Program Specialist
What you'd do
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.
Major duties
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
What you need to qualify
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 https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.
Before you apply
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