Veterans Service Representative (Senior Authorizer)

Summary

This position is located in a Department of Veterans Affairs, Regional Office (VARO), Veterans Service Center and BEST. The incumbent serves as Veterans Service Representative (Senior Authorizer) for a claims team within a section of the Veterans Service Center. Responsible for the review and authorization of a full range of claims of a larger scope of responsibility which are unusually complex cases or those of a very sensitive nature involving novel issues.

This job is open to

• Career transition (CTAP, ICTAP, RPL)
  
  Federal employees who meet the definition of a "surplus" or "displaced" employee.
• Internal to an agency
  
  Current federal employees of this agency.

Clarification from the agency

This vacancy announcement is open ONLY to current, permanent Detroit Regional Office employees and current/former VA employees who are CTAP eligible.

Duties

Specific duties include:

• Reviews and authorizes a full range of claims of a larger scope of responsibility which are unusually complex cases or those of a very sensitive nature involving novel issues, to include any appellate reviews related to contested claims.
• Serves as the team mentor to lower-graded Veterans Service Representatives (VSRs) providing a comprehensive level of technical advice and guidance on complex authorization issues.
• Serves as the final signatory with the power to rate and award benefits on claims that are unusually complex, or to terminate, change, or deny benefits.
• Analyzes available data which reflects quality levels to determine training needs of lower-graded VSRs.
• Ensures all program requirements imposed by Compensation and Pension Service and the Court of Veterans Appeals are met or implemented.
• Distributes and balances the workload among the employees in accordance with established workflow and assures timely accomplishment of assigned workload.
• Monitors qualitative and quantitative metrics to spot patterns in quality program delivery and pinpoint areas that need more investigation.
• Cases being reviewed may entail contentious issues that call for the application of legal precedents and, occasionally, the requirement for a new decision.

Work Schedule: Full time, Monday through Friday 8:00 am - 4:30 pm

Compressed/Flexible: Available

Telework: Yes, per Agency guidelines.

Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Position Description/PD#: Veterans Service Representative (Senior Authorizer);30077A

Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized

Financial Disclosure Report: Not Required

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• You must be a U.S. citizen to apply for this job
• Selectees are subject to a background/suitability investigation
• Selective Service registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
• A probationary period may be required for employees and supervisors
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

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.

• For a GS-12 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-11 level.

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.

Specialized Experience: Applicants must have one (1) year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade (GS-11). Specialized experience includes but is not limited to experience that demonstrates:

• Involved experience in the development, examination, investigation, adjudication, and authorization of claims for disability compensation, disability pension, death compensation, death pension benefits, life insurance benefits, etc. Such experience is to be substantive and relevant and may have been gained in the practice of law or working with a Federal or state agency, insurance company, retirement, disability, or insurance program.

Volunteer Experience: Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

Full vs. Part-Time Employment: Full-time employment is considered to be at least 35 hours per week. Part-time experience will be credited on a pro-rated basis; when including part-time employment in your resume you must specify the average hours worked per week.

Physical Requirements: The work normally involves mental rather than physical exertion. The work is mostly sedentary.

Work Environment: Most work is performed under common business office conditions at the regional office. The VSR must exercise good judgment and professional demeanor in interactions with veterans and their representatives as well as with team members.

The Office of Personnel Management's group coverage qualification standards, associated individual occupational requirements (IOR), and individual qualification standards covering white collar occupations in the Federal competitive service can be found here.

Education

There is no educational substitution for the GS-12 level.

Additional information

If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement.

Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer (TJO). Please visit the Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP), https://www.va.gov/EMPLOYEE/docs/The-Fair-Chance-to-Compete-Act.pdf."

VA supports the use of telework as a way to help attract and retain talented individuals in public service, increase worker productivity, and better prepare the agency to operate during emergencies. This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process.

Placement Policy: The posting of this announcement does not obligate management to fill a vacancy or vacancies by promotion. The position may be filled by reassignment, change to lower grade, transfer, appointment, or reinstatement.

This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies.

For more information on the "Who may apply" eligibility requirements, please refer to the OHRM Status Candidates and Other Candidate Definitions document.

The Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified (have a final rating of 85 or more) for this vacancy. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/.

• 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. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.
  
  Review our benefits
  
  Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.

How You Will Be Evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

In describing your experience, please be clear and specific. We will not make assumptions regarding your experience. Applicants who do not fully address the specialized experience needed for the position (as described above in the job announcement) in their resume or who do not possess the education to substitute for it will not be referred for consideration.

