Program Support Assistant

Veterans Health Administration; Fargo (ND); On-site; USD 42,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

The Fargo VA Health Care System's Nutrition and Food Services Department seeks a Program Support Assistant to assist the Nutrition and Food Service Administrative Officer with a wide range of administrative, clerical, and technical tasks.

You will type at least 40 words per minute and handle data collection, document processing, file management, phone coverage, and support using word processing, spreadsheets, email, calendars, databases, and graphics software.

Qualifications

• Typing proficiency of at least 40 words per minute.
• Specialized experience in providing administrative support, data collection, and recordkeeping.
• Experience with office automation tools and basic software applications (word processing, spreadsheets, email, calendars, databases).

Responsibilities

• Provide administrative support to the Nutrition and Food Service Administrative Officer.
• Collect, compile and track data and information; process documents and reports.
• Establish, update and maintain office files and records.
• Answer phones, refer visitors, and provide information.
• Perform automation duties using software such as word processing, spreadsheets, email, calendars, databases and graphics.

Skills

Typing 40 wpm

Tools

Word processing

Spreadsheet

Email

Desktop publishing

Calendar

Database

Graphics

Job description

This position is located within the Nutrition and Food Services Department (N&FS) of the Fargo VA Health Care System. The person in this position serves as the Program Support Assistant to the Nutrition and Food Service Administrative Officer, providing a wide variety of administrative, clerical, and technical support.

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 09/14/2026.

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-06 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-05. 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: TYPING PROFICIENCY: This position requires the skills of a qualified typist. In addition to meeting the experience and/or education requirements, you must be able to type at least 40 words per minute.

For GS-6 level, you must possess the following: EXPERIENCE: One (1) full year of specialized experience that equipped you with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties the Program Support Assistant at the full performance level (GS-6), and that is typically in or related to the position to be filled. To be creditable, specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the next lower grade level (GS-5) in the Federal service.

Specialized experience is experience where you were responsible for providing administrative support; collecting, compiling and tracking data and information; processing documents and reports; establishing, updating and maintaining office files and records; performing automation duties using such software applications such as word processing, spreadsheet, electronic mail, desktop publishing, calendar, database and/or graphics; answering telephones, referring visitors, and providing information.

NOTE: Experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month and year start/end dates AND hours worked per week. 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.

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/.