Health Physicist (Radiation Safety)

This position is aligned under the Occupational Safety and Health/Emergency Management (OSH/EM) service at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center. The primary purpose of this position is to function as the Health Physicist/Assistant Radiation Safety Officer (ARSO) serving as an independent subject matter expert for the Radiation Safety Program to ensure that safety is maintained, policies are implemented, and providing expert, comprehensive radiation safety oversight for the Medical Center.

Qualifications:

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 06/22/2026.

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-09 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-07. 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:

INDIVIDUAL OCCUPATIONAL REQUIREMENT

(IOR): A degree in natural science or engineering that includes at least 30 semester hours in health physics, engineering, radiological science chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics, and/or calculus. ( Transcripts Required) OR, Possession of courses as per the education requirements above, plus appropriate experience or other education or certification as a health physicist by American Board of Health Physics, plus appropriate experience and other education that provided an understanding of sciences applicable to health physics comparable to the basic education as described above. ( Transcripts Required) In addition to the Individual Occupational Requirement (IOR) above, applicants must meet the following grade requirements. GS-09

Grade Determination:

Specialized Experience:

At least one (1) year of specialized experience to perform successfully the duties of the Health Physicist position, and that is typically in or related to the duties of this position. To be credible, specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the GS-07 grade level in the Federal Service.

Specialized experience includes:

Evaluating the background and with radioisotopes by prospective users and making recommendations to the RSO regarding such qualifications; Periodic inspections of services and facilities; Preparing written documents, reports and communications etc. OR, Substitution of Education for

Experience:

Masters or equivalent graduate degree, or successful completion of two (2) years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree if related and if such education demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of this position.

NOTE:

( Transcripts Required)

OR, Combination Education and Experience :

Equivalent combinations of successfully completed graduate education and specialized experience directly related to the work of the Health Physicist position, which may be substituted to meet the experience requirements of the position.

NOTE:

( Transcripts Required) GS-11

Grade Determination:

Specialized Experience:

At least one (1) year of specialized experience that equipped you with the experience to perform successfully the duties of the Health Physicist position, and that is typically in or related to the duties of this position. To be credible, specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the GS-09 level in the Federal Service. Specialized experience for this position consists of: Maintaining records of radioisotope inventory and waste disposal to assure compliance with the Permit possession limits; Providing signs and notices required by the NHPP and NRC to individual users as needed, and instructing individual users in the establishment and maintenance of their records which are under the supervision of the Radiation Safety Officer (RSO); Managing the calibration of programs to ensure all survey instruments and dose calibrators are calibrated; Providing advice and instruction to medical center personnel and research workers on issues bearing on radiation safety such as, administration of radioisotopes to patients, radioactive materials use, and the disposal of radioactivity; Developing and instructing seminars, classes and demonstrations for the instruction of medical and research personnel in the theory and practical aspects of radiation physics, radiation biology, radiation chemistry, statistics; Water sampling and hazardous and pharmaceutical waste collection. OR, Substitution of Education for

Experience:

Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree, or 3 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree, obtained in an accredited college or university, with a major field of study directly related to the position being filled.

NOTE:

(Transcripts Required)

OR, Combination Education and Experience :

Equivalent combinations of successfully completed graduate education and specialized experience directly related to the work of the Industrial Hygienist position may be used to meet the experience requirements for this position.

NOTE:

Only education in excess of 2 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education may be used to qualify at the grade 11 level. (Transcripts Required)

Physical Requirements:

The work is divided approximately equal between sedentary desk work and walking, bending, and climbing required to inspect laboratory and equipment installations. Some occasional crouching, stooping, reaching, and pushing of moderately heavy items such as carts may be required. Lifting moderately heavy items, devices and objects up to 50 pounds in weight may occasionally be required. A pre-placement physical examination is not required. 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/ .