Staff Assistant

Full Job Description

The Office of General Counsel (OGC) provides legal advice and services to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (SECVA) and all organizational components of the Department.

The Office of General Counsel's senior leadership consists of the General Counsel (GC), the Principal Deputy General Counsel (PDGC), and the Deputy General Counsel (DGC).

Under the supervision of the Executive Assistant, the Staff Assistant provides analytical, administrative and project management support for senior leadership.

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 02/27/2026.

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 level. 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.

See the Required Document section below for more information regarding the SF-50s needed to verify time-in-grade.

You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade (GS-7) in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.

Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Analyzing and evaluating quantitative and qualitative measures of effectiveness of meeting established goals and objectives; Overseeing scheduling, calendars, documentation of meetings, preparation of travel documents, and other administrative support; Managing suspense dates for tracked correspondence and independently monitoring and coordinating a large volume of documents as assigned; Participating in an administrative capacity in high-level meetings with senior office staff, program directors, and other staff; Researching, fact finding, analyzing problems, problem solving, legal writing, and summarizing regulations and policies.

OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience.

To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have a master's or equivalent graduate degree; OR 2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree; OR a LL.B.

or J.D., if related. This education must demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of this position.

OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have a combination of specialized experience and Graduate education beyond the first full year.

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Analytical Reasoning Attention to Detail Communications Customer Service Decision Making Flexibility Information Assurance Integrity/Honesty Interpersonal Skills Learning Planning and Evaluating Reading Comprehension Reasoning Self-Management Stress Tolerance Teamwork Written Communication 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 primarily sedentary and may involve some slight physical effort such as using a computer at a desk, sitting in conferences/meetings, standing, walking, bending, pushing a small cart, carrying light items, lifting moderate weighty items.

Typing and data entry using a keyboard is required.

For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at http://://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP)and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal/VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies.

To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified for this vacancy.

To be found well qualified, applicants must meet the following qualifications: Demonstrated administrative experience and familiarity with a wide array of support functions and activities used to oversee the day-to-day operations of a Staff Office Applying legal research techniques in fact finding, problem analysis, problem solving, legal writing, and summarizing regulations and policies Making decisions based on sound judgment, interpretations, and evaluation of processes, which may be complicated by conflicting program goals and objectives Skill in explaining the rationale and consequences behind recommendations; influencing managers or other officials to accept and implement findings and recommendations on improvements for better program effectiveness Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/.

Local Commuting Area: The local commuting area for this position is defined as a radius of 50 miles from Washington, DC.

This includes all locations that fall within a 50 mile driving distance from 810 Vermont Ave NW, Washington, DC 20420. Major Duties:

Major duties include, but are not limited to the following: Receiving special assignments from GC and PDGC requiring expeditious and judicious assemblage of data or information Preparing project papers, compiling documents from multiple sources, and organizing and delivering briefings to management to encourage the understanding and acceptance of findings and recommendations, or to promote acceptance and/or gain approval of new concepts and changes Participating in an administrative capacity in high-level meetings with senior office staff, program directors, and other staff as requested Managing suspense dates for tracked correspondence and independently monitoring and coordinating a large volume of documents as assigned Coordinating priorities and meetings with other VA offices; acting as frontline liaison handling communication with persons and/or groups within and outside of the organization or office Researching, fact finding, analyzing and solving problems, legal writing, and summarizing regulations and policies Coordinating assignment due dates and extensions in a diplomatic and timely manner and making necessary corrections and updates for office correspondence Applying practical understanding of the legal activities sufficient to investigate, analyze, and resolve issues in assigned work Overseeing scheduling, calendars, documentation of meetings, preparation of travel documents, and other administrative support to ensure timely and effective completion of goals and objectives Participating in the daily work and support for group project management, and cooperating with the internal project management audit team Performing analysis and statistical evaluation of factors influencing project results, preparing the results in a presentation format Ensuring briefing materials are prepared and submitted for meetings on complex issues Analyzing and evaluating quantitative and qualitative measures of effectiveness of OGC's ability to meet established goals and objectives Reading and analyzing a wide range of non-routine incoming materials for distributions to Front Office staff or Law Groups Conducting extensive fact-finding activities and consolidating information into concise summaries with decision points and options 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 - Friday, 8:00 am to 4:30 pm Compressed/Flexible: Available Telework: Available - Ad Hoc telework (situational telework) as determined by the agency policy Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Position Description/PD#: PD19228A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required