Program Specialist

Description:

The position is located in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Veterans Health Administration (VHA), at the VA San Diego Healthcare System, a complexity level 1-a facility, in the Financial Resources Management Service. It is a component of the VA Desert Pacific Healthcare network (VISN 22), providing services to veterans residing in Southern California.

Requirements:

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 02/16/2026.

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.

• To be eligible for the GS-07, Applicants must possess at least one (1) year of specialized experience in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization equivalent to the GS-6. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service.
• To be eligible for the GS-09, Applicants must possess at least one (1) year of specialized experience in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization equivalent to 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:

To be eligible for the GS 07, applicants must have:

• Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Administrative issues; planning and preparing for meetings including scheduling, mailings, travel and lodging arrangements; maintaining calendars; providing agendas; preparing responses to correspondence; scheduling appointments and meetings; answering phones; tracking time and attendance; and maintaining all paper and electronic files.

To be eligible for the GS 09, applicants must have:

• Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Administrative issues; planning and preparing for meetings including scheduling, mailings, travel and lodging arrangements; maintaining calendars; providing agendas; preparing responses to correspondence; scheduling appointments and meetings; answering phones; tracking time and attendance; and maintaining all paper and electronic files. OR
• Education : Applicants may substitute graduate education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level, you must possess a master's or equivalent graduate degree or at least 2 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree. This education must demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do this position. NOTE: Transcripts must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation.

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

• Administration and Management
• Communications
• Cost Benefit Analysis
• Customer Service

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.

Preferred Experience:

• Experience overseeing the Employee Travel and Tuition program at a facility.
• Experience with developing and implementing local medical center policies and procedures based on Federal travel policies and other published guidance that support the Travel and Tuition Program.
• Effective verbal and written communication skills and ability to present highly complex data and information to audiences of senior mangers, executives and auditors of VA and outside organizations. Verbal and communication skills to establish and maintain effective work relationships with a broad range of people.
• Extensive knowledge of the laws, rules, regulations, VA policies and related directives regarding employee travel, employee tuition, employee travel cars, service tuition purchase cards and corporate travel cards in order to oversee the Employee Travel Program.
• General knowledge of government-wide, VA and Facility procedures and requirements in various administrative areas such as budget, procurement, travel, tuition, and purchase cards.
• Ability to plan and organize diverse work activities with often conflicting deadlines and priorities.
• Negotiate effectively with management to accept and implement recommendations where the proposals involve substantial agency resources.
• Experience utilizing a wide range of computer software to prepare a variety of written reports, memoranda, and supporting documentation into VA proprietary systems.

Physical Requirements:
Physical demands in the job are very limited. Work is mainly sedentary with slight physical demands on occasion. Occasional travel to other locations within the catchment area may be necessary for meetings or as part of data collection.

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/ .