Program Specialist

Summary

This position provides administrative support to the Office of Research and Development. The incumbent manages personnel actions, procurement, IT access, and departmental compliance. Prepares reports, maintains records, and supports onboarding, training, and timekeeping to ensure accurate, efficient, and policy-aligned operations across research programs within the department. This role requires strong analytical skills, attention to detail, and the ability to manage multiple workflows.

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Duties

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Major Duties:

• Manages procurement and purchasing actions, performing micro-purchases, reconciling transactions, resolving vendor issues, completing VistA procurement steps, and maintaining audit-ready documentation.
• Supports timekeeping functions by posting exceptions, validating tours of duty, resolving discrepancies, developing local SOPs, and ensuring payroll accuracy in VATAS or related systems.
• Provides administrative assistance for travel procedures-preparing authorizations and vouchers, troubleshooting issues, and guiding staff through VA travel systems.
• Administers IT and ADPAC-related access, account provisioning, permission management, problem resolution, and record management.
• Supports records management by maintaining retention schedules, organizing shared-drive filing systems, and ensuring compliance with VA records policies.

Promotion Potential: The selectee may be promoted to the GS-09 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, 8:00 am - 4:30 pm

Compressed/Flexible: Not Available

Telework: This position is authorized for telework based on agency policy.

Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Position Description/PD#: Program Specialist/ PD97992A and PD97993A

Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

• 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.
• All applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA.
• 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 ( 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)

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, 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, 08/21/2026.

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-05 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.

You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below:

For the Program Specialist, GS-07 position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. To be creditable, this specialized experience must have been equivalent to the grade GS-05 level in Federal service to qualify at the grade GS-07 . Examples of qualifying experience include: 1) Performs analytical and evaluative administrative work by collecting, reviewing, and interpreting research program data to produce accurate reports, documentation, and workflow improvements. 2) Executes procurement and budget-support functions, including purchase card operations, micro-purchases, vendor coordination, VistA transactions, inventory tracking, and audit-ready documentation. 3) Administers IT access, account provisioning, ADPAC actions, system permissions, onboarding/offboarding setup, and troubleshooting for research users across VA systems and platforms. 4) Processing, documenting, and reconciling purchase card transactions by coordinating procurement actions, maintaining required financial documentation, and ensuring adherence to federal acquisition and agency guidelines.

OR

Education : Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have one full academic year of graduate-level education, with courses that demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work. (TRANSCRIPTS REQUIRED)

OR

Combination : Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have a combination of specialized experience and graduate level education beyond the first year (18 semester hours) to be creditable. To determine if you met these requirements, total your qualifying experience as a percentage of the experience required for the grade level; then determine your education as a percentage of the education required for the grade level; then add the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify. (TRANSCRIPTS REQUIRED)

Time-In-Grade Requirement : 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.

For the Program Specialist, GS-09 position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. To be creditable, this specialized experience must have been equivalent to the grade GS-07 level in Federal service to qualify at the grade GS-09 . Examples of qualifying experience include:1) Experience serving as a Purchase Card Holder for micro-purchases; creating procurement packages; reconciling transactions; verifying invoices; conducting VistA procurement and purchase orders. 2) Experience serving as an Automated Data Processing Application Coordinator (ADPAC): creating/managing user accounts and permissions; provisioning equipment and logical/physical access; liaising with OI&T to resolve access issues and ensure security compliance. 3) Experience preparing and processing travel authorizations and vouchers in CTRAP/Concur; building complete travel itineraries (air/ground/hotel) in accordance with VA travel policy; monitoring travel status. 4) Executing timekeeping functions such as posting exceptions, validating tours of duty, and supporting supervisors with payroll accuracy in VATAS or similar systems.

OR

Education : Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have 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 one full academic year of graduate-level education, with courses that demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work. (TRANSCRIPTS REQUIRED)

OR

Combination : Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have a combination of specialized experience and graduate level education to be creditable. To determine if you met these requirements, total your qualifying experience as a percentage of the experience required for the grade level; then determine your education as a percentage of the education required for the grade level; then add the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify. (TRANSCRIPTS REQUIRED)

Preferred experience : Executing timekeeping responsibilities such as posting exceptions, validating tours of duty, and supporting supervisors in maintaining payroll accuracy in VATAS or comparable systems.

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.

For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at

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: 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:

Additional information

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.

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.

This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies.

The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be well-qualified: applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are proficient in most of the required competencies of the job. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

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A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.

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Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.