Administrative Specialist (GS-7/9)

Summary

This position is located within the Administrative Offices of Inpatient and Emergency Services Division (IESD) at the VA Portland Health Care System (VAPORHCS). The incumbent serves as an Administrative Specialist, with primary responsibility to assist the Division Administrative Officer and Executives by providing complex management and analytical services essential to the operation and direction of Division staffing.

Duties

***THIS IS NOT A VIRTUAL POSITION, YOU MUST LIVE WITHIN OR BE WILLING TO RELOCATE WITHIN A COMMUTABLE DISTANCE OF THE DUTY LOCATION*** Ensures smooth operation of processes and issues related to staffing for the Division, providing analysis and management of program development and planning through continued assessment of IESD's compliance with the stated mission, goals and objectives of the VISN, VACO, and OPM, as well as VAPORHCS's Human Resources, Medical Staff, Nursing Professional Services, Security, and Contracting Departments. Ensures that staffing processes are initiated, monitored, and completed timely and accurately. Work involves planning for and developing systems, policies, functions, and services to ensure all staff, including FTE, fee and contractors, meet procedural and regulatory requirements for work at the VA Portland HCS. Assists the delivery and revenue leadership and staff in projecting staffing needs, writing position descriptions, developing job analyses, preparing performance plans and appraisals, and processing training requests. Analyzes management techniques, processes, and styles for fostering and improving effective communication of critical information regarding HR actions to supervisors and staff. Coordinates with the delivery and revenue leadership to complete operational plan, administrative reports, program proposals, and other appropriate administrative duties. Presents findings to management, program managers, and others who would benefit from the information, and makes recommendations on future staffing needs and organizational changes to more efficiently meet mission requirements. Develops guidance on techniques for management and method improvements. Prepares concise reports documenting findings and conclusions. Assists in the development of directives and the design, development, documentation, and implementation of various reporting systems, which are critical to IESD and facility staffing and budgeting plans. Prepares reports and analysis of data, including organizational charts, staffing plans, and DSS mapping. Maintains the IESD HR database, organizational charts, and DSS mapping charts, and revises or creates new tools as needed. Analyzes workload and develops projections, comparing and constructing current and historical workload data to discern trends. Presents findings to management, program managers, and others that would benefit from the information. Provides recommendations on future staffing needs and organizational changes to more efficiently meet mission requirements. Works with IESD financial staff and management to analyze budgetary information and discern how current and projected staffing needs will be funded. Reviews financial staffing reports for discrepancies in salaries, overtime, incentive awards, terminal leave, and overall staff costs for a changing budget of administrative expenses involving different funding sources, staffing, contracts, etc. Administers internal review, quality, and productivity initiatives for the Division. The incumbent develops, interprets, applies, and integrates objective criteria and acceptable standards for use in monitoring activities. Serves as the primary point of contact for managers and supervisors seeking assistance and guidance on issues related to staffing, such as recruitment and placement and position management/classification. Reviews, analyzes and interprets incoming requests, recommends appropriate action or suggests appropriate alternatives based on knowledge of internal operations, agency personnel policies, budgetary constraints and work priorities. May perform other related duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Monday through Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm. Recruitment & Relocation Incentives: Not authorized.

