Public Affairs Specialist

Public Affairs Specialist

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Fredericksburg, Virginia

Salary Range: $85447 - $111087 Per Year

Job Summary: The position is located in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Mid-Atlantic Health Care Network (VISN 6), Central Virginia VA Health Care System (CHCS), within the Assistant Director service line, at Fredericksburg VA Clinic. As the Public Affairs Specialist (PAS) for the Office of Strategic Communications, the PAS has the responsibility for the medical center's communications both internally and externally in conjunction with the Chief's directions.

Major Duties:

• Major duties include, but are not limited to: Establishes and maintains proactive relationships with local, regional, and national media outlets, legislative offices, Veteran Service Organizations, and healthcare affiliates. Coordinates media promotional efforts for medical center programs and initiatives with various media outlets. Drafts and disseminates news releases, feature stories, fact sheets, and responses to media inquiries. Actively pitches and places stories with media outlets and manages social media and web content. Supports the Chief with communication efforts during controversial or high-level issues, including crisis and emergency situations. Serves as the alternate Public Information Officer under the Hospital Incident Command System during disasters and emergencies. Prepares and delivers timely risk/incident communications, coordinating with Incident Command and the Chief to ensure message accuracy and consistency. Provides leadership and direction for the Office of Strategic Communications program in alignment with the Chief's guidance. Advises the Chief on media campaigns and communication strategies to increase awareness of VA programs, services, events, technologies, and research. Builds integrated communication plans across internal and external channels, aligning messaging with organizational priorities and leadership guidance. Assesses program effectiveness, recommending improvements based on evaluated information from various sources and public affairs trends. Plans, develops, and produces print, visual, web-based, multimedia, and video materials tailored to diverse audiences, ensuring brand, accessibility, and policy compliance. Manages the content lifecycle, including drafting, editing, approvals, publication, and archiving. Plans and executes special events, such as ceremonies, research showcases, and Veteran outreach, including logistics, run-of-show, and stakeholder coordination. Coordinates high-profile visits with elected officials, VA leadership, and partners, managing security, media, and protocol considerations. Supports outreach to non-enrolled Veterans, partnering with Service Organizations and community groups to raise awareness and facilitate access to care. Develops budgets, writes statements of work (SOWs), and directs or coordinates supporting staff and contractors for various events and services. ***Only current employees of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) are eligible to apply.*** Work Schedule: Full Time, 8:00am-4:30pm, M-F 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#: Public Affairs Specialist/PD028500 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 05/11/2026. 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-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-09. 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-09 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: experience with written and oral material, such as; speeches, news releases, news and feature articles, intranet/internet social media skills, responses to inquiries that effectively convey information concerning programs and functions to any major organization; experience briefing news media representatives on organization's programs and activities and their impact on various public and private activities; experience effectively interacting and dealing with a variety of publics including news media representatives, Federal, State and Local government officials and the organization's program officials; experience gathering and interpreting data and making recommendations on public affairs strategies and policies, submitting reports and obligations in a timely manner, performing duties and responsibilities under limited supervision oversight. NOTE: Evidence of specialized experience must be supported by detailed documentation of duties performed in positions held. Please provide such documentation on resume. ~OR~ Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M., if related. This degree must be from an educational program from an accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education at the time the degree was obtained. (TRANSCRIPTS REQUIRED - If you do not submit a copy of your transcript, your application will not be processed). ~OR~ Combination: 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 table, and may be computed by first determining the applicant's total qualifying experience as a percentage of the experience required for the grade level; then determining the applicant's education as a percentage of the education required for the grade level; and then adding the two percentages. The total percentages must equal at least 100 percent to qualify an applicant for that grade level. Only graduate education in excess of the amount required for the next lower grade level may be used to qualify applicants for positions at grades GS-9 and GS-11. (When crediting education that requires specific course work, prorate the number of hours of related courses required as a proportion of the total education to be used.) 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/12951706. 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, 05/11/2026. 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: 2026-05-11