Program Support Assistant (Surgical Care)

Program Support Assistant (Surgical Care)

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): San Antonio, Texas

Salary Range: $46076 - $59898 Per Year

Job Summary: The purpose of the position is to serve in the capacity of program support assistant to the Supervisory Management Analyst and support the day to day operations of their assigned sections as well as the Surgical Service in general. The complexity of this service requires an assistant who can coordinate, gather information and write reports for the Supervisory Management Analyst and AO. This will entail performing a wide-range of activities that change periodically due to a variety of factors.

Major Duties:

• Duties may include but are not limited to: Support of HR processes; The incumbent applies clerical and technical procedures, methods, and techniques in the collection, compilation, and/or tracking of data and statistical information in support of program operations; The incumbent maintains, gathers, and compiles records of organizational and workflow charts, keeps logs on staffing levels, i.e., vacancies and mission and function statements, program resource use and availability and serves to assist the program manager and administrative officer in the preparation of many required reports; Works independently to control and maintain office and information systems such as forms, records, mail distribution, directive or publications, and management systems. The incumbent will apply policies and procedures to assist physicians, nursing staff, technicians, and other personnel in understanding and using the systems; Incumbent must be familiar with Microsoft Office, Computerized Patient Record System, and must have a general knowledge of computer software, including word processing, spreadsheet, database, graphic design, and management information systems. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 6:30am-3:00pm Telework: 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 Support Assistant (Surgical Care)/PD03794A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved 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, 03/13/2026. 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 a GS-6 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-5. 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 as described below: Specialized Experience: One (1) full year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower-grade level (GS-5) that equipped you with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties the Program Support Assistant at the full performance level (GS-6), and that is typically in or related to the position to be filled. To be creditable, specialized experience includes: knowledge of management principles and processes as well as the ability to analyze and evaluate methods and techniques; extensive knowledge of surgery management practices and/or surgery programs, guidelines, regulations and precedents; ability to apply basic data gathering methods, such as collecting information from an array of computer programs, reports and documents; ability to organize, write and prepare clear, concise reports that describe the data collection techniques and other processes and procedures used; knowledge of graphs and other forms of graphic representation, etc. NOTE: Experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month and year start/end dates AND hours worked per week. 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/. Physical Requirements: Work is mostly sedentary with some walking, bending, standing in completing various stages of the daily tasks and carrying of light objects such as supplies and documentation manuals and records. There will be some lifting and transferring of baskets or boxes of supplies and records weighing more than 15 pounds. The incumbent must have adequate eyesight and hand dexterity to allow for reading and operating a computer keyboard. The incumbent is required to answer numerous personal/telephonic inquiries and must have adequate eyesight and hand dexterity to allow for reading and operating a computer.

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/12903978. 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, 03/13/2026. 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: 2026-03-13