You will serve as a Safety Technician in the Quality Safety Values Division at VA Puget Sound Health Care System in Tacoma, Washington or Seattle, Washington.

Duties

You will perform routine safety inspections and surveys in medical facilities in support of the enforcement of occupational safety and health laws. You will review accident reports for such items as specific causes and the nature of injuries or damage to property to ensure proper coding. You will maintain files of accident reports and Government compensation cases. You will code each accident, using special codes to record the type, location, severity, cause and corrective action about the accident; and transfers the information to computer records. You will participate as member of a team led by a safety specialist to conduct a limited phases of a major inspection of medical facilities that include the use of machine guards, chemical storage areas, and related hazardous working conditions; and to draft reports of findings proposing corrective measures for specific unsafe conditions and hazardous work practices. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00 am - 4:30 pm Compressed/Flexible: Not Available. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Safety Technician/PD41275A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized. Financial Disclosure Report: Not required. Physical Demands: Survey or inspection work requires regular and recurrent physical exertion such as walking, standing, bending, climbing, crouching, reaching, and lifting of a variety of moderately weighted products fabricated by employees. Work Environment: The work environment involves frequent exposure during inspections and surveys to a variety of machine and equipment operations, hazardous materials, high noise levels, and temperature extremes. Protective clothing and equipment may be necessary in some situations.

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement, 08/17/2023. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-7 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-6. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your 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, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must 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. Individual Occupational Requirement: As a requirement, you must have experience that involved: (l) identifying, preventing, or eliminating safety hazards in work methods or environmental conditions; or (2) safety training or promotion. Such experience must have provided a practical knowledge of occupational and environmental safety hazards, survey techniques, and control and preventive methods. Examples of qualifying specialized experience include: biological technician, medical technician, engineering technician, fire prevention inspector, and environmental health worker.You must also qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-06 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Specialized Experience must demonstrate the following: conducting surveys and inspections to identify, prevent or eliminate unsafe practices, working conditions or environmental conditions to develop and recommend measures to correct the hazards encountered. Examples of qualifying specialized experience include biological technician, medical technician, engineering technician, fire prevention inspector, and environmental health worker. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have successfully completed one full year of graduate level education that is directly related to the work of the position which may include safety, fire prevention, industrial hygiene, or other directly related subjects. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond one full year of graduate level education that is directly related to the work of the position which may include safety, fire prevention, industrial hygiene, or other directly related subjects. Experience and education as described above that equates to one year of experience. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Risk ManagementSafety EngineeringSelf ManagementTechnical Competence Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

Education

A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on 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: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html.

Contacts

• Address VA Puget Sound Health Care System 1660 South Columbian Way Seattle, WA 98108 US
• Name: Gary Spence
• Phone: 206-277-5510
• Email: [email protected]