This developmental position is located in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Midwest Health Care Network VISN 23 at the St. Cloud VA Health Care System in the Office of the Director. The incumbent functions as the Industrial Engineer for the Office of the Director, under the direct supervision of the Supervisory Health System Specialist (System Redesign Coordinator).

Duties

Duties for this position include but are not limited to: Researches problems that impact the quality and efficiency of patient care delivery, makes recommendations for corrective actions and follows up to ensure effective implementation and sustainability. Develops tools and processes to analyze human factors engineering-related problems, with the goal of selecting or creating effective actions to ensure sustainability of outcomes. Performs evaluation and analysis of areas targeted for improvement to assess program effectiveness and current status and to identify areas requiring management attention and systems enhancement. Responsible for ensuring sustainability and spread of efforts directed at improving quality, safety, effectiveness and efficiency using management engineering. Coordinates ongoing data collection and information analysis and uses knowledge of ACA, HFE, HRO, Lean design and QMS principles to determine organizational performance and functioning of hospital systems. Identifies system inefficiencies, veteran satisfaction or quality of care issues and develops studies or data collection techniques related to specific identified problems. Develops and/or assists with training, education, and orientation of VA staff in use of the variety of tools, methods, and/or principles of HRO, lean, QMS, HFE, TQI, and/or statistical process control and use of VHA data bases. Consults with other VHA field patient and human work flow staff to contribute human factors engineering expertise and perspective to patient and human work flow matters. Promotion Potential: The selectee may be promoted to the full performance level without further competition when all regulatory, qualification, and performance requirements are met. Selection at a lower grade level does not guarantee promotion to the full performance level. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 8:00am - 4:30pm 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. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Industrial Engineer/PD904240 and PD905530 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Bargaining Unit Status: Yes Financial Disclosure Report: Not required The VA Midwest Health Care Network advocates for a Whole Health System of care in each of the Medical Centers. This is an approach to healthcare that empowers and equips people to take charge of their health and well-being and live their lives to the fullest. As an employee operating in a Whole Health System of care, you will operate in a model with three core elements, seeking to create a personalized health plan for each Veteran. This is done in the context of healing relationships and healing environments and a connection back to the Veteran's community. This aligns with the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Mission Statement to Honor America's Veterans by providing exceptional health care that improves their health and well-being.

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 10/31/2023. 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 and for a GS-09 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-07. 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 and/or education as described below: Specialized Experience GS-11: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-09 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: performing professional engineering with an emphasis in industrial engineering, human factors, informatics, quantitative patient safety or quality improvement. Industrial engineering principles, theories, and methods (e.g., low-fidelity prototyping, task analysis, usability testing) and skill in applying those principles and concepts to improving healthcare systems. . OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have completed 3 years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience that meets 100% of the requirements of this position. Specialized Experience GS-09: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-09 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: perform and interpret calculations, analyses, and computations for unknown factors or relationships primarily in matters of a factual nature or involving well-understood mechanisms; conduct analytical investigations using the scientific method; use performance monitoring and quality assurance principles and methods; research and apply accepted and relevant business, marketing, and organizational practices. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have completed a master's degree or two (2) full years of graduate education that is directly related to the position. I understand that if I select this response, I must include copies of my transcripts at the time of application. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience that meets 100% of the requirements of this position. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Analysis and Problem SolvingOrganizational DevelopmentOrganizational Performance Analysis 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 is primarily sedentary, but occasionally involves walking, bending, climbing stairs. Active involvement in device or architecture design testing may mean longer periods of standing. The work also involves coping with complex, persistent demands from a variety of sources that can be regarded as a high-pressure work situation. 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

Individual Occupational Requirements

• Possess a bachelor's degree in professional engineering from an accredited college or university. To be acceptable, the curriculum must, (1) be in a school of engineering with at least one curriculum accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) as a professional engineering curriculum; or (2) include differential and integral calculus and courses (more advanced than first-year physics and chemistry) in five of the following seven areas of engineering science or physics: (a) statics, dynamics; (b) strength of materials (stress-strain relationships); (c) fluid mechanics, hydraulics; (d) thermodynamics; (e) electrical fields and circuits; (f) nature and properties of materials (relating particle and aggregate structure to properties); and (g) any other comparable area of fundamental engineering science or physics, such as optics, heat transfer, soil mechanics, or electronics. (TRANSCRIPT REQUIRED) OR
• Possess a combination of college level education, training, and/or technical experience that furnished you with; (1) a thorough knowledge of the physical and mathematical sciences underlying professional engineering, and (2) a good understanding, both theoretical and practical, of the engineering sciences and techniques and their applications to one of the branches of engineering? (TRANSCRIPT REQUIRED)
  • The adequacy of such background must be demonstrated by one of the following:
    • A) Professional registration - Current registration as a professional engineer by any State, the District of Columbia, Guam, or Puerto Rico. Absent other means of qualifying under this standard, those applicants who achieved such registration by means other than written test (e.g., State grandfather or eminence provisions) are eligible only for positions that are within or closely related to the specialty field of their registration. For example, an applicant who attains registration through a State Board's eminence provision as a manufacturing engineer typically would be rated eligible only for manufacturing engineering positions.
    • B) Written Test - Evidence of having successfully passed the Engineer-in-Training (EIT) examination, or the written test required for professional registration, which is administered by the Boards of Engineering Examiners in the various States, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Because of the diversity in kind and quality of BET programs, graduates of other BET programs are required to complete at least 1 year of additional education or highly technical work experience of such nature as to provide reasonable assurance of the possession of the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for professional engineering competence. The adequacy of this background must be demonstrated by passing the EIT examination.
    • C) Specified academic courses - Successful completion of at least 60 semester hours of courses in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences and in engineering that included the courses specified in the basic requirements. The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of a professional engineering curriculum as described above.
    • D) Related curriculum - Successful completion of a curriculum leading to a bachelor's degree in engineering technology or in an appropriate professional field, e.g., physics, chemistry, architecture, computer science, mathematics, hydrology, or geology, may be accepted in lieu of a degree in engineering, provided the applicant has had at least 1 year of professional engineering experience acquired under professional engineering supervision and guidance. Ordinarily there should be either an established plan of intensive training to develop professional engineering competence, or several years of prior professional engineering-type experience, e.g., in interdisciplinary positions. (The above examples of related curricula are not all-inclusive.)

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 St Cloud VA Medical Center 4801 Veterans Drive St Cloud, MN 56303 US
• Name: Meghan Brooks
• Phone: 515-699-5999 X23402
• Email: [email protected]