Program Specialist

Program Specialist

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Tucson, Arizona

Salary Range: $62893 - $81765 Per Year

Job Summary: The Program Specialist position is located at the Southern Arizona VA Medical Center (VAMC) in the Quality, Safety, Value Service (QSVS). The primary purpose of the position is to direct and perform all administrative functions that include administration, human resources management, budget and finance, management and program analysis, office support services, document control, logistics, and a variety of related administrative matters in support of service and medical facility.

Major Duties:

• Duties include, but are not limited to: Oversees a variety of administrative programs, including the distribution and dissemination of incoming mail, internal controls, records management, publication and forms management. Directs administrative support services to ensure that inquires, correspondence, and actions for the area of responsibility are addressed appropriately. Reviews and evaluates completed staff actions (memos, reports, studies, fact sheets, information papers) for overall quality of the document, appropriate levels of coordination, consistency, logic, soundness of recommendations, and compliance with policy. Contacts the originating office to make recommend changes, etc. before documents are forwarded to higher levels. Articulates the reasons for changes to Service Chief and senior staff to facilitate timely and accurate revision. Advises management officials, supervisors, and employees on the interpretation and application of a variety of human resources policies, practices, and procedures including staffing, classification, employee relations, benefits, and related areas. Ensures that performance ratings are submitted in a timely manner in accordance with regulatory guidelines. Performs budget execution functions to ensure that expenditures are consistent with budget formulation plans as the fiscal year progresses. Manages the overall supply needs, services, material movement, and real property for the service. Provides administrative planning and oversight for a variety of special and continuing programs as assigned. Exercises human resources responsibility by initiating requests for recruitment, interviewing and selecting employees, complying with EEO objectives; planning and assigning work, and maintaining accurate and current position descriptions. Communicates information to management for effective evaluation of program operations and milestones. Collects data and analyzes extracts, summarizes, and identifies significant trends and issues. Forecasts and estimates program requirements and prepare programmatic reports, justifications, charts, statistical and narrative data, etc. for Chief, Quality, Safety, Value Service presentations and briefings. Provides oversight of the budgeting and financial management for the Service by exercises responsibility for budget formulation, justification, presentation, and executing in collaboration with the Fiscal Department, financial management and financial reporting and provides advice to the Chief, Quality, Safety, Value Service on budgetary and finance issues. Coordinates and participates in facility-wide Survey Readiness program. Contributes to the management of Accreditation Manager Program. Assists with the designing of facility custom tracers used to determine facility readiness and creates reports as needed. Assists with coordination of quality assurance activities for assigned program(s), which include preparation for quarterly, semi-annual, annual, and/or unannounced audits/surveys. Assists and supports the Action Plan Management tracking system for follow-up on all internal and external site surveys. Enters survey results to monitor progress on action plans. Plans special projects and creates new reports to ensure adequate monitoring of the quality improvement process. Interprets and analyzes data or other information. Work Schedule: Monday Through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Telework: Not Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Program Specialist/PD13188O Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/24/2026. 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-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: 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: Direct and perform all administrative functions that include administration, human resources management, budget and finance, management and program analysis, office support services, document control, logistics, and a variety of related administrative matters in support of service and medical facility. 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 level education leading to such a degree or LL.B or J.D., if related. Such education must demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have a combination of specialized experience and more than one year of graduate level education in a subject area related to the position to be filled. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Administration and Management Financial Management Planning and Evaluating Quality Management 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. It occasionally requires carrying of light objects such as files, books, and papers; some walking, standing and bending. No special physical qualifications are required. 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 03/24/2026 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12903237. 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/ Special Employment Consideration: VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply, including those eligible for hiring under 5 CFR 213.3102(u), Schedule A, Appointment of persons with disabilities [i.e., intellectual disabilities, severe physical disabilities, or psychiatric disabilities], and/or Disabled veterans with a compensable service-connected disability of 30% or more. Contact the Agency Contact for information on how to apply under this appointment authority via the Selective Placement Coordinator. 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: 2026-03-24