Department: Department of Veterans Affairs
Location(s): Jackson, Mississippi
Salary Range: $50460 - $80243 Per Year
Job Summary: The Program Specialist (Customer Service) serves as a Customer Service Liaison and Service Level Advocate for the all Community Care programs and functions. The primary purpose of this position is to improve the Veteran and community care provider experience. Performs reviews by examining Veterans' medical records, community care authorizations and referrals, community payment records and historical tracking of submitted health care claims.
Major Duties:
Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 05/13/2026. 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 this GS-7 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-5. For this GS-9 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-7. 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 VA employees applying for reinstatement with CTAP eligibility. Specialized Experience (GS-7): 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. Specialized Experience include (but are not limited to): Assist in the development of detailed training materials and teaching aids to conduct formal and informal training sessions to vendors, Veterans, Congressional Offices, large hospital associations, medical center staff and other stakeholders Administer duties, priorities, commitments, polices, precedents, procedures, practices, goals, objectives, laws, VA guidelines and program goals of both administrative and clinical services of Community Care in order to respond to concerns expressed by patients and their families Foster the abilities to solve complex problems associated with the day to day operations concerning customer service issues in a positive, goal-oriented way Ability to take quick and effective action when necessary. OR Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have 1 full year of graduate level education (Transcripts required). OR Superior Academic Achievement (SAA): Completed all the requirements for a bachelor's degree in a curriculum that is qualifying for the position to be filled and meet one of the following: Class standing -- Applicants must be in the upper third of the graduating class in the college, university, or major subdivision, such as the College of Liberal Arts or the School of Business Administration, based on completed courses Grade-point average (G.P.A.) -- Applicants must have a grade-point average of: 3.0 or higher out of a possible 4.0 ("B" or better) as recorded on their official transcript, or as computed based on 4 years of education, or as computed based on courses completed during the final 2 years of the curriculum; or 3.5 or higher out of a possible 4.0 ("B+" or better) based on the average of the required courses completed in the major field or the required courses in the major field completed during the final 2 years of the curriculum. (Grade-point averages are to be rounded to one decimal place. For example, 2.95 will round to 3.0 and 2.94 will round to 2.9) Election to membership in a national scholastic honor society. For a list of recognized honor societies please visit http://www.achsnatl.org/quick_link.asp. OR Combination of Experience and Education: I have a combination of specialized experience as described in A, but less than one year of graduate education as described in B. (To compute, divide your total months of qualifying experience by 12, then divide your semester hours of graduate education beyond one year by 18, add the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify.) (Note: you must attach a copy of your transcripts.) NOTE: Copies of transcripts must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation. . Specialized Experience (GS-9): You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade (GS-7) in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Specialized Experience include (but are not limited to): Administers Federal laws, VA regulations and directives governing medical benefits for veterans, facility policies, procedures and organizational structure, medical terminology, services available, capabilities of clinics, and must be aware of changes which affect veterans' benefits Implements health services research methods, including data collection and management methods, analysis design, interpretation of study results and translation of study results into action plans Performs high degree of skill and written communication as well as interpersonal relations Effectively review and interpret information contained in medical and administrative records Utilizes analytical abilities is required in reviewing policies, identifying existing issues and potential issues and suggesting solutions or alternative to existing procedures which may contribute to those issues. OR Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have 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) (Transcripts required). OR Combination of Experience and Education: I have a combination of specialized experience as described in A, but less than one year of graduate education as described in B. (To compute, divide your total months of qualifying experience by 12, then divide your semester hours of graduate education beyond one year by 18, add the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify.) (Note: you must attach a copy of your transcripts.) You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Manages and Organizes Information Decision making Information Management Problem Solving Customer Service 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. Typically, the employee may sit comfortably to do the work. However, there may be some walking, standing, bending, and carrying of light items like papers or books. No special physical demands are required to perform the work. The work is performed in a typical office setting with adequate light, heat, and ventilation. 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/12948932. 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, 05/13/2026. 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: 2026-05-13