What are the responsibilities and job description for the Security Specialist position at Defense Health Agency?

Summary

About the Position : This position supports the Defense Health Agency (DHA) Administration Security division, and is located in Falls Church, VA.

A recruitment or relocation incentive MAY be authorized for highly qualified candidates.

Salary negotiation MAY be available for those candidates who are new to Federal service.

Credit for prior non-Federal work experience and certain military service for determining annual leave accrual rate MAY be authorized.

Student loan repayment MAY be authorized.

This job is open to

Federal employees - Competitive service

Current or former competitive service federal employees.

Federal employees - Excepted service

Current excepted service federal employees.

Career transition (CTAP, ICTAP, RPL)

Federal employees who meet the definition of a "surplus" or "displaced" employee.

Veterans

Individuals with disabilities

Military spouses

Special authorities

Individuals eligible under a special authority not listed above, but defined in the federal hiring regulations.

Family of overseas employees

Family members of a federal employee or uniformed service member who is or was, working overseas.

Land and base management

Certain current or former term or temporary federal employees of a land or base management agency.

Clarification from the agency

See "Who May Apply" in the "Qualification" section for more information on who is eligible to apply for this position.

Duties

Initiate initial and periodic Personnel Security Investigations (PSI).

Make initial security access level determinations.

Liaise with security organizations to ensure timely processing of investigations clearances and record checks are conducted on assigned personnel.

Manage the electronic application (eAPP) system to facilitate the processing of background investigation forms.

Provide administrator duties for the Secure Web Fingerprint Transmission (SWFT) System.

Coordinate all necessary interaction with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) regarding the electronic processing of security documents and case tracking, and monitor and resolve OPM billing issues.

Function as Program Manager and Administrator for the Defense Information Security System (DISS) and the Office of Personnel Management Information System (OPMIS) portal.

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

Appointment may be subject to a suitability or fitness determination, as determined by a completed background investigation.

This position requires the incumbent be able to obtain and maintain a determination of eligibility for a Secret security clearance or access for the duration of employment. A background investigation and credit check are required.

This position has been identified for the Security Professional Education Development (SPeD) Certification Program. Incumbent must obtain the below SPeD Certifications within their first two years of employment :

Core SPeD Certifications required : Security Fundamentals Professional Certification (SFPC) and the DoD Personnel Security Adjudications and DISS / JCAVS Training for Security Professional courses within first two years of employment.

Qualifications

Who May Apply : Only applicants who meet one of the employment authority categories below are eligible to apply for this job. You will be asked to identify which category or categories you meet, and to provide documents which prove you meet the category or categories you selected.

30 Percent or More Disabled Veterans

Current Civilian Employees of the Defense Health Agency (DHA)

Current Permanent Department of Defense (DoD) Civilian Employee

Defense Civilian Intelligence Personnel System (DCIPS) Interchange Agreement

Domestic Defense Industrial Base / Major Range and Test Facilities Base Civilian Personnel Workforce

Executive Order (E.O.) 12721

Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan

Land Management Workforce Flexibility Act

Military Spouses, under Executive Order (E.O.) 13473

Non-Appropriated Fund Instrumentality (NAFI)

Non-Department of Defense (DoD) Transfer

Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Interchange Agreement Eligible

People with Disabilities, Schedule A

Priority Placement Program, DoD Military Reserve (MR) and National Guard (NG) Technician Eligible

Priority Placement Program, DoD Military Spouse Preference (MSP) Eligible

Priority Placement Program, DoD MR and NG Preference Eligible Tech Receiving Disability Retirement

Priority Placement Program, DoD Retained Grade Preference Eligible

Reinstatement

Veterans Employment Opportunity Act (VEOA) of 1998

In order to qualify, you must meet the education and / or experience requirements described below. 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; religious; spiritual; community; student; social). You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Your resume must clearly describe your relevant experience; if qualifying based on education, your transcripts will be required as part of your application. Additional information about transcripts is in this document.

Specialized Experience : One year of specialized experience which includes processing suitability and / or security eligibility determinations; coordinating security clearance requests with Security Officers; and verifying all incoming documentation such as security forms, fingerprint cards, and supporting documentation to detect omissions in information and errors in execution. This definition of specialized experience is typical of work performed at the second lower grade / level position in the federal service (GS-09).

