Food Safety Specialist

Food Safety Specialist

Department: Department of Agriculture

Location(s): Salt Lake City, Utah, Seattle, Washington, Phoenix, Arizona, Los Angeles, California, San Francisco, California, Denver, Colorado, Washington, District of Columbia, Miami, Florida, Atlanta, Georgia, Chicago, Illinois, Indianapolis, Indiana, New Orleans, Louisiana, Boston, Massachusetts, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Kansas City, Missouri, Albuquerque, New Mexico, New York, New York, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Portland, Oregon, Austin, Texas

Salary Range: $105383 - $137000 Per Year

Job Summary: This position is in the Office of Field Operations (OFO), Recall Management and Technical Analysis Staff (RMTAS) and is responsible for leading and coordinating the recall and technical analysis processes affecting domestic and international operations in support of FSIS' public health mission.

Major Duties:

• Participate in investigating contamination incidents and foodborne illness outbreaks.
• Leads recall actions taken on meat and poultry products, including coordinating recall committee activities, and interacting with other agency components to determine control and disposition of product.
• Work with other FSIS program areas to develop and implement new programs, procedures, and inspection processes.
• Keep abreast of research and other information concerning the development of new inspection methods and will collaborate with OPPD to develop policy to implement new changes.
• Develop reports, make oral presentations at conferences, meetings, and forums on behalf of OFO.
• Coordinates teams of inter/intra-agency personnel in factfinding, analyses, studies, and recommendations for resolution of immediate incidents affecting public health and food safety
• Conducts technical analyses to identify, analyze, and make recommendations to resolve general wide-ranging problems related to public health and inspection methods
• Participates in major projects and performs highly complex analytical studies to define and analyze program needs, develop, and implement new inspection procedures and methods.
• Serves as an OFO point of contact for questions and inquiries regarding inspection activities including the FSIS recall process
• Analyzes inspection data to identify trends and develops recommendations for improvements.

Qualifications: Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement including time-in-grade restrictions, specialized experience and/or education, as defined below. Time in grade: Applicants must meet one year at the next lower grade to be considered for the next higher grade (e.g. one year at the GS-12 grade level for consideration for the GS-13 grade level). Applicants must have one year of specialized experience (equivalent to the GS-12 level) that demonstrates: Responsibility for providing authoritative guidance and advice to food inspection and industry personnel on complex, unusual or controversial matters covering a full range of inspection matters, regulations, policies, and procedures. Applying laws and regulations associated with a compliance or inspection program for meat, poultry, or egg products. Experience conducting investigations related to food safety issues. Experience with recalls and/or food safety issues and emergencies. 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; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

How to Apply: Please read the entire announcement and all instructions before you begin. You must complete this application process and submit all required documents electronically by 11:59p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on the closing date of this announcement. Applying online is highly encouraged. We are available to assist you during business hours (normally 8:00a.m. - 4:00p.m., Monday - Friday). If applying online poses a hardship, contact the Agency Contact listed below well before the closing date for an alternate method. All hardship application packages must be complete and submitted no later than noon ET on the closing date of the announcement to be entered into the system prior to its closing. Resumes must not exceed two pages. To begin, click "Apply" and follow the instructions to complete the Assessment Questionnaire and attach your resume and all required documents. 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: Click on this: https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/how-to/application/status/. 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. Please verify that documents you are uploading from USAJOBs transfer into the Agency's staffing system as there is a limitation to the number of documents that can be transferred. However, once in the Agency's staffing system, you will have the opportunity to upload additional documents. Uploaded documents must be less than 5MB and in one of the following document formats: GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, PDF, TXT or Word (DOC or DOCX). Do not upload Adobe Portfolio documents because they are not viewable. Please ensure your resume does not exceed two pages. Applicants who submit a resume that exceeds two pages will be removed from consideration. This agency provides reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities on a case-by-case basis; contact the Agency Contact to request this. Alternative Methods for Applying: If you are unable to apply using the internet, please fax your request for an application package along with your name and mailing address to HR: 1-833-840-9219. Our office cannot be responsible for incompatible software, your system failure, etc.

Application Deadline: 2025-12-11