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Chief Financial Officer

Chief Financial Officer, Department of Veterans Affairs
Responsibility
Management Scope

The VA is the second-largest federal department and employs more than 340,000 individuals in a nationwide network of 144 medical centers, 1,203 community-based outpatient clinics, 300 vet centers and 56 regional offices. The VA also oversees a network of cemeteries, 131 of them national and 90 of them state or tribal. The VA administers its work through three major organizations: the Veterans Health Administration, the Veterans Benefits Administration and the National Cemetery Administration Services. The Department of Veterans Affairs’ budget for fiscal 2018 is over $185 billion.

Primary Responsibilities

• Is responsible for the overall budget and financial management of the department’s budget
• Oversees the department’s performance management, business oversight, asset enterprise management and corporate analysis, and evaluations programs4
• Develops and maintains integrated accounting and financial management systems
• Oversees the recruitment, selection and training of personnel to carry out agency financial management functions, and manages, trains and provides policy guidance and oversight of these personnel and their activities
• Implements agency asset-management systems, including systems for cash management, credit management, debt collection, and property and inventory management and control
• Manages the financial execution of the agency budget and actual expenditures
• Provides financial and performance reports to staff, overseers and stakeholders
• Ties the budget and performance to outcomes
• Takes the lead role in enterprise risk management

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

• Strong background in federal financial management
• Executive leadership experience
• Experience working in a large organization
• Risk-management experience
• Knowledge of the department’s functions and policies
• Familiarity with cyber technology (a plus)
• Background in data analytics (a plus)

Competencies

• Ability to collaborate with the chief information officers, under/assistant secretaries for administration/management, as well as other CFOs, and the Office of Management and Budget via the CFO Council
• Knowledge of and relationships with Congress, or ability to develop them

Past Appointments
  • Jon J. Rychalski (2017 – Present): Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Budgets and Financial Policy, Department of Defense; Director, PricewaterhouseCoopers; Consultant, BearingPoint; Executive Officer, United States Air Force 5
  • Edward J. Murray (2015 to 2017): Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Office of Management, Department of Veterans Affairs; Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Department of Veterans Affairs; Executive Director for Operations of Office of Management, Department of Veterans Affairs6
  • Helen Tierney (2013 to 2015): Executive in Charge in the Office of Management, Department of Veterans Affairs; Executive Director of Planning, Program Analysis and Evaluation for Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security; Army Senior Fellow, United States Army7
  • Todd Grams (2009 to 2013): Chief Financial Officer, Department of Commerce; Chief Information Officer, Internal Revenue Service; Chief Financial Officer, Veterans Health Administration8
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 veterans2

COMPENSATION

Level IV $155,500 (5 U.S.C. § 5315)3

REPORTS TO

Secretary and/or Deputy Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs

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Footnote
  1. https://www.congress.gov/nomination/113th-congress/1250?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22Helen+Tierney%22%5D%7D&r=2
  2. Previous Partnership for Public Service
  3. 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.
  4. http://www.va.gov/opa/bios/bio_murray.asp
  5. https://www.va.gov/opa/bios/bio_rychalski.asp
  6. http://www.va.gov/opa/bios/bio_murray.asp
  7. https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/10/04/president-obama-announces-more-key-administration-posts
  8. http://www.va.gov/opa/bios/docs/gram.pdf
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