This position serves as a Lead Purchasing Agent for the Supply Chain Management Service within the VA Health Care System and supported catchment area. The Lead Purchasing Agent is responsible for issuing, reviewing and or procuring prescribed items to Veterans in compliance with VHA guidelines and directives.

Duties

This position serves as a Lead Purchasing Agent for the Logistics Service within the VA Health Care System and supported catchment area. 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 - Explains assignments, projects, problems to be solved, etc.as well as deadlines. - Distributes and balances the workload among employees in accordance with established workflow, skill level or job specialization and assures timely accomplishment of assignments. - Coaches Purchasing Agents on the selection and application of problem-solving methods and techniques, provides advice on work methods, practices and procedures. - Maintains awareness of the status and progress of work, makes day-to-day adjustments to align with established priorities and goals. - Assistances the supervisor on problems that may arise, such as backlogs. - Estimates and reports on expected time of completion of work. - Instructs Purchasing Agents in specific tasks and job techniques and make available written instructions, and reference materials. - Identifies training needs and gives on the job training to new Purchasing Agents in accordance with established procedures and practices. - Maintains current knowledge and answers questions of Purchasing Agents on procedures, policies, directives, or other guidelines as necessary and obtains needed information, resources, use of overtime, or decisions from supervisor on problems that come up. Purchasing and Procurement Support Conducts purchasing for the VA HCS and supported catchment area under the micro purchase threshold and must have knowledge of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), VA Acquisition Regulations (VAAR) and other federal procurement laws. Purchases various equipment, supplies, and services through the use of the government purchase card for micro purchases. Reviews and edits purchase requests to ensure the item or service is adequately described based on the requester's need. Ensures all information has been provided and the request is consistent with legal requirements. Obtains necessary product information, price information and procedures for written or verbal purchase orders. Utilizes different ordering, reporting procedures, and purchasing methods depending on the type quantity, dollar value, and urgency of the requirement. 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. Performs a variety of receptionist, timekeeping, record keeping and miscellaneous duties in medical facility. Answers telephones and refers calls to appropriate staff. Uses departmental software to produce printouts for logistic and medical staff. Establishes office files and record systems. Utilizes a variety of automated systems to enter, update, revise, sort, and calculate data; monitor purchase requests; process receipts; and monitor active and delinquent invoices. Develops reports and spreadsheets, obtains, organizes, files and retrieves reports for briefing and presentation purposes. Lead Purchasing Agent will utilize Microsoft Office to create, edit and aggregate data necessary for expense tracking and Supply Chain management reporting. Ability to use Outlook Mail features to respond to Medical Center inquiries and calendar to set up, manage, and organize meetings. Other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Monday- Friday 7:30 am -4:00 pm Position Description/PD#: /PD99879S Lead Purchasing Agent Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved 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, 10/19/2023. 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-7 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-6. 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. Examples of appropriate SF-50s include: Within grade increases at the highest grade held; or Promotions with an effective date more than one year old; or SF-50s at the highest grade held with an effective date more than one year old. 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. Specialized Experience: To qualify for this position at the GS-7 level, you must have: At least one (1) full year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-6 level in the Federal service that equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of this Lead Purchasing Agent position. Specialized experience is defined as: 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. Dates of employment must include month/year to month/year at a minimum to receive credit. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:Customer Service (Clerical/Technical)Decision MakingManages and Organizes InformationManages ResourcesReasoning (Clerical/Technical)Technical Competence 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: Requires some physical effort such as standing, sitting, walking, or bending. There are no special physical demands. 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

There is no educational substitution at this grade level.

Contacts

• Address Lexington VA Health Care System 2250 Leestown Road Lexington, KY 40511 US
• Name: Annette Johnson
• Phone: 352 443-2381
• Email: [email protected]