Training Specialist

Full Job Description

The TMS Domain & Learning Manager for the VA Western New York Healthcare System (VAWNYHS) reports to the VAWNYHS Chief of Education/Designated Learning Officer (DLO) and manages education programs, curriculum design, and training instruction for a wide variety of courses presented to employees for their job advancement and overall career development.

The work involves planning, administering, or evaluating programs designed to develop employees and manage learning in the organization.

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/04/2026.

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-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-09. 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-09 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.

Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Specialized knowledge of Learning Management Systems, preferably in a healthcare environment.

Strong technical skills in LMS Software, as well as experience with system integrations and troubleshooting (e.g, SCORM, HTML).

Ability to work with multidisciplinary groups for requirements gathering, design, development, implementation, and post implementation phases for training initiatives.

Knowledge of adult learning principles, educational delivery methods and instructional systems design techniques is required.

Ability to design instructional materials (such as white papers, bulletins, and oral presentations).

Materials are created for the purpose of teaching new functionality or complex use of the application.

Must use effective oral and written communication skills to provide instructions, resolve issues, and present fact-finding results to management.

Comprehensive understanding of report generation, web basics, personal computers, networks, database concepts, the management of e-Learning modules and team-building and interpersonal skills.

Knowledge of research, analysis, and evaluation techniques as well as project management principles needed to manage a variety of assignments, produce reports, and make significant recommendations for action or improvement.

This includes the ability to obtain, assess, interpret, and analyze organizational information from all available resources and data stores.

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

To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have a Major study in education or a subject area related to the position to be filled. a Ph.D.

or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M., if related.

OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level.

You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond 2 years of a graduate level degree.

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Customer Service (Clerical/Technical) Database Administration Education and Training Planning and Evaluating Research Strategic Thinking 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 Demands: Work is mostly sedentary. There may be some walking, standing, bending, carrying of light items, etc.

Work Environment: Work is usually performed in offices, meeting rooms, or similar settings. The work areas are adequately lighted, heated, and ventilated.

Work may involve occasional overnight travel including normal everyday risks and discomforts associated with auto, bus, air, and rail transportation.

No special physical demands such as above ability, dexterity, or strength are required to perform the work. Works is sedentary and the employee may sit comfortably.

There may be some walking, standing, bending, carrying of light items, driving an automobile, etc.

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: Serves as the primary TMS Domain Manager (managing New York VAWNYHS access to the TMS, Domain Structure, level courses, events, instructors, facilities, locations, and equipment) in the TMS.

Develops and documents policy and procedure for TMS Administrators (Learning Managers, Item Managers, Content Managers, Scheduling Managers, Assignment Managers, Help Desk Managers, Report Managers and Performance Managers) a NY VAWNYHS and ensures TMS Administrators are properly trained in their administrator role.

Responsible for managing TMS courses and content, creating, and managing complex local level automated assignments to user profiles.

Requirements for assignment profiles are identified in VA Directives and Memos. Incumbent displays specialized knowledge of demographic data elements to identify and target audience for the assignment.

Manages VAWNYHS reporting needs from the TMS by interpreting and documenting business requirements from Senior Leadership, Directors, and Veterans Information Service Networks (VISN).

Incumbent is responsible for translating business requirements into dashboards, report charts and reports for complex business requirements.

Networks and partners with key individuals from VAWNYHS to ensure that national & local training requirements and mandates are being managed through the TMS, providing guidance and support concerning educational offerings, mandatory and required training and understanding of how to identify target audiences in the TMS.

Manages and tracks learners training and learning events; ensures learning is aligned with organizational goals and objectives.

Provides guidance and oversight to group users into TMS domains that mirror the VHA organizational structure.

The VHA TMS Domain structure is used for the purpose of managing and automating assignments of curricula, catalogs, competency profiles and reporting.

Provides expert advice and guidance VAWNYHS TMS administrators regarding customer support questions or other issues affecting TMS users.

Appropriately documents and tracks issues when coordinating with established escalation channels or support group for issues that cannot be solved at the VHA level.

Works independently to accomplish a wide variety of responsibilities including leading or collaborating with VAWNYHS level teams, setting priorities, organizing, and adjusting workflow and meeting deadlines.

Attends national level calls, reviews directives, memos, and informational sites to provide feedback to customers, managers, and others.

Organizes, documents, and submits results of User Acceptance Testing (UAT) for new updates or functionality to managers and the application owner.

Collaborate with HR staff to ensure new employees are being added to VAWNYHS in a timely manner and mandatory training is assigned; duplicate user profiles are consolidated; non-VA staff are inactivated when they no longer have a business relationship with the VA.

Develops recommendations for actions and methods to achieve effective and efficient education operations.

Provides recommendations on procedural and policy matters pertaining to creating and managing course content in the TMS.

Advises leadership and staff of changes to mandatory and other training requirements.

Plans, manages, and completes special projects and assignments such as finding new training resources, development of training packages, documentation for integrations to new content providers and managing the roll-out of new training.

Recommends and develops requirements to interface with other education and training platforms to provide a seamless training experience, book marking and completion history for users.

Establishes statistical sampling techniques and accomplishes training/performance trend analysis. Conducts job task and gap analysis to identify customer needs and training requirements.

Constructs models to represent tasks, sub-tasks and enabling knowledge and skills. Analyzes education program objectives and recommends revisions as necessary.

Collects and analyzes data to determine effective application of education and training policies and procedures and soundness of organizational and cost procedural patterns.

Generates reports to track training by content, item source, modality, accreditation type, occupation, and geographic location.

Reviews reports and work measurement data to assist leadership in reviewing education delivery systems and programs. Performs other duties as assigned to support the Education & Learning Department.

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 7:30am-4:00pm Telework: This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process.

Position Description/PD#: Training Specialist/PD134420 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized