Asstistant Hospital Housekeeping Officer

Summary

This position is located in the Environmental Management Service (EMS) of the VA Medical Center in Birmingham, AL.

Duties

• ***THIS IS NOT A VIRTUAL POSITION, YOU MUST LIVE WITHIN OR BE WILLING TO RELOCATE WITHIN A COMMUTABLE DISTANCE OF THE DUTY LOCATION*** The purpose of this position is to serve as the alter ego of the Chief, Environmental Management. the hospital housekeeping program, assuming shared responsibility and accountability for the planning, directing, and monitoring of all aspects of the hospital housekeeping program. Occasionally, the incumbent is called upon to serve as Acting Chief, Environmental and contributes to the resolution of facility issues concerning Sanitation, Textile Care, and Pest Management. The position reports to the Chief, Environmental Management. HOSPITAL PROGRAM MANAGEMENT 60 Percent Consultant and advisor on environmental matters to the Chief, Environmental and facility leadership. Initiates and coordinates policies, procedures, standards, and goals of the overall Health Care System. Involved with long- and short-range planning, establishing policy, and budgeting for the Health Care System and network for the Environmental Management Program. Plans, organizes, directs, manages, reviews, and evaluates an augmented program to include responsibility for Biohazard, Chemotherapy, Sharps Waste Management and Laundry/Linen/Employee Uniform operations. Responsible for the management and environmental response to the management and control of infectious diseases to include HIV, AIDS, Coronavirus, Influenza, COVID-19 and other highly contagious diseases found within a high complexity level 1B Health Care System. Responsible for the management and operation of the Laundry and Linen Service. Provides oversight for the Waste Management Program. Develops and provides Health Care System management and clinical staff information based on the methods, techniques, and procedures necessary to integrate the Environmental Management Program into the mission of the Health Care System. SUPERVISORY CONTROLS EXERCISED 40 Percent Responsible for all supervisory personnel in the Environmental Management Service For the direct reports, the Assistant Chief plans work to be accomplished by subordinates, set and adjust short-term priorities, and prepare schedules for completion of work. Has direct oversight and supervision over a $5 million Environmental Services Contract. Utilizes Quality Management and LEAN concepts to approach identified opportunities for improvement to drive the service to organizational effectiveness and efficiency. Adapts and modifies standards, techniques, and procedures to meet local or unique needs, with full recognition of the interrelationship amongst various services and EMS and the impact on direct patient care. Develops, evaluates, and modifies organizational structure and systems to achieve program goals. Performs other related duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Monday through Friday, 7:00am - 3:30pm. Recruitment & Relocation Incentives: Not authorized.

Qualifications

REQUIRES: One year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-09 grade level in Federal service that equipped you with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. This experience must be in two or more of the following areas, or other work related to the position to be filled: Experience that demonstrated a practical working knowledge of the basic principles of chemistry, biology, and bacteriology as applied to environmental sanitation, infection control, and to the choice and use of antimicrobial agents in the disinfection, sanitization, and/or sterilization of surfaces and equipment. Experience in laundry and linen management. Experience in interior design management. Experience that demonstrated a knowledge of waste management, including the requirements relating to hazardous, toxic, and infectious wastes and provisions for their final disposition. Experience that demonstrated a knowledge of pest management, including alternative methods of control and the selection and application of chemicals. This experience must be detailed in your resume to receive credit. ~OR~ A Ph.D., equivalent doctoral degree, 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree with a major study in public health or business administration, with emphasis in hospital administration. This education must have been obtained in an accredited college or university. One year of full-time graduate education is the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent one year of full-time study. If that number cannot be obtained from the school, 18 semester hours will be considered an academic year of graduate study. Part-time graduate education is creditable in accordance with its relationship to a year of full-time study at the school attended. Transcripts required. ~OR~ An equivalent combination of specialized experience and graduate education as described that demonstrates your ability to perform the duties of this position and meets the minimum qualification requirements for this position? Your experience must be detailed in your resume and transcripts are required. Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., resume, supporting documents), your responses on the application questionnaire, and your responses to all assessments required for this position. You will be assessed on the following Competencies for this position: Conflict Management Influencing/Negotiating Manages Resources Partnering Planning and Evaluating Supervisory Situational Judgment Test. Applicants will be required to complete a Supervisory Situational Judgment Test (SSJT) as part of the assessment process for this position. The SSJT evaluates judgment and decision-making skills that align with relevant competencies, organizational values, and best practices. Assessment results may be used as part of the evaluation, ranking and referral process. This is not a timed test, however, the assessment is expected to take approximately 45 minutes or less to complete. The assessment for this application does not include a cut score for a minimum level of required proficiency in these critical general competencies. However, you must answer each item in the assessment. 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. Physical Requirements: The work required does not inherently include any physical requirements essential for successful job performance that could not otherwise be performed with accommodation or workplace adjustment. A pre-placement physical examination is not required. 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. This position requires the application, assessment, and questionnaire to be fully completed. The assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job. Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959 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 questionnaire and submission of the required documentation specified in the How to Apply and Required Documents section. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on the closing date of the announcement to receive consideration. 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, 09/17/2026. NOTE: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation are 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/ 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 80 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/.