Administrative Officer

Full Job Description

This position serves as the Administrative Officer for the Surgical Service department at the Martinsburg VAMC.

This position is directly accountable to the Surgical Service, Service Chief and has responsibility for the day-to-day administrative operations and budgetary activities related to the assigned Service.

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 02/26/2026.

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-12 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-11. 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 as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-11 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 and managerial support in clinical and administrative programs; Knowledge of medical sharing contracts; Memorandums of agreement; Fee-Basis agreements; Working independently on administrative and operational issues; Assessing priorities to meet organizational needs; Planning training and development of staff; Assigning work to staff; HR Information systems; Communicates, interprets, and advises on federal and agency personnel policies, regulations, and procedures; etc.

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Administration and Management HR Information Systems Influencing/Negotiating Performance Measurement Planning and Evaluating 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.

Physical Requirements: The work is primarily sedentary, although some slight physical effort may be required.

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/.

Major Duties:

Duties may include but are not limited to: Ensures that the programmatic, systematic, and financial objectives of the Surgical Service are met.

Manages the staff of Surgical Service, overseeing personnel issues at the Martinsburg VA Medical Center as well as Hagerstown, Stephens City, Cumberland and Fort Detrick Community Based Outpatient Clinics.

Ensures that proper hiring practices are adhered to, performance appraisals are completed in a timely fashion, and disciplinary matters are properly dealt with.

Involved directly with program planning, appropriate policy development, long-term strategic planning and the setting of goals and objectives for the Service Chief.

Coordinates the implementation and maintenance of public relations and customer satisfaction initiatives for the assigned Service.

Advises and assists the Service Chief with top-level program management aspects.

Maintains records of recurring reports and follows up to ensure that weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual recurring reports are submitted in a timely and correct manner.

Assists with researching and updating Medical Center Memoranda (MCMs) and Policies to ensure compliance with VA standards and guidelines and returns for modification when necessary.

Analyzes policies, procedures, practice guidelines and evaluates how they will impact on delivery of service.

Provides input and oversight to other Martinsburg VAMC initiatives and personnel including Business Managers, Budget Analysts, Physicians, Nurses, Patient Care Assistants, Social Workers, Schedulers, and Clerical Support Positions.

Provides comprehensive resource allocation information and is involved with decisions involving organizational funds including special requirements in preparing annual and cyclic budget documents.

Develops operational strategies designed to achieve maximum reimbursement by identifying resource-related problems and outlining specific measures to be conducted among clinical and administrative services and instructs services to initiate appropriate requests for resource management to meet immediate or planned needs for funding, staffing, equipment or space.

Conducts special studies and project requests for information that will be provided to Executive leadership and Chief Financial Officer established time frames.

Serves as the primary contracting officer for Surgical Service.

Ensures all actions and interactions are within the guidelines of VHA and Medical Center directives and ensures service actions adhere to Medical Center policies and procedures.

Incumbent develops quality program management strategies and techniques to fit the operations, culture and interest of management and staff.

Leads, conducts or participates in complex management studies and reviews with wide or significant effect upon the agency's organizational structure, policy processes, operations, fiscal control and economy and those where the boundaries of these studies may be broad.

Provides technical and administrative supervision of a small subordinate staff.

Recruits and hires subordinate staff members in line with merit staffing procedures and equal employment opportunity guidelines.

Assigns work to staff and provides technical and policy direction to their efforts.

Reviews completed work of the staff and provides feedback to encourage top performance to enhance an atmosphere of teamwork in the Office.

Plans training and development with subordinate employees to assure they acquire and maintain both technical competencies in their fields and cross training in related fields.

Resolves staff complaints concerning working conditions and related matters, and provides referral services, if necessary, to employees who develop personal problems that interfere with effective performance or undermine work group cohesiveness.

Acts as administrative liaison for multiple sections/programs under the purview of the Chief of Surgery advising in personal matters including discipline, rewards, recognition, reassignment, staff adjustments, and realignment, labor/ management relationships, affirmative employment, alternative dispute resolutions and grievances.

Other tasks/duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Full time. Monday through Friday 8:00am - 4:30pm. Telework: Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process.

Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Administrative Officer/PD26435A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized. Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not approved.

Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not authorized.