Program Specialist

About the role

This position is in the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), Louisville, KY, New Orleans, LA & Jackson, MS Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO), Veteran Readiness and Employment (VR&E) division; and serves as a Program Support Specialist responsible for administrative and technical work. To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement:06/18/2026. 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. 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. Specialized Experience: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade (GS-7). In addition to the skills for the GS-7 level, specialized experience at the GS 9 level must document experience in the following: a. Experience working with Vocational and Rehabilitation and Employment Chapter 31 and Chapter 36 programs; b. Experience working with contracting practices and procedures; c. Experience working with Veteran Readiness & Employment operations. OR Graduate Education: To qualify at the GS 9 grade level, you must have a 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 combine education and experience to qualify at the GS-09 grade level: When substituting you can only use graduate level education you have earned. To calculate, first identify the percentage of required education you have earned. Then identify the percentage of required experience you possess. Add the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify. For example, an applicant who has 27 semester hours of graduate level education (i.e. 50% of graduate education in excess of the first 18 semester credit hours earned) and 6 months of creditable specialized experience (i.e. 50% of the required experience) would equal 100% of the required experience for the GS-09 grade level. Combining Education & Experience: If you do not fully meet the length of experience and education described for a specific grade level (e.g. have six months of experience and some coursework but not a degree), the two can be combined to total 100% of the requirement. Click here for more information. 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. There may be some walking, standing, bending and carrying light items and shall involve travel to other locations. 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/.

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