Emergency Manager

Summary

The incumbent is responsible for coordination of the new VISN 2 network-wide Comprehensive Emergency Management Program (CEMP) and for the strategic direction, integration, and oversight of emergency management activities across the entire VISN's multi-state, multi-HSA footprint, and serves as the VISN's direct and primary liaison to national program offices, including the VHA Office of Emergency Management (OEM). *This position requires incumbent to live in the new VISN 2 catchment area.

Duties

Duties include but are not limited to: Directs Network-wide emergency management activities across a multi-state, multi-HSA footprint, requiring the exercise of expert, independent judgment on matters of significant complexity, sensitivity, and consequence. Identifies and resolves the most complex, cross-jurisdictional resource and healthcare management challenges before, during, and after emergency situations - often without precedent or established guidance - producing executive-level management reports and establishing effective practices that are subsequently adopted VISN-wide and, where warranted, elevated to national program offices for broader adoption. Issues can involve consumer affairs, emergency planning, and disaster response strategy. Ensures emergency operations and support activities are monitored across the entire multi-state Network to expedite return to readiness whenever there is a loss of operational capability at any facility or catchment area within the VISN Determines regional priorities when requirements compete for limited assets and directs the positioning, allocation, reallocation, sustainment, and recovery of VISN resources based on hazard, operational consequence, continuity-of-care requirements, and executive priorities Network-wide coordination responsibilities encompass 12 interdependent emergency management functions: Capacity Building - planning, training, exercising, and preparing before incidents occur Laws, Policy, and Regulation - interpreting and applying legal, regulatory, accreditation, and policy frameworks to improve preparedness and disaster outcomes Threat Protection Management - protecting critical infrastructure, identifying vulnerabilities, and reducing risk Public and Crisis Communications - integrating clear, timely, life-safety alerts, warnings, executive communications, and stakeholder messaging Impact Reduction - analyzing hazards, vulnerabilities, dependencies, and cascading consequences to reduce operational impacts, Operational Response - coordinating immediate actions and regional support priorities to protect life, stabilize healthcare operations, and sustain mission-essential services Damage Assessment - integrating technology, field reporting, and multidisciplinary assessment to evaluate physical, operational, clinical, and human impacts Incident Command - applying NIMS/ICS/HICS principles and organized command and coordination structures to unify response while preserving facility incident command Resource Management - identifying, allocating, deploying, tracking, sustaining, recovering, and accounting for personnel, equipment, supplies, and deployable capabilities Continuity of Operations - maintaining essential functions, succession, delegations, alternate operating capability, and continuity of Veteran care Short-Term Recovery - stabilizing affected operations, restoring essential services, and transitioning from response to recovery Continuous Improvement - using after-action reports, corrective actions, assessments, exercises, and incident lessons to close capability gaps and improve tactics, plans, doctrine, training, and readiness Work Schedule: To be determined Telework: This position may be authorized for ADHOC telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Emergency Manager/PD00031VS Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/10/2026. 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 by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-14 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-13. 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. You may 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-13 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Expert, authoritative knowledge of the organizations, programs, missions, and functions of a multi-state Veterans Integrated Service Network and its constituent Health Service Areas and medical facilities, together with mastery of advanced analytical and investigative techniques essential to determining Network-wide veteran care demands and site-specific needs during emergencies spanning multiple jurisdictions Authoritative knowledge of the roles, authorities, doctrine, and coordination mechanisms of FEMA, HHS/ASPR, DHS, CISA, DoD, NDMS, State and local emergency management and public health agencies, healthcare coalitions, and other external stakeholders, sufficient to represent the Network and reconcile interagency requirements with VA/VHA mission priorities Comprehensive, authoritative knowledge of current VA directives, regulations, and manuals, and of the emergency plans of other federal agencies supported by VA during emergency/disaster situations across a multi-state footprint. Knowledge of the requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), The Joint Commission (TJC), Office of Information Technology, National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), and Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), sufficient to independently resolve conflicting or ambiguous applications of these standards across multiple states and HSAs Knowledge of Network and HSA-level emergency plans across all subordinate Health Service Areas, and must independently reconcile differing requirements among the Department of Health & Human Services, the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), DoD Contingency Plans, and National Incident Management System (NIMS) doctrine across multiple states. Must possess mastery of the Incident Command System (ICS) as the operational model for incident management at a multi-jurisdictional scale 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/. Physical requirements: The work is mostly sedentary, although physical effort may be required to meet fieldwork requirements across the Network's expanded multi-state footprint, including lifting up to 50 pounds and moving or pushing equipment. During emergency events, the incumbent is expected to work extended hours under harsh conditions, potentially across multiple states and time zones. The incumbent's work is generally conducted in an office setting; however, emergency incidents, and training and exercise events across the Network's multi-state footprint, may require