Health System Specialist

Description:

This position serves as Health System Specialist - Research Committee Manager within the Research and Development (R&D) Service. The VA Research Program strives to promote Veteran-centered care to improve patient experiences and outcomes across VA healthcare and community settings, and to advance value-driven care by providing Veterans the highest quality care at the lowest financial burden.

Requirements:

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/18/2025.

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-9. 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.

Individual Occupational Requirement - This series has the following Individual Occupational Requirement: You may qualify based on your experience/education as described below:

Undergraduate and Graduate Education:
Major study -- hospital administration, public health administration, or related fields such as business or public administration with course work in health care administration. OR,

Specialized Experience : Progressively responsible analytical, 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. OR,

Special Provision for In-Service 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:

• 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 meeting the IOR, you will also need to meet the following grade requirements.

GS-9 level : One year of specialized experience as GS-7 with the particular knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA's) and other characteristics to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled, in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Specialized experience includes; Skill in analytical and evaluative techniques to the identification, consideration, and resolution of issues or problems of a procedural or factual nature in applying Federal, State, and VA laws, rules and regulations relative to compliance and conduct of investigative studies involving human subjects, animal study research, research safety and security, and research information security; including but not limited to the US Food and Drug Administration, Department of Agriculture, Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Human Resource Protections, Office of Research Oversight, Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International, Office Laboratory Animal Welfare, Publix Health Service, Drug Enforcement Agency and current accreditation agencies. OR

Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at the GS-09 level. You must have anequivalent combination of successfully completed graduate level education as described above and specialized experience to meet total experience requirements.

GS-11: One year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-9 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization to include, but are not limited to: knowledge of the full scope of activities required to conduct single and multisite research in the areas of human subject protection, biosafety, Institutional Review Boards (IRB), Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUC), and R&D Committees through regulatory and policy compliance. Specialized experience includes progressively responsible analytical or administrative, or clinical management or supervisory experience in the health care field. Work involving: (a) Missions, organizations, programs, and requirements of health care delivery systems; (b) Regulations and standards of various regulatory and credentialing groups; (c) Government-wide, agency, and facility systems and requirements in various administrative areas such as budget, personnel and procurement; and knowledge of cognitive engineering, human factors engineering, human-computer interaction, or related fields. OR

Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at the GS-11 level.

See education requirement below in the Education.

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:

• Administration and Management
• Critical Thinking
• Project Management
• Research

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.

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.

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/ .