Staff Assistant - Research & Development

Staff Assistant - Research & Development

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Portland, Oregon

Salary Range: $54370 - $86461 Per Year

Job Summary: The Staff Assistant position is located at the Portland VA Medical Center (PVAMC) in Research and Development (R&D). The position reports directly to the Administrative Officer/Administrative Director of R&D, but often works directly with the Research Associate Chief of Staff (ACOS) and Deputy ACOS along with Principal Investigators (PI's), Administrative Officers (AO's) and Office of Research & Development (ORD) human resources and leadership.

Major Duties:

• ***THIS IS NOT A VIRTUAL POSITION, YOU MUST LIVE WITHIN OR BE WILLING TO RELOCATE WITHIN A COMMUTABLE DISTANCE OF THE DUTY LOCATION*** This position involves a multi-grade career ladder. The major duties listed below represent the full performance level of GS-9. At the GS-7 grade level, you will perform assignments of a more limited scope and with less independence. You will progressively acquire the background necessary to perform at the full performance level of GS-9. Promotion is at the discretion of the supervisor and is contingent upon satisfactory performance, availability of higher level work, and availability of funds. Major duties and responsibilities include: Acquisition and inventorying of resource materials and equipment including telephones, computers, printers, fax machines, filing cabinets, desks, archive boxes, etc. Establishing and maintaining files of correspondence and other documents related to investigations, performance appraisals and competency folders. Oversight and facilitation of maintenance, service, repair, inventory, procurement, disposal and issue, and all projects associated with those functions. Mapping key distribution, tracking numbers of keys distributed, ordering new keys, and updating master key control map. Completing the move worksheet that identifies all equipment, furniture and office supplies needing to be moved, attending move committee meetings to negotiate move dates that best meets Research Service and employee needs. Scheduling large center meetings (i.e., All Staff Meetings or Strategic Planning); obtaining meeting space, preparing agendas, and typing minutes in appropriate format and in final form for signature. Ensuring security clearances and computer access prior to initiation of work. Coordinating the Without Compensation (WOC) program for Research Service. Coordination with multiple medical center services including, but not limited to, human resources, IT, and occupational/employee health. Creating, maintaining, and updating an active WOC employee list along with associated paperwork for biannual reports to Office of Research and Development (ORD headquarters). Providing back-up support for the Research Service web site management function. Primary backup for timekeeping purposes. Providing support and managing program level travel administration and meeting coordination which includes conducting cost estimates for meeting locations, preparing forms and packets for approvals, working with project management and travelers on hotel, meeting room, travel arrangements. Performing other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday, 8:00am to 4:30pm Recruitment & Relocation Incentives: Not authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not approved

