Supervisory Public Affairs Officer

Full Job Description

The Fayetteville NC Coastal Health Care System (FNCVACHCS) is a Complexity Level 1C health care system located in Southeastern North Carolina and is part of VISN 6.

As one of the fastest-growing VA Health Care enterprises in the nation, FNCVACHCS serves approximately 90,000 unique patients with more than 125,000 enrolled Veterans.

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

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-13 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-12. 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: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-12 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.

Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Ability to supervise, plan, design and maintain a Public Affairs Program for a large organization and its associated locations that fosters effective and efficient external affairs and ensures that coordinated messages and services are achieved; Knowledge of organizational program operations, national data bases, interrelationships, customer service principles, public relations concepts, policies and practices and work life improvement initiatives in order to effectively produce reports and relay critical information in a variety of formats; Ability to provide leadership, support and resources to staff to enable them to carry out the organizational mission; ability to inspire, motivate and guide others toward goal accomplishment; Skill in developing new insights into situations and applying innovative solutions to make organizational improvements; skill in designing and implementing new or cutting-edge programs/processes; Knowledge of how social, political, organizational, and technological systems work and experience operating and managing an effective Public Affairs program within those systems; Ability to express information orally and in writing to multiple audiences; apply logical thinking when describing facts and concepts; and shapes communications to meet the needs of a specific audience.

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Communication Compliance Inspection Influencing/Negotiating 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: Assignments regularly involved extended periods of walking, standing, bending, and stooping to execute logistics for special events or to accompany media cress or other special groups.

Considerable standing and walking throughout the main medical center and the grounds of each facility under the health care system umbrella is required.

Driving or riding in a vehicle is also required on a routine basis to attend outside meetings, interviews, and special events.

The incumbent travels to numerous community events to promote the FNCVACHCS, which involves carrying, lifting and erecting display panels.

Incumbent is also required regularly to pick up loads of up to 15 pounds such as boxes, newspapers and other literature and pushcarts of supplies.

The incumbent also regularly travels to various sites of care to provide public affairs assistance.

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:

Advises the executive management staff on all issues relating to community awareness, and public information regarding FNCVACHCS, especially regarding sensitive local, regional and national media issues and is the official spokesperson to include crisis situations, media interviews and events.

Responsible for managing, supervising, and evaluating the entire Public Affairs Program for a large complex health care system.

Serves as the Program Leader for Public Affairs, Community Relations, Outreach, Medical Media, and Reproduction Services and as the Public Affairs Officer for the FNCVACHCS responsible for managing all marketing, internal and external communication, branding, social media, and web content creation.

Serves as the reviewing official to subordinate staff responsible for managing internet and intranet websites, as well as social media forums with a thorough understanding of national and local web and social media policy and the laws, regulations and memorandums that govern privacy rules.

Serves as a liaison with Public Affairs staff members of related health and educational organizations, services and civic organizations on behalf of the FNCVACHCS, to maintain goodwill and to facilitate joint projects or information gathering.

Independently determines goals for strategic communications program encompassing all sites of care and setting goals and assignments for subordinate public affairs staff.

Writes or supervises the writing of all speeches for the executive management staff and service chiefs for special events, town halls, VA initiatives, community programs, congressional hearings, city forums, patient activities, and service organization conventions.

Serves as congressional affairs alternate when necessary.

Responsible for the production of the FNCVACHCS publications and final approval authority for all Medical Media and Educational brochures, the annual report, videos, and all other PR and marketing brochures for the health care system.

Leads communication efforts in day-to-day operations as well as during crisis and emergency situations. Serves as the Public Information Officer under Hospital Incident Command System.

Plans and executes events and ceremonies and supports outreach to Veterans not enrolled in VA health care system.

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 0800 - 1630 Telework: This position may be authorized for ad-hoc telework. Ad-hoc telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process.

Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Position Description/PD#: Supervisory Public Affairs Officer/PD082380 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized