Vocational Rehab Specialist

Vocational Rehab Specialist

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Indianapolis, Indiana

Salary Range: $74627 - $97011 Per Year

Job Summary: The position is a Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist, organizationally aligned to Vocational Rehabilitation Program, Social Work Service Line, Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis, Indiana - a VHA level 1a complexity facility that serves over 67,000 unique patients and has 13 off site community clinics, in addition to the homeless team, the community based extended care programs and a 50 bed Domiciliary.

Major Duties:

• Duties include but not limited to: Determines Training Needs: Utilizing the Vocational Assessment Profile with the program participant, determines the areas of vocational interests, and determines what services such as job seeking skills training, resume development, or interview skills training the program participant may require in order to successfully obtain suitable employment. The Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist determines the extent to which the program participant possesses the knowledge, skills, or abilities necessary to meet the goals or objectives. Training provided must meet established agency or Federal guidance for expenditure of agency resources. Training need determinations are difficult, as requirements that meet the client's vocational goals and objectives are not available in standard vocational or training programs. Networks with the Community: The Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist networks with community employers, community agencies, and community businesses with the goal of developing professional relationships with these groups in order to assist program participants in obtaining and maintaining suitable community employment. The Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist coordinates with various resources to locate services and employment opportunities in the community that will be suitable for the individual program participant from the standpoint of their individual needs and problems. The Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist works with established programs to provide significant modifications to accommodate the program participant's severe limitations. Conducting Job Placement/Job Carving Activities: The Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist will engage the program participant in activities such as resume development, job seeking training, and interviewing skills instruction as soon as possible. The Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist will assist the program participant in networking with contacts within the community, and members of their personal support group. The Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist will provide ongoing support and guidance to the program participant throughout all phases of the job search. The Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist will provide support and encouragement to the program participant including assistance with submitting resumes, completing applications, and job interview preparation. Providing Job Retention Services: The Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist will continue to provide ongoing supports such as assistance with problem solving, developing interpersonal work relationships, maintaining work performance and quality, and life management activities. The Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist is responsible to ensure that the program participant is aware of employer's expectations, and the participant has the skills and supports to meet those expectations. The Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist counsels and guides employee through difficult transition or rough spots in the adjustment to the job. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm Compressed/Flexible: Not Authorized Recruitment Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (Relocation Assistance): Not Authorized Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases Paid Time Off: 37-50 days of annual paid time offer per year (13-26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year)Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior [work experience] or military service experience. Parental Leave: After 12 months of employment, up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child. Child Care Subsidy: After 60 days of employment, full time employees with a total family income below $144,000 may be eligible for a childcare subsidy up to 25% of total eligible childcare costs for eligible children up to the monthly maximum of $416.66. Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement) Telework: No Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 91609-A Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized PCS Appraised Value Offer (AVO): Not Authorized

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/24/2025. 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 9. 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 one year of specialized experience at the next lower grade (GS9) in normal line of progression Examples of qualifying specialized experience include: Work that required obtaining and applying occupational information for people with disabilities, knowledge of the interrelationships of the involved professional and specialist services, and skill in employing the methodology and techniques of counseling to motivate and encourage individuals served by the program. Experience that demonstrated knowledge of the vocational rehabilitation problems characteristic of the disabled, including familiarity with available resources and skill in identifying, evaluating, and making effective use of such resources to serve individuals with disabilities; or of the disadvantaged, including knowledge of adjustment problems of the educationally or culturally disadvantaged, familiarity with available adult education and training resources, and ability to recognize problem areas needing special attention. Experience in vocational guidance or teaching in a recognized vocational rehabilitation program or school, developmental or supervisory work in programs of vocational rehabilitation or training programs for the disadvantaged, or personnel or employment placement work that provided extensive knowledge of the training and adjustment requirements necessary to place persons having disabilities or social adjustment problems. OR Education. 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 Preferred Experience: LCSW/LHMC NOTE: 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. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Education and Training Interpersonal Skills Technical Competence Therapy and Counseling 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: The work is primarily sedentary; however, incumbent should be able to perform prolonged walking and standing necessary to conduct work site visits, employer tours, etc. Incumbent must possess a valid driver's license in order to transport Veterans in government vehicles to interviews, tours, etc. with employers or other community resources. 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 full 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 11/24/2025 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12831427. To begin, click Apply Online to create a USAJOBS 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/

Application Deadline: 2025-11-24