Executive Director, Communication is a principal advisor to the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Chief of Staff and acts on their behalf with equivalent authority for all issues related to VHA Communication programs and activities, consisting of 4 programs that influence the spending of approximately $8.5 million annually for VHA communication services.

Duties

The Executive Director, Communication provides support to the Veteran Health Administration (VHA), Chief of Staff and the Under Secretary of Health and is located in Washington, DC. The Executive Director, Communication has direct oversight of Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) Voluntary Service Program and plays a key role VHA's relationship with Veteran Service Organizations and oversees current media inquiries, internal messages and long-term campaign planning, to include those that support priorities, while advising the field and internal program offices of plans and initiatives all while remaining consistent with VHA's Strategic plan. Executive Director, Communication has 5 Directors, and 4 Program Directors for various communications platforms with an overall staff of 36 full time employees. The Executive Director, Communication has overall responsibility for planning, managing, and evaluating a broad array of service that provide direct support to the Office of the VHA Chief of Staff and direction and support to VHA Headquarters programs and field operation. The responsibilities include, but not limited to: Directs the development of VHA strategic communications and marketing plan; disseminates key messages and official positions on public issues; promotes VHA mission, vision and activities. Provides counsel to the Under Secretary of Health, VHA Chief of Staff, and senior leaders on strategic communications issues; coordinates communications between the USH, senior leaders, and key stakeholder groups. Leads / assists in VHA / VA culture change initiatives through relevant, ongoing internal / external communications initiatives/activities. Manages assigned staff, develops priorities, and assigns projects; assures that appropriate services are provided, and goals are defined and achieved; develops staff skills and conducts performance evaluations; meets regularly with staff to discuss and resolve priorities, workload and technical issues; develops additional hiring / staffing recommendations; manages internal / external stakeholder relationships. Reviews and guides the work of VHA Communications staff to assure the work quality and timely accomplishment of assigned duties and responsibilities; manages budget and allocates resources to meet established VHA strategic goals.

Requirements

• US citizenship is required.
• One year probationary period required for initial SES appointment.
• Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered for Selective Service.
• Incumbents of this position will be subject to a background investigation commensurate with the risk and sensitivity level of the position.
• Successful completion of drug screening required.
• Public Financial Disclosure Report (SF-278) is required within 30 days of appointment.
• May be subject to reassignment geographically or organizationally.
• VA structures its SES positions into Pay Bands. This is a Pay Band 1 position and the salary range is $141,022 to $212,100.

Qualifications

To meet the minimum qualifications, applicants must possess the following technical and executive core qualifications. These qualifications would typically be gained through progressively responsible management or executive level assignments such as director of a regional office, medical facility or program manager. An individual's total experience, education and volunteer work experience must demonstrate the ability to perform the duties of the position. 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; religious; 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. MANDATORY EXECUTIVE CORE QUALIFICATIONS (ECQs): All applicants must submit a written narrative response to each of the following ECQs and include your name on each page. Your narrative must address each ECQ separately and demonstrate the underlying competencies in the narrative. Examples should be clear, concise, and emphasize your level of responsibilities; the scope and complexity of the programs, activities, or services you managed; program accomplishments; policy initiatives undertaken; level of contacts; the sensitivity and criticality of the issues you addressed; and the results of your actions. You should use action oriented leadership words to describe your experience and accomplishments and quantify your experience wherever possible to demonstrate your accomplishments (e.g., number of employees supervised; size of budget managed; amount of money saved, etc.). Applicants should use the Challenge, Context, Action and Results (CCAR) model below when responding to each ECQ: Challenge. Describe a specific problem or goal. Context. Describe the individuals and groups you worked with, and/or the environment in which you worked, to address a particular challenge (e.g., clients, co-workers, members of Congress, shrinking budget, low morale, etc). Action. Discuss the specific actions you took to address a challenge. Result. Give specific examples of measures/outcomes that had some impact on the organization. These accomplishments demonstrate the quality and effectiveness of your leadership skills. Your narrative response should not exceed 10 pages, be typed in 12 point font with one-inch margins. It is recommended that you include 2 recent (not older than 10 years) examples per ECQ and draft your ECQs in a Word document before uploading into the system to ensure these guidelines are met. Information that exceeds these guidelines will not be reviewed. Detailed information on each ECQ, the underlying and fundamental competencies, sample narratives and a tips sheet for writing effective ECQs are available in the "Guide To Senior Executive Service Qualifications" GUIDE (opm.gov) at: http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/senior-executive-service/executive-core-qualifications/. 1. Leading Change: The ability to bring about strategic change, both within and outside the organization, to meet organizational goals. Inherent to this ECQ is the ability to establish an organizational vision and to implement it in a continuously changing environment. (Underlying Competencies: Creativity and Innovation, External Awareness, Flexibility, Resilience, Strategic Thinking, and Vision) 2. Leading People: The ability to lead people toward meeting the organization's vision, mission, and goals. Inherent to this ECQ is the ability to provide an inclusive workplace that fosters the development of others, facilitates cooperation and teamwork, and supports constructive resolution of conflicts. (Underlying Competencies: Conflict Management, Leveraging Diversity, Developing Others and Team Building) 3. Results Driven: The ability to meet organizational goals and customer expectations. Inherent to this ECQ is the ability to make decisions that produce high-quality results by applying technical knowledge, analyzing problems, and calculating risks. (Underlying Competencies: Accountability, Customer Service, Decisiveness, Entrepreneurship, Problem Solving and Technical Credibility) 4. Business Acumen: The ability to manage human, financial and information resources strategically. (Underlying Competencies: Financial Management, Human Capital Management and Technology Management) 5. Building Coalitions: The ability to build coalitions internally and with other Federal agencies, state and local governments, nonprofit and private sector organizations, foreign governments, or international organizations to achieve common goals. (Underlying Competencies: Partnering, Political Savvy and Influencing/Negotiation) TECHNICAL QUALIFICATION (TQ)s: In addition, all applicants must submit a written narrative response to the following specific TQ(s). Please label and include your name on each page. Please give examples and explain how often you used your skills, the complexity of the knowledge possessed, the level of people you interacted with, the sensitivity of the issues you handled managing a large public or private sector organization that administers complex, rules-based benefits or services, etc. It is recommended that you draft your TQ(s) in a word document and then upload into the system. TQ 1. Broad knowledge and understanding of policies, missions, and operating programs of large, diverse health care organizations. TQ 2. Extensive and specialized knowledge of, and experience in, development of corporate communications systems, and experience in the development and implementation of corporate identity strategies. Familiarity with complex and difficult problems involving the management of communications and corporate identity systems at the corporate level. TQ 3. Has served as representative / spokesperson with various media, customers and stakeholder groups.

Education

This job does not have an education qualification requirement.

Contacts

• Address Veterans Health Administration - S125 810 Vermont Avenue NW Washington, DC 20420 US
• Name: Dione Moore
• Email: [email protected]