Accountant

This Accountant position is with Immediate Office of the Assistant Secretary for Management (Department of Veterans Affairs) in Phoenix, AZ. This position is located in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), National Cemetery Administration (NCA), Office of Management (OM), Chief Financial Officer (CFO) organization, within the Financial Systems Oversight and Transformation Service (FSOTS). FSOTS is responsible for leading NCA's financial policy development, internal controls oversight, audit coordination, financial systems provisioning, and enterprise-wide financial data integrity. Key duties: • Major Duties: Conducts risk-based internal financial reviews and provides audit support for programs involving operations and maintenance, grants, leases, recycling, gift funds, and other financial activities. Evaluates accounting data, financial processes, and internal controls; identifies financial-reporting and compliance risks; and recommends corrective or preventive actions. Interprets and applies federal accounting standards, fiscal law, appropriation requirements, VA financial policy, the U.S. Standard General Ledger, and other financial-management guidance. Develops and updates accounting procedures, standard operating procedures, internal-control test plans, and methodologies for evaluating financial operations. Analyzes financial-system and data-integrity issues, including posting logic, attributes, crosswalks, reconciliations, GTAS validations, and financial-system provisioning controls. Prepares reports and briefings concerning financial risks, internal-control weaknesses, review findings, and corrective-action status for management and other stakeholders. Coordinates with auditors, financial-management officials, program offices, system owners, grantees, and other stakeholders to obtain information, resolve findings, and improve financial processes. Leads or participates in multidisciplinary financial reviews and evaluates supporting workpapers for sufficiency, accuracy, and compliance with applicable standards. Monitors assigned contracts and maintains required documentation when designated as a Contracting Officer's Representative. Maintains financial-review tracking tools, reports, shared resources, and supporting documentation used to monitor workload, corrective actions, and organizational performance. Promotion Potential: The selectee may be promoted to the full performance level without further competition when all regulatory, qualification, and performance requirements are met. Selection at a lower grade level does not guarantee promotion to the full performance level. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm Compressed/Flexible: Yes Telework: Yes, as determined by agency policy. Virtual: This is a virtual position. Selectee will work from a VA owned/leased space upon selection. Position Description/PD#: PD00468A and PD00469A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized PCS Appraised Value Offer (AVO): Not Authorized Physical Requirements: The work is primarily sedentary and requires regular use of a personal computer. Manual dexterity and visual acuity are necessary for data entry, document review, and system analysis. Duties require reading detailed and sometimes difficult printed or handwritten material for extended periods. Occasional standing, walking, or movement to meeting locations is required. No special physical demands are associated with this position. 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/. Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 09/25/2026. 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-13 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-12. For a GS-12 position you must have served 52 weeks at the 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. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to some former Federal employees applying for reinstatement, as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. See the Required Document section below for more information regarding the SF-50s needed to verify time-in-grade. Individual Occupational Requirements: This position includes an Individual Occupation Requirement. Individual Occupational Requirements are requirements e.g., experience or education, for particular occupational series or positions within a series and are used in conjunction with a group coverage (generic) standard. Applicants who do not meet the Individual Occupational Requirements are ineligible for further consideration. A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. 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 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: Twenty-four semester hours in accounting or auditing courses of appropriate type and quality. This can include up to 6 hours of business law; A certificate as Certified Public Accountant or a Certified Internal Auditor, obtained through written examination; OR 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. AND You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Specialized Experience: GS-12- You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-11 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to experience: applying professional accounting principles, standards, and practices to analyze accounting transactions and financial data; evaluating accounting processes, reconciliations, or internal controls; researching and interpreting federal financial-management policies and procedures; identifying discrepancies or weaknesses in financial records or systems; assisting with audits, internal reviews, or corrective-action activities GS-13- You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-12 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to experience: independently applying advanced professional accounting principles, federal accounting standards, fiscal law, and financial management policy to complex or unusual accounting matters; planning or leading risk-based internal financial reviews; evaluating internal controls and financial-system data across multiple programs or organizations; resolving complex accounting, reporting, reconciliation, or data-integrity issues; 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: Resume must include job title and employer name, number of hours worked per week, start and end dates (including month and year), list of duties and responsibilities for each position held. In addition, if the experience was a federal position, you must list series and grade for each position held. Failure to include this information may result in an ineligible rating. A full year of work is considered to be 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 http://://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/. The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal/VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be found well qualified, candidates will demonstrate experience: applying federal accounting principles and standards; evaluating internal controls and financial operations; conducting or supporting risk-based financial reviews and audits; interpreting fiscal law and financial-management policy; analyzing accounting- system or financial-data issues; communicating complex financial findings to management and other stakeholders. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/. View the full announcement and apply on USAJOBS.gov.