Administration of the program involves a broad comprehension of research practice, providing a high level of consultative service to investigators and committee members, while also ensuring compliance and protection of laboratory animal welfare, research safety, and research laboratory security within the research and Development (R&D) program at the White River Junction VA Health Care System (WRJ VAHCS).

Duties

This job announcement will remain open for 5 business days. This is not a bargaining unit position. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm Compressed/Flexible: Not Available. Telework: May be available upon supervisor approval. Position Description/PD#: Animal Scientist/PD163340 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized. Financial Disclosure Report: Not required. Physical Requirements: The work is primarily sedentary, although some physical effort may be required. Administration of the program involves a broad comprehension of research practice, providing a high level of consultative service to investigators and committee members, while also ensuring compliance and protection of laboratory animal welfare, research safety, and research laboratory security within the research and Development (R&D) program at the White River Junction VA Health Care System (WRJ VAHCS). Major Duties: Serves as an advisor on issues relative to carrying out the institution's research activities involving the use of animals and safety procedures for investigative purposes. Develops and maintains a pre-review program that will coincide with IACUC, SRS, and Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) review of all research involving animal subjects, basic laboratory science, and safety components of the human research protection program. Ensures animal research is reviewed, approved, and conducted in accordance with appropriate Federal, State and VA regulations and guidelines, funding agency specific guidelines, institutional policies, and appropriate accreditation standards. Monitors quality assurance program implementation and indicators designed to prevent erroneous transactions and ineffective work practices and to verify adherence to quality assurance plans and requirements. Incumbent overseas preclinical laboratory and animal facilities at the WRJ VAHCS. Ensures the proper training of all VMU facility personnel and their compliance with SOP's.

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 06/28/2024. 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-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. Provide a copy of your last or most recent SF-50, "Notification of Personnel Action" to indicate your current federal status. You must also submit additional SF-50(s) to clearly demonstrate one year time-in-grade as required in the announcement. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate that you possess one year time-in-grade. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one year time-in-grade. 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. AND You may qualify based on your education/experience/combination as described below. A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. Individual Occupation Requires for the Animal Science Series 0487:Animal Science Series 0487 (opm.gov)Basic Requirements Degree: animal science, dairy science, poultry science; or a related discipline or field of animal science that included at least 30 semester hours in the basic biological and agricultural sciences, and 20 semester hours in animal science. For animal scientist positions, at least 10 of the required 20 semester hours in animal science must have been in courses dealing with the breeding, feeding, production, and management of livestock, and the care and preparation of their products. OR Combination of education and experience: courses equivalent to a major in the basic biological and agricultural sciences, including a minimum of 20 semester hours in appropriate animal science subjects, as described in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. Most universities offering appropriate programs confer degrees in "animal science" rather than in "animal husbandry," although some universities still confer degrees in "animal husbandry." Therefore, reference to course work in respective animal, dairy, or poultry husbandry, where applicable, may be considered synonymous with corresponding course work in animal, dairy, or poultry science. Graduate Education: To be qualifying, graduate study must have been in animal, dairy, or poultry science; or in a specialized subject-matter area of science directly related to these sciences, such as feeds and feeding or nutrition, breeding, and development, physiology, or genetics, where the curriculum or pattern of training placed major emphasis on one of the recognized specialized subject-matter areas of animal, dairy, or poultry science. Graduate study in related disciplines or fields of science, such as agronomy, microbiology, biochemistry, biophysics, and dairy, food, or fiber technology (if it dealt with pertinent products or their production) may also be qualifying, provided the graduate work placed a sufficient amount of emphasis on one of the recognized fields or subject-matter areas of animal, dairy, or poultry science. Evaluation of Education: Course work in such subjects as agronomy, animal, dairy, or poultry science, biology, botany, zoology, microbiology, physiology, genetics, and biochemistry may be used to meet the general 30-semester-hour requirement in the basic biological and agricultural sciences. Course work in such subjects as zoology, embryology, animal breeding or genetics, physiology, biochemistry, and any phase of animal, dairy, or poultry science may be used to meet the 20-semester-hour requirement in animal science. Course work in animal science includes those subjects dealing with the specific kinds and classes of livestock, e.g., cattle, swine, sheep, or fur bearers, their breeding and development, nutrition, management, and utilization; and the qualities and uses of their products, e.g., meat, wool, or leather. Course work in dairy science includes those subjects dealing with the specific kinds and classes of dairy animals; their nutrition and management; the utilization of their products; and courses dealing with the establishment of lineages, various phases of a dairy operation, milk quality, etc. Course work in poultry science includes those subjects dealing with the kinds and classes of poultry; their breeding and development; the establishment of specific strains; their nutrition and management; the utilization of their products; and courses dealing with specific areas peculiar to poultry science, such as genetic or environmental factors, or rearrangement of cycles. AND Specialized Experience: 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. A well-qualified CTAP/ICTAP match will demonstrate experience in 1) Conducting experiments, analyzing data, and publishing findings 2) Animal care and management 3) Conduct policy and guideline reviews 4) Serve in an advisory capacity 5) Program administration. Per Office of Personnel Management General Schedule Qualification Policies, federal employees are assumed to have gained experience by performing duties and responsibilities appropriate for their official series and grade level as described in their position description. Experience that would not normally be part of the employee's position is creditable when documented by satisfactory evidence (e.g., a memorandum from the manager, human resources director, or official documentation such as SF-52, SF-50 documenting an official detail/assignments, or other comparable documentation). The documentation must indicate whether the employee performed the duties full time or, if part-time, the percentage of times the employee performed the additional duties. To receive credit for experience in your resume that is not within the official series and grade level of your position, you must provide official documentation of such experience as indicated above. 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. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit OPM's web site at http://www.opm.gov/qualifications/standards/indexes/alph-ndx.asp. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: 1. Animal Husbandry 2. Technical Competence 3. Manages and Organizes Information 4. Administration and Management 5. Contracting/Procurement

Education

PLEASE NOTE: Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications (particularly positions with a positive education requirement). Therefore, applicants must report only attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Applicants can verify accreditation at the following website: http://www.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/index.html. All education claimed by applicants will be verified by the appointing agency accordingly. 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.

Contacts

• Address White River Junction ORD VISN 1 215 North Main St. White River Junction, VT 05009 US
• Name: VHA National Recruitment Center
• Phone: (844)456-5208
• Email: [email protected]