Health System Specialist

Full Job Description

The position is located within the Department of Veterans Affairs at the VA Bedford Healthcare Medical Center (VABEDHCS) in Bedford, Massachusetts under the Research and Development (R&D) Service.

The position is fully responsible for managing regulatory committees and providing subject matter expertise regarding the underlying regulations in ensuring compliance in research.

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/03/2026. You may qualify based on your education/experience as described below.

A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education.

Individual Occupational Requirements: 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.

AND Specialized Experience GS-09: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-07 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.

Specialized experience is defined as experience in analytical and procedural skills to perform a variety of complex tasks related to the approval and maintenance of healthcare related research projects including necessary regulatory approvals processes, budgetary decisions, submissions that are tied to protocol execution, data reporting, and management.

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Interpersonal Skills Organizational Awareness Grants Management Laws, Regulations, and Guidelines Computer Skills Analysis and Problem Solving Systems Thinking Analytical Thinking AND Additional Assessment Requirements: Executive Order (EO) 14170, Reforming the Federal Hiring Process and Restoring Merit to Government Service ("Restoring Merit"), and the Chance to Compete Act of 2024, require agencies to "incorporate skills-based and competency-based technical assessments" into the Federal hiring process.

To ensure that Federal jobs are filled based on merit and competence.

Every hiring process across the competitive service, or any process otherwise subject to competitive hiring, must include at least one technical or alternative assessment before issuance of the certificate.

This announcement requires the submission of an Accomplishment Record Assessment, which measures knowledge, skills, abilities, or competencies.

Per Office of Personnel Management General Schedule Qualification Policies, federal employees are assumed to have gained experience by performing duties and responsibilities appropriate for their official series and grade level as described in their position description.

Experience that would not normally be part of the employee's position is creditable when documented by satisfactory evidence (e.g., a memorandum from the manager, human resources director, or official documentation such as SF-52, SF-50 documenting an official detail/assignments, or other comparable documentation).

The documentation must indicate whether the employee performed the duties full time or, if part-time, the percentage of times the employee performed the additional duties.

To receive credit for experience in your resume that is not within the official series and grade level of your position, you must provide official documentation of such experience as indicated above.

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 OPM's web site at http://www.opm.gov/qualifications/standards/indexes/alph-ndx.asp. Major Duties:

This is a non-bargaining unit position. The initial application review cut-off for this job announcement is 50 applications. The first 50 applications received will be considered first.

Applications received after the initial cut-off number (50 applications) may not receive consideration unless otherwise requested by management.

If management requests additional certificates, applicants will continue to be reviewed in groups of 50 in the order they applied.

VA offers a comprehensive total rewards package: VA Total Rewards Work Schedule: Mon-Fri 8:00am-4:30pm Compressed/Flexible Schedule: Not Available Telework: Available Duty Location Status: Will work from a VA owned or leased space Position Description Title/PD#: Health System Specialist/ PD99493S Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not Required Physical Demands: The work is primarily sedentary, although some slight physical effort may be required.

This position involves a multi-grade career ladder. The major duties listed below represent the full performance level of GS-09.

At the GS-09 grade level, you will perform assignments of a more limited scope and with less independence.

You will progressively acquire the background necessary to perform at the full performance level of GS-11.

Promotion is at the discretion of the supervisor and is contingent upon satisfactory performance, availability of higher level work, and availability of funds.

Promotion is not guaranteed and no promise of promotion is implied.

Major Duties: Serves as the Program Manager and Specialist for multiple regulatory committees, e.g., the R&D Committee, both in-house and external IRBs, Subcommittee for Research Safety (SRS), the Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC), IACUC, the Human Research Protection Program (HRPP), the Animal Care and Use Program (ACUP) and the Research Safety and Security Program (RSSP).

The incumbent oversees and manages these programs and their activities, including preparation of committee and reviewer materials with appropriate documentation, ensuring projects are reviewed by appropriate personnel, and ensuring all outstanding issues related to project management are resolved in a timely manner.

Resolves issues or problems of a procedural or factual nature in applying Federal, State and VA laws, rules, and regulations relative to compliance and the conduct of investigative studies involving human subjects, animal study research, research safety and security, and research information security.

Observes work assignment progress to identify and resolve problems in workflow, work methods and procedures, task distribution, overall workload, forms, record keeping, span of control, organizational structure.

Prepares reports containing a statement of the issue or problem, background, observations, options for change, and recommendations for action.

Prepares policy guidance, develops, reviews, and updates standard operating procedures, motivational materials, and information to facilitate participation in important animal, human, and safety research protection program initiatives.

Interprets pertinent laws, regulations, policies, and precedents which affect the use of program and related support resources for research studies conducted at the medical center.

Proficient in the use of Microsoft Word, Outlook, and Excel for word processing, communications, data manipulation and data storage aspects of work.