Program Specialist

Summary

The Northport VA Medical Center has 1 vacancy for a Program Specialist within the Radiation/ Oncology Service. The incumbent independently performs technical and administrative work in support of the Radiation Oncology Service management team, which is responsible for the oversight and leadership of the service.

Duties

• Major duties include but are not limited to: Responsible for constant surveillance, evaluation and planning to ensure efficient utilization of space based on constantly changing and ever increasing program demands. Reviews outgoing correspondence for determination of accuracy of information, proper composition, proper format, and whether such correspondence conforms to current VA policies, instructions and regulations, as well as the viewpoint of the Chief, Radiation Oncology Service. Manages all personnel actions within the Service authorizing to initiate, coordinate, and approve all personnel actions and prepares Human Resources Responsible for submitting HR requests through the Resource Management Committee. Composes and reviews all position descriptions and the performance standards within the service for compliance with VA standards. Maintains a current file of all position descriptions within the Service and conducts an annual position review. Incumbent recommends incentive awards and/or disciplinary actions, protocols and procedures to the Chief, Radiation Oncology Service. Import and analysis of data including quality management responsibilities such as continuous quality improvement (CQI) programs, focus studies, assessing patient safety and satisfaction, quality management, Service workload and efficiency, stakeholders' affairs. Budget control (including purchasing orders/requests), utilization renew and short/long budgetary and strategic planning; analysis of fiscal needs; budget forecasting including Service annual budget presentation; fund control point oversight including supply request approvals; running balance; monthly and quarterly reconciliations, Integrated Fund Distribution, Control Point Activity, Accounting and Procurement (IFCAP), ceiling reports. Time and Leave administration; approvals, timecard management (VATAS); time card reconciliation; payroll administration; employee Tuition and Travel program. Evaluation and allocation for administrative and clinical venue needs; surveillance, evaluation and planning to ensure efficient utilization of space based on changing programmatic and clinical demands; authority to plan for revised space assignments. Trains physicians and technicians on software, workflow protocol and procedure, database use, image archiving and transmission, instrument or application specific software, patient education workflows among other topics. Provides written reports and interprets findings resulting from studies and surveys to identify improvements in process and quality of operations and services offered. Service specific duties include monitoring day to day operations; extracts workload data from radiation treatment planning system specific software, Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS), VISTA, National VHA and VISN databases; maintains and evaluates clinic workload; creates statistical workload reports; maintains and evaluates clinic workload ensuring all documentation is completed timely, accurately describes complex radiation therapy services and reflects proper encounter coding, to include management of Clinic Profiles ensuring proper utilization of all clinical appointments. Reviews documentation, guidelines, and data collection tools to recommend procedure, staff, and equipment changes to support new programs/projects. Performs work involving the collection, compilation and tracking of various types of data and statistical information in support of the Office's program operations. Uses electronic mail, appointment scheduling, calendar, and spreadsheets, etc. Analyzes data from various sources including VHA Support Service Center Capital Assets (VSSC) analytic and productivity reports, Data Warehouse Reports and Northport Data Management reports. Obtains and analyzes data and information required to assure the prompt and accurate preparation of reports required, both externally and internally, as they affect the daily operation of the service. Responsible for collecting and organizing Ongoing/Focused Professional Practice Evaluation (OPPE/FPPE) data from the radiation oncology section and programs for inclusion in the Report to the Clinical Executive Board. Responsible for performing audits to determine compliance with regulations, procedures, sound management practices, and effective utilization of staff. Scheduling appointments, including interpreting and verifying provider orders in accordance with VHA national scheduling guidelines. Work Schedule: Full-time, Monday - Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm Telework: This position may be authorized for ad hoc telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Program Specialist/PD632-143810

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 09/10/2026. 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 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: Thorough and comprehensive knowledge of computer packages including Varian ARIA/Eclipse Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS), Integrated Scheduling Solution (ISS), Fileman, Decision Support System (DSS,) etc. In-depth knowledge of data capture systems for both inpatient and outpatient workload. This includes obtaining information about access times, provider productivity, times to treatment, and other relevant metrics to radiation oncology. Ability to study, evaluate and verify collected data for validity, accuracy, and reliability. Knowledge of general business and accounting principles sufficient to independently manage control points, analyze, reconcile, and balance accounts. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have: Master's or equivalent graduate degree OR 2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree OR LL.B. or J.D., if related. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Attention to Detail Customer Service Decision Making Flexibility Integrity/Honesty Interpersonal Skills Learning Reading Comprehension Reasoning Self-Management Stress Tolerance Teamwork 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: The work is basically sedentary in a clinic environment with some walking to all parts of the medical center is required since the incumbent will be working with a variety of clinical and administrative services, some bending, standing, and carrying of supplies (up to 20 lbs.) within the medical center complex. The work also requires long periods of concentration at a computer terminal. No special physical demands are required to perform 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/.

Requirements

You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959 Subject to background/security investigation Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). 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. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider: your performance and conduct; the needs and interests of the agency; whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service. Upon completion of your probationary period or trial period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Education

A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

How to apply

All applicants are encouraged to apply online. To apply for this position, you must complete the questionnaire and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section below. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on 09/10/2026 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/13054395. To begin, click Apply Online to create a USA JOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USA JOBS resume and/or other supporting documents and complete the occupational questionnaire. Click Submit My Answers to submit your application package. NOTE: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date. Beginning September 27, 2025, Federal agencies will only accept resumes up to two pages in length to comply with the Merit Hiring Plan. Resumes longer than two pages will result in ineligibility for further consideration for the position. USAJOBS will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages, and you will need to update the resumes in your profile before applying for a job. Resumes should include information relevant to the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of the position to which you are applying. VA is unable to make assumptions about qualifications if not clearly listed. Resumes must be legible so they can be reviewed for eligibility, minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement. Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started. Helpful Hints for Creating a Two-Page Resume: Prioritize most relevant and recent experience Use concise, results focused language Align language from the job announcement Focus on demonstrating skills and competencies Remove outdated or unrelated experience Use the USAJOBS resume builder Additional guidance on this new requirement and resume building tools can be found at: https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/merit-hiring-plan-resources/applicant-guidance-on-the-two-page-resume-limit/ Special Employment Consideration: VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply, including those eligible for hiring under 5 CFR 213.3102(u), Schedule A, Appointment of persons with disabilities [i.e., intellectual disabilities, severe physical disabilities, or psychiatric disabilities], and/or Disabled veterans with a compensable service-connected disability of 30% or more. Contact the Agency Contact for information on how to apply under this appointment authority via the Selective Placement Coordinator. The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal/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 ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/. During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions.