Staff Assistant - Research & Development

Summary

The Staff Assistant position is located at the Portland, OR. VA Medical Center (PVAMC) in Research and Development (R&D). The position reports directly to the Administrative Officer/Administrative Director of R&D but often works directly with the Research Associate Chief of Staff (ACOS) and Deputy ACOS along with Principal Investigators (PI's), Administrative Officers (AO's) and Office of Research & Development (ORD) human resources and leadership.

Duties

***THIS IS NOT A VIRTUAL POSITION, YOU MUST LIVE WITHIN OR BE WILLING TO RELOCATE WITHIN A COMMUTABLE DISTANCE OF THE DUTY LOCATION*** NOTE: Intermittent employment is defined as non-fulltime employment in which employees serve under an excepted or competitive service appointment without a regularly scheduled tour of duty. A position with an intermittent work schedule is sporadic and unpredictable so that a tour of duty cannot be regularly scheduled in advance. Intermittent positions offer health insurance only if the employee is expected to work at least 130 hours per month for at least 90 days. This position involves a multi-grade career ladder. The major duties listed below represent the full performance level of GS-9. At the GS-7 grade level, you will perform assignments of a more limited scope and with less independence. You will progressively acquire the background necessary to perform at the full performance level of GS-9. Promotion is at the discretion of the supervisor and is contingent upon satisfactory performance, availability of higher-level work, and availability of funds. Duties and responsibilities include, but are not limited to the following: Acquisitioning and inventorying resource materials and equipment including telephones, computers, printers, fax machines, filing cabinets, desks, archive boxes, etc. Establishing and maintaining files of correspondence and other documents related to investigations, performance appraisals and competency folders. Providing oversight and facilitation of maintenance, service, repair, inventory, procurement, disposal and issue, and all projects associated with those functions. Mapping key distribution, tracking numbers of keys distributed, ordering new keys, and updating master key control map. Completing the move worksheet that identifies all equipment, furniture and office supplies needing to be moved, attending move committee meetings to negotiate move dates that best meets Research Service and employee needs. Scheduling large center meetings (i.e., All Staff Meetings or Strategic Planning); obtaining meeting space, preparing agendas, and typing minutes in appropriate format and in final form for signature. Ensuring security clearances and computer access prior to initiation of work. Coordinating the Without Compensation (WOC) program for Research Service. Coordinating with multiple medical center services including, but not limited to, human resources, IT, and occupational/employee health. Creating, maintaining, and updating an active WOC employee list along with associated paperwork for biannual reports to Office of Research and Development (ORD headquarters). Providing back-up support for the Research Service web site management function. Acting as primary backup for timekeeping purposes. Providing support and managing program level travel administration and meeting coordination which includes conducting cost estimates for meeting locations, preparing forms and packets for approvals, working with project management and travelers on hotel, meeting room, travel arrangements. Performing other related duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Intermittent, Monday - Friday 8:00am - 4:30pm Recruitment & Relocation Incentives: Not authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not approved

Requirements

You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job To be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. In addition to the application and questionnaire, this position requires an online assessment. The online assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job. Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959 Physical Requirements: The work required does not inherently include any physical requirements essential for successful job performance that could not otherwise be performed with accommodation or workplace adjustment. A pre-placement physical examination is not required. 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 (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-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. Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP) - See "Required Documents" below for details. 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, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position at the GS-7 level you must meet one of the following requirements: SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE GS-7: Applicants must possess one (1) full year of specialized experience, equivalent to the GS-5 level in the Federal service, that equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to successfully perform the duties of the position and that is typically in or related to this Staff Assistant position to be filled. Specialized experience for the position includes providing day-to-day administrative support for a medical facility; assisting with the acquisition of resource materials and equipment; establishing and maintaining files of correspondence and other documents; scheduling large meetings including obtaining meeting space, preparing agendas, and typing minutes. NOTE: Experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month and year start/end dates AND hour worked per week. OR SUBSTITUTION OF EDUCATION FOR EXPERIENCE GS-7: You must have successfully completed 1 full year of graduate level education that included coursework that is directly related to the specialization of the position to be filled. NOTE: One year of full-time graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent one year of full-time study; if that number cannot be obtained from the transcript, 18 semester hours will be considered as one full academic year of graduate study. NOTE: Transcripts must be submitted with application. Education cannot be credited without documentation. OR COMBINATION OF EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION GS-7: You must possess equivalent combinations of successfully completed graduate-level education and specialized experience to meet total qualification requirements at the GS-7 level. One year of full-time graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent 1 year of full-time study. If that information cannot be obtained from the school, 18 semester hours should be considered as satisfying the 1 year of full-time study requirement. Part-time graduate education is creditable in accordance with its relationship to a year of full-time study at the school attended. NOTE: Experience must be supported by your resume to be creditable, and a copy of transcripts are required at time of application. OR Superior Academic Achievement (Transcript Required): Superior Academic Achievement (SAA) at the baccalaureate level in the qualifying curriculum detailed above is fully qualifying. Applicants who wish to apply under this provision must submit proof from their educational institution that they meet one of the criteria listed below. To qualify for SAA, applicants must have completed all the requirements for a bachelor's degree in a curriculum that is qualifying for the position to be filled and meet one of the following: 1. Rank in the upper third of the graduating class in the college, university, or major subdivision, such as the College of Liberal Arts or the School of Business Administration. 2. A grade-point average of "B" or better (a GPA of 2.95 or higher out of a possible 4.0) for all completed undergraduate courses, or those completed in the last two years of undergraduate study. 3. A grade point average of "B+" or better (a GPA of 3.45 or higher out of a possible 4.0) for all courses in your major field of study, or those courses in your major completed in the last two years of undergraduate study. 4. Membership in a national honor society (other than freshman honor societies) recognized by the Association of College Honor Societies. For a list of recognized honor societies please visit https://www.achshonor.org/. For more information regarding SAA please visit http://www.opm.gov/qualifications/SEC-II/s2-e5.asp#e4f. NOTE: Transcripts must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation. To qualify for this position at the GS-9 level you must meet one of the following requirements: SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE GS-9: Applicants must possess one (1) full year of specialized experience, equivalent to the GS-7 level in the Federal service, that equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to successfully perform the duties of the position and that is typically in or related to this Staff Assistant position to be filled. Specialized experience for this position includes providing day-to-day administrative support for a medical research program; assisting with the acquisition and inventory of resource materials and equipment; providing support with managing schedules, human resources activities, travel, and timekeeping; maintaining databases and hard-copy documents. NOTE: Experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month and year start/end dates AND hour worked per week. OR EDUCATION SUBSTITUTION GS-9: You must have successfully completed a Masters (or equivalent graduate degree), or possess two full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree; or possess an LL.B. or J.D. that is related to this position. Your graduate education must demonstrate that you have the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of this position. NOTE: One year of full-time graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent one year of full-time study; if that number cannot be obtained from the transcript, 18 semester hours will be considered as one full academic year of graduate study. NOTE: Transcripts must be submitted with application. Education cannot be credited without documentation. OR COMBINATION OF EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION GS-9: You must possess equivalent combinations of experience and education as described above to fully meet the requirements of this position. Only graduate education in excess of the amount required for the next lower grade level may be used to qualify applicants for positions at grade GS-9. NOTE: Experience must be supported by your resume to be creditable, and a copy of transcripts are required at time of application. Physical Demands: The work requires no special physical demands. It may involve some walking, standing, bending, or carrying light items. 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/.

