The Safety and Occupational Health Manager is organizationally aligned under the Office of the Associate Director, Safety Section of the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, Chicago, IL This position provides services to a variety of customers and plans, directs, coordinates, and evaluates agency programs. providing services to a variety of customers and plans, directs, coordinates, and evaluates agency programs. ** Relocation/Recruitment Incentive maybe authorized for a highly qualified candidate**

Duties

The Safety and Occupational Health Manager manages programs require the application of sfety unusual or complex criteria to eliminate or control serious hazards encountered in the construction, operation, and maintenance of a wide variety of facilities including inpatient wards, clinics, and laboratories. Duties include: Responsible for administration of a comprehensive Medical Center Environment of Care (EOC) program that includes occupational safety, health and emergency management. Supports programs and activities that are cost-effective and meet or exceed compliance with applicable Federal, State and local environmental, public health, and resource protection laws, regulations, and VA requirements. Plans, directs, coordinates, and evaluates agency programs. Manages programs requiring the application of unusual or complex criteria to eliminate or control serious hazards encountered in the construction, operation, and maintenance of a variety of facilities including inpatient wards, clinics, and laboratories. Prepares policy memoranda for safety, occupational health, and emergency management for the hospital. Conducts periodic program evaluations and performance of the safety, occupational health, and emergency management program and prepares reports of evaluations for management review. Consults with supervisors and employee representatives concerning the nature and purpose of inspections and the procedure that will be followed on first site inspections. Conducts walk-through of worksite, noting which operations could constitute potential health problems. Attached personal sampling instruments to several employees, keeps employees under observation, and takes notes on operations when hazards are suspected. Arranges for shipment of samples to laboratory for analysis and performs limited analysis in-house. Prepares reports of inspection findings, including supporting documents, and recommends measures to alleviate hazardous conditions. Provides extensive technical advice to the personnel on a wide range of occupational health issues. Designs, prepares, and conducts employee training as required. Follows-up to ensure that required abatement measures are completed. Maintains reference library of applicable codes, standards, regulations, and guides for use of safety staff and other hospital management. Inspects hospital buildings, grounds, operations of physical plant facilities, and motor vehicle operations. Investigates accidents (including fires) involving personnel and/or significant damage to machinery, tools, materials, or equipment, analyzes investigation findings, prepares reports, and recommends measures to eliminate similar accidents. Reviews drawings and specifications for construction and/or renovation to determine compliance with standards and regulations. Work Schedule: Full-Time; Monday - Friday 8:00am to 4:30pm; First Shift. Compressed/Flexible: Available Telework: VA supports the use of telework as a way to help attract and retain talented individuals in public service, increase worker productivity, and better prepare the agency to operate during emergencies. This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. Ad-hoc available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Safety & Occupational Health Manager/PD23474-O Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Maybe Authorized for a highly qualified candidate. Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 08/18/2023. 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-13 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-12. 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. You may qualify based on your experience as described below: Basic Requirement - Individual Occupational Requirements: Education: Undergraduate or Graduate education with a major in safety or occupational health fields (safety, occupational health, industrial hygiene), or degree in other related fields that included or was supplemented by at least 24 semester hours of study from among the following (or closely related) disciplines: safety, occupational health, industrial hygiene, occupational medicine, toxicology, public health, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biological sciences, engineering, and industrial psychology. --OR- Specialized Experience (for positions above GS-5): Experience in or related to safety and occupational health that provided the specific knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. Examples of qualifying specialized experience include: Managing safety or occupational health program elements; developing and recommending safety and occupational health policy to higher levels of management; applying safety and occupational health laws, regulations, principles, theories, practices and procedures to advise on or resolve technical matters dealing with occupational safety and health requirements; developing safety and occupational health standards, regulations, practices, and procedures to eliminate or control potential hazards; developing or implementing programs to reduce the frequency, severity, and cost of accidents and occupational illnesses; analyzing or evaluating new and existing jobs, processes, products, or other systems to determine the existence, severity, probability, and outcome of hazards; designing or modifying workplaces, processes, products, or other systems to control or eliminate hazards; inspecting or surveying workplaces, processes, products, or other systems for compliance with established safety and occupational health policies or standards and to identify potential new hazards; training of workers, supervisors, managers, or other safety and occupational health personnel in safety or occupational health subjects; and work in occupational fields such as industrial hygienist, safety engineer, fire prevention engineer, health physicist, and occupational health nurse. In addition, the following is the experience requirement to qualify at the GS-13 grade level. Specialized Experience: One-year specialized experience at the GS-12 grade level. Specialized experience is experience in or directly related to safety and occupational health that provided the specific knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position. Some examples of specialized experience include: Managing safety and occupational health programs; developing and recommending safety and occupational health policies; applying safety and occupational health laws, regulations, principles, theories, practices, and procedures to advise on or resolve technical matters dealing with occupational and health requirements; and designing or modifying workplaces, processes, products, or other systems to control or eliminate hazards. There is no educational substitution for the GS-13 grade level. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Accident InvestigationCompliance InspectionOral CommunicationPublic Safety and Security 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. Physical Requirements: The work includes walk-through of worksite, requiring the employee to carry a considerable amount of equipment, and involves a good deal of walking, standing, bending, and climbing. Work Environment: During walk-through of worksites there is regular exposure to hazards and discomforts to which the workers are subjected, including a wide range of toxic chemicals, physical stresses, and safety hazards. The employee must use a variety of protective equipment and clothing, such as respirators, ear plugs, gloves, coveralls, hard hats, etc. The position is NOT SUITABLE for Telework. 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

There is no educational substitution at this grade level.

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 Jesse Brown Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center 820 South Damen Avenue Chicago, IL 60612 US
• Name: Woa Townsend
• Phone: 317-988-0059 X180059
• Email: [email protected]