Secretary (OA)

Full Job Description

You will serve as the Secretary (Office Administrator) position with the Deputy Executive Medical Center Director and the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) with the VA Puget Sound Healthcare System located in Seattle, Washington.

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement, 03/03/2026.

Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees must also meet time in grade requirements.

For the GS-08, applicants must have held the GS-07 position for a minimum of 52 weeks to be eligible for the GS-08 grade level.

For the GS-09, applicants must have held the GS-08 position for a minimum of 52 weeks to be eligible for the GS-09 grade level.

These requirements must be met within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement to meet the minimum eligibility.

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.

Proficiency Requirement: In addition to meeting experience or education requirements, applicants for Office Automation (OA) - any grade- position must show possession of the following skills: 40 words per minute typing speed.

You may qualify based on your experience as described below: For GS-08: Specialized Experience: You must have at least one (1) full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-07 level in the Federal Service.

Examples of specialized experience may include: Receiving visitors and telephone calls to the office; Carries out and coordinates all clerical and day-to-day administrative support activities, to include timekeeping; Provides clerical and administrative assistance to the organization; scheduling appointments; coordinating meetings and conferences, preparing correspondence, reports, memoranda using multiple automated programs and/or software and maintaining files.

For GS-09: Specialized Experience: You must have at least one (1) full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-08 level in the Federal Service.

Examples of specialized experience may include: Working as a secretary in an executive level office environment; Receiving visitors and telephone calls to the office; Carries out and coordinates all clerical and day-to-day administrative support activities, to include timekeeping; Provides clerical and administrative assistance to the organization; scheduling appointments; coordinating meetings and conferences, preparing correspondence, reports, memoranda using multiple automated programs and/or software and maintaining files; broad knowledge of procedures, rules, regulations and policies of the agency.

Preferred Experience: Specialized Experience (on Request): Preferred experience includes independently communicating effectively across all organizational levels, arranging meetings and conference calls, scheduling resources, reviewing written materials for clarity and compliance, maintaining personnel and performance records, managing timekeeping, tracking deadlines, and organizing work to meet established processes.

Also includes experience with Microsoft Office products, reviewing directives and publications, and recording and transcribing meeting minutes.

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:

Manage two Executive Leadership Team members' schedules and day-to-day plans, identify the schedule and time required, and estimate the resources needed.

Schedule Executive Office conference room space according to current policies and the requestor's purpose, date/time required, and audio/visual needs.

Collect, triage, and resolve incoming queries from patients, employees, VISN, VA Central Office, Congressional Offices, DOD partners, and other community-based medical centers and organizations, while also providing the highest level of customer service.

Attend the Executives' board/committee meetings, prepare the agenda and meeting minutes, and send out communications to its members.

Proofread documents for the Executives' signature for clarity, completeness, and sufficient supporting information and suggest corrections.

Prepare written letters of correspondence on behalf of the Executives with proper grammar and spelling.

Perform records management of all Executive Office documents, confidential and sensitive in nature, and maintain and discard them appropriately per policy.

Track incoming and outgoing mail and correspondence.

Prepare performance appraisals and maintain the competency folders to include up-to-date licenses, training, positions descriptions or functional statements, performance standards, and appraisals.

Research and provide background information on topics of interest and follows-up on action items. Pull reports from Performance Logic, VSignals, PA TS-R, VATAS, and other applications.

Complete travel arrangements for the Executives and prepare travel claim reimbursements upon their return to station.

Assist with the Executive Office Clean Sweeps, the Hazmat Inventory, Equipment Inventory, work orders, and supply orders.

Serve as a Timekeeper to maintain and record leave and attendance and ensure FMLA, telework, and other documentation are obtained and confidentially stored to support timecard postings.

Perform other duties as assigned.

Promotion Potential: The selectee may be promoted to the full performance level without further competition when all regulatory, qualification, and performance requirements are met.

Selection at a lower grade level does not guarantee promotion to the full performance level. Work Schedule: Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM PDT. Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Position Description/PD#: Secretary (OA)/PD414040 and PD414030 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized. Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not authorized.

Physical Requirements: The work is sedentary. Typically, the employee may sit comfortably to do the work.

However, there may be some walking, standing, bending, and carrying light items like papers or books. No special physical demands are required to perform the work.

Work Conditions: The work environment involves everyday risks or discomforts and requires normal safety precautions typical of such places as meeting and training rooms, libraries or commercial vehicles.

The work area is adequately lit, heated and ventilated.