Staff Accountant

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Finance•District of Columbia, DC

12d

About The Position

This position is within the Financial Services Center and reports to various levels of management. The Staff Accountant assists with internal controls, policies, processes, and procedures for VA; interprets and applies laws, regulations, decisions, rulings, and policies to accounting systems and procedures to ensure conformity and proper application; and analyzes and resolves systemic obstacles, recommends changes and updates, and coordinates with other offices. The role involves researching and analyzing accounting issues, preparing operating procedures, business cycle memoranda, financial and reconciliation reports, Treasury data documentation, and other reports, and explaining work to auditors. The Staff Accountant also performs in-depth financial and accounting analyses and testing of new system applications, automated accounting and financial applications, and special projects to ensure the desired results for accounting and financial matters. The schedule is Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Compressed or flexible scheduling may be available with supervisory approval. Ad hoc situational telework may be available under agency policy; this is not a virtual position. The announcement lists GS-12 and GS-13 qualification levels and states that promotion to the full performance level may be possible without further competition when regulatory, qualification, and performance requirements are met.

Requirements

U.S. citizenship.
Meet the Individual Occupational Requirement through either an accounting degree, or a related degree including or supplemented by 24 semester hours in accounting; or at least four years of accounting experience or an equivalent combination of accounting experience, college-level education, and training that provided professional accounting knowledge, along with one of the specified qualifying accounting education, certification, or experience alternatives.
For GS-12: one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least GS-11, applying accounting theories, practices, methods, and techniques and performing the specified financial and accounting duties.
For GS-13: one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least GS-12, independently performing the specified financial-system reconciliation, accounting analysis, recommendation, and data-research duties.
Submit a transcript if relying on education to qualify; foreign education requires a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with the transcript.
Complete all required application steps, including the online assessment.
Meet all qualification requirements by the announcement closing date of 10/30/2026.
Applicants selected may be required to serve a probationary period and undergo a background/security investigation.
Selected applicants must complete online onboarding and provide acceptable identification for pre-employment requirements.
Resume must be legible, no more than two pages, and 5 MB or less.

Responsibilities

Research and analyze issues by reviewing policies and similar situations, and recommend resolutions using knowledge of U.S. standard general ledgers, federal accounting, VA’s accounting system, and other applications.
Interpret and apply laws, regulations, decisions, rulings, and policies to accounting systems and procedures to ensure conformity and proper application.
Analyze and resolve systemic obstacles, recommend changes and updates, and coordinate with other offices.
Prepare standard operating procedures, business cycle memoranda, analyses, financial reports, reconciliation reports, Treasury data documentation, and other reports.
Provide explanations to auditors.
Conduct in-depth financial and accounting analyses and testing of new system applications, automated accounting and financial applications, and special projects.
At the GS-12 level, apply accounting theories, practices, methods, and techniques; analyze financial and accounting activities; prepare financial reports and billing statements; develop and maintain accounting or financial systems and subsystems; provide financial advice and assistance; and validate and analyze accounting data, reconcile accounts, and interpret and prepare reports.
At the GS-13 level, reconcile data between financial and reporting systems to correct account relationships and trial-balance anomalies; interpret accounting principles and use financial databases; identify accounting transaction problem areas and recommend improvements; and use supporting technology, including queries, pivot tables, and macros, to research, analyze, and summarize data.