Education : Ph.D or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M. in a field which demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of the position, such as : Safety and Security Management; National Security; Intelligence and Security Studies; Criminal Justice; Law Enforcement.

Combination of Education and Experience : A combination of education and experience may be used to qualify for this position as long as the computed percentage of the requirements is at least 100%. To compute the percentage of the requirements, divide your total months of experience by 12. Then divide the total number of completed graduate semester hours (or equivalent) beyond the second year (total graduate semester hours minus 36) by 18. Add the two percentages.

You will be evaluated on the basis of your level of competency in the following areas :

Partnering

Personnel Security

Security Tools and Methods

Time in Grade Requirement : Applicants who have held a non-temporary General Schedule (GS) position within the last 52 weeks must have 52 weeks of Federal service at the next lower grade or equivalent (GS-09).

Education

FOREIGN EDUCATION : If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet the qualification requirements, you must show the education credentials have been evaluated by a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign education programs and such education has been deemed equivalent to that gained in an accredited U.S. education program; or full credit has been given for the courses at a U.S. accredited college or university. For further information, visit : https : / / sites.ed.gov / international / recognition-of-foreign-qualifications.

Additional information

Male applicants born after December 31, 1959 must complete a Pre-Employment Certification Statement for Selective Service Registration.

You will be required to provide proof of U.S. Citizenship.

One year trial / probationary period may be required.

Direct Deposit of Pay is required.

Selection is subject to restrictions resulting from Department of Defense referral system for displaced employees.

Multiple positions may be filled from this announcement.

Salary includes applicable locality pay or Local Market Supplement.

When you perform a Civilian Permanent Change of Station (PCS) with the government, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) considers the majority of your entitlements to be taxable. Visit https : / / www.dfas.mil / civilianemployees / civrelo / Civilian-Moving-Expenses-Tax-Deduction / for more information.

If you have retired from federal service and you are interested in employment as a reemployed annuitant, see the information in the Reemployed Annuitant information sheet.

Permanent Change of Station (PCS) allowances MAY be authorized, subject to the provisions of the Joint Travel Regulations and an agency determination that a PCS move is in the Government Interest.

Benefits

Review our benefits

How You Will Be Evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

Once the announcement has closed, a review of your application package (resume, supporting documents, and responses to the questionnaire) will be used to determine whether you meet the qualification requirements listed on this announcement. If you are minimally qualified, your resume and supporting documentation will be compared against your responses to the assessment questionnaire to determine your level of experience. If, after reviewing your resume and / or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications and / or experience, you may lose consideration for this position. Please follow all instructions carefully when applying, errors or omissions may affect your eligibility.

You should list any relevant performance appraisals and incentive awards in your resume as that information may be taken into consideration during the selection process. If selected, you may be required to provide supporting documentation.

You may claim Military Spouse preference.

You may claim Priority Placement Program (PPP) preference.

Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program (ICTAP). If you are a Federal employee in the competitive service and your agency has notified you in writing that you are a displaced employee eligible for ICTAP consideration, you may receive selection priority for this position. To receive selection priority, you must : (1) meet ICTAP eligibility criteria (2) be rated well-qualified for the position and; (3) submit the appropriate documentation to support your ICTAP eligibility. To be considered well-qualified and receive selection priority applicants must satisfy all qualification requirements for the position and receive a score of 90 or above. Additional information about the program is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website.

Benefits

Review our benefits

Required Documents

As a new or existing federal employee, you and your family may have access to a range of benefits. Your benefits depend on the type of position you have - whether you're a permanent, part-time, temporary or an intermittent employee. You may be eligible for the following benefits, however, check with your agency to make sure you're eligible under their policies.

The documents you are required to submit vary based on the authority you are using to apply (i.e., applying as a veteran, applying as a current permanent Federal employee, applying as a reinstatement, etc). Please review the following links to see which documents you need to provide to prove your eligibility to apply : Applicant Checklist for Internal / MP Announcements (DoD)

As described above, your complete application includes your resume, your responses to the online questionnaire, and documents which prove your eligibility to apply. If you fail to provide these documents, you will be marked as having an incomplete application package and you will not be considered any further.