Competencies:

1. Attention to Details - Is thorough when performing work and conscientious about attending to detail.

1. Leadership - Inspires, motivates, and guides others toward goal accomplishment; coaches, mentors, and challenges subordinates; adapts leadership styles to a variety of situations; models high standards of honesty, integrity, trust, openness, and respect for the individual by applying these values to daily behaviors.

1. Problem Solving - Identifies and analyzes problems; uses sound reasoning to arrive at conclusions; finds alternative solutions to complex problems; distinguishes between relevant and irrelevant information to make logical judgements.

1. Technical Competence - Understands and appropriately applies procedures, requirements, regulations, and policies related to specialized expertise (for example, engineering, physical science, law, or accounting); maintains credibility with others on technical matters.
2. Communication - Effectively expresses information to multiple audiences through clear, convincing oral and written communications; demonstrates logical thinking when describing facts and concepts, and shapes communications to meet the needs of a specific audience; actively listens to others and demonstrates understanding of their comments and/or questions.

After you have met the minimum qualifications, you will be rated on the following competencies based on your application for this position:

If you are referred for consideration, you may be asked to submit additional job-related information, which may include, but is not limited to responses to the knowledge, skills, and abilities; completion of a work sample, and/or an interview.

Your resume and/or supporting documentation will be verified. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating or consideration for employment.

Notice to Applicants: It is the policy of the Government not to deny employment simply because an individual has been unemployed or has had financial difficulties that have arisen through no fault of the individual. Information about an individual's employment experience will be used only to determine the person's qualifications and to assess his or her relative level of knowledge, skills, and abilities. Although an individual's personal conduct may be relevant in any employment decision, including conduct during periods of unemployment or evidence of dishonesty in handling financial matters, financial difficulty that has arisen through no fault of the individual will generally not itself be the basis of an unfavorable suitability or fitness determination.

• 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. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.
  
  Review our benefits
  
  Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.
• Required Documents
  
  As a new or existing federal employee, you and your family may have access to a range of benefits. Your benefits depend on the type of position you have - whether you're a permanent, part-time, temporary or an intermittent employee. You may be eligible for the following benefits, however, check with your agency to make sure you're eligible under their policies.
  
  The following documents are required for all applicants:
  
  
  • Resume
  • SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action
  
  
  Review the information below and submit any additional documents (as needed) to demonstrate your eligibility and/or qualifications for the position:
  
  Current Federal Employees:
  
  Resume
  
  • Your resume may be submitted in any format, however we strongly recommend using USA Jobs resume builder as it contains all of the information required on federal resumes.
  • For qualifications determinations your resume must contain hours worked per week, the dates of employment, and the level of your experience. If your resume does not contain this information you will not receive consideration for this position.
  • If you submit more than one copy of your resume, only the most recent version will be reviewed. The latest timestamp will be used to determine which version of your resume is "most recent." It is your responsibility to check the status and timestamp of all documents you submit as part of your application.
  • If your resume includes a photograph or other inappropriate material or content, it will not be used to make eligibility and qualification determinations and you may not be considered for this vacancy.
  • You must provide a copy of your most recent SF-50, "Notification of Personnel Action" showing that you are in the competitive service and the highest grade or promotion potential held. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate that you possess (1) year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates (1) year time-in-grade. General Adjustment and Award SF-50's cannot be used for time-in-grade verification purposes.
  
  CTAP documentation - RIF notice, SF-50 showing VA employee, and performance appraisal
  
  Failure to submit any of the above mentioned required documents may result in loss of consideration due to an incomplete application package. It is your responsibility to ensure all required documents have been submitted. You will not be contacted for additional information.
  
  In addition to the information listed above, please use this checklist to ensure you have included other documents required for your application.
  
  
  If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:
  
  Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from
  schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
  
  Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.
• How to Apply
  
  To apply for this position, you must complete the https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12511758 and submit the documentation specified in the job announcement. Documents will not be accepted after the closing date of the announcement.
  
  The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (EST) on 08/29/2024 to receive consideration.
  
  1. To begin, click apply online to create a USAJOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USAJOBS resume and/or other supporting documents and complete the occupational questionnaire.
  
  2. Click submit my answers to submit your application package.
  
  Note: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date.
  
  To verify your application is complete, log into your USAJOBS account, select the application status link and then select the more information link for this position. The details page will display the status of your application, the documentation received and processed, and any correspondence the agency has sent related to this application. Your uploaded documents may take several hours to clear the virus scan process.
  
  To return to an incomplete application, log into your USAJOBS accountand click update application in the vacancy announcement. You must re-select your resume and/or other documents from your USAJOBS account or your application will be incomplete.
  
