Secretary (OA) - Chief of Staff
Veterans Health Administration
Posted: April 14, 2026 (1 day ago)
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Veterans Health Administration
Department of Veterans Affairs
Base salary range: $41,966 - $54,557
Typical requirements: 1 year specialized experience at GS-6. Bachelor's degree with superior academic achievement or 1 year graduate study.
Note: Actual salary includes locality pay (15-40%+ depending on location).
This secretary role supports the National Center for PTSD at a VA healthcare facility by handling administrative tasks like managing budgets, ordering supplies, tracking work orders, and assisting with employee onboarding and data entry.
It involves coordinating office operations, vendor outreach, and ensuring smooth telecommunications and IT services for a team focused on veteran mental health research.
A good fit would be someone with strong organizational skills, experience in government purchasing, and a detail-oriented approach to supporting busy professionals in a federal setting.
This position is located within the Clinical Neurosciences Division (CND) of the National Center for PTSD at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, Orange Campus.
The mission of the National Center for PTSD is to advance the clinical care and social welfare of America's Veterans and others who have experienced trauma or who suffer from PTSD, through research, education, and training in the science, diagnosis, and treatment of PTSD and stress-related disorders.
To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 04/24/2026.
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-7 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-6. 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. Selective Placement Factor: Experience with using government purchase cards.
This experience must be reflected on your resume to receive credit.
Preferred Experience: Experience with government purchase cards, purchasing regulations, timekeeping and duties associated with contracts and office management.
You may qualify based on your experience as described below: GS-7 Grade Requirements Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-6 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.
Examples of Specialized experience includes, but is not limited to: Assisting the Health Science Officer in budget management and execution by transaction data entry, modification, and monitoring on a routine basis in order to accurately and in real-time track actual expenditures versus planned throughout a fiscal year.
Performing this duty with ongoing assistance from management as required.
Assisting management and technical SMEs within the combined organization, with particular emphasis on telecommunications, by owning an ongoing effort of outreach to vendors, industry, and the marketplace to obtain innovation, trends, and information.
Enabling sharing of information resources within the combined organization.
Serving as the departmental Ad-Pac and performs administrative duties for computer systems and telephone services as assigned.
Providing onboarding services for all new employees for computer assignments, telephone extensions, directory listings and sponsoring of personnel badges.
Acting as the work order owner for the service submitting all electronic work orders through the engineering data file, tracking all orders to assure completion in a timely manner.
Serving as the focal point for collecting and entering division data (publications, presentations, grants, appointments, etc.) into the center's productivity database for VA Central Office review, ensuring accuracy in formatting and reporting requirements.
Note: Experience must be fully demonstrated and documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month & year starting and ending dates and hours worked per week.
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 include but are not limited to: Maintaining a perpetual inventory of office supplies and arranges for equipment purchasing, moving and disposal.
Receiving information from office personnel for needed supplies or services and prepares GSA quick order requests for office supplies and prepares service and work order requests.
Preparing requests for replacement or new equipment with appropriate justifications and ensures that new equipment is properly identified, tagged and logged in department files.
Maintaining office equipment, prepares requests for repair, and processes documents necessary for payment.
Preparing estimates for supplies and equipment to be used by the Health Science Officer in projecting operating budgets, processes pay estimates on equipment contracts, and prepares justifications for new office equipment and supplies.
Tracking spending and contract modifications for supplemental funding research projects.
Assisting the Health Science Officer in budget management and execution by transaction data entry, modification, and monitoring on a routine basis in order to accurately and in real-time track actual expenditures versus planned throughout a fiscal year.
Performs this duty with ongoing assistance from management as required.
Assisting management and technical SMEs within the combined organization, with particular emphasis on telecommunications, by owning an ongoing effort of outreach to vendors, industry, and the marketplace to obtain innovation, trends, and information.
Sharing of information resources within the combined organization. Serving as the departmental Ad-Pac and performs administrative duties for computer systems and telephone services as assigned.
Providing onboarding services for all new employees for computer assignments, telephone extensions, directory listings and sponsoring of personnel badges.
Acting as the work order owner for the service submitting all electronic work orders through the engineering data file, tracking all orders to assure completion in a timely manner.
Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 8:00am - 4:30pm Compressed/Flexible Work Schedule: Not Authorized Telework/Virtual/Remote Work: Ad-Hoc telework is authorized.
Position Description/PD#:Secretary /PD689-00613-0 Relocation or Travel Incentives: Not Authorized Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not Required Notifications: This position is a Bargaining Unit position.
Selectee may be required to work at any VA Connecticut Healthcare System campus, as needed. May be required to attend conference at other facilities or other VA sites on occasion.
The incumbent may be required to travel to other VA campuses and CBOC's. Selectee may be required to work at any VISN 1 Healthcare System campus, as needed.
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. This position is in the Competitive Service.
Time-in-Grade Restriction: 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.
The grade may have been in any occupation but must have been held in the Federal service. Veterans' preference does not apply for other current permanent Federal agency employees.
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