Safety & Occupational Health Specialist

Summary

This announcement has been extended. Applicants who have applied, do not need to re-apply. However, application materials must clearly support the qualification requirements to qualify and receive credit. Employee will serve as a Safety & Occupational Health Specialist located at the Charlie Norwood Veterans Healthcare System in Augusta, GA.

Duties

• ***THIS IS NOT A VIRTUAL POSITION, YOU MUST LIVE WITHIN OR BE WILLING TO RELOCATE WITHIN A COMMUTABLE DISTANCE OF THE DUTY LOCATION*** Employee will primarily be responsible for the implementation of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Codes and Life Safety Code (LSC) requirements, inspections of all medical center and contract facilities, and recommending actions to remediate deficiencies. Duties will include, but may not be limited to the following: Inspects and evaluates various environments for occupational health and safety hazards and to determine compliance with applicable regulations, standards, codes, and requirements. Identifies hazards and assesses their potential for harm to employees, patients and visitors. Recommends and initiates actions and ensures corrective action completed by follow-up inspections. Recommends medical surveillance based on identified physical and environmental stressors or environmental conditions. Arrange for shipment of samples to laboratory for analysis or perform limited analyses in-house. Develops, reviews, and revises safety program policies for the planning, coordination, presentation of safety training programs. Instructs/educates personnel on safety and occupations health subjects, including fire, vehicle, and physical safety. Investigates all accidents and near misses, which may include fatalities and serious injury. Evaluates the incident site, machine and equipment operations, environmental conditions, work practices, protective devices and safety procedures related to the incident. Prepares summary reports of findings with recommendations regarding prevention of re-occurrence, abatement of hazard, or employee re-training. Performs inspections of areas under demolition, renovations, or construction. Accompanies inspectors and maintain liaison with fire department and emergency management personnel through meetings, special events, memorandum development and promotional activities to assure compliance with requirements mandated by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), The Joint Commission (TJC), Office of Inspector General (OIG), Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Services (CARF), NFPA, etc. Serves as a reporting member of the Accident Review Board (ARB) and the Environment of Care Committee (EOCC), reporting summaries and correction action for hazard surveillance rounds, fire protection and suppression system testing, off-site nursing home/residential care/adult day care inspections and other identified safety issues. Performs other duties as necessary working in occupational fields such as, Industrial Hygienist, environmental, occupational health and safety, and fire prevention. Work Schedule: Full-Time, Monday-Friday, 7:30am - 4:00pm Recruitment & Relocation Incentives: Not authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved

Qualifications

SELECTIVE PLACEMENT FACTOR (SCREEN-OUT) - A Selective Placement Factor (SPF) has been identified for this position. Selective Placement Factors (SPF) are a prerequisite to appointment and represent minimum requirements for the position. Applicants who do not meet the SPF are ineligible for further consideration. The SPF for this position is: Requires experience applying National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and Life Safety Code (LSC) including its application to healthcare occupancies to conduct facility compliance surveys, interpret code requirements, and render determinations of compliance or non-compliance. (NOTE: Resume must clearly support the complexity of this required experience to receive credit for this GS-11 grade position.) In addition to the SPF, to qualify for this Safety & Occupational Health Specialist at the GS-11 grade level, applicants must meet at least one of the following minimum requirements. EXPERIENCE: Requires one full year of specialized experience in or related to safety and occupational health that provided the specific knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. To be creditable, specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the next lower grade level (GS-9) in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Qualifying specialized experience includes: Managing safety or occupational health program elements. Developing and recommending safety and occupational health policy to higher levels of management. Applying safety and occupational health laws, regulations, principles, theories, practices, and procedures to advise on or resolve technical matters dealing with occupational safety and health requirements. Developing safety and occupational health standards, regulations, practices, and procedures to eliminate or control potential hazards. Developing or implementing programs to reduce the frequency, severity, and cost of accidents and occupational illnesses. Analyzing or evaluating new and existing jobs, processes, products, or other systems to determine the existence, severity, probability, and outcome of hazards. Designing or modifying workplaces, processes, products, or other systems to control or eliminate hazards. 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. NOTE: Resume must clearly support the complexity of this required experience to receive credit at this grade level. OR EDUCATION (TRANSCRIPT REQUIRED): Requires a 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. The Major study must be - safety or occupational health fields (safety, occupational health, industrial hygiene), or degree in other related fields that included or was supplemented by at least 24 semester hours of study from among the following (or closely related) disciplines: safety, occupational health, industrial hygiene, occupational medicine, toxicology, public health, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biological sciences, engineering, and industrial psychology. OR COMBINATION (TRANSCRIPT REQUIRED): An equivalent combination of successfully completed graduate level education and experience may be used to meet total qualification requirements. Both education/experience must be related to the position, as described above. Only graduate education in excess of a 2 full years (excess of a Master's degree) may be used to meet this requirement. 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/.

