Safety & Occupational Health Specialist

The Safety and Occupational Health Specialist is responsible for the comprehensive review of safety programs and the allocations of funds and contracts to ensure uninterrupted regulatory compliance and participates in administrative and technical support functions, including but not limited to, the review of program-related training instructions and the preparation of lesson plans, providing project support; and will be an active member of Medical Center committee's; quality management board(s).

Qualifications:

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 06/04/2026.

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-9. 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.

Basic Requirements:

This position has INDIVIDUAL OCCUPATIONAL REQUIREMENT which is a basic requirement that must be met to qualify for entry into this job series, To meet the basic requirement for the Safety and Occupational Health Specialist Occupational series, applicants must demonstrate one of the following:

• Undergraduate and/or Graduate Education with Major study as follows -- 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 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.

You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below:

Grade Requirements:

Safety and Occupational Health Specialist, GS-11

• Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-9 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Conducting risk assessments and recommending hazard controls; Investigating incidents involving radioactive materials and supporting laser safety controls and training; Performing follow-up inspections to verify corrective actions; Managing injury and illness program records, including OSHA case determinations and log entries; Scheduling and conducting surveys to identify workplace risks; Evaluating compliance with safety standards, policies, and procedures; Collecting and analyzing incident data to identify causes; Assisting with contract development and tracking; and preparing funding requests and micro-purchases. 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, or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree, or LL.M., if related. OR,
• Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond a Master's or equivalent graduate degree.

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:

Major duties include, but are not limited to the following:

• Performs risk assessments of any hazardous processes/conditions identified to recommend methods of control or elimination with supervisor and management officials.
• Conducts investigations of incidents involving radioactive materials in conjunction with the Radiation Safety Officer.
• Assists Laser Safety Officer with restricting access to lasers or laser systems through administrative controls, establishing workplace practices, and through the credentialing processes as needed.
• Conducts follow-up inspections to verify that corrective actions were taken.
• Responsible for the record keeping management, administration and implementation of the injury and illness program.
• Schedules surveys to identify and evaluate risk potentially involving a wide variety of work environments and occupations.
• Determines the extent to which physical and other conditions complied with required or accepted standards, their adherence to established safety policies and procedures, and the effectiveness of the assigned program.
• Gathers data, conducts assessments, reports, and analyzes factors and causes of incidents involving worker injuries or illnesses.
• Makes determinations of injuries and illnesses and recording on OSHA logs and related documents.
• Assists the Laser Safety Officer with facilitating the laser safety training program, establish training requirements and auditing training records for medical center staff.
• Assists management and EH&S staff to lead the development and tracking of new and existing contracts including oversight to ensure timeliness of submission with accurate records.
• Prepares funding requests and conducts micro-purchasing requests for EH&S Service.

May perform other duties as assigned.

Work Schedule: Monday through Friday, 8:00 am to 4:30 pm
Compressed/Flexible: Not Authorized
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Position Description/PD#: Safety & Occupational Health Specialist/PD14147O
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Salary : $85,307