Summary

The position is located in the Vocational Rehabilitation and Education Division (VR&E). The incumbent serves as Supervisory Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor (SVRC) in the San Diego Regional Office. The SVRC is responsible for administering and managing the division's workload, reporting issues to the Assistant Vocational Rehabilitation Officer, and suggesting corrections to ensure performance goals of timeliness, accuracy, cost, customer satisfaction, and employee development are achieved.

Duties

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Major duties include, but are not limited to:

• Assessing office problems, client and organizational needs, and directives, ensuring actions are taken to achieve appropriate goals for the division based on timeliness, accuracy, cost, customer satisfaction, and employee development.
• Ensuring that the professional, technical, and administrative quality and timeliness of service meets VBA's organizational goals.
• Assuming responsibility for the cost-effective use of resources to accomplish the VR&E's assigned outcomes.
• Monitoring the Systematic Technical Accuracy Reviews (STAR), both local and national, and administering appropriate training to the division.
• Acting as a program consultant to other federal and state rehabilitation agencies to coordinate services. As such, the incumbent facilitates operations with major public and private universities, community colleges, and vocational/technical institutes in the state to resolve training issues.
• Serving as technical representative in developing, awarding, implementing, and evaluating contracts to provide professional counseling, evaluation, case management, employment, and other services.
• Supervising and coordinating intra-state and inter-state transfer of cases, and consulting with VR&E Officers throughout the country.
• Familiarity with all phases of the VR&E division, including interviewing claimants in person or over the telephone and eliciting information essential to resolve administrative reviews or concerns, or to obtain necessary evidence so that a pending claim may be properly adjudicated.
• Gathering and interpreting a wide range of data addressing service concerns. Further, they can recommend appropriate action to the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Officer and/or the Assistant Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Officer based on the data.
• Possessing an understanding and the ability to apply the principles of individual counseling and small group dynamics.

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

Work Schedule: Full-time, Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM

Compressed/Flexible Schedule: Available

Telework: 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 Title/PD#: Supervisory Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor; 39814A

Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized

Financial Disclosure Report: Required. The selectee must submit a Confidential Financial Disclosure Report (OGE-450) before entering on duty, and annually thereafter.

Bargaining Unit: No

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

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.

Additional Conditions of Employment are as follows:

• 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 or trial period.
• You may be required to serve a Supervisory probation period.
• Selectees are required to serve a one-year supervisory probationary period if not previously completed in a Federal position.
• 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: 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.

Qualifications

As a current Federal GS employee, you must meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. 08/07/2026

1. TIME-IN-GRADE REQUIREMENT: As a current Federal GS employee, you must meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

• 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. 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.

2. BASIC REQUIREMENTS: To be eligible for this position, candidates must meet the following basic requirements:

a. Education: Successful completion of a master's degree (or higher) in rehabilitation counseling, rehabilitation services, clinical rehabilitation counseling, counseling psychology, mental health counseling, career counseling, or social work from an accredited college or university.

AND

b. Internship or Experience Requirement: The required supervised internship or post-master's degree experience is described as follows:

• Supervised Internship: The education in the Basic Requirements above must have included a supervised internship in rehabilitation counseling or case management specialization. The internship must have been supervised by a professional in vocational rehabilitation or a closely related professional field that typically has oversight for vocational rehabilitation programs.

OR

• Experience: One-year post-master's degree experience in direct delivery of professional vocational rehabilitation services to individuals with disabilities.

Reference: Additional information on the qualification requirements for this position can be found on the OCHCO VA Qualifications Standards website.

3. SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS: In addition to the time-in-grade and education/internship requirements, you must also meet the following grade-specific qualification requirements. Creditable experience must have been obtained post-graduate and be directly related to the duties to be performed to qualify to work as a professional VRC.

Specialized Experience is one year equivalent to the next lower grade level (GS-12). Specialized experience is documented experience that has provided comprehensive knowledge of Vocational Rehabilitation programs. Specifically, documented concepts, principles, and theories of testing and evaluation, rehabilitation, job development and job placement, and demonstrated comprehensive experience in ALL of the following:

• The incumbent has experience working with groups. They are capable of planning and assigning work activities for subordinates, with final technical authority over the final work product.
• The incumbent has experience in training and teaching. They must be comfortable presenting to both large and small groups, capable of explaining complex regulations and policy.
• The incumbent is highly organized and capable of monitoring and managing multiple projects, tasks, and assignments.
• The incumbent is capable of gathering and interpreting a wide range of data addressing service concerns and recommends appropriate actions based on the data.
• They must be familiar with all aspects of the Vocational Rehabilitation & Employment (VR&E) processes, including initial evaluations, case management, and employment services.

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; 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.

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. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment.

Physical Requirements: The position is primarily in an office setting. Some travel may be necessary on occasion for training, meetings, or customer interactions.

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/.

Education

A transcript must be submitted with your application. It must include your coursework and date of conferral of a Master's degree in a vocational rehabilitation (or related) field.

Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to be credited towards qualifications. Provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. All education claimed by applicants will be verified upon appointment. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript to receive credit.

Note: You may submit unofficial transcripts when applying. However, if you are selected for the position, you will be required to provide an official transcript or a statement from the institution (e.g., from the registrar, dean, or other appropriate official) or equivalent documentation before the start date.

Additional information

VA supports the use of telework. This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process.

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. Management may use any one or any combination of these methods to fill the position.

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

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

Veterans and Transitioning Service Members: Please visit the VA for Vets site for career-search tools for Veterans seeking employment at VA, career development services for our existing Veterans, and coaching and reintegration support for military service members.

Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history before accepting a tentative job offer (TJO). Please visit the Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP) website: https://www.va.gov/EMPLOYEE/documents/The-Fair-Chance-to-Compete-Act.pdf.