1. Your resume :

Your resume may be submitted in any format and must support the specialized experience described in this announcement.

If your resume includes a photograph or other inappropriate material or content, it will not be used to make eligibility and qualification determinations and you may not be considered for this vacancy.

For qualifications determinations your resume must contain hours worked per week and the dates of employment (i.e., HRS per week and month / year to month / year or month / year to present). If your resume does not contain this information, your application may be marked as incomplete and you may not receive consideration for this position.

For additional information see : What to include in your resume.

2. Other supporting documents :

Cover Letter, optional

Most recent Performance Appraisal, if applicable

Proof of Eligibility to Apply : Your application must include the documents which prove you are eligible to apply for the vacancy. The Proof of Eligibility document describes authorities commonly used in merit promotion recruitment and what document(s) are required to prove you meet the requirements of the authority. You must meet the requirements of at least one of the authorities listed in the Who May Apply section above to receive further consideration.

Time-in-grade documentation : If you are applying for a higher grade and your SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you meet the one year time-in-grade requirement so you will need to provide an SF-50 which clearly demonstrates you meet the time-in-grade requirements (examples of appropriate SF-50s include Promotions, Within-grade Grade / Range Increases, and SF-50s with an effective date more than one year old).

This position has an individual occupational requirement and / or allows for substitution of education for experience. If you meet this requirement based on education you MUST submit a copy of your transcript with your application package or you will be rated ineligible. See : Transcripts and Licenses

NOTE : Documents submitted as part of the application package, to include supplemental documents, may be shared beyond the Human Resources Office. Some supplemental documents such as military orders and marriage certificates may contain personal information for someone other than you. You may sanitize these documents to remove another person's personal information before you submit your application. You may be asked to provide an un-sanitized version of the documents if you are selected to confirm your eligibility.

If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements :

Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and / or degrees from

schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.

How to Apply

To apply for this position, you must complete the online questionnaire and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section below.

The complete application package must be submitted by 11 : 59 PM (EST) on 02 / 10 / 2025to receive consideration.

To begin, click Apply to access the online application. You will need to be logged into your USAJOBS account to apply. If you do not have a USAJOBS account, you will need to create one before beginning the application (https : / / apply.usastaffing.gov / ViewQuestionnaire / 12683270).

Follow the prompts to select your resume and / or other supporting documents to be included with your application package. You will have the opportunity to upload additional documents to include in your application before it is submitted. Your uploaded documents may take several hours to clear the virus scan process.

After acknowledging you have reviewed your application package, complete the Include Personal Information section as you deem appropriate and click to continue with the application process .

You will be taken to the online application which you must complete in order to apply for the position. Complete the online application, verify the required documentation is included with your application package, and submit the application. You must re-select your resume and / or other documents from your USAJOBS account or your application will be incomplete.

It is your responsibility to verify that your application package (resume, supporting documents, and responses to the questionnaire) is complete, accurate, and submitted by the closing date. Uploaded documents may take up to one hour to clear the virus scan.

Additional information on how to complete the online application process and submit your online application may be found on the USA Staffing Applicant Resource Center.

To verify the status of your application, log into your USAJOBS account (https : / / my.usajobs.gov / Account / Login), all of your applications will appear on the Welcome screen. The Application Status will appear along with the date your application was last updated. For information on what each Application Status means, visit : https : / / www.usajobs.gov / Help / how-to / application / status / .

Agency contact information

Army Applicant Help Desk

Website

https : / / portal.chra.army.mil / hr_public?id=app_inq

Address

KF-DHA-DDAAFC DEFENSE HEALTH AGENCY HQ

DO NOT MAIL

Falls Church, VA 22042

Next steps

If you provided an email address, you will receive an email message acknowledging receipt of your application. Your application package will be used to determine your eligibility, qualifications, and quality ranking for this position. If you are determined to be ineligible or not qualified, your application will receive no further consideration.

Fair and Transparent

The Federal hiring process is set up to be fair and transparent. Please read the following guidance.

Criminal history inquiries

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Policy

Financial suitability

New employee probationary period

Privacy Act

Reasonable accommodation policy

Selective Service

Signature and false statements

Social security number request

Required Documents