Duties

This announcement is a solicitation for applications from current VA employees and status eligible applicants. Please note that as provided for in the AFGE/VA Master Agreement the FIRST area of consideration for this position will be permanent employees of the NCA, ICS, the SECOND area of consideration will be employees at other VA facilities, and the THIRD area of consideration will be status eligibles.

Major Duties include:

• Develops and implements plans for assessing the effectiveness of operational and business practices at cemeteries, staff offices, and program areas throughout NCA and for state and tribal Veterans cemeteries receiving VA grants.
• Implements strategies to accomplish complete and objective evaluations of programs, processes, systems, cemeteries, and offices, as required.
• Identifies, reviews, and analyzes data collection methods to ensure consistency in reporting and comparability among similar types of activities.
• Organizes, plans, and leads review teams and/or oversees reviews conducted by NCA employees or VA employees (as part of a Service Level Agreement).
• Develops/reviews feedback reports for completeness, accuracy, and clarity.
• Prepares preliminary review feedback reports for management review and comment; considers feedback and then prepares and presents final review reports to senior leadership and responds to any follow-up issues pertaining to the review findings.
• Maintains a working knowledge of the four phases of a quality audit (planning, performance, feedback, follow-up) and can apply them as a team lead conducting a review of a: NCA cemetery, district office, staff office; or state or tribal Veterans cemetery.
• Key areas of reviews may include leadership practices assessed with Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework criteria; Office of Inspector General open recommendations; Government Accountability Office open recommendations; improvement projects; cemetery/office level internal controls (operational and financial); cemetery operational standards and measures, and performance scorecards.
• Reviews NCA performance data to identify areas of opportunity and develop improvement proposals for senior leadership consideration.
• Develops project agreements and leads teams through accepted improvement methods to clearly define the situation, quantify the current performance level and its impact, identify possible remedies, test high potential remedies, present findings and recommendations to senior leadership, and identify self and management controls to maintain gains once improvements are implemented.
• Supports the improvement and innovation of systems and processes by identifying new product/service features to exceed customer expectations.
• Applies a wide range of quantitative and qualitative methods and techniques to collect, analyze, assess, and improve programs, processes, and systems through new and better ways of doing business.
• The position requires approximately 35% travel. Travel includes leading review teams, conducting training classes, and leading improvement project teams. Position is telework eligible, but requires a certain amount of time in the office to gather and organize materials related to the analyst's assigned work for: travel; feedback reports; senior leadership briefings; and development of special leadership packages, such as recognition packages.

Work schedule: Required to work Monday through Friday, 8:00 am to 4:30 pm.
Compressed/Flexible Schedule: May be available
Telework: May be available
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Pandemic Telework Program - Due to COVID-19, the VA is currently in an expanded telework posture. If selected, you may be expected to temporarily telework, even if your home is located outside the local commuting area. Once employees are permitted to return to the office, you will be expected to report to the duty station listed on this announcement. At that time, you may be eligible to request to continue to telework depending upon the terms of your organization's telework policy and the duties of the position.

Position Description Title/PD#: Program Analyst/133070
The full performance level of this position is GS-13.

Relocation Expenses: Not authorized
Financial Disclosure Report: Not authorized

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• Subject to a background/security investigation.
• Designated and/or random drug testing may be required.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
• You may be required to serve a probationary period.
• You must be a U.S. citizen to apply for this job.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all specialized experience and time in grade requirements within 45 days of the closing date of this announcement, 12/07/2021.

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 within 45 days of 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 your most recent non-award 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 non-award SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one year time-in-grade.
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 as described below:

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: demonstrated mastery of a wide range of qualitative and quantitative methods and techniques used to collect, analyze, and present complex program, process, and system data; strong proficiency with Microsoft word, Excel, and Power Point software. Knowledge of and experience in data collection. and evaluation tools and techniques such as: surveys; interviews; flowcharting; Pareto Analysis; Lean tools and techniques; knowledge of Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework criteria and quality audit phases (plan, performance; feedback; and follow-up); effectively use written communications to develop and prepare reports, proposals or studies.

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:

• Audit Reporting
• Auditing
• Communication
• Organizational Performance Analysis
• Project Management

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 primarily sedentary, although some slight physical effort may be required. Most work is performed in a typical office setting that is adequately lighted and climate controlled. Some work (primarily compliance reviews) requires the collection of certain types of data, like cemetery appearance data, to be collected outside of the office environment. Assignments may require travel (approximately 10-15 trips per year).

Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process.

VA supports the use of telework as a way to help attract and retain talented individuals in public service, increase worker productivity, and better prepare the agency to operate during emergencies. This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process.

Placement Policy: The posting of this announcement does not obligate management to fill a vacancy or vacancies by promotion. The position may be filled by reassignment, change to lower grade, transfer, appointment, or reinstatement. Management may use any one or any combination of these methods to fill the position.

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.

Veterans and Transitioning Service Members: Please visit the VA for Vets site for career-search tools for Veterans seeking employment at VA, career development services for our existing Veterans, and coaching and reintegration support for military service members.

Education

There is no educational substitution at this grade level.

Additional information

COVID-19 Vaccination Requirement - As required by Executive Order 14043 , Federal employees are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 regardless of the employee's duty location or work arrangement (e.g., telework, remote work, etc.), subject to such exceptions as required by law. If selected, you will be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and submit documentation of proof of vaccination before your start date. Per the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) , you are fully vaccinated for COVID-19, 2 weeks after receiving the requisite number of doses of a COVID-19 vaccine approved or authorized for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or that has been listed for emergency use by the World Health Organization. For Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, or AstraZeneca/Oxford, full vaccination is 2 weeks after receiving the second dose in a 2-dose series. For Johnson and Johnson (J&J)/Janssen, full vaccination is 2 weeks after an employee has received a single dose.

HR Office staff must verify your vaccination status prior to issuing a final offer of employment and before you report for New Employee Orientation. [In addition, new hires must show vaccination documentation and submit their completed VA FORM 10230 , COVID-19 Vaccination Form, to VA HR staff when reporting for New Employee Orientation. HR staff will upload vaccination information in the VA Light Electronic Action Framework (LEAF) system. If you are unable to obtain the COVID-19 vaccination due to a legally covered exception (i.e., medical or religious reasons),] VA will provide additional information regarding what information or documentation is needed and how you can request an exception. If you request a legally required exception, you must first complete the VA FORM 10230 , COVID-19 Vaccination Form, and return the form to the servicing HR Office staff within 2 business days. The HR Office staff will submit the form to your new supervisor of record for adjudication of the exception request. You may receive a final offer or be appointed while your request for medical or religious exception is being adjudicated. Some positions must be adjudicated favorably prior to receiving a final offer. Please contact the HR Point of Contact listed in the JOA for more information.

The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) nd 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 (have a final rating of 85 or more) for this vacancy. 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/ .

For more information on the "Who may apply" eligibility requirements, please refer to the OHRM Status Candidates and Other Candidate Definitions document.

If you are unable to apply online or need to fax a document you do not have in electronic form, view the following link for information regarding an Alternate Application .