Public Affairs Specialist

Public Affairs Specialist

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): San Diego, California

Salary Range: $102246 - $132923 Per Year

Job Summary: The San Diego VA is recruiting a Public Affairs Specialist to work for the Office of the Assistant Director. The incumbent serves as spokesperson for the Medical Center, and as such is the point of contact for local and national media and is the liaison for veterans' service organizations, congressional staff, community groups, and professional organizations to conduct the public affairs program for the facility.

Major Duties:

• Duties include, but are not limited to: Conducts special studies involving communications, organization and operation of the Medical Center functions; developing reports along with recommendations to the Medical Center Director including implementation and monitoring strategies Analyzes internal communication needs and develops publications or other information materials for staff, patients, volunteers and others who contribute to the Medical Center effectiveness and responsiveness Coordinates special projects and participates and/or chairs special committees Responsible for developing, coordinating, implementing and maintaining of public information and community relations programs that are designed to promote understanding, confidence and goodwill between the Medical Center, surrounding communities, individuals, volunteers and groups who are interested in and affected by the VA Analyzes Medical Center information needs, goals and resources and tailors specific communication strategies using all media to reach target audiences both internal and external Advises and makes recommendations to the Medical Center director regarding the handling of media and community issues or concerns that have possible implications on the Medical Center May be required to make presentations to audiences with opposing points of view or erroneous understanding of Medical Center position to achieve a more balanced perception Evaluates the effectiveness and efficiency of the public information programs for internal communications, media relations and community relations with the ultimate goal of achieving greater understanding of their facility's mission and programs Plans, initiates and implements comprehensive public affairs activities to enhance the understanding of the Medical Center's programs Speech writing or coordination of special events Coordinates photo coverage of programs and activities with medical media production service; provides guidance in the area of photography for public information purposes Coordinates the production and dissemination of information, material, and, where necessary, works with contractors who design, write or produce materials for the Medical Center Establishes and maintains professional working relationships with representatives of the news media, responding in a timely fashion to information requests from the media in writing and orally to ensure the fair representation of the Medical Center Develops and utilizes a variety of methods and techniques in achieving communication goals, such as news releases, radio and television scripts, personal appearances, brochures, pamphlets, etc. Provides expertise in planning and implementation of special events, ceremonies, open houses, tours and other activities conducted for the purpose of generating awareness of, and interest in the mission of the Medical Center Prepares briefing packages and slide presentations Other duties as assigned Work Schedule: Monday-Friday, 7:30am-4:00pm Compressed/Flexible: Supervisor's discretion Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Public Affairs Specialist/PD148870 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, 03/26/2026. 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-12 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-11. 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: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade, GS-11, in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: developing and providing staff direction involving all public information, internal communications, and community relations activities; advising and making recommendations regarding the handling of media and community issues or concerns; undertaking assignments such as speech writing or coordination of special events/projects; developing and utilizing a variety of methods and techniques in achieving communication goals, such as news releases, radio and television scripts, personal appearances, brochures, pamphlets, 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. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Communications and Media Multimedia Technologies Planning and Evaluating 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: Work is generally sedentary with walking required during visits and tours of the Medical Center. Flexibility is required to accommodate events and activities occurring in other than normal duty hours. Mobility is required in terms of staging and assisting staff with equipment and other required materials. 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 03/26/2026 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12910792. 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: 2026-03-26