Summary This position is located within the Police Service of the VA Medical Center in Greater Los Angeles. The mission of the Police Service is to serve and protect Veterans, patients, employees, contractors, volunteers, affiliates, visitors, and others who frequent VA facilities. Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: May be authorized to highly qualified applicants up to 25%. Responsibilities This is accomplished through crime prevention activities, typical law enforcement actions, emergency response capabilities, special training and tactics, weapons, and equipment and systems utilization. Serve as a physical security consultant to leadership and Police Services staff; Coordinate physical security programs nationally by coordinating efforts or functions that impact multiple medical centers and sites of care; Evaluate risk and develop procedures and physical security measures designed to safeguard personnel, property, and operations from unauthorized access, espionage, terrorism, sabotage, damage and theft; Ensure security requirements and appropriate safeguards, cameras, and panic and intrusion alarms are implemented; Monitor and evaluating existing and planned security projects to ensure timely and quality service conforms to statutory, contractual, and technical requirements; Collect information and preparing reports on the facility's compliance with VA operations and regulations; Conduct system audits and evaluates reports of alleged security violations; Establish, develop, and maintain effective working relationships with other staff offices; Meet and coordinate with key customers and officials to assess customer satisfaction, explain organization policy and procedure, and resolve problems that arise; Participate on special projects and initiatives, and performing special ad hoc assignments; Attend security meetings to gather and share new/changed security program information with security personnel; Develop documents, spreadsheets, graphs, reports and presentations using various automated systems and software packages; Ensure physical security surveys are followed up promptly; Perform related duties as required. Work Schedule: Compressed/Flexible Schedule. Candidates must be willing to work weekends, irregular work hours and extended hours if determined by the needs of the service. Furthermore, candidates must be willing to be placed, detailed, or temporarily assigned to other related services and/or locations, if necessary. Rotating shifts including holidays and weekends Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Physical Security Specialist/PD99798-S Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: May be authorized to highly qualified applicants. Requirements Conditions of Employment You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job To be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. In addition to the application and questionnaire, this position requires an online assessment. The online assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job. Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959 Physical Requirements: The work required does not inherently include any physical requirements essential for successful job performance that could not otherwise be performed with accommodation or workplace adjustment. A pre-placement physical examination is not required. You may be required to serve a probationary period Subject to background/security investigation Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued dentification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment. Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP) Applicants must possess or must be willing to obtain an 80 hour certification of a Physical Security Course (PSEC) from the VA Law Enforcement Training Center (LETC) in Little Rock, Arkansas within one year of appointment. Qualifications To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement. 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. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below. GS-11 MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: Your resume must demonstrate one year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade level (GS-09) level in the Federal service or equivalent experience in the private or public sector performing duties of a Physical Security Specialist including: coordinating physical security programs across multiple centers and sites of care; serving as a physical security consultant to leaders and management; monitoring and evaluating existing and planned security projects to ensure they conform to statutory, contractual, and technical requirements; providing input and collaborating with contracting officers to ensure VA and contractor compliance with Federal/VA security protocols during construction phases; and developing and implementing physical security measures and procedures to improve security processes. ~OR~ Successfully completed a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree, or 3 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree, or an LL.M. in a related field that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of this position. NOTE: Transcripts must be submitted with application. Education cannot be credited without documentation. ~OR~ Successfully completed equivalent combinations of successfully completed graduate level education and specialized experience which may be used to qualify for this position if the computed percentage of the requirements is at least 100%. Preferred Experience: To meet the needs of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Police Service and other VA non-police personnel with Physical Security Program the applicant should have the skills necessary to conduct physical security surveys and facility security assessments of VA facilities per VA policies and other governing national-level directives. The VA is looking for an applicant that can demonstrate their extensive experience with cutting-edge technology using Performance Logic (PL) to document Physical Security Surveys (PSS) and the Federal Protective Service's (FPS) Modified Infrastructure Survey Tool (MIST) to safeguard against undesirable events identified by the Interagency Security Committee (ISC). 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. Physical Requirements and Work Environment: The work is primarily sedentary and is accomplished in an office environment. Some walking and standing may occur in the course of a normal workday. 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/. Education Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for the GS-11 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, LL.M., if related. A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html. Additional Information "Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer. For more information about the Act and the complaint process, visit Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP) at The Fair Chance Act." Receiving Service Credit or Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior work experience or military service experience. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed. Special Employment Consideration: VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply, including those eligible for hiring under 5 CFR 213.3102(u), Schedule A, Appointment of persons with disabilities [i.e., intellectual disabilities, severe physical disabilities, or psychiatric disabilities], and/or Disabled veterans with a compensable service-connected disability of 30% or more. Contact the Agency Contact for information on how to apply under this appointment authority via the Selective Placement Coordinator. The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal/VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be well-qualified: applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are proficient in most of the required competencies of the job. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/. This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. If you are unable to apply online or need to fax a document you do not have in electronic form, view the following link for information regarding an Alternate Application.
