Program Specialist

The Program Specialist, GS-0301-09, position is located within Primary Care Service. This service falls under the auspices of the Office of the Chief of Staff at the G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery VA Medical Center (GVSMVAMC). Deploys with superior interpersonal skills, as this position requires, work with Veterans, numerous health care professional, other VA Staff, Congressional and Community stakeholders.

Qualifications:

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 05/01/2026.

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-09 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-07. 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-07 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to:

• Identifies, analyzes, and recommends solutions to problems, Using conflict resolution, de-escalation, and negotiation techniques.
• Facilitates the organization's programs, structures, and activities in an administrative setting.
• Gathers, analyzes, and evaluates in effort to advise and recommend to management officials an improvement process.
• Independently utilizes Microsoft Office to include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
• Providing direct patient advocacy services, conducting thorough review of patient issues, identifying trends, and recommending service improvements.

OR,

Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have Successfully completed a Master's or equivalent, or 2 years of progressively higher level education leading to such a degree, or an LL.B or J.D.in a field related to this position that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of this position. Note: Transcripts are required.

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: Equivalent combination of successfully completed graduate education and specialized experience (beyond the first graduate year or 18 semester hours) and specialized experience to meet the total experience requirements. The education portion must include graduate courses that demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of the position. Note: Transcripts are required.


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/.

Responsibilities:

• Has overall responsibility for the resolution of patient problems, which arise, receives and listens to complaints and grievances from patients or from individuals on behalf of patients unresolved at the service level.
• Investigates complaints, initiates action/appeals or change to rectify the situation and reports corrective measures taken to parties involved, when warranted.
• Serves as the liaison for the patient/family, vendor, Veterans Board of Appeals, Congressional Liaisons, District Counsel, Veteran's Integrated Service Network (VISN) 16, the GVSMVAM, and Community Care Office and provides a channel through which the unit can respond to patients' needs and concerns.
• Communicates with the patient and his/her family and with clinical and administrative staff, Veteran's Affairs (VA), and private sector, to enhance responsiveness in meeting the health care needs of Veterans.
• Identifies the elements of the clinical or administrative practices that contribute to or create an atmosphere for patient/customer dissatisfaction and recommends changes that will reduce or eliminate complaints.
• Takes inquiries from Veterans, their family members, and/or representatives and uses research tools, assessment of data, and research modalities in order to get the data to support the response.
• Pays attention to detail and drills down the data for this research.
• Provides updates on progress of work completed and through recurring reports to the Community Care Service Chief, or designee.
• Participates in the establishment of administrative qualitative standards intended to improve programs, facilities and operations.
• Plans and carries out projects to improve the efficiency and productivity of organizations and employees in administrative support activities, identifies, analyzes, and makes recommendations to resolve conventional problems and situations.
• Identifies system inefficiencies and develops studies and or data collection techniques related to specific identified problems, coordinates with other staff to identify information needs and develops data collection methods and report formats to meet those needs.
• Organizes, completes, summarizes and analyzes the data collected and develops reports which reflect the scope of activities and identifies trends and opportunities for improvement.

Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 7:30am-4:00pm, subject to change based on the needs of the facility.
Telework: This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process.
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Position Description/PD#: Program Specialist/PD842810
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Salary : $61,722