Supervisory Program Specialist

Summary

This position is located in the Veterans Benefits Administration, Regional Office, Office of the Director. The incumbent serves as a Supervisory Program Specialist responsible for a wide range of duties that support the overall operations of the Regional office. The incumbent is the key advisor to the Director and the Division Chiefs on human resources issues and coordinates directly with the HR Center.

Duties

• Specific duties include: Plans work to be accomplished by subordinates, sets and adjust short- and long-range staffing plans to meet the forecasted mission requirements and changes in critical competencies. Evaluates work performance of subordinates; gives advice, counsel, or instruction to employees on both work and administrative matters; interviews candidates for positions in the unit. Recommends appointment, promotion, or reassignment to such positions. Hears and resolves complaints from employees, referring group grievances and more serious unresolved complaints to a higher-level supervisor or manager. Effects minor disciplinary measures, such as warnings and reprimands, proposing other action in more serious cases; identifies developmental and training needs of employees, providing or arranging for needed development and training. Develops performance standards. Recommends selections for subordinate nonsupervisory positions. Finds and implements ways to eliminate or reduce significant bottlenecks and barriers to production, promote team building. Provides management advisory services in counseling, advising management on developing and maintaining the proper balance between organization strategic plans and goals and human resource development programs. Conducting systemic studies to develop management interests. Collaborates with the staff/managers to develop and implement policies, procedures, and guidelines which institute processes for work to run as effectively and efficiently as possible. Implementations may require recommendations for changes in established process and procedures which help workflow of applicable sections. Conducts data reviews and analyzes data results, identifying any data trends and making recommendations for updating or creating new processes and procedures to help increase workflow. Provides comprehensive advice on human resource management functions to the Director, Assistant Directors, Division Chiefs, Managers, Supervisors, HR Staff, and employees. Pro-actively briefs senior management regarding key human resources trends, risks, threats, and other significant issues to ensure HR actions taken conform with the laws and regulation governing federal civilian personnel and negotiated labor management agreements. Identifies problems and develops workable solutions. Researches and responds to a variety of time sensitive information requests (Taskers) from the Director's Office. Researches pressing issues to provide sound, well informed recommendations to management. Maintain appropriate internal controls. Work Schedule: Full Time, Monday - Friday 8:00 am - 4:30 pm Compressed/Flexible: Not Available. Telework: This position is eligible for situational (ad hoc) telework only. The selectee is required to report to the official duty station each scheduled workday. Telework may be approved only on a case-by-case basis with supervisory approval. Routine or recurring telework is not authorized for this position. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Supervisory Program Specialist; PD38567A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized. Financial Disclosure Report: Not Required.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement: 09/14/2026. TIME-IN-GRADE REQUIREMENT: As a current Federal, GS employee you must 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 level. If you are a current VBA employee requesting reassignment or change to lower grade via this vacancy announcement, you must currently hold the GS- 13 or higher and the promotion potential of your current position must be at least None. 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. MINIMUM QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENT: You may qualify based on your experience as described below: GS-13 Grade Level: Specialized Experience: One (1) year of Specialized Experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade level (GS-12). Specialized experience is defined as: experience applying and providing guidance on multiple fields of Human Resources rules, regulations, and procedures including Personnel Management, Recruitment and Staffing, Classification, Employee Benefits and Labor Relations. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Provide advice and guidance in the areas of staffing and recruitment Defending agency actions in front of a 3rd party hearing (FLRA, MSPB) Experience as the chief negotiator in labor negotiations Volunteer Experience: 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. Full vs. Part-Time Employment: Full-time employment is considered to be at least 35 hours per week. Part-time experience will be credited on a pro-rated basis; when including part-time employment in your resume you must specify the average hours worked per week. Physical Requirements: The work is primarily sedentary. Some walking is required for the tasks concerned. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/. For more information on the "Who may apply" eligibility requirements, please refer to the OHRM Status Candidates and Other Candidate Definitions document.

Requirements

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period or 1-year trial period or 2-year trial 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. Additional Conditions of Employment are as follows: You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959 You may be required to serve a probationary or trial period Selectees are required to serve a one-year supervisory probationary period if not previously completed in a Federal position. 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 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.

Education

There is no educational substitution at this grade level.

How to apply

To receive consideration, the complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. (EST) on 09/14/2026 or 11:59 p.m. (EST) on the day the applicant count limit is reached, whichever comes first. It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date. The application process is as follows: 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. Click here for instructions on viewing your application status. The application process is as follows: Click the Apply Online button. Answer the questions presented in the application and attach all necessary supporting documentation. Click the Submit Application button prior to 11:59 PM (ET) on the announcement closing date. If you are required to complete any USA Hire Assessments, you will be notified after submitting your application. The notification will be provided in your application submission screen and via email. The notification will include your unique assessment access link to the USA Hire system and the completion deadline. Additionally, in USAJOBS you can click "Track this application" to return to your assessment completion notice. Access USA Hire using your unique assessment link. Access is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Review all instructions prior to beginning your assessments. You will have the opportunity to request a testing accommodation before beginning the assessments should you have a disability covered under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended. Set aside about two (2) hours to take the USA Hire Assessments; however, most applicants complete the assessments in less time. If you need to stop the assessments and continue later, you can re-use your unique assessment link. Your responses to the USA Hire Assessments will be reused for one year (in most cases) from the date you complete an assessment. If future applications you submit require completion of the same assessments, your responses will be automatically reused. Visit the USA Hire Applicant Resource Center for practice assessments and assessment preparation resources at https://support-usahire.opm.gov/hc/en-us. To update your application, including supporting documentation: During the announcement open period, return to your USAJOBS account, find your application record, and click Edit my application. This option will no longer be available once the announcement has closed. To view the announcement status or your application status: Visit https://help.usajobs.gov/how-to/application/status. Your application status page is where you can view your application status, USA Hire assessment completion status, and review your notifications sent by the hiring agency regarding your application. 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: USA Jobs Help Center - Resume Page Limit Applicant Guidance on the Two-Page Resume Limit