Health System Specialist

Full Job Description

The VA Research Program strives to promote Veteran-centered care to improve patent experiences and outcomes across VA healthcare and community settings, and to advance value-driven care by providing Veterans the highest care at the lowest financial burden.

The position is vital within the ORD and the facilities where research programs are conducted. Research Program Managers provide the link between Veterans and highly innovative projects.

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 04/15/2026.

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-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.

Provide a copy of your last or most recent SF-50, "Notification of Personnel Action" to indicate your current federal status.

You must also submit additional SF-50(s) to clearly demonstrate one year time-in-grade as required in the announcement.

If the most recent SF-50 has an effective within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate that you possess one year time-in-grade.

In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one year time-in-grade.

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.

AND You may qualify based on your education/experience/combination as described below.

A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of; review Qualification Standard for Occupation Series 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.

Specialized Experience: 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 serving on multiple regulatory committees, experience with regulation involved in approving and conducting research in various settings, performing full reviews of local investigator studies, overseeing and managing programs such as IRB, R&D, CIRB or IBC.

OR 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 OR Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level.

You must have a combination of specialized experience and education beyond graduate education in excess of the amount required for the next lower grade level may be used to qualify applicants for positions at grades GS-9.

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:

VA offers a comprehensive total rewards package: VA Total Rewards Work Schedule: Monday - Friday Compressed/Flexible Schedule: Not Available Telework: AD-Hoc only Duty Location Status: Will work from a VA owned or leased space Position Description Title/PD#: Health System Specialist/ PD99493 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not Required Physical Demands: The work is primarily sedentary, although some slight physical effort may be required.

Major Duties: Oversees the protocol review process of multiple programs and committees.

Ensures that animal and human subject research is reviewed, approved, and conducted in accordance with appropriate Federal, State, organizational regulations, and any applicable guidelines or standards.

Performs full reviews of local investigators' studies as part of the institutional quality assurance procedures. Develops programs, policies, and procedures within the Research Office.

Oversees and refines customized, networked computerized databases to allow for timely tracking of research projects