Security ClearanceNot Required
Duties
MAJOR DUTIES: Identify and prioritize critical business functions in collaboration with organizational stakeholders. Provide advice of project costs, design concepts, or design changes. Document how the implementation of a new system or new interface between systems, impacts the current and target environment including, but not limited to security posture. Gather feedback on customer satisfaction and internal service performance to foster continual improvement. Translate proposed capabilities into technical requirements. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday, 8:00am-4:30pm. Travel Required: Up to 25% travel may be required, as needed, for this position. Compressed/Flexible: As determined by the Agency Policy and Managers Discretion. Telework: Adhoc-Telework may be authorized at management discretion. Financial Disclosure Report: Not applicable Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: IT Specialist / PD18493A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Physical Demands: Work is primarily sedentary. Working Conditions: The incumbent must possess the flexibility and versatility of mind, necessary to defend and negotiate matters involving significant controversial issues, May be required to work under stressful conditions, such as long hours, to complete sensitive and urgent work assignments. Designated Drug Testing Position: Not applicable This is a non-bargaining unit eligible position.
Requirements
You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job To be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. In addition to the application and questionnaire, this position requires an online assessment. The online assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job. Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959 Subject to background/security investigation Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued dentification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment. This is not a remote position. OI&T has multiple worksites at various duty locations, and the individual(s) selected may be assigned to any federal government work site As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider: your performance and conduct; the needs and interests of the agency; whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service. Upon completion of your probationary period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.
Qualifications
To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 05/06/2026. Applicants must meet all requirements when a request is received to fill a vacancy. You may qualify based on your experience as described below: Basic Requirements Experience: Experience must be IT related; the experience may be demonstrated by paid or unpaid experience and/or completion of specific, intensive training (for example, IT certification), as appropriate. For all positions individuals must have IT-related experience demonstrating each of the five competencies listed below. The employing agency is responsible for identifying the specific level of proficiency required for each competency at each grade level based on the requirements of the position being filled. Attention to Detail - Is thorough when performing work and conscientious about attending to detail. Customer Service - Works with clients and customers (that is, any individuals who use or receive the services or products that your work unit produces, including the general public, individuals who work in the agency, other agencies, or organizations outside the Government) to assess their needs, provide information or assistance, resolve their problems, or satisfy their expectations; knows about available products and services; is committed to providing quality products and services. Oral Communication - Expresses information (for example, ideas or facts) to individuals or groups effectively, taking into account the audience and nature of the information (for example, technical, sensitive, controversial); makes clear and convincing oral presentations; listens to others, attends to nonverbal cues, and responds appropriately. Problem Solving - Identifies problems; determines accuracy and relevance of information; uses sound judgment to generate and evaluate alternatives, and to make recommendations. AND Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-14 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Specialized experience is defined as: Applicants must have experience as the lead architect for a cloud data & analytics platform with responsibility to develop, manage and communicate the overall architecture and roadmap for an enterprise class platform that employs a modern data stack, lake-house patterns, while adhering to cybersecurity standards and constraints. The candidate must demonstrate experience in architecting, designing and deploying high velocity/variety data ingestion and integration, experience in developing and designing best-practices to manage data via techniques such as the medallion data architecture pattern. The candidate must demonstrate experience in continuously refactoring a complex platform to deploy the latest analytics tools. High experience in cloud based identity and access management is required in order to plan, map and communicate policies to secure a critical system and plan for change. Knowledge of cloud networking and communication with on-premises and third-party systems is required. The candidate must have deep knowledge of data governance, managing data as a product, and plan the flow and management of metadata to support cataloging. Experience in establishing cloud automation techniques is also required. Additionally, the candidate must demonstrate experience in documenting and communicating architectures at multiple levels of detail, to staff and management. Overall experience must show evidence of leading and managing the architecture of an enterprise class data and analytics platform in Azure and AWS, and designing interoperability with on-premises and third-party systems. AND Selective Placement Factor(s) Selective Placement Factor experience is defined as: In addition to the minimum qualifications described above, you must meet the following requirement(s) to be considered qualified for the position: Applicants must show experience (within the past 5 years) as the lead architect overseeing an enterprise class data and analytics platform in a cloud environment. Experience in requirements elicitation, documentation, and diagramming of a large analytics system in order to communicate architecture, roadmap, best-practices, and guidance, as well as guiding and advising platform teams to arrive at solutions based on current and to-be architectures. Experience with data security using role based access control and attribute based access control tools. Experience in Data Governance to ensure organizational data governance policies are active, and data is managed as a product. 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. 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/. 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. It is the policy of the VA to not deny employment to those who have faced financial hardships or periods of unemployment.
Education
There is no educational substitution at this grade level.
Other Information
Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer. For more information about the Act and the complaint process, visit Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP) at The Fair Chance Act. Special Employment Consideration: VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply, including those eligible for hiring under 5 CFR 213.3102(u), Schedule A, Appointment of persons with disabilities [i.e., intellectual disabilities, severe physical disabilities, or psychiatric disabilities], and/or Disabled veterans with a compensable service-connected disability of 30% or more. Contact the Agency Contact for information on how to apply under this appointment authority via the Selective Placement Coordinator. This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. If selected you will be required to report to one of the following locations: Detroit, MI Houston, TX Los Angeles, Long Beach, Anaheim, CA Nashville, Davidson, Murfreesboro, TN Orlando, FL Pittsburgh, PA San Antonio, TX Tampa, St. Petersburg, FL Washington, DC Hines, IL Eatontown, NJ Albany, NY Philadelphia, PA Salt Lake City, UT Shepherdstown, WV If space is not immediately available a temporary exception to telework may be granted. If/when workspace is identified, the employee is expected to report to their assigned duty location