Healthcare Engineer - Network

The incumbent serves as the authoritative technical expert responsible for the architecture, engineering, cybersecurity, and sustained operation of special purpose networked systems that are mission-critical to patient care, life safety, and regulatory compliance within a complex medical center environment. The position plans, designs, implements, integrates, and maintains high-availability server and network infrastructures supporting clinical, environmental, and compliance-driven systems.

Qualifications:

Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met.

Basic Requirements:

• United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• Education:
  • Bachelor's degree or higher in Engineering or Architecture. To be acceptable, the curriculum must be from a school with at least one curriculum accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Engineering Accreditation Commission (excludes engineering technology) or National Council of Architectural Registration Boards curriculum. Examples of acceptable engineering and architectural degrees include, but are not limited to: Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Architecture and Architectural Engineering. Titles may vary from educational institutions and change over time; -OR-
  • Evidence of passing the Fundamentals of Engineering Examination with a bachelor's degree. Evidence can be in the form of an Engineering in Training certificate issued from any State, the District of Columbia, Guam or Puerto Rico, or test results from the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) identifying a passing score; -OR-
  • Evidence of current professional registration or licensure as a Professional Engineer or Architect. Evidence of current professional registration or licensure can be from any State, the District of Columbia, Guam or Puerto Rico.

May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria).

Grade Determinations: In addition to the basic requirements, the following criteria must be met when determining the grade of candidates.

Healthcare Engineer, GS-12

• Experience. One year of experience equivalent to the next lower grade.
• Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs). In addition to meeting the experience requirements for this grade level, the candidate must fully demonstrate the following KSAs:
  • Knowledge of mechanical, electrical, structural, civil and other engineering/architectural principles, practices and their applications in the healthcare environment.
  • Knowledge of healthcare industry standards and related regulatory agency and organization (including, but not limited to The Joint Commission (TJC), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA), etc.) regulations, requirements, guides, policies, procedures, directives, standards and general medical program requirements as they relate to healthcare engineering.
  • Knowledge of construction standards, methods, practices and techniques, materials and equipment to determine compliance with engineering regulations and standards.
  • Skill in researching and analyzing information, conditions, human factors and projections to make sound engineering and business recommendations and decisions to proactively identify problems and develop innovative solutions within the context of applicable rules, regulations and procedures.
  • Ability to plan and execute complex, multi-faceted projects and inspections while prioritizing resources against approved scopes of work, contract documents and budgets.
  • Ability to organize and lead multi-disciplinary task forces with members from different departments and divisions, as well as design and construction firms.
• Assignment. Employees at this level serve as Healthcare Engineers at the full performance level. They work independently, under general supervision with wide latitude to exercise independent judgment. Healthcare Engineers demonstrate intimate grasp of high order healthcare engineering and capital subject matter. They serve as institutional resources for healthcare delivery processes and systems, working extensively with clinical stakeholders, acquisition staff, contractors and executive leadership by leading healthcare engineering programs, technology assessments, integration planning and 8 implementation of both current and emerging technologies. Healthcare Engineers support the delivery of healthcare to Veterans by contributing to the education of clinical staff, planners and leadership to ensure safe and efficient healthcare delivery. Healthcare Engineers plan, execute and document highly complex, multi-faceted healthcare facility construction projects and inspections while prioritizing resources against approved scopes of work, contract documents and budgets. They identify problems and develop innovative solutions within the context of applicable rules, regulations and procedures, as it relates to the healthcare environment.

Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/.

The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12.

Physical Requirements: The work is primarily sedentary, although some physical effort may be required, e.g., walking, standing, climbing ladders, stooping, kneeling, and carrying light items such as manuals or briefcases, or driving or traveling by motor vehicle.

Responsibilities:

The Healthcare Engineer operates in an environment where system failure, latency, or data loss carries immediate patient safety, financial, and accreditation risk, requiring expert judgment and rapid response. The work involves non-routine, highly complex engineering problems that cannot be resolved through standard operating procedures or vendor documentation alone and frequently requires original engineering solutions tailored to healthcare operations.

Duties of the Healthcare Engineer include, but are not limited to:

• Provides technical advice and guidance to the directorate and to contractor personnel to facilitate tasks and projects.
• Engineers, administers, and sustains dedicated on-premises and virtual servers supporting special purpose healthcare systems, including temperature monitoring, pharmaceutical storage compliance, laboratory environments, blood banks, operating rooms, and data centers.
• Designs high-availability and fault-tolerant architectures ensuring continuous monitoring and alerting to protect medications, biologics, vaccines, and patient-critical assets.
• Serves as the technical lead for TempTrak system infrastructure, ensuring reliable connectivity between sensors, gateways, application servers, and alerting mechanisms.
• Configures and maintains secure network pathways to support real-time monitoring, alert escalation, historical data retention, and regulatory reporting.
• Implements and maintains Defense-in-Depth strategies for special purpose servers, including segmentation, access controls, encryption, logging, and monitoring.
• Develops and maintains documentation, diagrams, and SOPs required for audits, inspections, and accreditation surveys.
• Designs and supports enterprise network solutions that integrate special purpose systems without degrading performance or security of the broader hospital network.
• Leads network changes impacting clinical infrastructure, including firewall changes, routing updates, switch configurations, and wireless connectivity required for monitoring devices.
• Acts as the subject matter expert (SME) for special purpose systems during construction, renovation, equipment replacement, and system expansion projects.
• Leads or supports multidisciplinary teams during system outages, environmental excursions, or emergent risk scenarios.
• Communicates complex technical information to clinical and executive leadership in a clear, actionable manner.

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday; 8:00am- 4:30pm
Recruitment Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): Not Authorized.
Permanent Change of Station (Relocation Assistance): Not Authorized.
Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases. When setting pay, a higher step rate of the appropriate grade may be determined after consideration of higher or unique qualifications or special needs of the VA (Above Minimum Rate of the Grade).
Paid Time Off: 37-50 days of annual paid time offer per year (13-26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year)
Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior [work experience] or military service experience.
Parental Leave: After 12 months of employment, up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child.
Child Care Subsidy: After 60 days of employment, full time employees with a total family income below $144,000 may be eligible for a childcare subsidy up to 25% of total eligible childcare costs for eligible children up to the monthly maximum of $416.66.
Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA
Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement)
Telework: Ad-hoc, based on supervisory discretion.
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Functional Statement #: 31316-F
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized.

Salary : $417