Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 02/27/2026. 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 by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-09 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-07. 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-07 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: focuses on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Privacy Act (PA), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), and 38 U.S.C. statutes that govern the collection, maintenance, and release of information from VA records; processes complaints, investigate allegations, complaints, incidents, and data breaches and recommend appropriate remediation; processes complaints and investigates allegations of illegal or improper activities related to the handling or release of privacy protected information; participate and develop facility specific, privacy/FOIA training materials and provide training to staff and uses computer applications for word processing, manipulating documents in Portable Document Format (PDF) and database/spreadsheet creation to provide reports, charts, and formulas in Excel. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have a master's or equivalent graduate degree or 2 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.B. or J.D., where it is directly related to the work of a Government Information Specialist. 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 a graduate degree. 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/.