Job Summary

As the Supervisory Safety & Occupational Health Manager, assigned to Environmental Health and Safety Section of the Bruce W. Carter VA Medical Center in Miami, Florida, responsible for planning, designing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating program operations related to general occupational safety, industrial hygiene, fire prevention/life safety, hazardous materials and waste management, emergency preparedness, environmental risk management, and regulatory compliance.

Job Description

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 05/04/2026. 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-13 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-12. 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 Requirement (IOR) Requirement: An IOR is a basic requirement that must be met in order to qualify for the Safety and Occupational Health Management Series 0018. To qualify for this occupational series, applicants must have one of the following listed below: 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, Specialized experience: 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. In addition to the above IOR, applicants may qualify based on their specialized experience as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-12 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: expert knowledge of safety, fire protection, occupational and environmental health concepts, principles, practices and procedures, bodies of laws, and regulations (i.e., VHA, OSHA, NFPA, EPA, TJC, CARF, CAP, other Federal, state, and local governments); Practical knowledge in techniques and procedures applied by Safety managers, Fire Protection Engineers and Industrial Hygienists to coordinate hazard efforts; Provides expert consultation on the operation, implementation and expectations of the safety, fire protection, occupational and environmental health programs; Develops administrative documents such as performance standards, position descriptions, statistical reports, executive briefings; Develops policy and procedure for incident response, investigation, reporting and analysis; Uses guidelines, including standard instructions, technical literature, department policies and regulations, manufacturer catalogs, precedents and standard practices to manage a Safety and Occupational Health program. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Administration and Management Compliance Organizational Performance Analysis Technical Credibility 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. ***PREFERRED EXPERIENCE*** The best qualified applicant will have previous Supervisory Safety & Occupational Health Manager experience in a federal agency. The highly qualified applicant will have previous Supervisory Safety & Occupational Health Manager experience in a federal agency and fully meet the specialized experience as stated above. Will have documented experience related to supervisory duties as well as development and management of comprehensive program operations to achieve compliance with VHA, OSHA, JCAHO, NFPA, EPA, DOT, CARP, CAP and state and local ordinances. 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: The work is sedentary during non-emergency situations; however, on a regular and recurring basis, the incumbent participate in field exercises and operational support missions may require strenuous physical activity to include carrying persons and equipment, walking long distances, climbing, and working long hours, long periods of standing, bending, and stooping. May include various housing and living conditions to include non-climate controlled, limited privacy sleeping facilities (for example: cots, tents, "hot-bunking", gymnasiums, or similar), limited shower and laundry facilities, and limited feeding options (such as shelf-stable meals, meals-ready-to-eat (MREs), and field kitchens). Incumbent must have and maintain a valid motor vehicle operator's license. During emergency situations the incumbent may be required to remain available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week for multiple weeks. Incumbent is subject to work under emergency notification and contact procedures. EMS will be provided and must carry a government-provided mobile communication device. 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/.