Program Support Assistant (OA)

Program Support Assistant

Incumbent functions as Program Support Assistant assigned to services within the Associate Director for Operations line. Provides administrative support to the leadership of specific departments. The incumbent receives assignments from the Executive Assistant to the Associate Director, the services to which assigned, or appropriate designees to ensure that the medical center mission is actualized.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Receives and screens all incoming email and telephone correspondence for the assigned services, veterans and/or family members, contractors, and the public involving technical, complex, and confidential matters.
• Uses independent judgement in determining the nature of the correspondence and assessing those that he/she can handle without prior approval, those to be referred to the staff for appropriate action, and those requiring immediate attention to be directed to the appropriate.
• Obtains, sorts, reviews and distributes incoming mail, publications, regulations and directives to the appropriate staff with appropriate notation as to who is to prepare response, how reply is addressed, for whose signature, etc.
• Receives and reviews all outgoing correspondence from the services that require signatures. Provides expert review for proper format, adherence to procedural instructions, grammar, typographical errors and necessary enclosures.
• Maintains the calendar, meeting and conference schedules for the assigned service chiefs and staff, without prior clearance, using initiative to establish priorities. Sets up meetings with multiple internal and external staff.
• Keeps accurate employee time records for all the staff assigned to the office. Prepares, maintains and submits electronic timecards for designated staff; reminds approving official of deadline to approve timecards. Distributes or mails pay statements, if applicable.
• Maintains a filing system of correspondence, manuals, regulations and documents, files reports appropriately. Orders supplies, maintains fund control data, recommends increases or decreases in funding for the Fund Control Point to leaders.

Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 7:30 am to 4:00 pm

Telework: Not Applicable Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Requirements Conditions of Employment:

You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job. To be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. In addition to the application and questionnaire, this position requires an online assessment. The online assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job. All applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA. Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.

Physical Requirements: The work required does not inherently include any physical requirements essential for successful job performance that could not otherwise be performed with accommodation or workplace adjustment. A pre-placement physical examination is not required.

Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements.

Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued identification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.

Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period or 2-year trial period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest.

Qualifications:

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/17/2026. 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-06 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-05. 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-05 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to:

• Experience gained in a Clerical or Administrative Support environment in a medical setting.
• Providing administrative support, operating a personal computer, and using a computer to process and analyze data.
• Sorting and processing incoming correspondence.
• Coordinating with others between various units and offices to accomplish work related projects.
• Analyzing workflow to determine potential problem areas and making recommendations to correct.
• Proofreading documents for grammatical errors.

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: Work is primarily sedentary but may require walking and standing. No special physical effort or ability is required to do the work.

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/.

Education: There is no educational substitution at this grade level.

Additional Information:

Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer. For more information about the Act and the complaint process, visit Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP) at The Fair Chance Act.

Reasonable Accommodation (RA) Requests: If you believe you have a disability (i.e., physical or mental), covered by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended that would interfere with completing the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be granted the opportunity to request a RA in your online application. Requests for RA for the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments and appropriate supporting documentation for RA must be received prior to starting the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments.

Receiving Service Credit for Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. VA may offer newly-appointed Federal employee's credit for their job-related non-federal experience or active duty uniformed military service. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed.

This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced 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 well-qualified: applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are proficient in most of the required competencies of the job. Information about ICT