Environmental Protection Specialist

Environmental Protection Specialist

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Portland, Oregon

Salary Range: $80465 - $104610 Per Year

Job Summary: The purpose of this position is to perform the full range of responsibilities of an Environmental Protection Specialist in accomplishing a wide range of complex assignments that require extensive training and experience in planning and administering environmental programs.

Major Duties:

• Major duties include, but are not limited to: Responsible for planning and implementing a comprehensive GEMS program at the VA Portland Health Care System (VAPORHCS). assumes a lead role in the development of facility environmental policy and procedural documentation for the main campuses of Portland and Vancouver, offsite locations, and Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC) in West Linn; Salem; Newport; Hillsboro; North Coast; Bend; Fairview; The Dalles, and CRRC. The environmental protection specialist completes permits and leads facility self assessments, inspections, and other environmental investigations. He/she works with facility leadership to integrate environmental considerations into planning and operational activities. Directs, supports, and is a primary contributor to the development of facility environmental policies, programs, and procedural documentation that meets or exceeds compliance with federal, state, and local statutes, ordinances, and regulations. Responsible for GEMS program management (ISO 14001) to assure compliance with applicable laws and regulation for air emissions, wastewater discharge, solid and hazardous waste, fuel and oil storage, and spill prevention, among other areas. Chairs the local GEMS Committee, participates in VISN and VA national level GEMS committees, including the GEMS National Advisory Group (GEMSAG) and/or other national policy determining committees or groups. Interacts with federal, state, and local environmental agencies with respect to facility environmental issues. The employee's routine contacts not only include local staff, management, and senior management, but also VISN and VACO level committees and workgroups as well as Federal, state and local agencies. Involved with disaster planning and planning groups for potential national and local environmental disasters. Routine and independent contact includes, but is not limited to, meeting with agency representatives to discuss permit conditions and renewals, serving as a liaison for VAPORHCS during both routine and unannounced inspections and audits of VAPORHCS, and negotiating fines. Leads environmental audits and incident investigations, conducts root cause analysis, actively participates in Environment of Care Round inspections, develops corrective actions, tracks incidents to closure, supports environmental sustainability initiatives, develops contracts for and manages hazardous waste and other environmental safety related program management, serves as a Contracting Officer's Representative (COR), and generates appropriate procurement actions and supporting documentation for products and services. Amongst contracts and procurement, the employee is responsible for monitoring and ensuring facility permits with regulatory agencies are maintained, current, and paid in a timely manner so as to avoid fines/penalties. Provides training on a host of environmental laws, regulations and policies to VAPORHCS employees of various disciplines, educational backgrounds, and experience ranging from department managers, physicians, nurses, technicians, and other staff at higher, equivalent and lower grades. Leads, construction project reviews to determine environmental impacts, verify and confirm environmental compliance requirements, and assess environmental risk controls. Hosts and coordinates VISN 20 GEMS conferences with the support of the VISN 20 GEMS Consultant. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday; 7:30a.m. - 4:00p.m. (PST) Telework: This is not a telework position. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Environmental Protection Specialist/PD214610 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized. Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved. Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized.

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet time-in-grade and specialized experience requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement, 05/12/2026. 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 within 30 days of 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. Driver's License Requirement: Applicants must possess a current, valid state-issued Driver's License is required for this position. NOTE: We cannot accept photographs, therefore; please do not submit a copy of your license with your application package. If an interview is requested, you will be required to provide a copy of your current, valid state-issued Driver's License. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: 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: Investigating, developing and implementing a wide range of plans in support of environmental programs; Understanding and using technical material, rules, laws and regulations pertaining to environmental management of solid waste, hazardous materials, etc.; Providing scientific or technical guidance, support, coordination, or oversight to governmental agencies.; Identifying and analyzing problems, generating alternative solutions, evaluating findings and recommendations to support mission requirements; Making recommendations supported by facts by gathering, analyzing and organizing information and conducting comparative analyses. NOTE: Experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month and year start/end dates AND hours worked per week. 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., in a course of study directly related to this position. NOTE: Transcripts must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have a combination of specialized experience and graduate education beyond the second year (36 semester hours) to qualify. To determine if you met these requirements, total your qualifying experience as a percentage of the experience required for the grade level; then determine your education as a percentage of the education required for the grade level; then add the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify. NOTE: Transcripts must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation. 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/. 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. Your experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month and year start/end dates AND hours worked per week. 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.

How to Apply: Please read the entire announcement and all the instructions before you begin an application. To apply for this position, you must complete the initial online application, to include the initial online questionnaire and submission of the required documentation specified in the How to Apply and Required Documents section. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on the closing date of the announcement to receive consideration. To preview the application questionnaire, click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12950752. The application process is as follows: To begin, click Apply Online to create a USA JOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USA JOBS resume and/or other supporting documents. Answer the questions presented in the application and attach all necessary supporting documentation. Click the Submit Application button prior to 11:59 PM (ET) on the announcement closing date, 05/12/2026. If you are required to complete any USA Hire Assessments, you will be notified after submitting your application. The notification will be provided in your application submission screen and via email. The notification will include your unique assessment access link to the USA Hire system and the completion deadline. Additionally, in USAJOBS you can click "Track this application" to return to your assessment completion notice. Access USA Hire using your unique assessment link. Access is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Review all instructions prior to beginning your assessments. You will have the opportunity to request a testing accommodation before beginning the assessments should you have a disability covered under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended. Set aside at least 3 hours to take the USA Hire Assessments; however, most applicants complete the assessments in less time. If you need to stop the assessments and continue later, you can re-use your unique assessment link. NOTE: Your responses to the USA Hire Assessments will be reused for one year (in most cases) from the date you complete an assessment. If future applications you submit require completion of the same assessments, your responses will be automatically reused. Visit the USA Hire Applicant Resource Center for practice assessments and assessment preparation resources at https://support-usahire.opm.gov/hc/en-us. To update your application, including supporting documentation: During the announcement open period, return to your USAJOBS account, find your application record, and click Edit my application. This option will no longer be available once the announcement has closed. To view the announcement status or your application status: https://help.usajobs.gov/how-to. Your application status page is where you can view your application status, USA Hire assessment completion status, and review your notifications sent by the hiring agency regarding your application. 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. Helpful Hints for Creating a Two-Page Resume: Prioritize most relevant and recent experience Use concise, results focused language Align language from the job announcement Focus on demonstrating skills and competencies Remove outdated or unrelated experience Use the USAJOBS resume builder Additional guidance on this new requirement and resume building tools can be found at https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit

Application Deadline: 2026-05-12