Tractor Operator

Summary

This position is located in the Grounds Section of Facilities Management Service (FMS). This section is responsible for fulfilling all grounds maintenance and snow removal needs in support of the Saginaw VA Medical Center.

Duties

• MAJOR DUTIES: Performs manual labor, gardening, lawn maintenance, landscaping, and tractor operation. Uses various power mowers to cut grass including tractors with mower attachments; adjusts blades and cleans and oils mowers. Cuts down trees and uses a manlift for tree trimming and banner placement on light poles. Manually shovels snow, rakes leaves, waters and weeds grass, picks up trash, cleans around dumpsters, and performs general cleaning duties of entrance areas to the hospital. Operates the following equipment: Walk-behind lawn mowers, weed trimmers and edgers, chain saws, hedge trimmers, and walk-behind concrete saw 172+ HP loader exceeding 28,000 lbs., with complex electronic and hydraulic controls, used to manipulate a 14-foot snow push, 4.0-yard bucket, and forks in high-traffic and tight areas 105+ HP tractor with hydraulics, bucket, forks, and Power Take-Off (PTO) attachments Powered salter/spreader PTO attachment Zero-turn lawn mowers, Grandstand lawn mowers with blower attachment, mowing deck with bagger, and broom attachment, Ventrac pintle-steering tractor with plow, salter, broom, and snow blower attachments, self-propelled two-stage snow blowers, single-stage snow blowers Bobcat Toolcat 5600 F-Series vehicle with hydraulically controlled attachments UTVs with hydraulically controlled attachments and dump bed, snow blade attachment, salter attachment, power broom attachment Large equipment trailers, enclosed trailers, and dump trailers Aerial self-propelled boom lift and towable boom lift with a reach of up to 40 feet Heavy-duty pickup trucks equipped with snow blades and salters for snow and ice removal Performs other related duties as assigned: Work Schedule: Monday-Friday, ??????6:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. (Required to perform snow removal during and after work hours, weekends, and holidays as weather conditions require) Recruitment & Relocation Incentives: Not authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not approved

Qualifications

Must have or obtain a valid State Driver's License within 30 days of entrance on duty. Must obtain and maintain Class "C" Under Ground Storage Tank (UST) certification. PHYSICAL EFFORT AND WORK CONDITIONS: Incumbents must always be alert to prevent accidents when operating equipment. Much of the groundwork is performed in early/late hours and in all kinds of weather. Position requires heavy lifting (50-80 pounds), pushing and pulling as necessary to load/unload patient supplies and materials. Work is performed inside buildings and outdoors. Outdoor work exposes the incumbent to long periods of extreme temperatures, humidity, and moisture during all types of seasonal weather phenomena. The incumbent is additionally exposed to excessive quantities of dust, dirt, grease, gas, oil, and fumes produced by equipment and the surrounding environment. Applicants will be rated in accordance with the OPM Federal Wage System Qualifications. For this position, the job element method is used to match what you, the applicant, can do against what the work calls for. Your knowledge, skills and abilities will be compared to the knowledge, skills and abilities (called job elements) needed for success. Your qualifications will first be evaluated against the prescribed screen out element (WG-2 and higher only; screen-outs are not applicable to WG-1). Applicants who appear to meet the screen out element are considered for further rating; those who do not are rated ineligible and are eliminated from consideration. The potential eligibles are rated against the remainder of the job elements. While a specific length of training and experience is not required, your responses to the questionnaire must be supported by detailed descriptions of your experience on your resume. You will be rated on the following Job Elements as part of the assessment questionnaire for this position: Drive Safely Interpret Instructions, Specifications (mobile equipment operations) Motor Vehicles Operate Safely (Non-Motor Vehicle) Reliability And Dependability Without more than normal supervision Work Practices IMPORTANT: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. All experience listed on your resume must include the month and year start/end dates. 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. 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; religious; 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.

Requirements

You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959 Pre-employment physical required 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) 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 period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

How to apply

All applicants are encouraged to apply online. To apply for this position, you must complete the questionnaire and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section below. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on 09/15/2026 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/13057489. 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 and complete the occupational questionnaire. Click Submit My Answers to submit your application package. NOTE: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date. 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 https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/merit-hiring-plan-resources/applicant-guidance-on-the-two-page-resume-limit/ Special Employment Consideration: VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply, including those eligible for hiring under 5 CFR 213.3102(u), Schedule A, Appointment of persons with disabilities (i.e., intellectual disabilities, severe physical disabilities, or psychiatric disabilities), and/or disabled veterans with a compensable service-connected disability of 30% or more. For more information on how to apply using this appointment authority via the Selective Placement Coordinator within the office, contact the facility Human Resources Department at (800) 406-5143. The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation and be found well-qualified (have a final rating of 85 or more before any Veterans preference points) for this vacancy. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/.