  Agency contact information
  
  Marissa Gregory
  
  Phone
  
  (313) 471-3607
  
  Email
  
  Marissa.Gregory@va.gov
  
  Address
  
  Detroit Regional Benefit Office
  
  Federal Building, 477 Michigan Ave
  
  Detroit, MI 48226
  
  US
  
  Next steps
  
  After we receive application packages (including all required documents) and the vacancy announcement closes, we will review applications to ensure qualification and eligibility requirements are met. During our review, if your resume and application package do not support your questionnaire answers, we will adjust your rating accordingly. After the review is complete, a referral certificate(s) is issued and applicants will be notified of their status by email (if provided). Referred applicants will be notified as such and may be contacted directly by the hiring office for an interview. All referred applicants receive a final notification once a selection decision has been made.
  
  You may check the status of your application at any time by logging into your USAJOBS account and clicking on "Application Status." For a more detailed update of your status, click on "more information." Information regarding applicant notification points can be found in the USAJOBS Resource Center.
• Fair and Transparent
  
  The Federal hiring process is set up to be fair and transparent. Please read the following guidance.
  
  
  • Criminal history inquiries
  • Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Policy
  • Financial suitability
  • New employee probationary period
  • Privacy Act
  • Reasonable accommodation policy
  • Selective Service
  • Signature and false statements
  • Social security number request

Required Documents

The following documents are required for all applicants:

• Resume
• SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action

Review the information below and submit any additional documents (as needed) to demonstrate your eligibility and/or qualifications for the position:

Current Federal Employees:

Resume

• Your resume may be submitted in any format, however we strongly recommend using USA Jobs resume builder as it contains all of the information required on federal resumes.
• For qualifications determinations your resume must contain hours worked per week, the dates of employment, and the level of your experience. If your resume does not contain this information you will not receive consideration for this position.
• If you submit more than one copy of your resume, only the most recent version will be reviewed. The latest timestamp will be used to determine which version of your resume is "most recent." It is your responsibility to check the status and timestamp of all documents you submit as part of your application.
• If your resume includes a photograph or other inappropriate material or content, it will not be used to make eligibility and qualification determinations and you may not be considered for this vacancy.
• You must provide a copy of your most recent SF-50, "Notification of Personnel Action" showing that you are in the competitive service and the highest grade or promotion potential held. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate that you possess (1) year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates (1) year time-in-grade. General Adjustment and Award SF-50's cannot be used for time-in-grade verification purposes.

CTAP documentation - RIF notice, SF-50 showing VA employee, and performance appraisal

Failure to submit any of the above mentioned required documents may result in loss of consideration due to an incomplete application package. It is your responsibility to ensure all required documents have been submitted. You will not be contacted for additional information.

In addition to the information listed above, please use this checklist to ensure you have included other documents required for your application.


If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:

Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from
schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.

How to Apply

To apply for this position, you must complete the https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12511758 and submit the documentation specified in the job announcement. Documents will not be accepted after the closing date of the announcement.

The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (EST) on 08/29/2024 to receive consideration.

1. To begin, click apply online to create a USAJOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USAJOBS resume and/or other supporting documents and complete the occupational questionnaire.

2. Click submit my answers to submit your application package.

Note: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date.

To verify your application is complete, log into your USAJOBS account, select the application status link and then select the more information link for this position. The details page will display the status of your application, the documentation received and processed, and any correspondence the agency has sent related to this application. Your uploaded documents may take several hours to clear the virus scan process.

To return to an incomplete application, log into your USAJOBS accountand click update application in the vacancy announcement. You must re-select your resume and/or other documents from your USAJOBS account or your application will be incomplete.

Agency contact information

Marissa Gregory

Phone

(313) 471-3607

Email

Marissa.Gregory@va.gov

Address

Detroit Regional Benefit Office

Federal Building, 477 Michigan Ave

Detroit, MI 48226

US

Next steps

After we receive application packages (including all required documents) and the vacancy announcement closes, we will review applications to ensure qualification and eligibility requirements are met. During our review, if your resume and application package do not support your questionnaire answers, we will adjust your rating accordingly. After the review is complete, a referral certificate(s) is issued and applicants will be notified of their status by email (if provided). Referred applicants will be notified as such and may be contacted directly by the hiring office for an interview. All referred applicants receive a final notification once a selection decision has been made.

You may check the status of your application at any time by logging into your USAJOBS account and clicking on "Application Status." For a more detailed update of your status, click on "more information." Information regarding applicant notification points can be found in the USAJOBS Resource Center.

Fair & Transparent

The Federal hiring process is set up to be fair and transparent. Please read the following guidance.

• Criminal history inquiries
• Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Policy
• Financial suitability
• New employee probationary period
• Privacy Act
• Reasonable accommodation policy
• Selective Service
• Signature and false statements
• Social security number request