Lead Personnel Security Specialist

Lead Personnel Security Specialist

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Seattle, Washington

Salary Range: $83104 - $108029 Per Year

Job Summary: This position serves as a Lead Personnel Security Specialist, and the work assigned is of a very confidential, complex and highly sensitive nature. This position performs the security-related functions in support of a Network Personnel Suitability and Credentialing Program (hereinafter, Personnel Security Program) within a Shared Services Unit, and assures that all appointees have the appropriate level of security/suitability clearance commensurate with their assignment.

Major Duties:

• Duties include but not limited to: Conducts security and suitability adjudications related to background investigations. Reviews completed suitability investigations with the purpose of providing recommendations on pre-employment and continued employment considerations. Determines the impact of potential adverse or derogatory information; exercises personal judgement and discretion to evaluate the nature of information received and recommends or takes appropriate action. Implements the policies and procedures for the Personnel Security Program. Provides authoritative information and assistance by administering programs for continuous evaluation of personnel; developing guidelines, procedures, and other materials for use by operating officials. Recommends or takes action on cases where the facts are not completely ascertained, or where there is contradictory evidence or incomplete, inconclusive or controversial material. Drafts and issues Proposed Action Letters (PALs) to applicants and appointees whose investigative results contain actionable suitability information. Obtains and adjudicates investigations conducted by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and other certified investigative agencies of agency personnel. Processes and oversees the submission of higher-level investigations to the VA-Adjudication Center (VA-AC). Lead duties Articulate and communicate to the team the assignment, project, problem to be solved, actionable events, milestones, and/or program issues under review, and deadlines and time frames for completion. Train or arrange for the training of team members in methods and techniques of team building and working in teams to accomplish tasks or projects, and provide or arrange for specific administrative or technical training necessary for accomplishment of individual and team tasks. Prepare reports and maintain records of work accomplishments and administrative information, as required, and coordinate the preparation, presentation and communication of work-related information to the supervisor. Report to the supervisor periodically on team and individual work accomplishments, problems, progress in mastering tasks and work processes, and individual and team training needs. Resolve simple, informal complaints of employees and refer others, such as formal grievances and appeals, to the supervisor or an appropriate management official. Performs related duties as required. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 8:00am-4:30pm Compressed/Flexible: Not available Telework: Not available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Lead Personnel Security Specialist/PD99953S Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized This position requires applicant to work on station

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement, 12/08/2025. 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 within 30 days of 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. Preferred experience: Completion of Adjudication certification You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-09 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Experience conducting security and suitability adjudications related to background investigations, Reviewing completed suitability investigations; Determining the impact of potential adverse or derogatory information, Implementing the policies and procedures for the Personnel Security Program, Resolves difficult and complex security problems such as overlapping and conflicting requirements within the Personnel Security Program. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have at least a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree; or three (3) full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree; or a LL.M., if related, in an accredited college or university that demonstrates the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to do the work of this position and that is typically in or related to the position to be filled (e.g., Human Resources, Business, Public Administration, or Management. OR, Combination: Combinations of successfully completed graduate level education (beyond the first two years) and specialized experience, as described above, to meet the total requirements. The education portion must include graduate courses that demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do to the work of this position. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Accountability Analysis and Problem Solving Attention to Detail Critical Thinking Customer Service Database Management Systems Decision Making Flexibility Information Systems/Network Security Integrity/Honesty Interpersonal Skills Lead or Supervise Learning Reading Comprehension Reasoning Self-Management Stress Tolerance Teamwork 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. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. 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. 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/12838350. 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, 12/08/2025. 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. 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, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, or Roboto. 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 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: 2025-12-08