The VA Western North Carolina Healthcare System and the Charles George VA Medical Center is recruiting for a Public Affairs Specialist. The Public Affairs Specialist will function in Communications & External Affairs Service. The Public Affairs Specialist will be expected to independently plan, coordinate, and execute work related to public affairs and communication activities.

Duties

The Public Affairs Specialist duties include, but are not limited to:

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/03/2023. 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-9. 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-9 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience include but are not limited to: Ability to develop new ways of gathering input from a variety of individuals and groups, ability to independently plan and carry out assignments in conformance with accepted policies and practices, ability to research, coordinate and conduct interviews with subject matter experts, ability to write content, edit and format text from other sources, ability to support and guide implementation of innovative web information dissemination solutions, ability to incorporate other media resources to provide information via the Intranet, including streaming video, and skill in presenting information on a wide variety of subjects using the full array of written and oral presentation formats and techniques. OR Education: Applicants must possess a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree. This education must have been obtained in an accredited college or university. One year of full-time graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours 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. OR Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have combination of specialized experience and education as described above. Combinations of successfully completed post-high school education and experience may be used to meet total qualification requirements. This may be computed by first determining the applicant's total qualifying experience as a percentage of the experience required for the grade level; then determining the applicant's education as a percentage of the education required for the grade level; and then adding the two percentages. The total percentages must equal at least 100 percent to qualify an applicant for that grade level. Only graduate education in excess of the amount required for the next lower grade level may be used to qualify applicants for positions at the GS-11. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Communications and MediaInterpersonal SkillsMultimedia TechnologiesWriting 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 requires regular and recurring physical exertion such as long visits to outdoor sites which expose the public affairs specialist to inclement weather or require movement over rough or uneven surfaces in natural or industrial settings. Work requires specific, but common physical characteristics such as above average resistance to fatigue. 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 Charles George VA Medical Center 1100 Tunnel Road Asheville, NC 28805 US
• Name: John Westling
• Phone: 828-333-3451
• Email: [email protected]