Summary The Health System Specialist is located at the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center (RMR VAMC) in Research and Development (R&D). The position reports directly to the Administrative Officer (AO)/Director of Research Operations or equivalent-level service designee, but often collaborates with the Associate Chief of Staff, Research (ACOS-R)/Deputy ACOS-R along with Principal Investigators (PI's), and Office of Research. Responsibilities Produces written guidelines on work methods, procedures, and administrative policies. Executes administrative practices such as preparing communications, delegating tasks, routing of correspondences, and managing filing systems and records. Applies basic analytical techniques to support organizational efficiency of work measurements; task analysis, job structuring and assessing productivity levels in determining staff to workload ratios. Develops and administers questionnaires; flowcharting of work processes and graphing. Conducts interviews with employees and supervisors to obtain information about organizational missions, functions, and work procedures. Plans, coordinates, and executes steps in fact-finding and analysis to complete assigned tasks or assignments. Evaluates, assesses and analyzes problems and selects appropriate actions such as task analysis, work simplification, work-flow charts, workload measurement, and trend analysis to resolve procedural problems affecting organizational efficiency, effectiveness, or productivity. Prepares and disseminates written communications outlining issues or problems with sound observations, options for change, and recommendations for action to offer organizational improvements. Conducts and reviews measurement of current work output, group productivity and accomplishments to determine resource needs such as staff, supplies, equipment, and space. Promotion Potential: The selectee may be promoted to the full performance level without further competition when all regulatory, qualification, and performance requirements are met. Selection at a lower grade level does not guarantee promotion to the full performance level. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8am - 4:30pm Telework: This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Health System Specialist/PD369830 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not approved Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not authorized Requirements Conditions of Employment You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959 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 dentification 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) As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period or 2-year trial 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 period or trial period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest. Qualifications To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/20/2026. 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-9 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-7. 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. You must meet the Individual Occupational Requirement and the Specialized Experience and/or Education: Individual Occupational Requirement: In order to meet the individual occupational requirement of the Health System Administration, 0671 Occupational series, you must possess undergraduate and graduate education with major study in hospital administration, public health administration, or related fields such as business or public administration with course work in health care administration -OR- you must possess progressively responsible analytical or administrative, or clinical management or supervisory experience in the health care field. This work may have been performed in an operating health care facility or a higher organizational echelon with advisory or directional authority over such facilities. Work must have involved a close working relationship with facility managers and analysis and/or coordination of administrative, clinical, or other service activities, and provided knowledge of the following: Missions, organizations, programs, and requirements of health care delivery systems; Regulations and standards of various regulatory and credentialing groups; and Government-wide, agency; and facility systems and requirements in various administrative areas such as budget, personnel, and procurement. Special Provision for Inservice Placement: Successful completion of an agency-sponsored on-the-job training program may be substituted for qualifying experience, provided it included a formal individualized training plan. Such a training program must have been conducted in an operating health care system and included: Assignments providing a knowledge of basic health system administration philosophies, practices, and procedures, and basic government administrative policies and requirements; Practical assignments providing an opportunity to apply health system administration skills and principles (as the individual progresses, work assignments must be characteristic of the grade level to which he or she is assigned); and Oversight by an experienced health system administrator with periodic evaluation of the individual's progress and appropriate adjustment of the training program. In addition to the above Individual Occupational Requirement above, you must also meet the Basic Requirement below. Basic Requirement You may qualify for the GS-9 based on your experience or education as described below: Specialized Experience for GS-9: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-7 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: applying analytical and evaluative methods and techniques to issues or studies concerning the efficiency and effectiveness of program operations; strategic planning; budgeting and financial management experience; managing and preparing correspondence; managing schedule and workflow of a program and managing tracking systems; evaluating administrative programs or issues; and serving as a communication liaison. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the experience required for the GS-9 level. Must possess a masters or equivalent graduate degree or two full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree, or LL.B or J.D., if related. (Transcript must be submitted) OR, Combination: Combinations of successfully completed post-high school education and experience may be used to meet total qualification requirements for the GS-9, and may be computed by first determining the applicant's total qualifying experience as a percentage of the experience required for the grade level; then determining the applicant's education as a percentage of the education required for the grade level; and then adding the two percentages. The total percentages must equal at least 100 percent to qualify for that grade level. Only graduate education in excess of 1 full year may be used to qualify applicants for positions at the GS-9 grade level. For example, the position to be filled is a Health System Specialist, GS-0671-9. An applicant has 6 months of specialized experience equivalent to GS-7 and 1 year of graduate level education. The applicant meets 50 percent of the required experience but none of the required education, since he or she does not have any graduate study beyond that which is required for GS-7. Therefore, the applicant meets only 50 percent of the total requirement and is not qualified for the position. (The applicant's first year of graduate study is not qualifying for GS-9.) Preferred experience: Experience leading core administrative functions related to a grant-funded research program on human subject research initiatives as well as adept knowledge in how to support health sciences research personnel and vast human research infrastructure. 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. 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/. Education 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/. Additional Information You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Administration and Management Manages Resources Analytical Reasoning Communications Analysis and Problem Solving Physical Requirements: The work is sedentary, however, there may be some walking, standing, bending, carrying light items such as papers, books, small parts, or driving an automobile, etc. No special physical demands are required to perform the work. 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. This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement. 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.
