This position serves as a Lead Purchasing Agent for the Logistics Service within the VA Puget Sound in Seattle, WA and supported catchment area.

Duties

The Lead Purchasing Agent is responsible for issuing, reviewing and or procuring prescribed items to Veterans in compliance with VHA guidelines and directives. As a purchase card holder, fulfills acquisition requests under the federal micro-purchase threshold, ensuring purchases are procured in accordance with federal and VA regulations, policy and procedures with responsibility for work leading to the purchase of a wide variety of complex and highly specialized services, supplies, equipment, and systems. Duties include, but may not be limited to the following: Lead Duties - Leads three or more Purchasing Agents performing work at or below the GS-6 level; serves as first respondent to any staff concerns related to procurement or purchase orders and is expected to work independently to resolve those issues, only escalating unresolvable issues; distributes and balances the workload among employees; assures timely accomplishment of assignments; and reviews completed work for compliance; instructs Purchasing Agents in specific tasks and job techniques; and, identifies training needs and provides on the job training to new Purchasing Agents. Purchasing and Procurement Support - Conducts purchasing for the VA HCS and supported catchment area under the micro purchase threshold; purchases various equipment, supplies, and services using the government purchase card for micro purchases; utilizes different ordering, reporting procedures, and purchasing methods depending on the type quantity, dollar value, and urgency of the requirement; provides administration and oversight on orders and services; advises approving officials and purchase card holders on purchase card program, procurement procedures and responsibilities. Administrative Support - Serves as the first line of contact for medical staff and customers in regard to procured items; provides clerical support and coordination to approving officials and administrators; utilizes a variety of automated systems to enter, update, revise, sort, and calculate data; develops reports and spreadsheets, obtains, organizes, files and retrieves reports for briefing and presentation purposes. Performs other related duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Full-Time, Monday - Friday, 7:30am - 4:00pm Compressed/Flexible: Not Authorized Telework: Not eligible Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Lead Purchasing Agent/PD99879S Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements within 30 days of closing date of this announcement, 08/30/2023. 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-07 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-06. 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. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-06 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Specialized experience includes: procuring supplies and services to meet the purchase, rental, or lease needs of an organization; assisting in training new employees and answering questions on purchasing/ procurement procedures, policies, etc.; purchasing various equipment, supplies, and services through the use of a purchase card; working with medical staff to determine procurement needs and priorities; resolving a variety of shipment, payment, or other discrepancies in support of procurement programs and operations; and, assembling and/or summarizing information from files and documents as required to create reports utilizing automated computerized supply/inventory management systems and Microsoft Office software programs such as MS Word and Excel. NOTE: 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. OR, EDUCATION (TRANSCRIPTS REQUIRED): Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have successfully completed 1 full year of graduate level education (Such education must demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work.) This education must have been obtained in an accredited business, secretarial or technical school, junior college, college, or university. NOTE: As a general rule, education is not creditable above GS-5 for most positions covered by this standard; however, graduate education may be credited in those few instances where the graduate education is directly related to the work of the position. OR, COMBINATION OF EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE (TRANSCRIPTS REQUIRED): Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have a combination of education and specialized experience. Only education in excess of the first 60 semester hours (i.e., beyond the second year) is creditable toward meeting the specialized experience requirement. One full academic year of study (30 semester hours) beyond the second year is equivalent to 6 months of specialized 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.

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 VA Puget Sound Health Care System 1660 South Columbian Way Seattle, WA 98108 US
• Name: Sonya Crain
• Phone: 253-583-1001
• Email: [email protected]