This Safety & Occupational Health Specialist position is within the Facilities Management Service at the Providence VA Healthcare System, located in Providence, RI. It is full-time at 40 hours per week.

Duties

The purpose of the position is to perform occupational hazard and safety surveys of a medical facility; study and review inspection safety records; plan and conduct survey or inspections that identify safety hazards and violations; and analyze accident and injury reports. Duties include, but are not limited to: Prepares safety guides and internal instructions for low safety and normal safety risks encountered in an assigned area of responsibility; Identifies the need for higher level risk guides or instructions; Advises senior level management officials within the assigned area on the status of the safety and occupational health programs and recommends changes in the design of work programs to meet new safety and occupational health standards; Confers with safety and occupational health specialists at universities, hospitals and research organizations to identify hazards related to new medical equipment and to become familiar with evolving techniques and protective devices for controlling or eliminating potential safety hazards; Performs special environmental monitoring tasks using a variety of instruments to determine potentially unsafe exposures; Coordinates long-term studies of unsafe work conditions with appropriate supervisors; Instructs employees on a variety of safety and occupational health subjects including chemical, biological or physical safety, various laboratory safety needs, or ventilation requirements; Adapts various available media to fit special and unique training requirements and participates in the development of novel or innovative safety training and promotion activities; and Directs investigation of accidents, analyzing precipitating factors and accident cause data in order to develop specific methods for prevention. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday, 40 hours per week. Hours will be discussed during the interview process. Compressed/Flexible: Not available. Telework: Telework will be available on an ad-hoc basis upon Supervisor discretion. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Safety & Occupational Health Specialist/PD650-02648-0 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized. Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not authorized. Financial Disclosure Report: Not required. Notifications: This position is a LIUNA Bargaining Unit position. This position is covered by locality-based comparability pay. Current and former Federal employees must submit copies of their most recent SF-50, (Notice of Personnel Action). The SF-50 must identify the position title, series, grade, step, tenure and type of service (Competitive or Excepted). In some cases, more than one SF-50 may be required to show a higher grade previously held. This position is in the Competitive Service. Time-in-Grade Restriction: 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. The grade may have been in any occupation but must have been held in the Federal service. Interchange Agreements with Other Merit System: Employees who occupy medical or medical-related positions and were appointed under 38 U.S.C. 4701(1) or (3) [formerly 38 U.S.C. 4104 (1) and (3)] must be serving in a full-time position without time limit and have served continuously for at least one year in this other merit system to be eligible to convert to the Title 5 System. Some exceptions to this rule may apply if you have previously acquired tenure under a Title 5 appointment.

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 09/18/2023. 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-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-09. 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 MUST qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: One year of Specialized Experience at the next lower grade level (GS-9). Experience includes, but is not limited to: Developing and recommending safety and occupational health policy to higher levels of management; Developing safety and occupational health standards, regulations, practices, and procedures to eliminate or control potential hazard; Developing or implementing programs to reduce the frequency, severity, and cost of accidents and occupational illnesses; 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; Work in occupational fields such as industrial hygienist, safety engineer, fire prevention engineer, health physicist, and occupational health nurse. OR Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M., if related (Degree must be related to the line of work for the position, and transcripts MUST be submitted) OR Combining Education and Experience: Combinations of successfully completed post-high school education and experience may be used to meet total qualification requirements for the grade levels specified in the table, and may be computed by first determining the applicant's total qualifying experience as a percentage of the experience required for the grade level; then determining the applicant's education as a percentage of the education required for the grade level; and then adding the two percentages. The total percentages must equal at least 100 percent to qualify an applicant for that grade level. (Degree must be related to the line of work for the position, and transcripts MUST be submitted) You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: CommunicationsPlanning and EvaluatingSafety EngineeringSelf Management 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 involves the frequent performance of surveys and onsite visits to laboratory and maintenance shops necessitating prolonged periods of walking and standing. 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 Providence Healthcare System 830 Chalkstone Avenue Providence, RI 02908 US
• Name: Samantha Roberts
• Phone: 612-978-6318
• Email: [email protected]