Summary

This Supervisory Audiologist position is in Audiology and Speech Pathology services at the VA Boston Healthcare Systems, located at the Jamaica Plains, MA location.

Duties

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A Supervisory Audiologist in this position serves as a Service Chief; responsible for all professional, management and administrative aspects of the service or organizational entity; broad and overall responsibility for a service-level organizational unit and has full responsibility for clinical practice, program management, education, human resource management and supervision for the service.

Duties may include, but are not limited to:

• Autonomously manages substantive parts of specialized, complex, professional services that significantly impact Veterans' care; provides leadership with objective, independent assessments and recommendations for policy, operational and administrative issues and initiatives requiring decision and action.
• Monitors work performance to ensure that requirements are satisfied; interprets and processes a wide variety of data related to program planning and specialized needs of the Veterans, the service, and the medical center; and ensures policies or issues have been fully coordinated, vetted, and staffed.
• Advises executive leadership on implications, key issues, and relationships to interest groups (both internal and external) and recommends courses of action; coordinates and negotiates resolutions to complex problems.
• Assures compliance with accrediting agencies and regulatory requirements and corrective action is initiated as needed.
• Responsible for professional and administrative management of an assigned area, including budget execution.
• Maintains interdepartmental relationships with other services to accomplish medical center goals.
• May prepare special reports and responses, Congressional responses, briefing papers, issue briefs, and decision papers for the medical center leadership.
• Develops policies and procedures and may develop performance standards, position descriptions, and functional statements.
• Monitors the clinical performance of staff, conduct performance appraisals, and perform other clinical and administrative responsibilities to ensure that the mission of the service and the medical center has been satisfied.
• May set training objectives for staff and delegate responsibilities to subordinate sections.
• Other duties as assigned.

Work Schedule: Full-Time, Monday- Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm.

Compressed/Flexible: Not Authorized.

Telework: May be authorized.

Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Functional Statement #: F08492

Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized

Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Financial Disclosure Report: Required, selectee must file a financial disclosure report, OGE Form 450, within 30 days of onboarding and then annually.

Notifications:

• This position is in the excepted service.
• This position is NOT a Bargaining Unit position.
• 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.
• Narrative responses to the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) may be required from the selectee in order to proceed with the appointment.
• This position is covered by locality-based comparability pay.
• The incumbent may be required to travel to other VA Boston campuses and CBOC's.
• Incomplete applications will not be considered.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English.
• Subject to background/security investigation.
• May be subject to satisfactory completion of our credentialing 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 (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued identification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).
• Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1 or 2-year trial 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 trial period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Qualifications

Basic Requirements:

• United States Citizenship: Be a citizen of the United States (U.S.). Non-citizens may be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with 38 U.S.C. § 7407(a).
• English Language Proficiency: Audiologist candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English as required by 38 U.S.C. § 7403(f).
• Education:
  
  • Doctor of Audiology (AUD) from an audiology program recognized by the Accreditation Commission for Audiology Education (ACAE) or Council on Academic Accreditation (CAA) of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). HR office staff and management officials may verify a program's accreditation from ACAE at acaeaccred.org and CAA at caa.asha.org. OR
  • Other doctoral degree in hearing science or a directly related field from an institution accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. NOTE: Effective January 1, 2007, the CAA in Audiology and Speech- Language Pathology of ASHA accredits only doctoral degree or AUD programs in audiology.
• Licensure: Individuals must hold a full, current, and unrestricted license to practice audiology at the doctoral level in a United States state, territory, commonwealth, or the District of Columbia.
  
  • The Under Secretary of Health, or designee, may appoint a candidate without a license who will be assigned to a research, academic, or administrative position with no patient care responsibilities. In such instances, HR office staff can only appoint these candidates in exceptional circumstances where their credentials demonstrate high professional attainment or expertise in the specialty area.
  • All audiologists who perform compensation and pension examinations perform direct patient care duties and must possess a full, current, and unrestricted license to practice audiology and must meet the experience requirements under Section 2. D. See 38 C.F.R. § 4.85.
  • Failure to Obtain Licensure: In all cases, the graduate audiologists must actively pursue obtaining the required licensure from the date of their appointment. HR office staff will provide unlicensed audiologists with written requirements to obtain licensure, the date by which the license must be acquired and the consequences for not becoming licensed by the deadline. Written notices must be provided prior to the entrance on duty date. Failure to obtain the required credentials by the prescribed date will result in termination of employment.
  • Loss of Credential: Management officials, in collaboration with HR Office staff must immediately relieve employees who fail to maintain the required licensure of the duties and responsibilities associated with this occupation which may also result in separation from employment.
  • HR Office staff must appoint audiologists according to the provisions in VA Handbook, Part II, Chapter 3, Section B, paragraph 16, who have, or have ever had, their licensure revoked, suspended, denied, restricted, limited or issued/placed in a probationary status.
• Foreign Education: To be creditable, education completed outside the U.S. must have been submitted to a private organization specializing in the interpretation of foreign educational credentials. Such education must have been deemed at least equivalent to that gained in conventional U.S. programs.

Grade Determinations: Supervisory Audiologist, GS-14:

Experience: At least three years of experience as a professional audiologist, with at least one year comparable to the next lower grade level, must fully meet the KSAs at that level.

Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs): In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate the following KSAs:

1. Skill in promoting collaboration to accomplish goals.
2. Skill in translating management goals and objectives into efficient service operations.
3. Skill in balancing operational resources to ensure appropriate delivery of service operations.
4. Ability to supervise staff.
5. Ability to effectively interact and collaborate with local, VISN, and/or national leadership.
6. Ability to establish and monitor productivity standards, production, and performance priorities to achieve management goals and objectives.

Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/.

The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-14. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is GS-14

Physical Requirements: See VA Handbook 5019

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: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

Additional information

Receiving Service Credit for Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior work experience or military service experience. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed.

During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions.

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

This position is in the Excepted Service and does not confer competitive status.

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.

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Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

Benefits

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A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.

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Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.