Health System Specialist

The Health Systems Specialist position is located in the Graduate Medical and Dental Education (GME) section of the Office of Academic Affiliations (OAA) for the Veterans Health Administration. OAA functions as the focal point in VHA for the development of policies and guidelines relating to academic affiliations and clinical education of health care education of health care professionals in training and for implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of those VHA policies and procedures.

This announcement will close on October 27, 2026, or once the first 80 applications have been received. Applications that are submitted after the cut-off number has been reached will not receive consideration, even if the announcement is still appearing on USAJobs.

Duties of the Health System Specialist include, but are not limited to:

• Providing long-range planning, development, implementation, coordination, and evaluation or initiative-driven projects.
• Development and ongoing review of project scope and schedules, project guidelines, requirements, and deliverables.
• Developing innovative strategies and recommendations for initiating and establishing goals, timetables, and procedures for expediting projects.
• Managing design or review of proposed and actual methods for implementing initiative-related educational surveys or other educational evaluation tools as appropriate.
• Measuring and analyses of academic affiliations and related programs.
• Planning of OAA analyses and content as it pertains to GME.
• Attending meetings, conferences, training sessions, and other forums to facilitate communication and coordination with all initiative stakeholders.
• Providing oversight, direction, guidance, and technical expertise on assigned project components which have national impact.
• Providing technical consultation and editorial review of initiative-related research proposals, papers, manuals, and other materials that will be distributed widely both in and out of VA.

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday. 8:00am - 4:30pm
Compressed/Flexible: May be available
Telework: This position may be authorized for telework on an ADHOC basis
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Position Description/PD#: Health System Specialist/PD034050

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 10/27/2026. This announcement will close on October 26, 2026, or once the first 80 applications have been received. Applications that are submitted after the cut-off number has been reached will not receive consideration, even if the announcement is still appearing on USAJobs.

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: In order to meet the basic requirement of the Health System Administration, 0671 Occupational series, you must possess an undergraduate or graduate level degree with a Major study in hospital administration, public health administration, or related fields such as business or public administration with course work in health care administration -OR- you must possess 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.

Specialized Experience: In addition to meeting the Individual Occupation Requirement above you must also 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: experience with project management and strategic planning related to healthcare delivery and/or health professional education system; program development and delivery methodologies and techniques to manage, identify, evaluate, recommend and implement program strategies; using qualitative and quantitative techniques to analyze and measure the effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity of program management; conducting analytical studies including educational outcomes; designing, managing, programming, and analyzing large databases and complex multi-set, multi source datasets.

Physical Requirements: The work primarily is sedentary, Some work may require walking and standing in conjunction with travel to attendance at meetings and conferences away from the worksite. Occasional travel including site visits is required. The work often requires long hours to meet project deadlines and to devise corrective action and solutions to unexpected technical and/or management cruses resulting in sometimes highly stressful work situations.


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/.

There is no educational substitution at this grade level.

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/.

• 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.
• 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.
• 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, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.