Purchasing Agent

Overview

This position serves as a Purchasing Agent for the Logistics Service within the VA Health Care System Aurora - Colorado, performing work to acquire supplies, services, and construction by purchase, rental, or lease through (a) delivery orders and/or (b) small purchase procedures.

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement — 10/27/2025. Time-In-Grade Requirements apply to current Federal employees who have held a GS grade within the past 52 weeks and must meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of the announcement. For a GS-6 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-5.

The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 showing 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 and does not demonstrate one-year time-in-grade, provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade.

Note:

Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. For this position at the GS-6 level, you must have at least one (1) full year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-5 level in the Federal service, including knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the duties of a Purchasing Agent.

Specialized experience includes:

• Clerical or assistant duties in support of purchasing and procurement
• Procuring supplies and services to meet purchase, rental, or lease needs
• Working with medical staff to determine procurement needs and priorities
• Resolving shipment, payment, or other discrepancies in support of procurement programs
• Purchasing equipment, supplies, and services through a purchase card
• Assembling and/or summarizing information from files and documents; creating reports using automated supply/inventory management systems and Microsoft Office (Word, Excel)

You will be rated on the following competencies:
Customer Service (Clerical/Technical), Decision Making, Manages and Organizes Information, Manages Resources, Reasoning (Clerical/Technical), Technical Competence. Experience includes paid and unpaid work, including volunteer service. A full year of work is typically 35-40 hours per week; part-time experience is credited proportionally. Applicants should clearly indicate duties and hours per week for each position.

Physical Requirements:

Requires some physical effort such as standing, sitting, walking, or bending. The work is performed in an office setting with normal safety precautions.

• 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 is responsible 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 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.
• 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 send formal correspondence to customers such as inventory management specialists,…