Accountant
What you'd do
The purpose of this position is to serve as the Accountant within the Readjustment Counseling Service (RCS). Performs professional accounting work involving the analysis, interpretation, and application of federal accounting principles, standards, laws, regulations, and VHA policies.
Major duties
Major duties include, but are not limited to: Prepares, reviews, and reconciles financial records, ensuring accuracy of appropriated fund accounts, cost centers, budgets, and general ledger activity. Performs financial analysis and provides accounting guidance to RCS and VA leadership, identifying discrepancies and ensuring compliance with accounting standards, VA policy, and Federal regulations. Assists in developing, monitoring, and executing the annual budget, analyzing resource utilization, and preparing reports on funds, obligations, and expenditures. Conducts internal control reviews and supports audit readiness by assessing compliance, preparing documentation, and recommending improvements to strengthen financial processes. Provides customer service to internal and external stakeholders by responding to inquiries, explaining accounting procedures, and using automated financial systems to manage and validate transactions. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 8:00 am-4:30 pm EST Virtual: This is a virtual position. Virtual Work eligibility is for current VA employees that are already subject to the return to the in-person work mandate in their current position. Definition of Virtual Work: Employee works outside of original hiring duty station at a VA-owned or leased space. Position Description/PD#: Accountant/PD024380 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Physical Requirements: The work is sedentary in nature. There are no special physical requirements. The work is performed primarily in office areas or conference rooms and similar environments. However, it may require some traveling and visits to Government and/or contractor's facilities and other contract-related performance sites.
What you need to qualify
To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 07/19/2026. 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-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. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Individual Occupational Requirements: All applicants must possess one of the following in order to meet minimum qualifications for this position. Basic Requirements Degree: accounting; or a degree in a related field such as business administration, finance, or public administration that included or was supplemented by 24 semester hours in accounting. The 24 hours may include up to 6 hours of credit in business law. OR Combination of education and experience: at least 4 years of experience in accounting, or an equivalent combination of accounting experience, college-level education, and training that provided professional accounting knowledge. The applicant's background must also include one of the following: Twenty-four semester hours in accounting or auditing courses of appropriate type and quality. This can include up to 6 hours of business law; A certificate as Certified Public Accountant or a Certified Internal Auditor, obtained through written examination; or Completion of the requirements for a degree that included substantial course work in accounting or auditing, e.g., 15 semester hours, but that does not fully satisfy the 24-semester-hour requirement of paragraph A, provided that (a) the applicant has successfully worked at the full-performance level in accounting, auditing, or a related field, e.g., valuation engineering or financial institution examining; (b) a panel of at least two higher level professional accountants or auditors has determined that the applicant has demonstrated a good knowledge of accounting and of related and underlying fields that equals in breadth, depth, currency, and level of advancement that which is normally associated with successful completion of the 4-year course of study described in paragraph A; and (c) except for literal nonconformance to the requirement of 24 semester hours in accounting, the applicant's education, training, and experience fully meet the specified requirements. Specialized Experience, GS-11: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-09 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. To be minimally qualified for this position at the GS-11 level, you must meet 4 of the 7 experiences listed below: Assisting with the review and analysis of accounting records or financial transactions. Reconciling fund accounts, cost centers, or general ledger entries under supervision. Preparing portions of accounting reports, audit documentation, or financial statements. Identifying discrepancies in financial data and recommending routine corrective actions. Assisting with the preparation or analysis of budget reports or expenditure information. Using automated accounting systems to retrieve, verify, or validate financial transactions. Providing customer service to internal customers regarding routine accounting or budget information.. OR Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. Applicants must have successfully completed three (3) years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree OR Ph.D. OR equivalent doctoral degree. OR Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have a combination of specialized experience and education beyond graduate level directly related to the Accountant position.. 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/.
Before you apply
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