Health System Specialist

Health System Specialist

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Syracuse, New York

Salary Range: $106437 - $138370 Per Year

Job Summary: The purpose of this position is to provide support to the Medical Center Director and Executive Leadership Team by analyzing, evaluating, advising on and/or coordinating health care delivery systems and operations. The position renders advice on operational policies and assures these policies are coordinated with field operations. The incumbent must assure that operational policies are coordinated with and in support of administrative functions in coordination with the supervisor.

Major Duties:

• Major duties include but are not limited to; The incumbent functions as the primary liaison to multiple staff offices and serves as the conduit for information flow and management of assignments between such offices. Conducts or participates in special information flow studies, analyses, presentations and briefings, as assigned. Conducts analytical studies on particular operational processes, issue topics, or related special projects. Studies and projects addressed are commonly so diverse and intense that they often require input and assistance from departmental or program offices. These studies require study planning, statistical measurement, data analysis, and report preparation and development. When tasked with this type of project, serves as the responsible contact for leading these projects from initiation to completion and may be required to present the results to senior leadership. Develops position papers and decision documents representing the position of the organization on a variety of complex and sensitive issues such as the quality or timeliness of veteran care issues within the system or at times, issues of Congressional or media interest that have significant national impact e.g. quality and safety concerns or involve several functional areas. An expert level knowledge of health system services is required for the breadth and depth of studies encountered. Works in coordination with other internal reviewing services regarding complex audits and internal/external reviews of a national concern; i. e, fiscal efficiencies and organizational structure that are reviewed by prominent parties such as the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) or the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Tracks both routine and uncommon deadlines initiated by OIG/GAO and internal reviewing officials to ensure timely submission of responses and actions. Communicates with responsible staff agency members to ensure completion of all requested actions and appropriately closes out all requests. Coordinates events hosted by officials, including town hall meetings with internal staff, with assistance from continuing educational staff and initiatives when warranted. The incumbent completes all steps required within an event management process, including facilitating selection of the event time, developing a formal agenda, managing any required contracts and all logistical items, disseminating information to attendees, and ensuring smooth execution of the event. Mastery of and skill in applying advanced qualitative and quantitative techniques in order to perform thorough management analysis of current and projected diagnostic service programs. Expert knowledge of the unique characteristics of the specific health care delivery system served, the missions, organizations, programs, and requirements of health care delivery systems, intra- and interdepartmental relationships, and agency operations and programs sufficient to interact effectively with healthcare facilities and to seek out and secure more detailed, technical information for task accomplishment when needed. The incumbent is expected to use initiative in organizing and accomplishing the responsibilities that have been delegated. The incumbent works closely with senior management officials and others in implementing and evaluating policies, plans, and internal operational systems. Develops management improvement programs or revised policy and procedural requirements for more effective application of various administrative management systems; such as work measurement, work simplification, incentive awards, performance evaluation, management reports, automation, communication analyses, etc. Formulates recommendations to include specific plans to correct deficiencies or to increase positive accomplishments of administrative practices; Conducts in-depth studies to meet needs that may arise or to meet needs that already exist. Direct responsibility for seeking and finding practical solutions which may be achieved in short or long range planning. Performs other duties as assigned Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 7:30am - 4: 00pm Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Health System Specialist/PD21S03O 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, 05/11/2026. 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-13 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-12. 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: Individual Occupation Requirements (IORs): The Health Systems Specialist GS-0671 occupation series has IORs that must be met in order to qualify for entry into this job series as described below. An applicant can meet this requirement by either Education, Specialized Experience or the Special Provision for Inservice Placement. Undergraduate and Graduate Education: Major study -- hospital administration, public health administration, or related fields such as business or public administration with course work in health care administration. OR; Specialized Experience: Progressively responsible analytical or administrative, or clinical management or supervisory experience in the health care field. This work may have been performed in an operating health care facility or a higher organizational echelon with advisory or directional authority over such facilities. Work must have involved a close working relationship with facility managers and analysis and/or coordination of administrative, clinical, or other service activities, and provided knowledge of the following: Missions, organizations, programs, and requirements of health care delivery systems; Regulations and standards of various regulatory and credentialing groups; and Government-wide, agency, and facility systems and requirements in various administrative areas such as budget, personnel, and procurement. OR; Special Provision for Inservice Placement: Successful completion of an agency-sponsored on-the-job training program may be substituted for qualifying experience, provided it included a formal individualized training plan. Such a training program must have been conducted in an operating health care system and included: Assignments providing a knowledge of basic health system administration philosophies, practices, and procedures, and basic government administrative policies and requirements; Practical assignments providing an opportunity to apply health system administration skills and principles (as the individual progresses, work assignments must be characteristic of the grade level to which he or she is assigned); and Oversight by an experienced health system administrator with periodic evaluation of the individual's progress and appropriate adjustment of the training program. GS-13 Health System Specialist Experience Requirement: In addition to meeting the IORs for entry into this job series, to be eligible for this role at the GS-13 level, applicants must possess at least 1 year of experience equivalent to the next lower grade level (GS-12) in the Federal Service, that is directly related to the work of the position and has equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills and abilities to successfully perform the duties as a Health System Specialist. Specialized experience includes: Knowledge of healthcare service administration, data analysis; healthcare principles, budgeting, planning, administration, and labor/union relationships, or other key administrative support functions; sufficient to analyze and evaluate broad and difficult problems, Experience working closely with senior management and others in implementing and evaluating policies, plans, and internal operational systems such as correspondence management, information tracking among pertinent offices and stakeholders, and internal/external communication flows Knowledge of broad agency administrative practices such as control practices, office processes, regulations, and rules in keeping with senior management decision makers affecting the administration and delivery of healthcare systems. Works closely with senior management officials and others in implementing and evaluating policies, plans, and internal operational systems Provide support to health care management officials by analyzing, evaluating, advising on and/or coordinating health care delivery systems and operations. Please note that your experience must be clearly demonstrated in your application to receive full credit. We will not make assumptions regarding your 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/.

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/12954900. 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, 05/11/2026. 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: 2026-05-11