Evaluations

Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., resume, supporting documents), your responses on the application questionnaire, and your responses to all assessments required for this position. You will be assessed on the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics): Attention to Detail Customer Service Decision Making Flexibility Integrity/Honesty Interpersonal Skills Learning Reading Comprehension Reasoning Self-Management Stress Tolerance Teamwork Your experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month and year start/end dates AND hours worked per week. A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration. Cheating on the online assessment may also result in your removal from consideration. Candidates who apply under "All U.S. Citizens" announcements will be rated and ranked using Category Rating procedures. Qualified candidates will be assigned to a quality category. The categories are defined as follows: Best Qualified - Applicants possessing the type and quality of experience that substantially exceeds the minimum qualifications Very Highly Qualified - Applicants possessing the type and quality of experience that exceeds, to a very considerable extent, the minimum qualifications Highly Qualified - Applicants possessing the type and quality of experience that exceeds, to a considerable extent, the minimum qualifications Well Qualified - Applicants possessing the type and quality of experience that marginally exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position and who demonstrate average proficiency in most of the critical competencies Qualified - Applicants possessing the type and quality of experience that meets the minimum qualifications Application of Veterans' Preference: Category rating and selection procedures place those with veteran's preference above non-preference eligibles within each category. Preference eligible applicants that meet the eligibility and qualification requirements and who have a compensable service-connected disability of at least 10 percent are listed in the highest quality category (except when the position being filled is scientific or professional at the GS-09 grade level or higher). 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.

How to apply Please read the entire announcement and all the instructions before you begin an application. To apply for this position, you must complete the initial online application, to include the initial online assessment and submission of the required documentation specified in the Required Documents section above. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on the closing date of the announcement to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire, click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/13101941. The application process is as follows: To begin, click Apply Online to create a USA JOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USA JOBS resume and/or other supporting documents. Answer the questions presented in the application and attach all necessary supporting documentation. Click the Submit Application button prior to 11:59 PM (ET) on the announcement closing date, 11/04/2026. After submitting the online application, you will be notified whether or not you are required to take additional online assessments through the USA Hire Competency Based Assessment system. This message will be delivered to you via email notification. The email may be routed to your "Spam" or "Junk" folder. IMPORTANT: If you are asked to take the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be presented with a unique URL to access the USA Hire system. Access to USA Hire is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Be sure to review all instructions prior to beginning your USA Hire Assessments. Click here for Computer System Requirements. Set aside at least 3 hours to take the USA Hire assessments; however, most applicants complete the assessments in less time. If you need to stop the assessments and continue at a later time, you can re-use the URL sent to you via email and also found in your USAJOBS account under the "Track my application" link for the corresponding application. Your responses to the USA Hire Assessments will be reused for one year (in most cases) from the date you complete an assessment. If future applications you submit require completion of the same assessments, your responses will be automatically reused. Visit the USA Hire Applicant Resource Center for practice assessments and assessment preparation resources at https://support-usahire.opm.gov/hc/en-us. To view the announcement status or your application status: https://help.usajobs.gov/how-to. Your application status page is where you can view your application status, USA Hire assessment completion status, and review your notifications sent by the hiring agency regarding your application. 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: https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit.

Other information 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 the Procedures for Requesting a Reasonable Accommodation for Online Assessments. Receiving Service Credit for Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: 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. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed. This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. 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. For more information about the Act and the complaint process, visit Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP) at The Fair Chance Act. The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation and be found well-qualified (have a final rating of 80 or more before any Veterans preference points) 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/.