Public Affairs Specialist

Summary

This position is located at the Fayetteville, NC VA Coastal Healthcare System in Fayetteville, North Carolina within the Public Affairs and Visual Communications Office, however this position can be located at our coastal clinic in Wilmington, NC. This position reports directly to Chief of Public Affairs and Visual Communications. The primary purpose for this position is to improve Fayetteville VACHCS internal communications and website platforms.

Duties

Provides leadership and direction for the Public Affairs program in conjunction with the Chief of Public Affairs and Visual Communications while displaying tact, common sense, diplomacy, initiative, and solid professional judgment. The goal of the position is to increase internal and external awareness of VA programs, services, special events and projects, technologies, personnel, and research accomplishments. Establishes and maintains proactive contacts with media outlets, legislative offices, veteran service organizations, and health care affiliates. Actively pitches and places stories with media outlets. Advises Public Affairs Officer on development of media campaigns and communication plans and strategies. Plans, develops, and produces a variety of materials and publications including print, visual, Web-based, multimedia, and video materials to convey information about the VA to a variety of stakeholders. Evaluates information from a variety of sources and provides feedback to Public Affairs Officer on public affairs trends and stakeholder attitudes to assess program effectiveness and make improvements. Incumbent serves as an alternate to medical center Public Affairs Officer spokesman for the facility. Responds in writing and orally to questions about or criticisms of the agency's activities or policies and explaining the VA point of view. Incumbent handles communication efforts when controversial, high level issues impact the healthcare system, often during crisis and emergency situations. Performs duties related to the internal communications for staff including, all employee announcements, bulletin board management, and other informational sources. Serves as a member of the Public Affairs team as part of ·the Hospital Incident Command System. The incumbent, edits and updates web content for the Health Care System's Internet, Intranet, SharePoint, and social media platforms. Places new pages in the appropriate location on the sites to ensure correct formatting, optimum display of graphics, video and other multimedia formats. The incumbent manages production of FVACHCS's internal and external communications. Manages all aspects from writing, editing and producing. Produces, reviews, edits and rewrites copy for publication; reviews photographs and artwork for quality and composition, selects the most newsworthy for inclusion in health care system publications. Edits publications designed for internal use, developing, designing and preparing in-house displays using desktop publishing techniques and reviews the work of others, providing guidance, comments and suggestions for improvements. Ensures compliance with Department of Veterans Affairs policy and standards. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday; 0800 - 1630 Telework: This position may be authorized for ad-hoc telework. Ad-hoc telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Public Affairs Specialist/PD082290 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, 11/18/2026. 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-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-09. 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 may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-09 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: web page design, laws, and regulations governing public Web sites; developing written materials (decision papers and read-ahead documents to help leadership determine best course of action regarding internal communications and social media platforms, talking points, analyzing news coverage, fact sheets, memoranda, briefings, news releases, feature stories, speeches, information papers, brochures, renditions of drawings and graphics to web-based format, holiday messages, etc.) that effectively transmit information about complex programs, initiatives, activities and functions to leaders and internal audiences. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have successfully completed a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M., if related in a field which demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform the work of the position. (Note: You must attach a copy of your transcripts.). OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond graduate education as described in B, but less than the required three years. I have computed the percentage of the requirements that I meet, and the total is at least 100% (To compute the percentage, divide your total months of qualifying experience by 12. Then, divide your semester hours of graduate education beyond the second year (total graduate semester hours minus 36) by 18. Add the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify.). (Note: You must attach a copy of your transcripts.). 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/.

Education

A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on 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/.