Staff Assistant

Veterans Benefits Administration; Columbia (SC); On-site; USD 52,000 - 76,000; Full time

Job summary

Veterans Benefits Administration in Columbia, SC seeks a Staff Assistant to support the Director's Office in the Columbia Regional Office. The role covers a broad range of administrative tasks integral to VBA programs and internal controls.

The position requires meeting qualification standards by the closing date and may involve time-in-grade considerations for current federal employees. Specialized experience or educational substitutions apply for GS-09, with transcripts required if education

Qualifications

• GS-09 level requires one year of specialized experience equivalent to GS-07.
• Specialized experience for GS-09 includes completing projects using automated data processing and information management programs and recommending changes in administrative policies/procedures.
• Education substitution allowed: master's degree or equivalent graduate education; or combination as described.
• Transcript required if basing qualifications on education.
• Volunteer work credit for qualifying experience.
• Full-time employment is at least 35 hours per week.
• Physical requirements: sedentary work; see OPM standards.

Job description

This position serves as a Staff Assistant in the Director's Office of the Columbia Regional Office, Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA). The position provides a wide variety of administrative tasks associated with the administration of VBA's various business line programs of benefits and services as well as the Regional Office responsibilities for internal controls and program administration.

To qualify for this position

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement:08/27/2026. 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. For a GS-09 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-07. If you are a current VBA employee requesting a reassignment or change to lower grade via this vacancy announcement, you must currently hold the GS- 11 (or higher) and the promotion potential of your current position must be at least GS-11. 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.

Specialized Experience

To qualify for the Staff Assistant position, applicants must meet either the specialized experience and/or educational requirements below (Note: Requires transcripts if basing all or part of qualifications on education). GS-09 Level: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-07 grade level. In addition to the experience required at the GS-7 grade level, Specialized experience for the GS-9 is defined as completing projects using automated data processing and information management programs and recommending changes in administrative policies/procedures to facilitate the flow of paperwork. OR Education substitution of a master's or equivalent graduate degree of 2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.B or J.D., if related (transcripts required); OR Combination of specialized experience as described in "1" and GRADUATE education as described in "2" which totals at least one year. [To compute, divide your total months of qualifying experience by 12. Then divide your semester hours of graduate education by 18. Add the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100% to qualify.] A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education.

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; 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.

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; when including part-time employment in your resume you must specify the average hours worked per week.

Physical Requirements

Work is primarily sedentary, although some slight physical effort may be required. 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/.