the employee may sit comfortably to perform portions of the work. However, there is periodic walking; standing; bending; carrying of light items such as records, files, instructional material, books, and manuals. No special physical demands are required to perform the work. 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 01/16/2026 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12861071. 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. 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 https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/merit-hiring-plan-resources/applicant-guidance-on-the-two-page-resume-limit/ Receiving Service Credit for Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior work experience or military service experience. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed. 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. For more information on how to apply using this appointment authority via the Selective Placement Coordinator within the office, contact the facility Human Resources Department at (310) 478-3711. The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation and be found well-qualified (have a final rating of 85 or more before any Veterans preference points) for this vacancy. 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/.

Application Deadline: 2026-01-16