Department: Department of Veterans Affairs
Location(s): Smyrna, Georgia, Fort Riley, Kansas, Topeka, Kansas, Canandaigua, New York, Hot Springs, South Dakota, Waco, Texas
Salary Range: $61722 - $102669 Per Year
Job Summary: The Training Specialist position is located within VHA, Member Services, Business Support Office, Training and Quality Management department and is responsible for planning, analyzing, developing, designing, delivering, implementing, evaluating, updating, facilitating, and coordinating training-related services and activities. Incumbent will also provide training advice and guidance in the areas of training course development and design, delivery, evaluation, and modification.
Major Duties:
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-09 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-07. 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. 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. Individual Occupational Requirements (IOR)The below IOR is a requirement set by OPM for this occupational series to be met by every applicant in order to move on to the regular qualifications process. The IOR Education or Specialized Experience must be met. IOR Education: Undergraduate and Graduate Education with a Major study in Education or a subject area related to the position to be filled. or IOR Specialized Experience: Experience that demonstrated a practical knowledge of the subject area of the position and of the methods and techniques of instruction. Examples of qualifying IOR Specialized Experience includes: Teaching or instructing in an adult education program, secondary school, college, military installation, or industrial establishment in the appropriate field(s) Supervising or administering a training program Development or review of training/course materials, aids, devices, etc., and evaluation of training results Work in the occupation or subject-matter field of the position to be filled that required training or instructing others on a regular basis You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Specialized Experience (GS-09): You must have one year of Specialized Experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade (GS-9) in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of GS-09 Specialized Experience include (but are not limited to): Coordinates and facilities projects, meetings and workgroups to obtain needed information for planning and developmental purposes. Independently evaluates course, planning and conducting validity and reliability studies to analyze such things as test items prepared by instructors. Develops recommendations for course revisions. Conducts special studies, prepares briefings and reports, and serves as backup trainer to other programs. Provides training advice and guidance in the areas of training course development and design, delivery, evaluation and modification. OR Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required Specialized Experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have a Master's degree or 2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M., (if related) OR Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this GS-09 level. You must have a combination of Specialized Experience and Education beyond a bachelors or equivalent degree (if related). Specialized Experience (GS-11): You must have one year of Specialized Experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade (GS-9) in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of GS-11 Specialized Experience include (but are not limited to): Provides training advice and guidance in the areas of training course development, design, delivery, evaluation, and modification Develops complete and self-contained training products (full-length courses, job aids, training plans, quizzes, etc...) Instructs courses in a formal program of instruction Modifies course materials and training plans for specific audiences, i.e., various business lines and employee learning styles Establishes working relationships with stakeholders and integral program areas to determine training needs and gaps Works closely with other team members and Training Technicians to ensure training publications meet established standards for migration into the production environment Determines the need for additional subject matter information and meets with representatives inside and outside the organization to obtain it OR Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required Specialized 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) OR Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this GS-11 level. You must have a combination of Specialized Experience and Education beyond a master's or equivalent graduate degree or 2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.B. or J.D., (if related). 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/12949820. 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