Program Specialist

Program Specialist

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): McClellan, California

Salary Range: $55934 - $88949 Per Year

Job Summary: The VA Northern California Health Care System is currently recruiting for a full time Management and Program Analyst position within Community Care Service located at the McClellan Station. Oversee's performance and quality assurance of one or more sections within the service, as well as serving data analysis needs of Community Care Service as a whole. Manage and provide evaluation and guidance on both internal and external metrics directly impacting care delivery of all Community Care.

Major Duties:

• The Customer Service Program Specialist serves as a consulting specialist and community vendor liaison, providing customer services for internal and external stakeholders. The position (Customer Service Focus) plays a crucial role in enhancing customer satisfaction by analyzing and improving the customer service processes within VA NCHCS Office of Community Care. The incumbent will be responsible for analyzing customer service metrics and feedback to identify trends and areas for improvement, recommending and implementing process improvements, preparing detailed reports, fostering customer engagement, providing training, and leveraging technology to enhance customer service delivery. This position requires a dedicated individual who can analyze customer service performance, advocate for continuous process improvement, engage with customers and stakeholders, provide staff training, and harness technology to enhance customer service. The incumbent must be capable of working well with numerous health care professionals and other administrative staff, can perform in a stressful environment/situation with extremediplomacy, accurately identify records requiring upload, watermarking, and proper upload to the appropriate veteran's medical record. This position is viewed as an integral part of the Community Care team. Major duties include, but are not limited to: Service Level Advocate, Advanced Case Resolution & Operational Support Manages complex or escalated Veteran cases requiring cross-department coordination, clarification of care processes, or intervention to remove barriers. Monitors, triages, and responds to PATS-R entries, Direct Messages, secure messages, and other incoming Veteran communications to ensure timely, accurate resolution. Conducts research and prepares responses related to inquiries from State and Federal agencies, external partners, and oversight bodies. Coordinates Community Care scheduling activities, including appointment verification, follow-up, and resolution of scheduling issues impacting Veteran access. Tracks, documents, and resolves case issues by collaborating with clinical staff, administrative teams, and community partners, ensuring continuity of care. Identifies patterns in case concerns and communicates findings to leadership to improve processes and service delivery. Community Care Network (CCN) Vendor Liaison & Community Representation Acts as a primary liaison with CCN vendors to resolve authorization, appointment access, claims, documentation, and coordination issues. Facilitates communication between VA service lines, community providers, and CCN partners to support accurate referrals and timely scheduling. Participates in community outreach activities and provider relationship efforts representing the VA and supporting community care partnerships. Includes Job Fairs, Town Halls, Conferences, etc. Reviews vendor performance trends and assists leadership in monitoring compliance and follow-up actions. Analyst & Other Duties Supports service-level monitoring activities by gathering data, identifying workflow concerns, and elevating issues impacting timely service delivery. Assists in evaluating access metrics, performance indicators, and customer experience trends to support program improvement initiatives. Provides feedback to leadership regarding service bottlenecks, compliance gaps, or process inefficiencies observed during daily work. Participates in trainings, workgroups, and special projects in support of broader service-line goals. Perform other duties as assigned. Promotion Potential: The selectee may be promoted to the full performance level without further competition when all regulatory, qualification, and performance requirements are met. Selection at a lower grade level does not guarantee promotion to the full performance level. Work Schedule: Full-time; Monday to Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm Supervisor discretion Telework: ADHOC This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Program Specialist/PD03378A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Authorized 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, 05/08/2026. 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-07 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-05. For a GS-09 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-07. 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:GS-7: 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: Understanding of healthcare organizational structure, policies and procedures; customer service skills; clear verbal and written communication; computer skills and knowledge, and time management. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have successfully completed a 1 full year of graduate level education or superior academic achievement. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and less than one year of graduate education. GS-9 Specialized Experience: 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. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: qualitative and quantitative techniques to analyze and measure the effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity of healthcare delivery systems; skill in completing data reports and briefings; ability to work independently and in a team; and advanced computer skills and knowledge. 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. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have equivalent combination of specialized experience and graduate education in excess of the first year (18 semester hours) to meet total experience requirements. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Analysis and Problem Solving Customer Service Knowledge Management Organizational Awareness Organizational Performance Analysis Research 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: Work is primarily sedentary but walking between buildings is required. Work will involve some walking, standing, use of telephone, and computer keyboard. 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/12946580. 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, 05/08/2026. 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: 2026-05-08