Summary The Chief, Nutrition and Food Services is the director of the department and is responsible for the provision of high-quality food production, service, and effective nutrition therapy to the Veteran population served at the level 1C tertiary care medical center. The Chief supports the hospital mission and coordinates departmental activities with other services in the medical center, ambulatory clinics, and the local community. Responsibilities Management/Administrative: Establishes organizational structure and guidelines, performance standards, reporting requirements, and defines the lines of authority and supervisory controls.. Provides leadership and guidance. Oversees the coordination of policy and procedure. Assures that all policies and procedures are in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. Assures the menu planning, subsistence purchases, production, and delivery of safe, high-quality, nutritionally adequate meals. Facilitates the development of service priorities which address the goals and objectives of the medical center, healthcare system, and VISN. Directs the technical, professional, and administrative functions of the service through the Assistant Chief. Resource Management: Develops and administers a human resources management program for all employees that maximize staff performance, job satisfaction, and supports labor-management cooperation. Develops goals that promote and support food service, clinical nutrition care, and manpower. Develops and administers a budget management program that provides for the utilization of available financial resources, monetary controls, and budget estimates. Evaluates opportunities to reduce operating costs without jeopardizing nutritional care. Provides leadership and oversight to ensure effective management of purchase cards while also ensuring separation of duties. Is an alternate approving official and complies with all the acquisition regulations. Helps ensure that cardholders adhere to procurement requirements. Certifies reconciled payment charges in the Integrated Fund Distribution, Control Point Activity, Accounting and Procurement. Quality Improvement: Develops a performance program to monitor functions of Nutrition and Food Services (N&FS) for quality and nutritional care. Assures that the performance improvement program is in compliance with applicable standards. Modifies the nutrition care program to accommodate changes with administration, science, education, and research. Assures nutrition activities are coordinated with other initiatives VA wide to provide for a quality nutrition care program. Education/Staff Development: Assures that available funding for staff education is utilized for the benefit of the medical center and development of N&FS staff. Recommends training to improve efficiency of work force and increase manpower utilization. Directs the training for other disciplines and trainees so, they can perform patient care. Serves as a mentor for Nutrition and Food Services and medical center staff to promote growth and development. Assures that staff is competent to perform their assigned duties and that they remain abreast of advanced technologies and changes in nutrition therapy. Approves in-service training schedule to assist Nutrition and Food Services' supervisory personnel to meet the needs of all employees. Coordinates and monitors the education and training program in the Service for all levels of employees. Establishes new educational affiliations and maintains program oversight for any intern, extern, student, or volunteer. Research: Facilitates participation in nutrition studies/research projects. Coordinates formal clinical nutrition-related research and studies. Assures that information/nutritional advancements are used in daily practices. Security: Protects sensitive data from release or loss, alteration, or unauthorized deletion. Informs and enforces ADP security guidelines and follows regulations. Develops procedures and provides support to the AIS program by complying with Federal and VHA regulations. Support: Provides input for the medical center plan and assists in the development and implementation of a policy. Maintains effective communication with staff to identify and assist in the resolution of a wide variety of programs. Participates as a member on committees, special projects, and activities. Participates in the planning of new construction and modernization projects that impact nutritional care. Serves as a consultant to the executive leadership and VISN. Collaborates with other officials to negotiate and/or make decisions on N&FS. Collaborates with VHAs both within and outside the VISN to develop policy, programs, and projects. Advises other services, programs, and top management officials on agency guidelines that impact N&FS. Clinical: Demonstrates ability to perform all duties of subordinate clinical dietitians. Ensures patients are scheduled in accordance with the VHA scheduling directive. Ensures clinical workload is closed out timely to ensure maximum reimbursement for the medical center. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 7:30 am to 4:30 pm Telework: Not Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: PD000000 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required Requirements Conditions of Employment You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job. Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959. Must be proficient in written and spoken English. You may be required to serve a probationary period. Subject to background/security investigation. Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP). Participation in the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination program is a requirement for all Veterans Health Administration Health Care Personnel (HCP) - See "Additional Information" below for details. Qualifications Basic Requirements: United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy. Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) or Registered Dietitian (RD) - Must be registered with the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR) the credentialing branch of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics formerly known as the American Dietetic Association (ADA). Current VHA Dietitians that qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision may not be promoted to a higher grade if they do not meet the current RDN/RD requirements. Grade Determinations: Supervisory Dietitian (Chief, Nutrition and Food Services), GS-14. (1) Experience. One year of experience equivalent to the next lower grade level. (2) Knowledge, Skills and Abilities. In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate the following KSAs: (a) Knowledge of security measures within food operations to ensure patient and staff safety. (b) Knowledge of organizational structure to assess impact on program operations. (c) Skill in ensuring regulatory requirements are met. (d) Skill in leading a diverse group of professionals to facilitate collaboration and organizational development. (e) Skill in leading managers to establish strategic goals. (f) Ability to oversee the planning of new initiatives addressing patient care delivery systems and system reorganizations. (g) Ability to lead efforts in business administration to include budgeting, contracting and purchasing. (3) Assignment. For all supervisory assignments above the full performance level, the higher-level duties must consist of significant scope, complexity, difficulty, variety and be performed by the incumbent as a major duty at least 25% of the time. The incumbent must spend 25% or more of their time providing administrative and technical supervision over administrative staff who support NFS operations and both a GS-13 Supervisory Dietitian (Food Operations) and GS-13 Supervisory Dietitian (Clinical Nutrition). Supervisory Dietitians in this assignment serve as Chief NFS for a complex NFS department. Chief NFS provides leadership and guidance, with wide latitude for the exercise of independent judgment, to ensure the diverse activities of the department are closely coordinated, integrating clinical nutrition and food operations. They exercise a full range of supervisory and personnel management authorities with responsibilities in planning, directing and assessing the work of supervisors and subordinate staff. Chief NFS establishes performance standards and evaluates overall performance of employees, defines competency requirements, identifies developmental and training needs and takes necessary actions to ensure subordinate personnel maintains and enhance technical and leadership expertise. They serve as the technical advisor and subject matter experts in nutrition and food operations. Chief NFS develops budget and staffing requirements to manage organizational changes and ensure national directives and goals/objectives are met. They communicate and advocate with executive leadership for resources. Chief NFS develop the NFS strategic plan establishing service priorities that address the goals and strategic direction of the medical center, VISN and national programs. They are responsible for accomplishing priorities and ensuring compliance with VHA directives and medical center policy and procedures. They oversee planning of endeavours addressing patient care delivery systems and system reorganizations for new or redesigned operational space, equipment requirements, etc. Chief NFS ensures adherence to the National Dietary Supplement and Subsistence Prime Vendor contracts. They designate the Contracting Officer Representative to negotiate purchase agreements for NFS contracts. Chief NFS actively supports, promotes and oversees the implementation of NFS initiatives at the facility level and engages other service chiefs as needed to ensure success. They participate in VISN and National level NFS initiatives and are responsible for all action items for NFS. Chief NFS evaluates overall NFS effectiveness through the review of operations, quality assurance, performance improvement and benchmarks, making decisions based on intricate and unrelated items of information from inconclusive or variable data. They facilitate and support NFS participation in performance improvement studies, ensuring the dissemination of nutrition-related research and quality improvement within the department and facility. Chief NFS leads efforts to provide food-forward, Veteran-centric dining options. They implement security measures in all NFS areas to protect against theft, reduce the risk of food terrorism and maintain Veteran and staff safety. Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/. Physical Requirements: See VA Directive and Handbook 5019, Employee Occupational Health Service for requirements. Education Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/. ACEND accredited programs are located on the ACEND website or at ACEND Accredited Programs Directory. Additional Information Receiving Service Credit or Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior work experience or military service experience. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed. During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions. This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. This position is in the Excepted Service and does not confer competitive status. VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply. The health-related positions in VA are covered by Title 38, and are not covered by the Schedule A excepted appointment authority. Pursuant to VHA Directive 1193.01, VHA health care personnel (HCP) are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 subject to such accommodations as required by law (i.e., medical, religious or pregnancy). VHA HCPs do not include remote workers who only infrequently enter VHA locations. If selected, you will be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and submit documentation of proof of vaccination before your start date. The agency will provide additional information regarding what information or documentation will be needed and how you can request a legally required accommodation from this requirement using the reasonable accommodation process. If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement. Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer. For more information about the Act and the complaint process, visit Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP) at The Fair Chance Act.