Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist

Position Overview

The Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist (VRS) position is located within the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (VR&E) program. Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist (VRS) carries out all duties related to assisting Veterans and Service members with completing their program of rehabilitation services.

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement: 09/21/2026.

TIME-IN-GRADE REQUIREMENT:
As a current Federal, GS employee you must 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 level. 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.

• Education:
  
  Undergraduate and Graduate
  
  Education:
  
  Major study -- vocational rehabilitation, vocational or educational counseling, or other fields related to the position.
• OR
  
  Experience:
  
  Specialized
  
  Experience:
  
  Examples of qualifying specialized experience include:

• Work that required obtaining and applying occupational information for people with disabilities, knowledge of the interrelationships of the involved professional and specialist services, and skill in employing the methodology and techniques of counseling to motivate and encourage individuals served by the program.
• Experience that demonstrated knowledge of the vocational rehabilitation problems characteristic of the disabled, including familiarity with available resources and skill in identifying, evaluating, and making effective use of such resources to serve individuals with disabilities; or of the disadvantaged, including knowledge of adjustment problems of the educationally or culturally disadvantaged, familiarity with available adult education and training resources, and ability to recognize problem areas needing special attention.
• Experience in vocational guidance or teaching in a recognized vocational rehabilitation program or school, developmental or supervisory work in programs of vocational rehabilitation or training programs for the disadvantaged, or personnel or employment placement work that provided extensive knowledge of the training and adjustment requirements necessary to place persons having disabilities or social adjustment problems.

In addition to the IOR applicants must possess specialized experience and/or education as described below.

GS-09 Grade Level: Specialized

Experience:

Applicants must have one (1) 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. Specialized experience is defined as knowledge or experience in rehabilitation, counseling, disability, therapy, health, employment, wellness or human development theory and principles; experience in career development process and career development theory.

Education Substitution:
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:
Major study - vocational rehabilitation, vocational or educational counseling, or other fields related to the position, or 2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or…