The facility Privacy/FOIA Officer has oversight for the data governance program and initiatives in the VHA Medical Center or Healthcare System and its supporting catchment area. The position makes unique facility-level determinations about disclosures, issuance of denials, redactions, access, use and dissemination of federal agency records. The position formulates policy, ensures compliance with federal and state laws and conducts thorough research of federal implementing regulations.

Duties

Major Duties: Implement unique policies and procedures to manage agency information, providing assistance and services to the general public and an organization, agency or facility staff members. Support developing a local level strategy for data governance, which includes leading from the executive office and creating a unique program that includes diverse processes and specific policies which are independent of other facilities. Monitor and covers all aspects of the collection, use, dissemination, disclosure and destruction of information within an organization, agency or facility. Develop and integrates policy based processes, roles and controls that influences how data is created, collected, used, stored and destroyed throughout the organization. Adjudicate complex privacy and FOIA decisions that affect employees, customers and commercial businesses in the absence of supervision. Perform in-depth legal research that pertains to both federal and state statutes to render expertise, provide solutions and facilitate corrective action. Safeguard information while supporting accountability and transparency initiatives. Analyze all of the interrelated issues that affect the privacy/FOIA program and plans and conducts monitoring activities which measure the overall level of operational compliance by the facility. Teach and trains employees on general data protection procedures and detailed service specific practices for daily operations and uses technology to provide required privacy/FOIA training and supplemental education. Perform assessment of privacy-related risks associated with business activities that involve processing of personal and sensitive data. Investigate non-compliance of privacy related issues at all levels of an organization, agency or facility and outside of these entities when information is involved. Strengthen and sustains the operational life cycle of the privacy/FOIA program by developing a communication strategy that fosters awareness for both internal and external partners to improve compliance, provide training and engage the public. Ensure that organization, agency or facility correspondence for data governance is transparent, timely, accurate and complete in response to requests for information from the general-public, Congressional representatives, law enforcement, courts and commercial business. Create a communications process and tools that are flexible, customizable and interactive to address unique compliance challenges and educational/training needs. Promotion Potential: The selectee may be promoted to the full performance level without further competition when all regulatory, qualification, and performance requirements are met. Selection at a lower grade level does not guarantee promotion to the full performance level. Work Schedule: Mon-Fri 0730-1600 Telework: Not Authorized Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Government Information Specialist/PD99538-S and PD99843-S Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 07/31/2023. 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-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-09. 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. For a GS-11: You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Experience: You must have at least one (1) full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade level (GS-9) in the Federal Service that has given you the particular knowledge, skills and abilities required to successfully perform the duties, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. Specialized experience is experience applying knowledge and understanding of Privacy Act (PA), Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) legislation and regulations for information disclosure, security, privacy, and protection; under little supervision provides advisement to management and staff to ensure compliance; under little supervision develops facility-specific guidance; under little supervision investigates data breaches and recommending appropriate action; and responding to requests for release of information. OR Education: Successful completion of a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M., if related, from an accredited college or university. Such education must be directly related to the work of the Government Information Specialist - Privacy/Freedom of Information Act Officer position and demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work. NOTE: Transcripts (unofficial or official) must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation. OR Combination: Equivalent combination of successfully completed graduate level education (beyond the second year) and specialized experience, as described above, which may be used to meet total experience requirements for this grade level. The education portion must include graduate courses directly related to the work of the Government Information Specialist - Privacy/Freedom of Information Act Officer position and demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work and must have been obtained in an accredited college or university. NOTE: Transcripts (unofficial or official) must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation. For a GS-12: You may qualify based on your experience as described below: 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: Experience as a Privacy/FOIA officer working independently with no supervision. Formulating policy, ensures compliance with federal and state laws and conducting thorough research of implementing regulations and policies and procedures to manage agency/organization information; Providing assistance and services to the general public, staff members and communicated information to the Executive leadership, facility staff and outside stakeholders. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: CommunicationsExternal AwarenessManages and Organizes InformationSecurity 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. Note: 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. Physical Requirements: The work is primarily sedentary. There will be episodes of moderate lifting or prolonged periods of standing and bending in searching various files. There is lifting and carrying of such items as record boxes and bulky files. The work involves considerable walking, standing and bending conducting rounds, auditing and providing training to both on-site and off-site personnel. There is also occasional lifting and carrying of such items as boxes and files, weighing up to 30 lbs. 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/.

Education

A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education.

Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html.

Contacts

• Address Las Vegas VA Medical Center 6900 North Pecos Road North Las Vegas, NV 89086 US
• Name: Yesenia Nery
• Phone: 910-488-2120 X1273
• Email: [email protected]