Federal Position Descriptions
Print

Assistant Secretary for Policy and Planning

Assistant Secretary for Policy and Planning, Department of Veterans Affairs
Responsibility
Management Scope

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ budget for fiscal 2018 is over $185 billion. The Office of Policy and Planning has 200 direct employees and indirect oversight of about 20,000 employees across the secretarial initiatives throughout the department, The office has a budget of $100 million and oversight of $2 billion in secretarial initiatives. The assistant secretary manages the offices of Enterprise Integration, Corporate Analysis and Evaluation, Data Governance and Analysis, Policy, Interagency Collaboration and Integration, Operations and Performance Management.3

Primary Responsibilities

• Leads the department’s strategic future foresight and assessment
• Leads the collaboration with the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Health and Human Services, and other agencies
• Coordinates business strategy development
• Integrates mission requirements
• Conducts forward-thinking strategic planning to address long-range issues
• Ensures integration of business requirements and alignment of the planning and execution activities of the department’s programs and initiatives
• Leads and manages the department’s policy management process and provides policy analysis support to the secretary
• Is responsible for overall data management, data analysis and business intelligence strategies to inform VA-wide decision-making and respond to congressional queries for statistics on veterans4

Strategic Goals and Priorities
[Depends on the policy priorities of the administration.]
Requirements

• Advanced degree in public policy, public health or military strategy (ideal)
• More than 25 years of experience in strategy formulation and management, as well as prior assignments in senior federal service (a plus)
• Understanding of how the legislative process works and awareness of the legislative issues impacting the agency
• Closeness and alignment with the secretary
• Experience in health care, insurance or military industries (preferred)
• Familiarity with statistics and actuarial processes (a plus)

Competencies

• Strong communication and interpersonal skills
• Ability to coordinate among all areas of VA (essential to the strategic planning process)
• Excellent leadership skills
• Strong policy skills
• Ability to deal with short deadlines from Congress with detailed data accuracy
• Ability to handle sensitive matters
• Ability to work in a matrixed agency
• Willingness and ability to be part of a committed leadership team, since there is a great deal of interaction with the undersecretaries to coordinate the VA strategic plan and respond to data requests from Congress
• Strong track record in turnarounds and change management
• Willingness to meet with direct reports and the secretary, but also with those one to two levels down
• Willingness to spend time learning the history of the VA
• Strong relationships with the secretary and the White House so policy formulation and decision-making are integrated across VA, the Office of Management and Budget, the National Security Council and the Office of the President
• Ability to network within VA and with counterparts in DOD (a plus)

Past Appointments
  • Melissa Sue Glynn (2017 to Present): Managing Director, Alvarez and Marsal; Principal, PricewaterhouseCoopers; Co-Director of the Center for the Management of Information at the University of Arizona 5
  • Dr. Linda Schwartz (2014 to 2017) Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs; Associate Clinical Professor of Nursing at the Yale School of Nursing; caseworker in the Office of the Field Director of the American Red Cross at Rhein-Main Air Base6
  • Raul Perea-Henze, MD, MPH (2010 to 2013): Head of Global Medical and Regulatory Policy at Merck & Co.; Team Leader for Global Medical Affairs and Science Policy at Pfizer, Inc.; Assistant Secretary for Management and Budget, Department of Commerce7
  • Patrick W. Dunne (2006 to 2008): Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy; Special Assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations for Joint Chiefs of Staff Matters/Navy Planner; Congressional Liaison Officer for Submarine Programs, Department of the Navy8
AGENCY

Department of Veterans Affairs

Mission: To fulfill President Lincoln's promise “to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan” by serving and honoring the men and women who are America's veterans

COMPENSATION

Level IV $155,500 (5 U.S.C. § 5315)2

REPORTS TO

Secretary of Veterans Affairs

SENATE COMMITTEE

Veterans' Affairs

Appointee Tracker

Check out our Political Appointee Tracker

Go to the tracker
Footnote
  1. VA.gov
  2. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017 (Public Law 115-31, May 5, 2017), contains a provision that continues the freeze on the payable pay rates for certain senior political officials at 2013 levels during calendar year 2017.
  3. Leadership Directories
  4. VA.gov
  5. Whitehouse.gov
  6. VA.gov
  7. ObamaWhiteHouse.archives.gov
  8. VA.gov
More federal position descriptions