Program Specialist

About the role

This position is located within the War Related Illness and Injury Study Center (WRIISC) & its Complex Exposure Threats Center of Excellence (CETCE). WRIISC/CETCE is a national Veterans Health Administration (VHA) program that conducts clinical care, research, education, and exposure related health evaluations for Veterans with complex or emerging exposure threats, including anomalous health incidents (AHI), explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) exposures, chemical warfare agent (CWA) exposures. To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 07/08/2026. 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-12 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-11. 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 as described below: GS-12 Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-11 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Preparing analytical summaries, reports, and briefing materials for interagency working groups, leadership decision making, and scientific meetings, Tracks expenditures, deliverables, progress reports, fiscal actions, and public access/data sharing obligations for awarded projects, extracts, tracks, and synthesizes cohort specific data for AHI, EOD, CWA, Qarmat Ali, and other complex exposure groups to support surveillance and protocol development, Develops templates, SOPs, and workflow improvements to standardize and optimize research administration processes across WRIISC/CETCE, Manages post award regulatory compliance including IRB, IACUC, SRS, and R&DC documentation to ensure alignment with sponsor and VHA policies, Coordinates internal review workflows to ensure timely, compliant submissions to VACO/ORD, Grants.gov, eRA Commons, DHA, and other sponsor platforms, Manages complex pre award activities including LOIs, eligibility checks, compliance attachments, data security documentation, and administrative components for WRIISC/CETCE grant submissions. Preferred Experience: 5+ years experience with federal grants management, COR-level contracting authority applied to national VA exposure research programs. Experience with pre- and post-award administration, regulatory compliance, and multi-site coordination, with ability to develop integrated VA and outside data systems that translate complex exposure data into clinical and research outputs. Proven ability to interpret funding announcements (e.g., VA ORD, NIH) and lead compliant, on-time grant submissions while maintaining full audit readiness and alignment with federal research and privacy requirements. Best qualified applicants will meet the following criteria in addition to the minimum qualifications for this position. The best-qualified candidates will demonstrate advanced experience with Federal pre- and post-award grants management, including interpreting RFAs, navigating sponsor systems, and ensuring regulatory compliance. They will show strong ability to analyze, track, and summarize complex exposure cohort data, supporting surveillance, longitudinal monitoring, and interagency collaboration. They will exhibit proven skill in producing high-quality analytical reports, briefings, and scientific meeting materials for leadership and cross-agency partners. They will have demonstrated capability to train investigators and staff on submission systems, troubleshoot errors, and develop educational materials that support research operations. They will possess advanced proficiency with data systems, documentation platforms, and secure information handling, ensuring accuracy, audit readiness, and compliance with VA privacy and security standards. 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/.

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