Qualifications: IN ORDER TO QUALIFY FOR THIS POSITION AT THE GS-7 LEVEL YOU MUST MEET THE FOLLOWING: SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE GS-7: You must possess 1 year of specialized experience, equivalent to the GS-5 level in the Federal service, that equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA's) needed to successfully perform the duties of the position and that is typically in or related to this Staff Assistant position to be filled. Specialized experience for the position includes providing day-to-day administrative support for a medical facility; assisting with the acquisition of resource materials and equipment; establishing and maintaining files of correspondence and other documents; scheduling large meetings including obtaining meeting space, preparing agendas, and typing minutes. (THIS EXPERIENCE MUST BE SUPPORTED BY YOUR RESUME TO BE CREDITABLE.) ~OR~ SUBSTITUTION OF EDUCATION FOR EXPERIENCE GS-7: You must have successfully completed 1 full year of graduate level education that included coursework that is directly related to the specialization of the position to be filled. NOTE TO APPLICANTS: One year of full-time graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent one year of full-time study; if that number cannot be obtained from the transcript, 18 semester hours will be considered as one full academic year of graduate study. (COPY OF TRANSCRIPTS ARE REQUIRED AT TIME OF APPLICATION) ~OR~ COMBINATION OF EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION GS-7: You must possess equivalent combinations of successfully completed graduate-level education and specialized experience to meet total qualification requirements at the GS-7 level. One year of full-time graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent 1 year of full-time study. If that information cannot be obtained from the school, 18 semester hours should be considered as satisfying the 1 year of full-time study requirement. Part-time graduate education is creditable in accordance with its relationship to a year of full-time study at the school attended. (THIS EXPERIENCE MUST BE SUPPORTED BY YOUR RESUME TO BE CREDITABLE AND COPY OF TRANSCRIPTS ARE REQUIRED AT TIME OF APPLICATION) ~OR~ SUPERIOR ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT GS-7: You must possess a bachelor's degree and superior academic achievement (S.A.A.) based on one of the qualifying options below. (COPY OF TRANSCRIPTS ARE REQUIRED AT TIME OF APPLICATION) S.A.A. is based on (1) class standing, (2) grade-point average, or (3) honor society membership. Class standing -- Applicants must be in the upper third of the graduating class in the college, university, or major subdivision, such as the College of Liberal Arts or the School of Business Administration, based on completed courses. 2. Grade-point average (G.P.A.) -- Applicants must have a grade-point average of: 3.0 or higher out of a possible 4.0 ("B" or better) as recorded on their official transcript, or as computed based on 4 years of education, or as computed based on courses completed during the final 2 years of the curriculum; or 3.5 or higher out of a possible 4.0 ("B+" or better) based on the average of the required courses completed in the major field or the required courses in the major field completed during the final 2years of the curriculum. 3. Election to membership in a national scholastic honor society -- Applicants can be considered eligible based on membership in one of the national scholastic honor societies recognized by the Association of College Honor Societies listed below. Agencies considering eligibility based on any society not included in the following list must ensure that the honor society meets the minimum requirements of the Association of College Honor Societies. Membership in a freshman honor society cannot be used to meet the requirements of this provision. IN ORDER TO QUALIFY FOR THIS POSITION AT THE GS-9 LEVEL YOU MUST MEET THE FOLLOWING: SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE GS-9: You must possess one year of specialized experience, equivalent to the GS-7 level in the Federal service, that equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA's) needed to successfully perform the duties of the position and that is typically in or related to this Staff Assistant position to be filled. Specialized experience for this position includes providing day-to-day administrative support for a medical research program; assisting with the acquisition and inventory of resource materials and equipment; providing support with managing schedules, human resources activities, travel, and timekeeping; maintaining databases and hard-copy documents. (THIS EXPERIENCE MUST BE SUPPORTED BY YOUR RESUME TO BE CREDITABLE.) ~OR~ EDUCATION SUBSTITUTION GS-9: You must have successfully completed a Masters (or equivalent graduate degree), or do you possess two full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree; or do you possess an LL.B. or J.D. that is related to this position. Your graduate education must demonstrate that you have the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of this position as a Program Specialist performing duties related to health services research. NOTE TO APPLICANTS: One year of full-time graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent one year of full-time study; if that number cannot be obtained from the transcript, 18 semester hours will be considered as one full academic year of graduate study. (COPY OF TRANSCRIPTS ARE REQUIRED AT TIME OF APPLICATION) ~OR~ COMBINATION OF EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION GS-9: You must possess equivalent combinations of experience and education as described above to fully meet the requirements of this position. 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. (THIS EXPERIENCE MUST BE SUPPORTED BY YOUR RESUME TO BE CREDITABLE AND COPY OF TRANSCRIPTS ARE REQUIRED AT TIME OF APPLICATION) 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 assessment and submission of the required documentation specified in the Required Documents section above. 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 questionnaire, click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12957065. 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, 05/15/2026. After submitting the online application, you will be notified whether or not you are required to take additional online assessments through the USA Hire Competency Based Assessment system. This message will be delivered to you via email notification. The email may be routed to your "Spam" or "Junk" folder. IMPORTANT: If you are asked to take the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be presented with a unique URL to access the USA Hire system. Access to USA Hire is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Be sure to review all instructions prior to beginning your USA Hire Assessments. Click here for Computer System Requirements. 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 at a later time, you can re-use the URL sent to you via email and also found in your USAJOBS account under the "Track my application" link for the corresponding application. 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 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: 2026-05-15