Other
Health System Specialist - Associate Director of Operations
About this role
To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 08/03/2026. 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.
Preferred Experience: Experience {3+ years} in health system administration or operations within a large, complex healthcare organization, preferably the VA or another integrated delivery system. Experience providing executive level support {e.g., chief of staff, senior analyst, executive assistant} to hospital or system leadership, involving coordination across multiple clinical and administrative service lines. Experience developing and using performance dashboards and analytics {Power Bl, DSS, VSSC, or comparable tools} to support executive decision making.
Experience supporting accreditation, regulatory surveys, or inspections {The Joint Commission, OIG, GARF, OSHA, etc.}, including development and tracking of corrective action plans. Experience leading or contributing to health system strategic or operational planning, including multi year plans, annual operating plans, and business cases for capital or space projects Experience using structured process improvement and analytical methods {e.g., Lean, Six Sigma, demand capacity modeling, workflow redesign} to resolve complex operational issues.
Experience functioning in an Incident Command System or similar emergency management structure in a healthcare environment. Experience handling sensitive or high visibility issues and stakeholder escalations, including interactions with senior leaders, unions, congressional offices, or community partners. This occupational series has an Individual Occupational Requirement - for this series, the following Basic Requirement must be met in addition to the Specialized Experience.
Major study -- hospital administration, public health administration, or related fields such as business or public administration with course work in health care administration. OR Specialized Experience (for positions above GS-5): Progressively responsible analytical or administrative, or clinical management or supervisory experience in the health care field. This work may have been performed in an operating health care facility or a higher organizational echelon with advisory or directional authority over such facilities.
Work must have involved a close working relationship with facility managers and analysis and/or coordination of administrative, clinical, or other service activities, and provided knowledge of the following: Missions, organizations, programs, and requirements of health care delivery systems; Regulations and standards of various regulatory and credentialing groups; and Government-wide, agency, and facility systems and requirements in various administrative areas such as budget, personnel, and procurement.
Special Provision for Inservice Placement: Successful completion of an agency-sponsored on-the-job training program may be substituted for qualifying experience, provided it included a formal individualized training plan. Such a training program must have been conducted in an operating health care system and included: Assignments providing a knowledge of basic health system administration philosophies, practices, and procedures, and basic government administrative policies and requirements; Practical assignments providing an opportunity to apply health system administration skills and principles (as the individual progresses, work assignments must be characteristic of the grade level to which he or she is assigned); and Oversight by an experienced health system administrator with periodic evaluation of the individual's progress and appropriate adjustment of the training program.
In addition to the IOR you must meet the following specialized requirements: 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: exercising expertise in clinical operations; providing access related consultive services, to review and develop guidance and policies; reviewing and providing input on regulations and policies for local interpretation, utilizing local group practice management and communication strategies; and implementing established action plans.
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/.
Source listing: usajobs