Supervisory Administrative Specialist

Veterans Health Administration • Aspinwall, PA

17h • Onsite

About The Position

This position is located within the Geriatric and Extended Care Service Line (GEC SL) at VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System and reports to the Associate Chief of Staff of the GEC SL. The incumbent is responsible for a wide range of administrative functions related to the GEC service line, encompassing all aspects of planning and executing the daily administrative operations.

Requirements

• Must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job.
• Must complete all required steps in the process.
• Must complete all required steps in the process, including application, assessment, and questionnaire.
• Assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
• 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.
• 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).
• Must serve a 1-year probationary period or 2-year trial period.
• 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-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-9.
• An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials.
• Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-9 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.
• Examples of specialized experience: Independently manage budget and financial operations, including monitoring allocations, tracking expenditures, and supporting fiscal planning to ensure compliance with VA and federal requirements. Coordinating contracts and service agreements by reviewing documentation, verifying obligations, and ensuring vendor and service compliance. Maintaining, analyzing, and interpreting operational data for monthly reporting to inform leadership decision-making and program performance. Ability to plan, assign, and oversee work assignments to support mission needs and workflow efficiency.
• Education: Successfully completed a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree, or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree, or an LL.M. if related that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of this position.
• Combination: Combination of specialized experience and education beyond the first two years of progressively higher level graduate education to qualify for GS-11.
• Transcripts must be submitted with application.
• Commitment to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

Nice To Haves

• Experience using VA data and scheduling systems.
• Analyzing data, negotiating and proposing contracts for clinical services, management of budgets, supply and equipment purchasing, preferred supervisory experience.

Responsibilities

• Serves as VAPHS primary point of contact for the State Veterans Home Per Diem Program, functions as a Contracting Officer Representative, and acts as a liaison with state home personnel for sharing agreement services and per diem regulations.
• Independently evaluates GEC operations to assess efficiency and effectiveness of administrative methods, workflow, personnel utilization, communication, planning, training, space and equipment management, reporting findings to the ACOS while managing resource, HR, information, communication, and quality-improvement functions.
• Maintains, distributes, and analyzes monthly data and graphs pertaining to admissions, ASIH, discharges, send-outs, throughput, average daily census, and average length of stay for the individual nursing units and for the CLC in aggregate.
• Gathers and analyzes information for budgetary needs, overseeing all phases of budgeting within GEC service line and VISN wide programs. To include distributions of expenditures associated with staffing, education, travel and overtime.
• Responsible for the development of long-range, short-range and strategic planning, as it relates to budgetary planning, and assisting in the formulation and execution of annual budget of salaries, travel, supplies, equipment and general operating expenses.
• Responsible for all acquisition and contractual processes within GEC service line. Completing quality control components of all GEC contracts and making sure contractors are timely with documentation and services.
• Serves as timekeeper, timecard processing, time and leave approval, secondary approval for overtime and compensatory time.
• Provides formal planning direction for the GEC by identifying issues, recommending courses of action, coordinating with other VAMCs and community resources, and developing business plans that enhance service-line efficiency while ensuring staff obtain necessary training for successful implementation.
• Reviews and validates State Home admission applications, loads required documents for monthly VISN audits, completes corrective actions, and uploads State Home data to the national database used for quarterly medical center audits.
• Maintains GEC Service Line organization charts in Excel and Visio, and coordinates recruitment, orientation, and retention of clinical and nonclinical staff-including fee-basis, temporary, and permanent hires-to ensure effective staffing levels for GEC, VISN, and VACO programs.
• Conducts and coordinates performance management for GEC SL staff, developing performance standards that emphasize patient satisfaction and high-quality care while maximizing employee productivity.
• Fosters a collaborative Labor-Management environment by educating staff on bargaining unit rights, managing grievance processes, drafting responses to Unfair Labor Practice charges, and serving as the primary liaison with AFGE to negotiate and support effective labor relations, including drafting notices of change and engaging in required bargaining for the ACOS.
• Participates in process-improvement committees, represents GEC on the ICD-10 Committee to support implementation, and serves as the GEC SL representative at monthly Business Managers meetings to ensure consistent application of policies and identify needed process improvements.
• Researches and revises policies, updates SOPs, assists with DERP development and maintenance, serves as Records Liaison Officer to ensure compliance, and gathers complex data from multiple sources to support process improvement and policy and business proposal development.
• Implements and monitors the GEC patient satisfaction program, resolves Veteran concerns, and tracks productivity across clinical service lines (CLC, HBPC, ADHC, HiH, ODCC), developing provider progress report cards and monitoring performance outcomes.
• Approves supply, education, and travel orders; authorizes funds for invoices tied to major GEC contracts (MOD, GetWellNetwork, CWT, Appointment Plus, HBPC, State Veteran Home, VISN/VACO GEC programs); and verifies equipment inventories, manages turn-ins, and leads or participates in board-of-survey actions.
• Plans work to be accomplished by subordinates, sets and adjusts short-term priorities, and prepares schedules for completion of work.
• Assigns work to subordinates based on priorities, selective consideration and the difficulty of the work and the capability of the employees.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package.
• As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding.
• Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee.
• Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior work experience or military service experience.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree