Safety and Occupational Health Specialist

The incumbent will work in the Facilities Section of the Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy (CMOP) and will be responsible for the day-to-day technical administration of Safety and Occupational Health program.

Qualifications:

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 06/10/2026.

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. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: 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.

INDIVIDUAL OCCUPATIONAL REQUIREMENTS (IOR): To meet the individual occupational requirements for this position applicants must have:

Education

Undergraduate and Graduate Education: Major study -- 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

Experience

Specialized Experience (for positions above GS-5): 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. Examples of qualifying specialized experience include:

• 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.

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: Applicants must also meet the specialized experience for the GS-11 grade. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below:

• 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. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: 1) Administering and executing facility safety and fire prevention programs, including training, preparation of policies, reports, and correspondence; 2) Inspecting and testing fire protection equipment and systems in accordance with codes and policies; 3) Conducting accident investigations; 4) Reviewing, preparing and analyzing lost time and fire incidents, hazardous conditions and code deficiencies; 5) Providing technical support on safety, fire, and occupational health issues during the construction process (i.e., NFPA fire codes, life safety codes, OSHA requirements and other safety policies and procedures) . OR,
• Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree, 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree OR, LL.M., if related.
• Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond .

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:

• Accident Investigation
• First Response
• Public Safety and Security
• Health Risk Analysis
• Communication

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.

Physical Requirements: This position involves the performance of inspection activities which requires frequent extensive walking, standing, bending, climbing, crouching, reaching, and lifting of a variety of moderately heavy items such as large metal lids on storage containers.

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/.

Responsibilities:

Safety and Fire Prevention Program:

• Responsible for the administration and execution of the facility safety and fire prevention program, including preparation of all policies, reports, safety, occupations health and fire prevention-related correspondence.
• Responsible for assuring that inspection and testing of all fire protection equipment and systems is accomplished in accordance with codes and policies.
• Conducts general and fire safety training classes for all employees.
• Acts as a co-chair of the Emergency Preparedness Committee and follows up on the deficiencies found during Emergency Preparedness Drill.
• Conducts workplace inspections throughout the facility and storage areas.
• Substitutes for Supervisory Facilities Manager on committees as needed.
• Provides staff support with the risk management program in the area of patient safety and fire prevention incidents needing investigation.
• Serves as a general staff assistant for safety-related programs to the Director's Office, providing technical expertise, staff work, and guidance to the Director on pertinent program areas.

Accident Investigation and Inspection:

• Investigates lost time accidents and fire incidents.
• Prepares analyses of accident and injury trends for review and action by the facility Safety Committee.
• Reviews all accident reports for completeness, accuracy and adequacy of corrective actions.
• Conducts accident investigation; checks and analyzes accidents, illness, hazardous conditions and code deficiencies.
• Schedules hazard evaluations of any identified hazards and reviews all reports of hazards for completeness, accuracy, and adequacy of corrective actions.
• Responsible for the identification of hazards related to local construction activities.
• Analyzes safety, design features and specifications; identifies potential problem areas and suggests methodologies to control hazardous construction practices.
• Provides primary staff support in the area of property damage investigations and lost time case analysis.

Construction Inspection:

• Conducts pre-construction safety and fire prevention briefings with each contractor prior to issuance of notice to proceed.
• Provides technical support on safety, fire, and occupational health issues during construction process.
• Inspects construction sites to ensure OSHA, VA and MIOSHA job safety compliance on a continuing basis during facility construction projects.
• Performs Contracting Officer's Technical Representative (COTR) duties for assigned contracts.

Work Schedule: Monday through Friday, 7:30am - 4:00pm
Telework: This position is not authorized for telework.
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Position Description/PD#: Safety and Occupational Health Specialist/PD764010
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Salary : $74,678