Health System Specialist-Executive Assistant

Health System Specialist-Executive Assistant

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Washington, District of Columbia

Salary Range: $102415 - $133142 Per Year

Job Summary: The Health Systems Specialist (HSS)/Executive Assistant provides high-impact executive support & enterprise coordination across complex clinical & administrative portfolios; exercises planning, analysis, and integration of policies, programs, and resources; coordinates cross-functional teams; and advises executive leadership on operational risk, performance, and strategy. Work products materially influence resource allocation, compliance posture, patient access and experience, and readiness.

Major Duties:

• This job will close when we have received 75 applications, which may occur before the closing date. Provides high-level coordination and administrative support for the service lines under the assigned AD's purview, which may include but are not limited to: Business Office, Logistics, Safety, Police Services, Healthcare Technology Management, Facilities Management Services, Environmental Services, Fiscal, Nutrition and Food Service, Prosthetics, Veterans Canteen Services, Center for Development and Civic Engagement, Privacy/FOIA, System Redesign, Office of Information and Technology, High Reliability Organization, Human Resources, Public Affairs, and Congressional Liaison. Coordinates assignments, tracks progress, and ensures alignment with applicable policies and executive priorities. Provides technical guidance on correspondence, workflow, and records management. Identifies process and competency gaps; recommends training and development actions to service leaders and contributes input to performance feedback, as requested. Troubleshoots operational issues and develops recommendations for process improvements and staffing adjustments for consideration by service and executive leadership. Assists with HR actions by coordinating recruitment packages, position justifications, and staffing analyses in collaboration with Human Resources; tracks personnel actions and ensures alignment with workforce planning and VHA directives. Ensures compliance with VA/VHA policy, privacy, and regulatory standards. Reviews and aligns local policy, SOPs, and charters with VHA directives/handbooks; drafts or revises governance charters Represents ADs in high-level internal and external forums (VISN, VACO, congressional staff, affiliates, Veterans Service Organizations, interagency partners). Serves in Incident Command roles commensurate with training and assignment; coordinates after-action reviews and improvement plans. Leads rapid improvement and special studies where guidance is limited; creates novel frameworks/tools to address emergent or ambiguous issues. Designs and coordinates enterprise operating rhythms (leadership huddles, governance councils, dashboards) that align service execution with AD Resources/AD Operations priorities and the DMCD's intent. Achieves on-time completion of action logs (target >92%); supports cycle-time reduction for decision memoranda (target ??15% year over year); maintains a documented risk register with mitigation status. Reviews and prioritizes requests within the ADs' span (e.g., Facilities, Supply Chain Management, Fiscal, Police, Emergency Management, Environmental Management Services, Facilities Management Service, Prosthetics, Biomedical Engineering, Patient Experience, Quality). Conducts cost-benefit, workforce, and throughput analyses; drafts issue briefs and decision packages. Assists with contracting duties by reviewing procurement requests, coordinating with Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) processes, conducting market research, and preparing acquisition planning documents and justifications for compliance with federal acquisition regulations (FAR) and VA Acquisition Regulation (V MR). Recommends reallocations within approved ceilings; drafts justifications for unfunded requirements (UFRs) and unfunded capital requests; coordinates with Fiscal/Budget to align proposals with financial policy. Serves as the ADs' lead for external surveys (e.g., The Joint Commission, OIG, OAWP, L TCI, GARF, OSHA, NCPS/Patient Safety). Leads post-survey corrective action plans (CAPs) and sustainability checks. Triages and resolves complex patient, staff, and stakeholder escalations (congressional, VISN, VACO). Authors' executive correspondence and position statements with data validation and legal/FOIA awareness. Serves as the representative of the respective Associate Director in executive-level huddles, meetings, and committees, including local and VISN forums. May stand in for the Associate Director(s) to which assigned, exercising delegated decision-making authority on operational, resource, and administrative matters within established guidelines and ceilings. Recommends resource shifts, staffing models, service line prioritization, and policy changes; drafts packages for DMCD/Director approval. Serves as the primary coordination point between the AD offices and VISNNACO program offices on assigned matters. Handles pre-decisional, labor-sensitive, and procurement-sensitive information with discretion; coordinates with OGC, Privacy, and FOIA offices as applicable. Work Schedule: 7:30 am - 4:00 pm or 8:00 am - 4:00 pm, Monday - Friday Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Health System Specialist-Executive Assistant/PD266570 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, 05/07/2026. 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. 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. This occupational series has an Individual Occupational Requirement - for this series, the following Basic Requirement must be met in addition to the Specialized Experience. Specialized Experience (for positions above GS-5): 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. 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. You may qualify based on your experience as described below: GS-12 Specialized Experience Specialized Experience: one (1) full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade level (GS-11) 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 Systems Specialist. Qualifying specialized experience is defined as, but not limited to: Develops position papers and decision documents representing the position of the ADR and the organization on a variety of complex and sensitive issues. Evaluates, processes, or makes recommendations for effective organization changes. Serves as a team leader for the VAMC and VISN studies or projects with significant organizational changes. Required comprehensive knowledge of the range of administrative law, polices, regulations, accrediting requirements, and precedents applicable to the administration of the health care delivery system in general and in the country at large. Perform work involving the development of life cycle or other cost analyses of projects, or the performance of cost benefits or economic evaluations of programs. Coordinates with the appropriate individuals or offices to develop proposals and supporting materials for presentation at conferences, meetings, hearings, and other external activities and meetings. Uses a high degree of analytical ability and specialized knowledge of the principles and practices related to the management of healthcare delivery systems. Works in coordination with other internal reviewing services regarding complex audits and internal/external reviews of a national concern. Contacts and engages frequently with clinical staff at all levels to facilitate the work of the office related to a variety of operations-focused assignments and projects initiated by senior leadership or program offices, or departmental offices. Preferred Experience: The ideal candidate is an experienced healthcare operations leader with 5+ years in large, complex health systems (ideally V A/VHA/DoD or comparable tertiary, university-affiliated environments), who has provided high-impact executive support to senior leaders such as Associate Directors, COOs, or Service Line Chiefs. They should have a proven record of coordinating across multiple non-clinical service lines, such as Business Office, Logistics/Supply Chain, Safety, Healthcare Technology Management/Biomed, and Fiscal, and preferably have directly managed or led one or more of these areas, with responsibility for operations, staffing, budget, and regulatory compliance. This position calls for expertise in health system operations and readiness, resource stewardship and acquisition support (including familiarity with FAR/VAAR environments), and active participation in accreditation and regulatory activities such as Joint Commission and OIG surveys, including leading corrective action plans and sustainability efforts. The incumbent should also bring advanced analytical and decision-support capabilities, including building and interpreting performance dashboards using tools such as VSSC, DSS, Power BI, SAIL, or similar tools, and converting complex data into concise executive decision memoranda with clear courses of action, fiscal impact, and risk analysis. Exceptional communication skills are essential, with experience drafting executive correspondence, congressional or high-visibility responses, and leadership briefings, as well as representing senior leaders in VISN/region, headquarters, affiliate, or community forums on sensitive or controversial topics. The strongest candidates will demonstrate success leading cross-functional projects and rapid improvement efforts, navigating ambiguous problems, managing employee engagement initiatives, and, ideally, holding experience in Incident Command or emergency management roles, showing they can integrate the operations of the ADR's service lines with broader organizational priorities in access, quality, safety, and patient 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, including 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/12950348. 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, 05/07/2026. 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 reuse 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 the 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 a 14-point font for titles and a 10-point font 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 the 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: 2026-05-07