Program Specialist

Program Specialist

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Memphis, Tennessee

Salary Range: $61722 - $80243 Per Year

Job Summary: The position of Program Specialist is in the office of Quality and Patient Safety. In this capacity, the employee participates actively in the operations of Risk Management under the Department of Quality and Patient Safety. The employee must have a high degree of analytical ability and knowledge of quality management, risk management, legal and peer review processes.

Major Duties:

• The incumbent's responsibilities will be to support the highly sensitive functions associated with the Medical Center's Risk Management programs, Peer Review Committee and coordination of the Hospital's Administrative Board of Investigation (ABI) program. The program specialist also provides administrative coverage when needed within Quality and Patient Safety (Q&PS). Duties include, but are not limited to: Performs a wide range of non-routine program support and administrative functions that are essential to the facility's strategic plan for Quality and Safety, including a VACO directed spreadsheet that includes sensitive information related to Peer Review categories and assigned level of care. Records Peer Review minutes and assists in drafting letters to both Independent and Dependent providers as on a monthly basis. Identifies existing or potential problem areas as noted in the Peer Review minutes and interacts directly with the Chief of Staff and Risk Manager to confirm that the minutes are reconciled, and any open action item is closed. Enters data associated with the various performance measure reports associated with risk management, torts, institutional disclosures and OIG document requests. Assists the Risk Manger in the collection and analysis of Blue Alert and Rapid Response data collection that is reported to the CPR committee chair. Organizes, compiles and summarizes the data collected and administratively assists in the ABI report writing process by checking for grammatical errors and formatting errors. Administratively assists the ABI with completing the final report binder to include evidence, written sworn statements, and any other pertinent documentation. Serves as Quality Management's secondary timekeeper. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 7:30 am - 4:00 pm Compressed/Flexible: Not authorized Telework: Not authorized Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Program Specialist/PD504150 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: 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, 04/29/2026. 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-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 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 s described below: 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 maintaining current knowledge of changes/projected changes in VISN Directives, TJC, CARF and other accrediting body standards, especially in association with risk management and peer review issues, Effectively communicates with various groups/services/teams to gather information, discuss recommendations and coordinate improvement activities, Encourages participation of staff in problem solving activities by providing a conducive environment for innovation and creativity, and demonstrates ability to develop interdisciplinary team members with complimentary skills for maximum team effort/success. 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. (TRANSCRIPTS REQUIRED) OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Attention to Detail Clerical Computer Skills Customer Service Decision Making Flexibility Integrity/Honesty Interpersonal Skills Learning Reading Comprehension Reasoning Self-Management Stress Tolerance Teamwork Written Communication 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 regular and recurring work of the position involves long periods of standing, bending, and stooping to observe and study work operations in an industrial, storage, or comparable work area. 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 04/29/2026 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12937872. 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 Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and 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 ICTAP and 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: 2026-04-29