Requirements

You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job To be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. In addition to the application and questionnaire, this position requires an online assessment. The online assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job.. Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959 PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS: Position requires working in an office, as well as field work. Field inspections require moderate physical exertion in carrying equipment, as well as extended periods of walking and standing. Subject to background/security investigation Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued identification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment. Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP) - See "Required Documents" below for details. As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider: your performance and conduct; the needs and interests of the agency; whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service. Upon completion of your probationary, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Education

IMPORTANT: 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: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

How to apply

Please read the entire announcement and all the instructions before you begin an application. To apply for this position, you must complete the initial online application, to include the initial online assessment and submission of the required documentation specified in the Required Documents section above. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on the closing date of the announcement to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire, click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/13044009. The application process is as follows: To begin, click Apply Online to create a USA JOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USA JOBS resume and/or other supporting documents. Answer the questions presented in the application and attach all necessary supporting documentation. Click the Submit Application button prior to 11:59 PM (ET) on the announcement closing date, 09/09/2026. After submitting the online application, you will be notified whether or not you are required to take additional online assessments through the USA Hire Competency Based Assessment system. This message will be delivered to you via email notification. The email may be routed to your "Spam" or "Junk" folder. IMPORTANT: If you are asked to take the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be presented with a unique URL to access the USA Hire system. Access to USA Hire is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Be sure to review all instructions prior to beginning your USA Hire Assessments. Click here for Computer System Requirements. Set aside at least 3 hours to take the USA Hire assessments; however, most applicants complete the assessments in less time. If you need to stop the assessments and continue at a later time, you can re-use the URL sent to you via email and also found in your USAJOBS account under the "Track my application" link for the corresponding application. Your responses to the USA Hire Assessments will be reused for one year (in most cases) from the date you complete an assessment. If future applications you submit require completion of the same assessments, your responses will be automatically reused. Visit the USA Hire Applicant Resource Center for practice assessments and assessment preparation resources at https://support-usahire.opm.gov/hc/en-us. To view the announcement status or your application status: https://help.usajobs.gov/how-to. Your application status page is where you can view your application status, USA Hire assessment completion status, and review your notifications sent by the hiring agency regarding your application. Beginning September 27, 2025, Federal agencies will only accept resumes up to two pages in length to comply with the Merit Hiring Plan. Resumes longer than two pages will result in ineligibility for further consideration for the position. USAJOBS will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages, and you will need to update the resumes in your profile before applying for a job. Resumes should include information relevant to the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of the position to which you are applying. VA is unable to make assumptions about qualifications if not clearly listed. Resumes must be legible so they can be reviewed for eligibility, minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement. Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started. Helpful Hints for Creating a Two-Page Resume: Prioritize most relevant and recent experience Use concise, results focused language Align language from the job announcement Focus on demonstrating skills and competencies Remove outdated or unrelated experience Use the USAJOBS resume builder Additional guidance on this new requirement and resume building tools can be found at: https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit.