Program Specialist

Full Job Description

This Program Specialist position is located in the Pathology & Laboratory Department at VA Maine Healthcare System located in Augusta, Maine. This position is full time 40 hours per week.

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, March 19,2026.

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-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.

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: GS 9 Specialized Experience: Have one (1) year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade level (GS 7) related to the work of the position to be filled.

Examples of specialized experience would typically include but are not limited to: Responsible for specialized work encompassing such issues as workplace environment, information management (electronic and other), performance measure analysis, and resource needs assessment and procurement.

Provide ongoing training/scheduling staff development. Perform cost analysis and effectiveness studies. Analyze financial and workflow impacts of proposed policies/programs and make recommendations.

Promote and enforce compliance with access targets, measures, metrics, policies.

Or; Education: 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; Experience and Education Combination: Combinations of successfully completed post-high school education and experience may be used to meet total qualification requirements for the grade level.

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 involves a normal amount of sitting, walking, standing, carrying, etc. There is extensive use of a VDT and a keyboard.

The position may be stressful due to the scope of the position and the complexity of the clinical service. Work Environment: The work is performed in offices and meeting rooms.

Infrequent travel 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:

The Program Specialist position responsible for specialized work encompassing such issues as workplace environment, information management (electronic and other), performance measure analysis, and resource needs assessment and procurement.

Duties will include, but not be limited to the following: Collect and analyze workload data, performance improvement and assessment data.

Serves as the primary Personal Identification Verification sponsor. Electronic Inventory List, gets inventory paperwork, obtains signatures, and submits memos in a timely manner.

Complies reports monthly, quarterly, and annually and includes tables, graphs, and narratives that are presented to the pathologists for purpose of feedback and further educational guidance.

Uses standard approaches to perform a variety of duties related to projects involving administrative or technical support issues including entry and tracking of work orders, remedies and other interdepartmental requests for services, equipment or actions.

Performs work related to the acquisition and development of policies and service line Standard Operating Procedures.

Identifies and determines training priorities, conducts and administers training programs, develops and improves training guidance.

Performs cost analysis and effectiveness studies, identifies most resource effective procedures and clinics.

Maintains the fund control points for the department as well as holds a credit card for supply purchases, responsible for all purchases and credit card transactions.

Develops workflow charts, graphs, and internal mechanisms; to show trending data, workflow efficiency, and program development.

Performs work in direct support of an administrative area such as human resources, budget, procurement, purchasing, management analysis, or operating program analysis.

Work Schedule: Full time, Monday-Friday, 7:30am-4:00pm. Telework: Not Authorized.

Recruitment Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (Relocation Assistance): Not Authorized Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Position Description/PD#: Program Specialist/ 03338-0 Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized PCS Appraised Value Offer (AVO): Not Authorized Notification: This position is in the competitive service.

Veterans' preference does not apply for internal or other current permanent Federal agency employees. This position is covered by a local locality rate.

Current and former Federal employees must submit copies of their most recent SF-50, (Notice of Personnel Action).

The SF-50 must identify the position title, series, grade, step, tenure and type of service (Competitive or Excepted).

In some cases, more than one SF-50 may be required to show a higher grade previously held.