The Safety Specialist works within the VA New York Harbor Engineering Services. Incumbent works with supervisors, union officials, and safety committees to eliminate or control hazardous operations or conditions. The primary purpose of this position is to reduce the possibility of injuries to patients, visitors and staff or the destruction of government property.

Duties

Conducts fire drills Conducts inspections of medical centers, community living centers, community-based outpatient clinics, and contracted external facilities at scheduled intervals and in response to employee complaints of hazards. Responds to fires, accidents, and other emergency incidents. Conducts investigations of accidents to uncover all contributing factors to personal injury and property damage accidents on government property. Administers occupational safety and fire prevention/ protection programs to assure compliance with applicable standards and requirements. Reviews proposed equipment procurement requests to ensure the inclusion of necessary safety features. Trains managers and other employees, providing instruction on a variety of occupational safety hazards and corresponding preventative/ subjects Advises the Safety Manager on the status of the occupational safety and fire prevention/ protection programs and recommends changes in the design of work programs to meet new occupation safety and fire prevention/ protection standards. Performs other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Monday through Friday 8:00am- 4:30pm Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Safety & Occupational Health Specialist/PD21Y53A

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/20/2024. 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-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-9. 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-9 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Comprehensive knowledge of occupational safety and fire protection/prevention principles, regulations, policies, procedures, techniques, practices, methods, and standards applicable to the performance of surveys in a healthcare environment and sufficient to identify and evaluate a variety of environmental risks. Practical knowledge sufficient to analyze safety design features and specifications to develop new methods and procedures to identify or control hazardous construction processes and staff personnel. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: FacilitiesPatient CarePublic Safety and SecuritySafety EngineeringTechnical 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. Physical Requirements: Survey or inspection work requires regular and recurrent physical exertion, such as frequent standing, walking, climbing, crouching, and stretching in the performance of inspection and survey duties and occasional lifting of moderately heavy objects. The work involves 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

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 NY Harbor Healthcare System 423 East 23rd Street New York, NY 10010 US
• Name: Sharon Sawyer
• Phone: 585-305-2679
• Email: [email protected]