The Lead Safety & Occupational Health Specialist acts under the authority of the Safety Manager on matters relating to occupational safety and health at the VA Medical Center. The Lead Safety Specialist is responsible for assisting the Safety Manager with planning, organizing, administering, and evaluating a comprehensive safety management program in a healthcare setting.

Duties

Major duties for the Lead Safety & Occupational Health Specialist position include, but are not limited to: Incumbent will lead a team of five Safety and Occupational Health Specialists, GS-0018-11. Ensures that the work assignments of the other employees of the team are carried out by performing a range of duties. Distribute and balance the workload among employees in accordance with established workflow or job specialization, assure timely accomplishment of the assigned workload, and assure that each employee has enough work to keep busy. Keep in touch with the status and progress of work and make day-to-day adjustments in accordance with established priorities, obtaining assistance from the supervisor on problems that may arise. Instruct employees in specific tasks and job techniques and make available written instructions, reference materials and supplies. Provides on the job training to new employees. Assist subordinate staff on procedures, policies, directives, etc. and obtain needed information or decisions from supervisor on problems that come up. Check on work in progress or spot check work not requiring review (e.g. filing or direct services) and review completed work to see that supervisor's instruction on work procedures, methods, and deadlines have been met. Amend or reject work not meeting established standards, refer to supervisor questions on matters not covered by standards and problems in meeting performance standards; approve leave for a few hours or for emergencies. Resolve simple, informal complaints of employees and refer others to supervisor. Provides input to supervisor on performance, progress, and training needs of employees, and on behavior problems. Make recommendation to supervisor as requested concerning promotions, reassignment, recognition of outstanding performance, and personnel needs. Articulate and communicate to the team the assignment, project, problem to be solved, actionable events, milestones, and/or program issues under review, and deadlines and time frames for completion. Serve as coach, facilitator and/or negotiator in coordinating team initiatives and in consensus building activities among team members. Work Schedule: Full-time; 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#: Lead Safety & Occupational Health Specialist/PD93082O Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not approved 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, 01/25/2024. 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-12 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-11. 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: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-11 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Experience demonstrating a wide range of safety, occupational health, fire protection, and construction safety principles, practices, and regulations permitting the independent performance of complex, recurring assignments to identify, evaluate, and control or eliminate a wide variety of hazards and administratively manage program elements. Comprehensive knowledge of regulations, standards, codes, policies, and procedures related to construction safety, fire and life safety, and occupational health to accurately interpret and explain the reasons and purposes for applying measures and procedures, minimizing or abating safety hazards (i.e., OSHA, NFPA, TJC). Experience performing occupational safety, fire safety, and construction safety inspections and surveys of the Medical Center and associated offsite locations as well as complete reports on findings and take action to mitigate hazards. Knowledge of design criteria to ensure that all applicable codes pertaining to life safety factors (such as number of exits, types of construction) are met in the Medical Center and affiliated operations. Ability to review construction drawings to determine compliance with applicable codes. Knowledge of the systems for determining equivalencies for compliance with life so that alternate methods of compliance can be recommended where existing construction does not meet the exact requirements of the codes.. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Safety Engineering Problem Solving Technical Competence Compliance Communication 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: Work requires regular and recurring physical exertions related to frequent inspections and surveys requiring considerable standing, walking, climbing, bending, crouching, stretching, reaching or similar movements. Occasionally, there may be a need to lift and carry moderately heavy objects. Work requires some degree of agility and dexterity when, for example, it involves inspecting construction sites or other areas. Incumbent may be exposed to health hazards when performing inspections, tests, and monitoring. Visual acuity is required to conduct inspections and complete administrative work. 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: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

Contacts

• Address VA Northeast Ohio Healthcare System 10701 East Boulevard Cleveland, OH 44106 US
• Name: Nicholas Burger
• Phone: (937) 794-5101
• Email: [email protected]