Program Analyst

Summary The Compensation Service Systems Support and Operational Review Staff is seeking experienced and highly motivated individuals to support the business applications, automated processes, and modernization initiatives used to administer the nationwide disability compensation program. The incumbent reports to the Supervisory Program Analyst, under the Assistant Director of Systems Support and Operational Review Staff and serves as a Program Analyst, consultant and advisor for Compensation Service. Responsibilities Specific duties include: Serves as a primary point of contact and technical resource for Compensation Service on systems support, strategic and operational review matters involving Compensation Service business applications and claims-processing systems. Applies comprehensive knowledge of disability compensation claims-processing requirements and associated business processes to evaluate system functionality, proposed changes, processing scenarios, requirements, business rules, and solutions. Analyzes Compensation claims-processing systems, processes, data, and business workflows to identify problems, discrepancies, risks, and opportunities for improvement. Evaluates whether identified issues may be attributable to system functionality, user actions, data, business processes, policy, procedures, or other factors and develops or recommends appropriate solutions. Supports the development, enhancement, modernization, and maintenance of VBA information systems throughout the systems-development lifecycle. Analyzes Compensation program requirements, business processes, policies, procedures, and operational needs and translates them into functional and technical requirements, specifications, expected system functionality, and other documentation necessary to develop or enhance business systems and/or automated solutions. Identifies, analyzes, develops, or refines business rules and data elements necessary to support current and future claims-processing requirements and collaborates with business users and technical partners to refine and validate functional specifications and intended processing outcomes. Develops, reviews, coordinates, or executes test scenarios and test cases to determine whether system functionality meets approved business requirements and produces intended processing outcomes. Conducts or supports program studies and analyzes the impact of statutory, regulatory, policy, and procedural requirements on Compensation Service operations and claims processing. Develops findings and recommendations for appropriate program, procedural, workflow, or system changes. Conducts or supports analysis and review of data and evaluates findings to support program and systems decisions. Collects, analyzes, develops, and maintains business and technical documentation concerning system requirements, interfaces, data requirements, business rules, reports, communications, and other information necessary to support the assessment, design, development, and maintenance of information systems. Participates in technical design activities to help ensure proposed solutions meet business requirements. Supports planning and execution of Compensation Service systems and automation initiatives and coordinates assigned activities with business and technical stakeholders. Collaborates and coordinates with Compensation Service leadership, Regional Office personnel, VBA Central Office program staff, technical staff, IT partners, developers, testers, contractors, and other stakeholders to develop, evaluate, and implement Compensation Service business-system initiatives. Develops and presents analyses, recommendations, requirements, issue summaries, briefings, reports, and other written or oral products concerning Compensation claims-processing systems, program operations, modernization and automation initiatives, testing results, risks, and proposed solutions. Communicates complex program and technical information clearly to technical and non-technical audiences. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 8:00am-4:30pm Compressed/Flexible: Not Available Telework: This position is eligible for situational (ad hoc) telework only. The selectee is required to report to the official duty station each scheduled workday. Telework may be approved only on a case-by-case basis with supervisory approval. Routine or recurring telework is not authorized for this position. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Program Analyst; PD41332-A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not Required Requirements Conditions of Employment As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider: your performance and conduct; the needs and interests of the Agency; whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the Agency or the Government; and whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service. Upon completion of your probationary period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest. Additional Conditions of Employment are as follows: You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959 You may be required to serve a probationary or trial period 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 I-9 Acceptable Documents. 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. Qualifications To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement:10/07/2026. TIME-IN-GRADE REQUIREMENT: As a current Federal, GS employee you must meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-13 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-12 level. If you are a current VBA employee requesting reassignment or change to lower grade via this vacancy announcement, you must currently hold the GS- 13 or higher and the promotion potential of your current position must be at least None. 