Department of Veterans Affairs

Program Assistant (OA)

Gainesville, Florida Full time

Program Assistant (OA)

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Gainesville, Florida

Salary Range: $45409 - $59031 Per Year

Job Summary: This position is located in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), North Florida/South Georgia (NF/SG) Veterans Health System, Mental Health Service in Gainesville, FL. The primary purpose for this position is to provide administrative and clerical support to the programs and the multi-disciplinary teams of the Mental Health Service.

Major Duties:

  • This position directly supports the administrative functions of the Mental Health Service program staff. The Program Assistant coordinates with the team by performing office support tasks, coordinating communication between Veterans, families and VA and community healthcare services as warranted. They will be responsible for collecting data from multiple computer application database systems to provide information on consult management, resource utilization, quality of care and outcomes, which requires experience with fund control point management and budget reconciliation. Duties and responsibilities include, but are not limited to: Compiles statistical data for programs. Prepares data driven reports. Maintains written records. Prepares written correspondence that meets national standards. Procures all needed supplies and equipment. Provides customer service to Veterans, staff, and external stakeholders. Analyzes work flow to identify technical problems. Develops data collection tools. Post time in VATAS. Post payments for assigned fund control points. Routes incoming phone calls to appropriate staff. Utilizes various computer programs to prepare reports. Executes fleet management programs. Independently maintains ongoing records of fund control activity. Prepares and tracks program specific information, grants, contracts. Work Schedule: 8:00 am to 4:30pm, Monday through Friday Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Program Assistant (OA)/PD05857A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/27/2026. 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-6 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-5. 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. Preferred Experience: Familiarity with data dashboards, Leaf system, time and attendance, CPRS, and customer service skills. 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-5 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: General clerical and administrative duties. Receiving, answering and routing phone calls and inquiries. Prepares correspondence, compiling reports, extracting and organizing data. Reviews documents for accuracy and maintaining files. Manages and maintains databases. Proficient with various programs such as VISTA and encounter completion, as well as other computer systems such as Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Access and Outlook. Knowledge of VA regulations and laws pertaining to Veteran Benefits. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Clerical Control of Funds Customer Service Information Management Writing 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: This work involves some walking, standing, bending, and carrying of some light items. The work requires the incumbent to be able to move comfortably around the office and when necessary other locations. The work involves a considerable amount of time gathering and recording data. Work Environment: The work is performed in an office setting with occasional travel to outside facilities for meetings, training, conferences, and networking. The incumbent must be able to operate a standard passenger motor vehicle. The incumbent observes normal safety precautions while working in an adequately lighted, heated, and ventilated office. 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 03/27/2026 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12907327. 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. 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/ The Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal/VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be well-qualified: applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are proficient in most of the required competencies of the job. Information about 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/. During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions.

Application Deadline: 2026-03-27