Food Service Worker Leader

Food Service Worker Leader

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Montrose, New York

Salary Range: $27.72 - $32.31 Per Hour

Job Summary: Nutrition and Food Service at VA Hudson Valley seeks a Food Service Worker Leader for food production and service at the Montrose VA Medical Center. The role leads Wage Grade staff in food service and production units, using judgment to plan and organize work. The leader must understand all types of diets, including modified and combination diets.

Major Duties:

• Training: Responsible for training Food Service employees in the Food Service and Production Section. Trains lower grade employees and provides on-the-job training of new Food Service and Production employees as requested by the immediate supervisor. Trains lower grade employees in safe food handling practices, utilizing programs training programs approved by the FDA Food Code, i.e. ServSafe. Trains new employees in departmental standard operating procedures. Trains in continuing and new education in food safety, service techniques, customer service and Nutrition and Food Service policy. Utilizes various training media to deliver necessary training. Leading Work: Encourages and coordinates employees to fully utilize their time and to fulfill their assigned tasks in an efficient and satisfactory manner. Works with employees in planning and organizing duties to accomplish work objectives and foster a team effort. Makes necessary adjustments when there are unforeseen circumstances that may change the staff needs and methods of the operational needs of the service. Checks work while in progress and when finished to see whether the instructions on work sequence, procedures, methods and deadlines have been met by lower-grade employees. Maintains a wide knowledge of food service operations, is capable of performing all lower graded tasks. Ensures a safe clean area to work and working climate where employees function efficiently and effectively. Embodies the concepts of customer service and emphasize its importance with employees in the performance of an individual's duty. Performs duties of lower grade food service workers if staffing requires. Assists and participates in quality improvement projects assigned from the immediate supervisor. Communicates significant day-to-day events to the immediate supervisor and receives instructions should changes in established procedures and policies change. Ensures all areas of responsibility are clean and orderly and are left that way at the end of tour of duty. Follows up on sanitation inspection action items. Assures proper food handling techniques are used and good personal hygiene is used according to established policies and procedures. Collaborates with the Food Service Supervisors. Leads food production and delivery activities in the absence of a Supervisor or Food Production Manager. Participates and works with the section's supervisors in obtaining needed information and in decision-making to resolve problems that arise within the service and/or have a significant impact with established policies and procedures. Identifies existing or potential safety hazards and promptly notifies the immediate supervisor. Takes appropriate action by following established policies and procedures and reports to the immediate supervisor if an employee injury occurs on the job. Ensures that all equipment and/or tools are operated in a safe manner. Participates in various quality improvement projects such as test tray evaluations, safety and sanitation inspections and/or other projects as assigned. Serves as backup timekeeper for the site and maintains service record cards for all employees. Posts employees time and attendance on a daily basis utilizing VA computerized timekeeping software. Performs other duties as assigned by the immediate supervisor. Work Schedule: 5:30am-2pm; 6am to 2:30pm; 10:30am-7:00pm Position Description Title/PD#: Food Service Worker Leader/PD99918A Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved. Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 05/11/2026. EXPERIENCE: A specific length of training and experience is not required, but you must show evidence of training or experience of sufficient scope and quality of your ability to do the work of this position. Evidence which demonstrates you possess the knowledge, skills, and ability to perform the duties of this position must be supported by detailed descriptions of such on your resume. Applicants will be rated in accordance with the OPM Federal Wage System Qualification Standards. SCREEN-OUT ELEMENT: Your qualifications will first be evaluated against the prescribed screen out element, which usually appears as question 1 in the on-line questionnaire. Those applicants who appear to possess at least the minimal acceptable qualification requirement are considered for further rating; those who do not are rated ineligible and are eliminated. The potential eligibles are then rated against the remainder of the Job Elements: Dexterity and Safety Interpret Instructions, Specifications (other than blueprint reading) Lead or Supervise Materials Technical Practices Use and Maintain Tools and Equipment Work Practices 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. Note: 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. Physical Requirements/Working Conditions: Required to perform heavy work, such as scouring and scrubbing large size cooking utensils and pushing heavy carts and trucks in unloading, storing, and delivering supplies. Subject to continuous standing and walking and frequent stooping, reaching, pushing, pulling and bending. May be required to work on ladders and news powered cleaning equipment. Frequently lift or move objects waiting weighing 18 kilograms (40 pounds) and occasionally lift or move objects weighing more than 60 pounds. Work is performed in the kitchen areas. Steam and heat from cooking and dishwashing equipment often causes uncomfortably high temperatures and high humidity. Work area is well lighted and noise levels exist from food service activities. Danger of slipping on floors where food or beverages have been dropped. Regularly exposed to hot liquids, sharp cutting blades, hot working surfaces and extreme temperature changes when entering into walking refrigeration or freezing units. Will be working under stress and pressure in order to meet established schedules with unforeseen circumstances and/or frequent interruptions in the normal production and services of food to patients. Must be able to adjust work pace to meet fluctuating workload while demonstrating the ability to perform all required duties under pressure.

How to Apply: All applicants are encouraged to apply online. To apply for this position, you must complete the questionnaire and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section below. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on 05/11/2026 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire, click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12943880. 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 and complete the occupational questionnaire. Click Submit My Answers to submit your application package. NOTE: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date. During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions. 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. If initial application submission is updated and resubmitted with a new resume, only the most current resume will be reviewed for consideration. 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 https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/merit-hiring-plan-resources/applicant-guidance-on-the-two-page-resume-limit/ 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.

Application Deadline: 2026-05-11