Government Specialist position is in the Office of the Assistant Director at the Providence VA Healthcare Systems located in Providence, Rhode Island. This position is full-time at 40 hours per week.

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Job Grade: 12
Total Openings:

Duties:

The facility Privacy/FOIA Officer has oversight for the data governance program and initiatives in the VHA Medical Center or Healthcare System and its supporting catchment area. The position makes unique facility-level determinations about disclosures, issuance of denials, redactions, access, use and dissemination of federal agency records. The position formulates policy, ensures compliance with federal and state laws and conducts thorough research of federal implementing regulations.
Major duties include but are not limited to: Implements unique policies and procedures to manage agency information, providing assistance and services to the general public and an organization, agency or facility staff members; Supports developing a local level strategy for data governance, which includes leading from the executive office and creating a unique program that includes diverse processes and specific policies which are independent of other facilities; Monitors and covers all aspects of the collection, use, dissemination, disclosure and destruction of information within an organization, agency or facility; Develops and integrates policy based processes, roles and controls that influences how data is created, collected, used, stored and destroyed throughout the organization; Adjudicates complex privacy and FOIA decisions that affect employees, customers and commercial businesses in the absence of supervision; Performs in-depth legal research that pertains to both federal and state statutes to render expertise, provide solutions and facilitate corrective action; Safeguards information while supporting accountability and transparency initiatives; Analyzes all of the interrelated issues that affect the privacy/FOIA program and plans and conducts monitoring activities which measure the overall level of operational compliance by the facility; Teaches and trains employees on general data protection procedures and detailed service specific practices for daily operations and uses technology to provide required privacy/FOIA training and supplemental education; Performs assessment of privacy-related risks associated with business activities that involve processing of personal and sensitive data; Investigates non-compliance of privacy related issues at all levels of an organization, agency or facility and outside of these entities when information is involved; Strengthens and sustains the operational life cycle of the privacy/FOIA program by developing a communication strategy that fosters awareness for both internal and external partners to improve compliance, provide training and engage the public; Ensures that organization, agency or facility correspondence for data governance is transparent, timely, accurate and complete in response to requests for information from the general-public, Congressional representatives, law enforcement, courts and commercial business; Creates a communications process and tools that are flexible, customizable and interactive to address unique compliance challenges and educational/training needs. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday; Tour to be discussed with hiring manager.
Telework: VA supports the use of telework as a way to help attract and retain talented individuals in public service, increase worker productivity, and better prepare the agency to operate during emergencies. This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process.
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Position Description/PD#: Government Information Specialist/PD99843-S
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized
Financial Disclosure Report: Not required This position is in the Competitive Service. Veterans’ preference does not apply for internal or other current permanent Federal agency employees. Current and former Federal employees must submit copies of their most recent SF-50, (Notice of Personnel Action). The SF-50 must identify the position title, series, grade, step, tenure and type of service (Competitive or Excepted). In some cases, more than one SF-50 may be required to show a higher grade previously held. This position is a LIUNA Bargaining Unit position. This position is covered by locality-based comparability pay.

Qualifications:

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 09/22/2022. 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 12 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS 11. 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 must qualify based on your experience as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS 11 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: experience as a Privacy/FOIA officer working independently with little supervision, formulating policy, ensuring compliance with federal and state laws and conducts thorough research of implementing regulations and policies and procedures to manage agency/organization information; providing assistance and services to the general public, staff members and communicated information to the Executive leadership, facility staff and outside stakeholders. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:
CommunicationsExternal AwarenessManages and Organizes InformationSecurity 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 is primarily sedentary. There will be episodes of moderate lifting or prolonged periods of standing and bending in searching various files. There is lifting and carrying of such items as record boxes and bulky files. The work involves considerable walking, standing and bending conducting rounds, auditing and providing training to both on-site and off-site personnel. There is also occasional lifting and carrying of such items as boxes and files, weighing up to 30 lbs. 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/.

Job Requirements:

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 Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP) Participation in the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination program is a requirement for all Veterans Health Administration Health Care Personnel (HCP) – See “Additional Information” below for details.