Staff Accountant

US-Department-of-Veterans-Affair; Lexington (KY); On-site; USD 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

US Department of Veterans Affairs in Lexington, KY seeks a GS-11 Accountant to apply professional accounting theories to budgeting and financial systems. The role requires familiarity with fund accounts, financial statements, and automated systems, including leading accounting closeouts.

Applicants must meet time-in-grade requirements and possess specialized experience and education per federal standards. Work is primarily sedentary with periodic travel to meetings and conferences.

Qualifications

• Applying professional accounting theories, concepts, practices, principles, methods and techniques to programming, budgeting and financial systems.
• Utilizing analytical tools and research techniques to solve accounting issues and provide improvements.
• Knowledge and experience maintaining fund accounts; preparing financial statements and reports; monitoring, analyzing,
• Reconciling accounting reports, ledgers, and data using financial management and automated accounting systems.
• Providing training on queries to standard systems and the use of individual applications.
• Project management and delegating assignments to accounting staff.
• Collaborating with systems personnel on automated systems design for data processing and coordinating accounting closeouts.

Skills

Accounting theories

Analytical tools

Fund accounts

Financial statements

Financial systems

Training on queries

Project management

System design collaboration

Education

Graduate education leading to PhD

24 semester hours in accounting/auditing

Job description

The Accountant is responsible for the detailed and efficient operation and control of day-to-day fiscal activities at this facility. The incumbent must be experienced in applying professional concepts and methodologies as well as knowledgeable in functional program characteristics and requirements. To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 09/21/2026.

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-9.

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.

Applicants must submit documentation verifying that they meet time-in-grade requirements in accordance with federal regulations. Human Resources will not review or access official personnel records to determine eligibility if supporting documentation is not provided. Failure to submit required documentation will result in an ineligible rating.

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.

Occupational Requirements

The Accountant (Staff) series has Individual Occupational Requirements that must be met. Failure to document these Individual Occupational Requirements on your resume will result in non-referral to the hiring manager.

Basic Requirements

Individual Occupational Requirements: This occupation also has Individual Occupational Requirements. The education must be accredited by an accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education at the time the degree was obtained. To qualify for the GS 0510 occupational series, applicants MUST have one of the following:

Degree: accounting; or a degree in a related field such as business administration, finance, or public administration that included or was supplemented by 24 semester hours in accounting. The 24 hours may include up to 6 hours of credit in business law. (The term "accounting" means "accounting and/or auditing" in this standard. Similarly, "accountant" should be interpreted, generally, as "accountant and/or auditor").

OR Applicants may substitute education for the experience required for the GS-level.

OR Combination of education and experience: at least 4 years of experience in accounting, or an equivalent combination of accounting experience, college-level education, and training that provided professional accounting knowledge. The applicant's background must also include one of the following:

1. Twenty-four semester hours in accounting or auditing courses of appropriate type and quality. This can include up to 6 hours of business law;
2. A certificate as Certified Public Accountant or a Certified Internal Auditor, obtained through written examination; or
3. Completion of the requirements for a degree that included substantial course work in accounting or auditing, e.g., 15 semester hours, but that does not fully satisfy the 24-semester-hour requirement of paragraph A, provided that (a) the applicant has successfully worked at the full-performance level in accounting, auditing, or a related field, e.g., valuation engineering or financial institution examining; (b) a panel of at least two higher level professional accountants or auditors has determined that the applicant has demonstrated a good knowledge of accounting and of related and underlying fields that equals in breadth, depth, currency, and level of advancement that which is normally associated with successful completion of the 4-year course of study described in paragraph A; and (c) except for literal nonconformance to the requirement of 24 semester hours in accounting, the applicant's education, training, and experience fully meet the specified requirements.

You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below:

Specialized Experience

• . Applying professional accounting theories, concepts, practices, principles, methods and techniques to programming, budgeting and financial systems;
• . Utilizing analytical tools and research techniques to solve accounting issues and providing recommendations for improvement;
• . Knowledge and experience maintaining fund accounts; preparing financial statements and reports; monitoring, analyzing,
• . Reconciling a variety of accounting reports, ledgers, and data utilizing financial management and automated accounting systems;
• . Providing training on queries to standard systems and the use of individual applications;
• . Project management and delegating assignments to accounting staff;
• . Collaborating with systems personnel on designing automated systems to facilitate the processing of data; planning and coordinating accounting closeouts or reorganization events.

Education

Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have 3 years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a Ph. D degree or Ph. D or equivalent doctoral degree.

Combination

Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education to qualify at the GS-11 level.

Basis for Selection

Selections for positions will be based on the objective evaluation of the candidates' total qualifications for the position. "Qualifications" means the combination of experience, training, education, skills, knowledge, abilities, personal characteristics, and merit factors deemed to be pertinent to successful performance.

Physical Demands

Work is mostly sedentary but requires considerable typing. walking. speaking on the phone with individuals and in group settings, and working at a computer. Some light lifting, bending and stooping may be required to maintain office files. Work may also require walking and standing in conjunction with travel to and from meetings and conferences away from the worksite.

Work Environment

Work is performed in a professional office setting although itis required that the employee leave the area ro attend meetings and gather documents and information needed in the daily operations of the facility.

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/