Program Applications Specialist

Program Applications Specialist

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): San Antonio, Texas

Salary Range: $75776 - $98514 Per Year

Job Summary: The incumbent serves as the integrator that coordinates the business process and software functions for the Northwest Health Care Center (NWHCC) of the South Texas Veterans Health Care System (STVHCS). The incumbent of this position provides continuous business oversight for a variety of software programs integral to the overall administration and operations of the business and any programmatic changes at the facility level.

Major Duties:

• Duties may include, but are not limited to: Coordinates ongoing data collection and performs analysis to determine optimal organizational performance; Uses available data to determine current performance and develops and implements local performance measures as needed to assess current status and determine areas targeted for improved effectiveness and efficiencies of Business Office practices; Performs a continuing evaluation and analysis to assess program effectiveness and to identify areas requiring management attention; Designs and develops dissemination and training materials, local standard operating procedure (SOP) manuals, develops and utilizes monitoring tools, and provides for the implementation of Business Office programs through on-site education and training; Identifies system inefficiencies and develops studies or data collection techniques related to specific identified problems; Coordinates with other staff to identify information needs and develops data collection methods and report formats to meet those needs; Organizes, compiles, summarizes, and analyzes the data collected and develops reports which reflect the scope of activities and identifies trends and opportunities for improvement; Researches problems that impact the quality and efficiency of Business Office operations; Responsible for the coordination, planning, implementation, and training for service and facility staff in business and functional areas for various information technology VISTA packages; Serves as the functional "expert" for matters relating to the Patient Information Management System (PIMS) core package; Provides training and troubleshooting for clinical and administrative staff in business processes and associated supporting software; Provides training for individual users on daily operational tasks and trains new users; Trains service employees and facility employees in the use of PIMS programs, such as scheduling, to ensure that data is entered correctly and optimizes clinic utilization. Training consists of development and presentation of both formal lectures and on-the-job sessions to those employees who will be entering, changing and extracting data; The incumbent plans initiatives for hardware and software needs for the service; Responsible for determining the physical and data security needs for the service areas and implements necessary improvements; Assesses individual needs to determine appropriate level of menu access for staff, Regional Office employees, and employees from VISN/VA facilities; Reviews access to terminal and file codes for the purpose of controlling access to the patient and medical records to assure compliance with the Privacy Act and Cyber Security regulations; Ensures data is being captured and reported accurately and appropriately; Analyzes utilization trend data on a monthly/quarterly basis to verify the accuracy of the data, identify problem areas, provide objective assessments, prioritize identified problems, analyze variances and recommend appropriate actions and/or alternatives; The incumbent establishes administrative qualitative standards; the objective of which is intended to improve programs, facilities and operations. The incumbent develops and implements standards that affect the service; Incumbent maintains records, prepares project administrative and statistical reports, assures compliance with review process, and monitors compliance with program requirements; Contributes to the professional growth and development of effective teams and individuals on the team and ensures that staff is trained in Business Office principles and technical uses; Performs other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm Telework: Available on an Ad-hoc basis. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Program Applications Specialist/PD03966O 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, 05/01/2026. 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-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-9. 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: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-9 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: knowledge of qualitative and quantitative techniques for analyzing and measurement of the effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity of administrative and technical programs; understanding of performance improvement principles; knowledge of health care systems and delivery systems, management principles, practices, methods and techniques; ability to retrieve, track and trend information needed for analysis and reporting; knowledge of, and skill in applying user acceptance testing principles, methods, and approaches sufficient to test, debug and maintain software applications that meet functional requirements; knowledge of information security principles and methods; and the ability to communicate a clear, logical and concise explanation of information, both orally and in written format. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have a master's or equivalent graduate degree, or 2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree, or LL.B. or J.D., if related. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond 1 full year of graduate level education. 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/. 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. Physical Requirements: The work is sedentary. Some work may require movement between offices, hospitals, warehouses, and similar areas for meetings and to conduct work. Work may also require walking/standing, in conjunctions with travel to and attendance at meetings and/or conferences away from the work site. Incumbent may carry and lift light items weighing less than 15 pounds.

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/12943407. 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, 05/01/2026. 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: 2026-05-01