Program Specialist - Survivors Assistance and Memorial Support

Program Specialist - Survivors Assistance and Memorial Support

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Columbus, Ohio

Salary Range: $52654 - $83733 Per Year

Job Summary: The position serves as a Program Specialist assigned to the Survivors Assistance and Memorial Support (SAMS) Program under the Chief, Social Work, and Integrated Care as a primary person responsible for the facility SAMS Program. SAMS's focus is to provide personalized, supportive services to families, caregivers, and survivors at the end of a Veteran's life and ensures Veterans without identified family receive dignified burials to honor their service.

Major Duties:

• 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. Provides management and oversight of all aspects of the Decedent care program at our facility. Works from the decedent care directive to develop standard operating procedures. Creates and submits decedent affairs reports for the facility. Discusses barriers with VACO, VISN ,and local and suggests solutions. Advises Veterans and their NOK of burial benefits. Helps Veterans and NOK prearrange burial, interment, cremation, as desired by Veteran. Advises surviving relatives about burial benefits and other potential benefits provided by VA. Reviews eligibility and entitlement of burial and death allowances and advises on the process for applying for those benefits. Refers surviving relatives with specific benefit inquiries to a VBA point of contact, not the toll-free telephone number. Informs Veteran, caregiver, and NOK of available supportive services within the medical facility, such as Chaplaincy and Social Work, to provide support at end of life and immediately following death. Reviews daily death notifications. Submits completed death certificates to designated Funeral Director and County Registrar's Office. Analyzes data to determine quality improvement measures and any necessary changes to processes. Investigates and analyzes adverse quality trends or conditions and initiates corrective action. Consults with staff and managers to identify opportunities for quality improvement. Facilitates quality management plan development and implementation. Collaborates with palliative care to promote quality end-of-life care by assisting in developing action plans and process improvements related to quantitative and qualitative reporting from the Bereaved Family Survey. Implements information systems to track service activities including visits, referrals, demographics, and outcomes. Collects, analyzes, and reports program data to local management, the designated VISN POC and the National SAMS Program. Evaluates program progress and outcomes using data to modify and improve the facility program and processes. The position collaborates with Fiscal office to financially support SAMS operations. Assesses past budget requirements, projects future budget needs, submits budget requests and manages program budget. Serves as the fund control point clerk, purchase card official and Contracting Officer Representative for SAMS contracts. Conducts quarterly audits of patient fund accounts to identify any deceased patient fund accounts in accordance with VA policies and local procedures. Initiates disposition of funds when deceased patient fund account balance is identified. Develops and maintains monthly and fiscal year variance reports. Utilizes Integrated Funds Distribution Control Point Activity (IFCAP) and Fund Control Point (FCP) processes with delegated responsibility to resolve funding needs. The position participates in facility initiatives relating to No Veteran Dies Alone (NVDA). Partners with staff and leadership to identify needs and opportunities throughout facility. Provides general education, training, and resources about SAMS to staff throughout the hospital, community living centers (CLC) and community who provide support to Veterans at end-of-life and to their family and NOK. Collaborates with the VA Center for Development and Civic Engagement to recruit, train, schedule and oversee volunteers at the facility and CLC. Performs other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Schedule to be determined by service. Compressed/Flexible: Flexible Telework: Available (Ad Hoc) Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Program Specialist - Survivors Assistance and Memorial Support/PD92792O and PD92791O 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, 05/06/2026. 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. For a GS-07 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-05. 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 GS-7: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-05 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Collecting and managing new data about current practices in the department and across sites of care, Maintaining proficiency in using local, regional, and national databases, Using agency, department and program knowledge to determine essential data collection and provide program assessment/analysis, Creating and submitting reports for the facility, Creates and submits reports for the facility. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have one (1) full year of graduate level education in an accredited college or university. Such education must demonstrate the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to do the work of the Program Specialist. NOTE: A transcript or course listing must be submitted if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. Unofficial transcripts required. Applications submitted without this information will not be considered. 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 successfully completed post-high school education to meet total qualification requirements for the grade level GS-07. Specialized Experience GS-9: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-07 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Knowledge in in the areas of end-of-life, hospice death, burial, funeral, and bereavement, Advising Veterans and their next of kin of burial benefits and helps prearrange burial, interment, cremation as desired, Implementing information systems to track service activities including visits, referrals, demographics, and outcomes, Analyzing data to determine quality improvement measures and any necessary changes to processes. Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have Successfully completed a master's or equivalent graduate degree, or 2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or an LL.B. or J.D., if related to the work of this position. (Transcripts must be submitted). OR, Note: One full year of graduate education meets the requirements for GS-07. Two full years of graduate education or a master's degree meets the requirements for GS-09. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond. Combinations of successfully completed post-high school education and experience may be used to meet total qualification requirements for the grade levels specified in the announcement. 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/12943859. 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, 05/06/2026. 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: 2026-05-06