Summary The incumbent serves as an industrial Hygienist assigned to the New Mexico Veterans Affairs Health Care System. Responsible for providing independent and comprehensive Industrial Hygiene (IH) services (including but not limited to, written industrial hygiene reports within the area of responsibility of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and might include responsibilities in one or more specialized areas, such as research safety, radiation, exposure to agents. Responsibilities Major duties include: Performs Industrial Hygiene (IH) surveys on a scheduled, request, or emergency basis to evaluate a wide variety of occupational health hazards that encompass a broad spectrum of work activities. Conduct studies of work operations and processes, examining work environments, analyzing findings, promulgating recommendations, and preparing various reports. Inspects the medical center to identify potential occupational health hazards and the need for further investigative studies and surveys. Performs state-of-the-art technical training, information, guidance or direction on IH and varied occupation health issues. Plans and manages industrial hygiene and environmental construction projects that are related to achieving and maintaining compliance. Develop standard operating procedures and implement environmental policy, guidance and procedures. Interprets results of studies for the work environment in terms of possible impairment to health, nature of health impairment, potential for medical center damages, etc. Receives and disposes of hazardous wastes and maintains appropriate records in accordance with Environmental Protection Agency standards, state laws, and Veteran Affairs regulations. Provides support to one or multiple boards and committees, such as the Safety Committee, Accident Review Board, Construction Committees and/or Environment of Care Committee. Appears on root cause analysis panels dealing with occupational health matters and the application of federal and state regulations. Work Schedule: Monday to Friday, 7:30am - 4:00pm Position Description Title/PD#: Industrial Hygienist/PD14602A Physical Requirements: The performance of duties requires long periods of walking, standing, crawling, kneeling and bending. Moderate lifting and carrying of equipment, use of personal protective devices, and work in hazardous and confined spaces is required. Use of all appendages, good vision, and hearing are necessary. Emotional and mental stability are required. As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider: your performance and conduct; the needs and interests of the agency; whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service Requirements Conditions of Employment You must be a U.S. citizen to apply for this job Subject to a background/suitability investigation Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959 A complete application package; Resume, Transcripts, etc. is required 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 identification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment. Upon completion of your probationary period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest. Beginning September 27, 2025, Federal agencies will only accept resumes up to two pages in length to comply with the Merit Hiring Plan. Resumes longer than two pages will result in ineligibility for further consideration for the position. USAJOBS will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages, and you will need to update the resumes in your profile before applying for a job. Resumes should include information relevant to the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of the position to which you are applying. VA is unable to make assumptions about qualifications if not clearly listed. Resumes must be legible so they can be reviewed for eligibility, minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement. Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started. Qualifications To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement. Basic Requirements. Applicants must meet one of the following requirements: A bachelor's or graduate/higher level degree in industrial hygiene, occupational health sciences, occupational and environmental health, toxicology, safety sciences, or related science (TRANSCRIPT REQUIRED); or A bachelor's degree in a branch of engineering, physical science, or life science that included 12 semester hours in chemistry, including organic chemistry, and 18 additional semester hours of courses in any combination of chemistry, physics, engineering, health physics, environmental health, biostatistics, biology, physiology, toxicology, epidemiology, or industrial hygiene (TRANSCRIPT REQUIRED); or Certification from the Board for Global EHS Credentialing (formerly American Board of Industrial Hygiene(external link) (ABIH)) (CERTIFICATION DOCUMENTATION REQUIRED). All science or engineering courses offered in fulfillment of the basic requirements must be acceptable for credit toward the completion of a standard 4-year professional curriculum leading to a bachelor's degree in science or engineering at an accredited college or university. For engineering degrees to be acceptable, the curriculum must be in a school of engineering with at least one curriculum accredited by the ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) as a professional engineering curriculum. GS-11 grade level: Specialized Experience. One year of specialized experience (equivalent to the GS-9 grade level in the federal service); experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA's) and other characteristics to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled, in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. The experience involves the recognition, evaluation, corrective actions, and elimination of environmental conditions in the workplace that causes sickness, impaired health, or illness. This experience demonstrates a professional knowledge of the theory and application of the principles of industrial hygiene and closely related sciences such as physics and engineering controls. Such work involved experience in all of the following areas: the acquisition of quantitative and qualitative data, and the measurement of exposures for a variety of chemical, physical, and biological stresses; the analysis of the data acquired and the prediction of probable effects of exposures on the health and well-being of workers; and the selection and recommendation of appropriate controls, including management, medical, engineering, education or training, and personal protective equipment. Specialized experience at or equivalent to the GS-9 level includes providing independent Industrial Hygiene services such as written industrial hygiene reports, researching safety, radiation, exposure to agents, respiratory protection program, asbestos control, water safety and testing, accident review infection control and prevention, waste management, construction safety, sterile processing or other areas as related to industrial hygiene. OR Applicants may substitute education for the experience required for the GS-11 level. 3 years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree (TRANSCRIPT REQUIRED) OR Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at the GS-11 level. To calculate, first identify the percentage of required education you have earned. Then identify the percentage of required experience you possess. Add the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify at the GS-11. Only graduate level education in excess of two years of progressively higher level graduate education may be combined with experience. (TRANSCRIPT REQUIRED) 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. Education 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. 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. VA supports the use of telework as a way to help attract and retain talented individuals in public service, increase worker productivity, and better prepare the agency to operate during emergencies. This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. Participation in the seasonal influenza program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP). It is a requirement that all HCP to receive annual seasonal influenza vaccination or obtain an exemption for medical or religious reasons. Wearing a face mask is required when an exemption to the influenza vaccination has been granted. HCP in violation of this directive may face disciplinary action up to and including removal from federal service. HCP are individuals who, during the influenza season, work in VHA locations or who come into contact with VA patients or other HCP as part of their duties. VHA locations include, but are not limited to, VA hospitals and associated clinics, community living centers (CLCs), community-based outpatient clinics (CBOCs), domiciliary units, Vet centers and VA-leased medical facilities. HCP include all VA licensed and unlicensed, clinical and administrative, remote and onsite, paid and without compensation, full- and part-time employees, intermittent employees, fee basis employees, VA contractors, researchers, volunteers and health professions trainees (HPTs) who are expected to perform any or all of their work at these facilities. HPTs may be paid or unpaid and include residents, interns, fellows and students. HCP also includes VHA personnel providing home-based care to Veterans and drivers and other personnel whose duties put them in contact with patients outside VA medical facilities. The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be well-qualified, applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors if applicable, and must be proficient in most of the requirements of the job. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website which can be found at https://www.opm.gov/. This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement.