Qualifications

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: One year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-05 grade level. Specialized experience includes, but are not limited to: Experience with standardized administrative practices and procedures to conduct studies of work processes, including HR, Medical Staff, Nursing Professional Service, Information Security, and Contracting; Identify, analyze, and recommend solutions to problems in organizational structure, staffing, administrative procedures, work processes, or workload distribution; experience with timekeeping; experience with staffing and other HR administrative functions; analyze and forecast budgetary trends affecting hiring practices for the organization; analysis techniques to identify, consider, and resolve issues or problems of a procedural or factual nature, and skill in applying those techniques; experience with software programs including, Microsoft Office Suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint), DSS, VSSC, and relational databases; experience abstracting and interpreting data and presenting findings in a clear, concise manner and knowledge of medical terminology. 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. ~OR~ One (1) full year of successfully completed graduate level education that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of this position. NOTE: Education at the graduate level must have been obtained in an accredited college or university and transcripts must be submitted with application. Education cannot be credited without documentation. ~OR~ Combination of successfully completed education and specialized experience directly related to the work of the position as outlined above that meets the requirements of the position. Only education beyond a bachelor's degree may be used to qualify applicants for the GS-07 level. NOTE: If using education combined with specialized experience to qualify, a copy of your transcript is required. ~OR~ Superior Academic Achievement (SAA): Successful completion of all the requirements for a bachelor's degree in a curriculum that is qualifying for the position to be filled and I meet one of the following: Rank in the upper one-third of your class in the college, university or major subdivision; A grade-point average of "B" (a GPA of 2.95 or higher out of a possible 4.0) for all completed undergraduate courses, or those completed in the last two years of undergraduate study; A grade point average of "B+" (a GPA of 3.45 or higher out of a possible 4.0) for all courses in your major field of study, or those courses in your major completed in the last two years of undergraduate study; Membership in a national honor society (other than freshman honor societies) recognized by the Association of College Honor Societies. For a list of recognized honor societies please visit http://www.achsnatl.org/quick_link.asp. NOTE: Copies of transcripts must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation. MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: One year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-07 grade level. Specialized Experience with standardized administrative practices and procedures to conduct studies of work processes including HR, Medical Staff, Nursing Professional Service, Information Security, and Contracting; Identify, analyze, and recommend solutions to problems in organizational structure, staffing, administrative procedures, work processes, or workload distribution; experience with timekeeping; experience with staffing and other HR administrative functions; analyze and forecast budgetary trends affecting hiring practices for the organization; analysis techniques to identify, consider, and resolve issues or problems of a procedural or factual nature, and skill in applying those techniques; experience with software programs including, Microsoft Office Suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint), DSS, VSSC, and relational databases; experience abstracting and interpreting data and presenting findings in a clear, concise manner and knowledge of medical terminology. 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. ~OR~ A master's or equivalent graduate degree or two full years of progressively higher level graduate education. Such education must be related to the position and demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work. This education must have been obtained in an accredited in an accredited college or university. NOTE: Transcripts (unofficial or official) must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation. ~OR~ An equivalent combination of successfully completed graduate level education (beyond the first year) and specialized experience, as described above, which may be used to meet total experience requirements for this grade level. The education portion must include graduate courses that demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do to the work of this position. NOTE: Transcripts (unofficial or official) must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation. 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/.

Requirements

You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job To be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. In addition to the application and questionnaire, this position requires an online assessment. The online assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job. Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959 Physical Requirements: The work required does not inherently include any physical requirements essential for successful job performance that could not otherwise be performed with accommodation or workplace adjustment. A pre-placement physical examination is not required. Subject to background/security investigation Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued identification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment. Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP) - See "Required Documents" below for details. As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider: your performance and conduct; the needs and interests of the agency; whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service. Upon completion of your probationary, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Education

IMPORTANT: A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. NOTE: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

How you will be evaluated

Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., resume, supporting documents), your responses on the application questionnaire, and your responses to all assessments required for this position. You will be assessed on the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics): Attention to Detail Customer Service Decision Making Flexibility Integrity/Honesty Interpersonal Skills Learning Reading Comprehension Reasoning Self-Management Stress Tolerance Teamwork Your 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. 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. IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration. Cheating on the online assessment may also result in your removal from consideration. Candidates who apply under "All U.S. Citizens" announcements will be rated and ranked using Category Rating procedures. Qualified candidates will be assigned to a quality category. The categories are defined as follows: Best qualified - Applicants possessing the type and quality of experience that substantially exceeds the minimum qualifications Very Highly Qualified - Applicants possessing the type and quality of experience that exceeds, to a very considerable extent, the minimum qualifications Highly Qualified - Applicants possessing the type and quality of experience that exceeds, to a considerable extent, the minimum qualifications Well qualified - Applicants possessing the type and quality of experience that marginally exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position and who demonstrate average proficiency in most of the critical competencies Qualified - Applicants possessing the type and quality of experience that meets the minimum qualifications Application of Veterans' Preference: Category rating and selection procedures place those with veteran's preference above non-preference eligibles within each category. Preference eligible applicants that meet the eligibility and qualification requirements and who have a compensable service-connected disability of at least 10 percent are listed in the highest quality category (except when the position being filled is scientific or professional at the GS-09 grade level or higher). 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.

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/13108493. 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, 11/12/2026. 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.

Other information

Reasonable Accommodation (RA) Requests: If you believe you have a disability (i.e., physical or mental), covered by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended that would interfere with completing the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be granted the opportunity to request a RA in your online application. Requests for RA for the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments and appropriate supporting documentation for RA must be received prior to starting the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments. Decisions on requests for RA are made on a case-by-case basis. If you meet the minimum qualifications of the position, after notification of the adjudication of your request, you will receive an email invitation to complete the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, based on your adjudication decision. You must complete all assessments within 48 hours of receiving the URL to access the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments if you received the link after the close of the announcement. To determine if you need a RA, please review the Procedures for Requesting a Reasonable Accommodation for Online Assessments. Receiving Service Credit for Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior work experience or military service experience. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed. This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer. For more information about the Act and the complaint process, visit Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP) at The Fair Chance Act. The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation and be found well-qualified (have a final rating of 80 or more before any Veterans preference points) for this vacancy. 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/.