Safety and Occupational Health Specialist

Summary

Securing Travel, Protecting People - At the Transportation Security Administration, you will serve in a high-stakes environment to safeguard the American way of life. In cities across the country, you would secure airports, seaports, railroads, highways, and/or public transit systems, thus protecting America's transportation infrastructure and ensuring freedom of movement for people and commerce.

Duties

• This Safety and Occupational Health Specialist position is located at Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), Transportation Security Administration, Department of Homeland Security (DHS). If selected for this position you will be responsible for coordinating, monitoring, and developing the programs and processes concerned with safety and occupational functions and supporting the safety function at an airport at the hub level including the coordination of safety functions performed at the associated spoke airports. Work performed minimizes human injury and property losses due to harmful incidents incurred by designing of management policies, programs and practices. You will apply experience and advanced knowledge of safety and occupational health program principles, concepts, regulations, practices, analytical methods and techniques to perform multiple and varying assignments. Typical duties include: Providing coordination of the safety program with airport management, spoke airports, the Office of Security Operations, and other program areas by coordinating/facilitating delivery of services as required. Providing ongoing services to managers, assigned organizations, and employees in their assigned program areas to include initiating, tracking and following up on cases and studies to ensure timely completion and regulatory compliance. Providing advice and guidance to professionals, managers, and employees sufficient to resolve recurring problems or those requiring adaptation of past precedents through the sharing of information or recommending alternative and appropriate approaches, including the review of policies and precedents with limited guidance. Undertaking extensive research and analysis and coordinating with more senior specialists and/or supervisors as necessary to ensure that the most recent guidance is applied when making technical decisions or advising managers, staff, and employees. Recommending unprecedented interpretations of guidance consistent with mission requirements and compliance with underlying statutes, and applying considerable discretion in advocating specific courses of action. Identifying and proposing technically sound and administratively compliant solutions to a range of complex but recurring safety hazards and risks requiring considerable judgment to ensure that recommendations and approaches best meet TSA operational needs. Designing and conducting studies where the issues under review are complex and require recommending program changes or improvements to systems and processes. Developing and providing instruction and training content for airport employees and supervisors to reduce or eliminate potential accident related losses. Providing training and guidance on the handling, transportation, and maintenance of hazardous materials. Serving as a troubleshooter regarding causes for accidents or losses and implementing adjustments in processes to prevent future incidents. Conducting routine safety inspections. Reporting on safety, accidents, implementation of preventative measures, and status. Providing guidance to more junior analysts as appropriate to accomplish ongoing work.

Qualifications

To qualify for the SV-H pay band, (equivalent to GS-12), you must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the SV-G or GS-11 in the Federal service or equivalent experience in the private sector. Specialized experience is defined as experience that has equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position. Such experience will include: -Coordinating, monitoring, and developing safety and occupational health functions, programs, and processes; and reporting on safety issues, accidents, preventative measures and program status to management. Credit for experience is given based on a 40-hour workweek. Part-time experience is credited on a part-time ratio, i.e., working 20 hours per week for two months equals one month of experience. No additional credit is given for overtime. National Service Experience (i.e., volunteer experience): 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. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) must authorize employment offers made to current or former political appointees. If you are currently, or have been within the last 5 years, a political Schedule A, Schedule C, Non-career SES or Presidential Appointee employee in the Executive Branch, you must disclose this information to the Human Resources Office. You must meet the qualification requirements for this position no later than the closing date of the vacancy announcement.

Requirements

You must possess U.S. Citizenship or be a U.S. National. You must complete a favorable Background Investigation (BI). Selective Service registration is required. You may have to travel up to 25% of the time to other sites. If you fail to meet the conditions of employment or any other pre-employment requirements, such as missing any of the scheduled appointments, the hiring agency may rescind their tentative offer of employment. Applying to this announcement certifies that you give permission for TSA to share your application with others in DHS for similar positions. Any offers of employment made pursuant to this announcement will be consistent with all applicable authorities, including Presidential Memoranda, Executive Orders, interpretive U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) guidance, and Office of Management and Budget plans and policies concerning hiring. These authorities are subject to change.

How to apply

All of the following must be received in our office by 11:59 PM EST (Eastern Standard time) on the closing date of this announcement. If we do not receive all required information by the closing date, your application may not be considered. The vacancy questionnaire includes four short, free-response essay questions. This provides an opportunity for you to highlight your dedication to public service for the hiring manager and agency leadership (or designee(s)). While your responses are not required and will not be scored, we encourage you to thoughtfully address each question. Please provide a response of 200 words or less to each question. You will be asked to certify that you are using your own words and did not use a consultant or artificial intelligence (AI) such as a large language model (LLM) like ChatGPT or Copilot. To apply for this position, you must complete the online application and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section above. Your application must include: Resume Applicable supporting documents (see Required Documents Section) To begin, click Apply to access the online application. You will need to be logged into your USAJOBS account to apply. If you do not have a USAJOBS account, you will need to create one before beginning the application. Follow the prompts to select your résumé and/or other supporting documents to be included with your application package. You will have the opportunity to upload additional documents to include in your application before it is submitted. If you are required to complete any USA Hire Assessments, you will be notified after submitting your application. The notification will be provided in your application submission screen and via email. The notification will include your unique assessment access link to the USA Hire system and the completion deadline. Additionally, in USAJOBS you can click "Track this application" to return to your assessment completion notice. Access USA Hire using your unique assessment link. Access is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Review all instructions prior to beginning your assessments. You will have the opportunity to request a testing accommodation before beginning the assessments should you have a disability covered under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended. Set aside about two (2) 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 later, you can re-use your unique assessment link. 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 update your application, including supporting documentation: During the announcement open period, return to your USAJOBS account, find your application record, and click Edit my application. This option will no longer be available once the announcement has closed. To view the announcement status or your application status: Visit https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/howto/application/status/. 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. Veterans and Persons with disabilities possess a wealth of unique talents, experiences, and competencies that can be invaluable to the DHS mission. If you are a member of one of these groups, you may not have to compete with the public for federal jobs. To determine your eligibility for non-competitive appointment and to understand the documentation that is required, click on the links above or contact the Servicing Human Resources Office listed at the bottom of this announcement.