Health System Specialist (Strategic Planner)

This position is located in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Mid-Atlantic Health Care Network (VISN 6), Hampton VA Medical Center (VAMC), office of the Executive Director. The primary purpose of this position is to serve as the Facility Strategic Planner.

Qualifications:

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 06/08/2026.

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.Individual Occupational Requirement (IOR): An IOR is a basic requirement that must be met in order to qualify for entry into a particular job series. This requirement cannot be waived.For the Health Systems Specialist position, applicants must possess education and/or experience that is directly related to the work of the position. Applicants must meet at least ONE of the following Individual Occupational Requirements for to be eligible for consideration.

• Undergraduate and Graduate Education: Formal education in an occupation related major field of study, such as business or public administration, with coursework in health care administration (Hospital Administration, Public Health Administration, Business or Public Administration).NOTE: You must submit a copy of your transcripts (official or unofficial). Applicable education must be accredited by an accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education at the time the degree was obtained.
• OR, Specialized Experience: Progressively responsible analytical or administrative, or clinical management or supervisory experience in the health care field. This work may have been performed in an operating health care facility or a higher organizational echelon with advisory or directional authority over such facilities. Work must have involved a close working relationship with facility managers and analysis and/or coordination of administrative, clinical, or other service activities, and provided knowledge of the following:
  • Missions, organizations, programs, and requirements of health care delivery systems;
  • Regulations and standards of various regulatory and credentialing groups; and
  • Government-wide, agency, and facility systems and requirements in various administrative areas such as budget, personnel, and procurement.
• OR, Special Provision for In-Service Placement: Successful completion of an agency-sponsored on-the-job training program may be substituted for qualifying experience, provided it included a formal individualized training plan. Such a training program must have been conducted in an operating health care system and included:
  • Assignments providing a knowledge of basic health system administration philosophies, practices, and procedures, and basic government administrative policies and requirements;
  • Practical assignments providing an opportunity to apply health system administration skills and principles (as the individual progresses, work assignments must be characteristic of the grade level to which he or she is assigned); and
  • Oversight by an experienced health system administrator with periodic evaluation of the individual's progress and appropriate adjustment of the training program.

NOTE: Applicants may meet the IOR based on a combination of education and experience, as outlined above.In addition to meeting the IOR requirement, applicants must possess a minimum of one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade in the normal line of progression for the occupation. 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:

• Operation and organizational management of hospitals and healthcare institutions with a working knowledge of the functional alignment of clinical and administrative services and general administrative operations, programs, and practices in a health care delivery system.
• Sophisticated understanding and application of principles and techniques of healthcare leadership, and analysis that influence achievement of the vision, missions, values, and requirements of health care delivery systems.
• Effective evaluation and analysis of barriers that occur in the daily activities of healthcare organizations, consideration of alternate courses of action based on available information, and determination and implementation of proper resolution.
• Application of the general principles and practices of healthcare resource management, clinical operations, and Lean Six Sigma tools.
• Expertise in a wide variety of computer and data management packages and/or databases.
• Development and implementation of administrative regulations or guidelines for the conduct of program operations or new criteria for evaluating and measuring mission-oriented program milestones and/or accomplishments.
• Planning, organizing, and/or directing team study work to accept and implement recommendations where proposals from executive leadership involve substantial agency resources, require extensive changes in established procedures, or may be in conflict with the desires of stakeholders.

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:

• Provides full staff assistance contributing to decision-making, problem solving, and planning throughout the medical center by evaluating programs, establishing criteria to measure effectiveness and/or predict the attainment of organizational goals and objectives, and recommending changes in management practices, relative materials, methods, techniques, organizational structure, procedures, etc., without limitation to scope or impact.
• Develops and implements administrative regulations or guidelines for the conduct of program operations.
• Contract Administration: managing contracts to ensure compliance, performance, and risk mitigation throughout the contract lifecycle.
• Provides advisory services and high-level insight into the most complex top management deliberations and decisions, participating in determinations and resolutions.
• Coordinates analysis covering a broad range of activities with an emphasis on complying with policy and resulting in recommendations for improvements in the effectiveness and/or efficiency of medical center operations.
• Informs and advises senior leadership on relevant metrics, information, data, and knowledge regarding the internal and external health care environment.
• Collects and analyzes data to project future healthcare needs regarding access to and array of clinical services provided.
• Conducts studies of the appropriate space, equipment, staffing, and support services necessary to meet the needs of the Veteran population, participating in formulation of the budget/allocation of resources and developing business cases and clinical restructuring documents for the expansion of clinical services.
• Serves and advises on major committees/subcommittees/task forces as the Director deems necessary for coordination of Medical Center activities (i.e., Space Committee, Position Management Committee, Resource Management Committee, and Joint Commission for Resource Sharing Collaborative) and guides Hampton VA Executive Leadership on Strategic Planning Processes.
• Responsible for the strategic and operational assessment of Hampton VA Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC's) and other off-site locations.
• Works collaboratively with city, county, and state officials to address Veteran issues within the community.
• Serves as an innovators network and system redesign champion, identifying areas for innovation and process improvement and working with subject-specific leadership to develop appropriate plans of action.
• Provides written and oral communication precepts and rules to write policies, correspondence, reports, etc. and presents new requirements and changes in policy and procedure to clinical service employees, as applicable.

Work Schedule: Monday-Friday, 8:00am-4:30pm
Telework: This position may be authorized for ad-hoc telework, per VA Policy.???????
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Position Description/PD#: Health System Specialist (Strategic Planner)/PD028880
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Salary : $108,019