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. MINIMUM QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENT: You may qualify based on your experience as described below: GS-13 Grade Level: Specialized Experience: Specialized experience is experience that has equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to successfully perform the duties of the position and is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. For this position, specialized experience includes substantive experience applying disability compensation claims-processing requirements, policies, procedures, and/or business rules within the claims-processing environment. Qualifying specialized experience must demonstrate application of this knowledge in one or more of the following areas: 1. Claims Processing and Review: Processing, authorizing, reviewing, or performing quality review of disability compensation claims or award actions, including rating or non-rating award actions, and applying applicable claims-processing requirements, policies, procedures, and business rules. 2. Claims-Processing Systems Analysis and Support: Analyzing claims-processing system functionality or processing outcomes; researching or troubleshooting processing discrepancies; identifying potential user, procedural, data, business-rule, or system-related issues; or providing technical guidance concerning claims-processing systems or business processes. 3. Systems Development, Enhancement, or Modernization: Applying Compensation claims-processing knowledge to the development, enhancement, modernization, or maintenance of claims-processing systems, including developing or reviewing business or functional requirements, business rules, enhancement recommendations, system functionality, process improvements, automation initiatives, or implementation activities. 4. Systems Testing and Validation: Applying Compensation claims-processing knowledge when conducting or supporting testing and validation of claims-processing systems or processes, including developing or executing test scenarios or test cases, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), regression testing, validation of system changes, evaluation of expected versus actual processing outcomes, or identification and documentation of system defects or requirements-related issues. 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 is primarily sedentary, although some slight physical effort may be required. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/. This announcement is being limited to the first 75 applications received. The announcement will close either on the published closing date at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) or on the day when the number of applications reaches 75 at 11:59 p.m. (EST), whichever comes first. Beginning September 27, 2025, Federal agencies will only accept resumes up to two pages in length to comply with the Merit Hiring Plan. Resumes longer than two pages will result in ineligibility for further consideration for the position. USAJOBS will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages, and you will need to update the resumes in your profile before applying for a job. Resumes should include information relevant to the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of the position to which you are applying. VA is unable to make assumptions about qualifications if not clearly listed. Resumes must be legible so they can be reviewed for eligibility, minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement.Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started. Helpful Hints for Creating a Two-Page Resume: Prioritize most relevant and recent experience Use concise, results focused language Align language from the job announcement Focus on demonstrating skills and competencies Remove outdated or unrelated experience Use the USAJOBS resume builder Additional guidance on this new requirement and resume building tools can be found at: USA Jobs Help Center - Resume Page Limit Applicant Guidance on the Two-Page Resume Limit Education There is no education substitution for the GS-13 grade level. Additional Information 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 your 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/. 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. Management may use any one or any combination of these methods to fill the position. It is the policy of the VA to not deny employment to those that have faced financial hardships or periods of unemployment. This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. Veterans and Transitioning Service Members: Please visit the VA for Vets site for career-search tools for Veterans seeking employment at VA, career development services for our existing Veterans, and coaching and reintegration support for military service members. 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, https://www.va.gov/EMPLOYEE/documents/The-Fair-Chance-to-Compete-Act.pdf Reasonable Accommodation (RA) Requests: If you believe you have a disability (i.e., physical or mental), covered by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended that would interfere with completing the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be granted the opportunity to request a RA in your online application. Requests for RA for the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments and appropriate supporting documentation for RA must be received prior to starting the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments. Decisions on requests for RA are made on a case-by-case basis. If you meet the minimum qualifications of the position, after notification of the adjudication of your request, you will receive an email invitation to complete the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, based on your adjudication decision. You must complete all assessments within 48 hours of receiving the URL to access the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments if you received the link after the close of the announcement. To determine if you need a RA, please review: Procedures for Requesting a Reasonable Accommodation for Online Assessments. (https://appsupport-usastaffing.opm.gov/hc/en-us/sections/45063131363475-Reasonable-Accommodation-Information) For more information on the "Who may apply" eligibility requirements, please refer to the OHRM Status Candidates and Other Candidate Definitions document.