Program Analyst

Summary This position is located in the Veteran Readiness and Employment (VR&E) Service, Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), Department of Veterans Affairs. The incumbent serves as a Program Analyst within the Systems Management & Analysis Division & is responsible for leading the planning, coordination, automation, & deployment readiness activities supporting the VR&E Information Technology Portfolio, including enterprise case management capabilities & supporting information technology solutions. Duties

Specific duties include:

• Lead release, configuration, and deployment management activities for the VR&E IT portfolio within a DevSecOps framework.

• Plan, coordinate, and oversee secure, automated software releases using CI/CD pipelines and modern deployment patterns.

• Maintain integrated release schedules and coordinate activities across business stakeholders, OIT, cybersecurity, contractors, and governance bodies.

• Facilitate release planning ceremonies, readiness reviews, go/no-go decisions, and post-implementation assessments using DevSecOps performance metrics.

• Manage configuration governance through CCB/CAB meetings and maintain CM processes and tools to ensure alignment with approved baselines.

• Assess proposed changes for operational and security impacts and guide release sequencing to minimize risks.

• Lead deployment readiness activities, including plans, rollback procedures, validation steps, communications, and automated verification.

• Develop and execute comprehensive testing strategies, including automated functional, security, performance, and UAT testing within CI/CD workflows.

• Coordinate compliance, cybersecurity, and ATO-related documentation, ensuring releases align with VA, federal, and NIST requirements.

• Provide executive leadership with release dashboards, risk analyses, performance metrics, stakeholder updates, and recommendations to improve DevSecOps operations and IT portfolio governance.

Promotion Potential: This position is at the full performance level.

Work Schedule: Full time, Monday through Friday

Compressed/Flexible: Not Available

Telework: Available, This position is eligible for situational (ad hoc) telework only. The selectee is required to report to the official duty station each scheduled workday. Telework may be approved only on a case-by-case basis with supervisory approval. Routine or recurring telework is not authorized for this position.

Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Position Description/PD#: Program Analyst; 422920

Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized

Financial Disclosure Report: Not requiredQualifications To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement:11/06/2026.

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.

• For a GS-13 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-12 level.

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.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENT: You may qualify based on your experience as described below:

GS-13 Grade Level:

• Specialized Experience: Applicants must have at least one year of specialized experience at the GS 12 level that demonstrates:

• Experience planning, coordinating, and overseeing implementation of system or program updates, ensuring changes are delivered in a controlled, timely, and organized manner and aligned with organizational requirements and stakeholder needs.

• Experience developing and executing testing strategies for new or updated systems, including creating test plans, coordinating stakeholders involved in validation activities, documenting results, tracking issues, and recommending readiness for implementation.

• Experience applying organizational policies, federal requirements, and compliance standards to evaluate the readiness, risks, and operational impacts associated with system changes or program improvements.

• Experience analyzing system performance, operational data, or program outcomes to identify trends, risks, or improvement opportunities and preparing reports, briefings, or recommendations that inform leadership decisions.

• Experience coordinating with technical staff, business owners, and leadership to support effective implementation of system or process changes, resolve issues, align priorities, and ensure stakeholders understand upcoming operational impacts.

• Education Substitution: There is no education substitution at this grade level.

Volunteer Experience: 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.

Full vs. Part-Time Employment: Full-time employment is considered to be at least 35 hours per week. Part-time experience will be credited on a pro-rated basis; when including part-time employment in your resume you must specify the average hours worked per week.

Physical Requirements: The work is primarily sedentary and is typically performed in an office or telework environment, although

some slight physical effort may be required.

For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

Requirements

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you may 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.

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
• You may be required to serve a probationary period
• Subject to background/security investigation
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process

Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements I-9 Acceptable Documents. How you will be evaluated You will be evaluated based on how well you meet the qualifications listed in this vacancy announcement. Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., resume, supporting documents), your responses on the application questionnaire, and your responses to all assessments required for this position.

You will be assessed on the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics):

• Data Management - Knowledge of the principles, methods, and techniques for establishing internal control activities (for example, authorizations, verifications, reconciliations), monitoring their use, and evaluating their performance (for example, identification of material weaknesses or significant deficiencies).

• Internal Controls -Assures that effective internal controls are developed and maintained to ensure the integrity of the organization.

• Requirements Analysis -Knowledge of the principles and methods to identify, analyze, specify, design, and manage functional and infrastructure requirements; includes translating functional requirements into technical requirements used for logical design or presenting alternative technologies or approaches.

• Enterprise Architecture -Knowledge of principles, concepts, and methods of enterprise architecture to align information technology (IT) strategy, plans, and systems with the mission, goals, structure, and processes of the organization.

• Performance Measurement - Knowledge of the principles and methods for evaluating program or organizational performance using financial and non-financial measures, including identification of evaluation factors (for example, workload, personnel requirements), metrics, and outcomes.

Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration. Cheating on an assessment may also result in your removal from consideration. How to apply Beginning September 27, 2025, Federal agencies will only accept resumes up to two pages in length to comply with the Merit Hiring Plan. Resumes longer than two pages will result in ineligibility for further consideration for the position. USAJOBS will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages, and you will need to update the resumes in your profile before applying for a job. Resumes should include information relevant to the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of the position to which you are applying. VA is unable to make assumptions about qualifications if not clearly listed.

Resumes must be legible so they can be reviewed for eligibility, minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement.

Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started.

Helpful Hints for Creating a Two-Page Resume:

• Prioritize most relevant and recent experience
• Use concise, results focused language
• Align language from the job announcement
• Focus on demonstrating skills and competencies
• Remove outdated or unrelated experience
• Use the USAJOBS resume builder

Additional guidance on this new requirement and resume building tools can be found at:

• https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit.
• https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/merithiring-plan-resources/applicant-guidance-on-the-two-page-resume-limit/

Complete the questionnaire and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section below. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on 11/06/2026 to receive consideration. It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/13104064.

• To begin, click Apply Online to create a USA JOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USA JOBS resume and/or other supporting documents and complete the occupational questionnaire.
• Click Submit My Answers to submit your application package.

Click here for instructions on viewing your application status.

Visit the USA Hire Applicant Resource Center for practice assessments and assessment preparation resources at https://support-usahire.opm.gov/hc/en-us.

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 (TJO). Please visit the Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP), va.gov/EMPLOYEE/docs/The-Fair-Chance-to-Compete-Act.pdf for more information.

The Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified (have a final rating of 85 or more) for this vacancy. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/.

Placement Policy: The posting of this announcement does not obligate management to fill a vacancy or vacancies by promotion. The position may be filled by reassignment, change to lower grade, transfer, appointment, or reinstatement.

It is the policy of the VA to not deny employment to those that have faced financial hardships or periods of unemployment.

This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies.

For more information on the "Who may apply" eligibility requirements, please refer to the OHRM Status Candidates and Other Candidate Definitions document.

If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement.