Supervisory IT Specialist

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology • Little Rock, AR

1d • Onsite

About The Position

The position is in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Information and Technology (OIT). The incumbent provides program management for complex data systems and IT products, managing day-to-day development and operational support, including sustainment, new development, planning, design, and strategy. The role supervises technical staff and vendor teams responsible for delivering mission-critical data systems for the Department.

The position provides expert direction on IT management policies and practices, develops product roadmaps and priorities, leads software engineering across the full development life cycle, and shapes enterprise technical strategy and architecture standards. It also coordinates acquisition activities, works with product managers and stakeholders on enterprise requirements, manages risks for applications and product portfolios, directs project planning and technology investment decisions, and advises the Director. The incumbent leads and develops staff, oversees quality assurance and regulatory compliance, manages performance plans and development, and may serve as a Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) or Program Manager.

The work schedule is Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Compressed or flexible schedules may be determined under agency policy. Ad hoc telework may be authorized at management discretion, but this is not a virtual or remote position. Worksites are at federal government locations, and the selected employee may be assigned to any listed duty location. The role requires infrequent travel and may involve long hours to meet project deadlines or respond to technical or management crises. The work is primarily sedentary, with occasional physical activity and lifting or moving items up to 50 pounds.

Requirements

• U.S. citizenship is required.
• IT-related experience demonstrating attention to detail, customer service, oral communication, and problem-solving competencies.
• Within the past five years, experience as program lead or senior technical authority for a mission-critical, high-availability enterprise system deployed in a cloud environment, using an enterprise application stack that includes a Java-based application, a relational database, and one or more data replication, synchronization, or messaging mechanisms.
• Direct ownership of system sustainment, data integration or synchronization with a partner organization, and leadership of technical and/or vendor teams.
• At least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-13 level.
• Experience leading sustainment and modernization of a mission-critical, high-availability enterprise IT system.
• Experience managing complex custom enterprise applications with critical interfaces and responsibility for system availability, integrity, and data synchronization.
• Experience providing technical direction over a cloud-deployed enterprise application stack that includes a Java application, relational database, data replication or synchronization, and ETL/ELT processing, sufficient to lead an engineering team and set technical priorities.
• Experience with production incident management and issue resolution, including root-cause analysis, remediation coordination, and outage prevention.
• Experience planning and executing system modernization and new development, including migration planning, requirements definition, and lifecycle and sustainment management.
• Experience overseeing program budgets, acquisition planning, and contract/vendor management, including defining technical requirements, setting standards, tracking performance, and accepting or rejecting deliverables.
• Experience supervising or leading technical staff and/or vendor teams across multiple locations, including assigning work, setting priorities, and coordinating cross-functional efforts.
• Must complete the application, questionnaire, and required online assessment.
• Must meet background and security investigation requirements and complete online onboarding and pre-employment identification requirements.
• Must serve a one-year probationary period.
• Applicants must submit a resume of no more than two pages and no larger than 5 MB.
• No educational substitution is available at this grade level.

Responsibilities

• Provide expert direction on IT management policies and practices to resolve complex issues.
• Coordinate and build product roadmaps showing functional and technical plans for IT products.
• Set functional and technical priorities for IT products, focusing on Veteran outcomes and measurable results.
• Lead a software engineering team across the full software development life cycle.
• Shape enterprise technical strategy and maintain technical architecture standards for enterprise-wide implementation.
• Organize and lead acquisition activities with internal and business partners.
• Coordinate with product managers and stakeholders to identify applicable enterprise requirements, including security, privacy, Section 508, and enterprise architecture.
• Manage risks for assigned applications and product portfolios, including mitigation.
• Direct project planning and technology investment decisions and serve as a senior technology advisor to the Director.
• Lead, mentor, and develop staff while modeling high standards of integrity.
• Perform quality assurance to prevent defects and ensure regulatory compliance.
• Manage employee performance plans, ratings, and development.
• Serve as a Contracting Officer's Representative or Program Manager, including developing Statements of Work and applying FAR requirements.
• Consult with customers to evaluate functional requirements and translate them into technical solutions.
• Define project scope and objectives based on customer requirements.
• Oversee and make recommendations regarding configuration management.
• Design and document quality standards.
• Develop cost estimates for new or modified systems.
• Lead sustainment and modernization of mission-critical, high-availability enterprise IT systems, including incident management, root-cause analysis, remediation, and outage prevention.
• Plan system modernization and new development, including migration planning, requirements definition, and lifecycle and sustainment management.
• Oversee program budgets, acquisition planning, and contract/vendor management, including technical requirements, performance tracking, and deliverable acceptance or rejection.
• Assign work and set priorities for technical staff and vendor teams, including teams distributed across locations.

Benefits

• Federal employee benefits package is available to the employee and family, subject to position type and eligibility.
• VA may grant credit for qualifying job-related non-federal experience or active-duty uniformed military service when determining annual leave accrual, subject to prior request and approval.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed