Purchasing Agent

Summary

These Purchasing Agent positions are in Supply Chain Management Service at the VA Boston Healthcare System located in Brockton and Jamaica Plain Massachusetts campuses. These positions are full time at 40 hours per week.

Duties

This is an OPEN CONTINUOUS ANNOUNCEMENT and will remain open until April 1, 2024. The initial cut-off date for referral of eligible applications will be February 23, 2024. After this date, qualified applicants will be considered and referred as vacancies become available. Eligible applications received after the initial cut-off date will be referred as additional vacancies occur on an as-needed basis until positions are filled.

This position serves as a Purchasing Agent for the Supply Chain Management Service within the VA Health Care System performing work to acquire supplies, services, and construction by purchase, rental, or lease through (a) delivery orders and/or (b) small purchase procedures. This position utilizes knowledge of policies and procedures for delivery orders and small purchases and knowledge of commercial supply sources and common business practices related to sales, prices, discounts, units of measurement, deliveries, stocks, and shipments. The Purchasing Agent maintains responsibility for work leading to the purchase of a wide variety of complex and highly specialized services, supplies, equipment, and systems that support the full range of programs and activities.

Major duties and responsibilities include:

• Purchasing Support - Conducts purchasing under the micro purchase threshold; reviews and edits purchase requests; resolves issues to ensure requests and bills are processed accurately and in a timely manner; identifies needs or problems and determines corrective action; utilizes federal and agency acquisition regulations to identify possible sources and other pertinent information related to purchases; tracks obligations/commitments and monitors expenditures to support recurring budget forecasts and identify potential fraud, waste and abuse based on procurement history and purchase trends; and,
• Procurement Support - Procures supplies and services to meet the purchase, rental, or lease needs of the organization; develops unique selection criteria for each purchase; Prepare and issue contract modifications for changes in delivery schedule and sends formal correspondence to a variety of customers such as inventory management specialists, other service line contacts, and contracting officers as appropriate for the purposes of auditing documents, processing receiving reports, and payments.; conducting open market research and sole source small purchases for highly specialized medical items with critical product requirements; and,
• Administrative Support - Serves as the first line of contact for medical staff and customers in regard to procured items; develops reports and spreadsheets, obtains, organizes, files and retrieves reports for briefing and presentation purposes; performs a variety of receptionist, timekeeping, record keeping and miscellaneous duties in medical facility.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Work Schedule: 7:00am-3:30pm Monday - Friday

Compressed/Flexible: May be authorized at supervisor discretion.

Telework: Not authorized

Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Position Description/PD#:Purchasing Agent /PD99896-S

Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized

Financial Disclosure Report: Not required
Notifications:

• These positions are in the Competitive Service.
• Interchange Agreements with Other Merit System: Employees who occupy medical or medical-related positions and were appointed under 38 U.S.C or (3) [formerly 38 U.S.C and (3)] must be serving in a full-time position without time limit and have served continuously for at least one year in this other merit system to be eligible to convert to the Title 5 System. Some exceptions to this rule may apply if you have previously acquired tenure under a Title 5 appointment.
• Current Federal employees must submit copies of their most recent SF-50, (Notice of Personnel Action). The SF-50 must identify the position title, series, grade, step, tenure and type of service (Competitive or Excepted). In some cases, more than one SF-50 may be required to show a higher grade previously held.
• These positions are NAGE Bargaining Unit.
• These positions are covered by locality-based comparability pay.
• Incomplete applications will not be considered.

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