Department of Veterans Affairs

Food Service Worker Leader

Sioux Falls, South Dakota Full time

Food Service Worker Leader

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Salary Range: $22.67 - $26.46 Per Hour

Job Summary: This position is located in the Nutrition and Food Services within the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Administration. The primary purpose of this position is to perform, lead and train employees in food service operations including food handling, preparation, storage, and delivery.

Major Duties:

  • Lead/training duties and responsibilities include: Leads the activities of the production and service areas; Provides on-the-job, formal and informal training to lower graded food service works and documents training; Reviews daily work assignments and makes adjustments accordingly; Communicates instructions and information to employees concerning work to be accomplished; Relays any problems and/or events to supervisors and managers; Trains food service staff in safe food handling practices; Utilizes approved training programs and various training media; Completes safety and sanitation inspection checks; Ensures food production and service areas are properly set up; Performs final check of trays for proper temperature and accuracy as indicated on tray ticket; Observes work performance of employees and provides feedback to supervisors; Participates in performance improvement programs and documents quality improvement data; Performs other related duties as assigned. Food service duties and responsibilities include: Sets up tray line station with correct supplies and food items; Serves food, cafeteria style; Breaks down and cleans assigned station; Sets up dining room tables for service; Prepares individual and bulk nourishments and supplemental foods/beverages; Determines the quantities of ingredients needed; Makes conversions between the metric system to standard system; Performs heavy duty cleaning tasks throughout food service areas; Provides assistance to cooks in the food preparation areas; Performs other related duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Compressed Tour to include rotating weekends and holidays. Position Description Title/PD#: Food Service Worker Leader/PD99918S Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized The VA Midwest Health Care Network advocates for a Whole Health System of care in each of the Medical Centers. This is an approach to healthcare that empowers and equips people to take charge of their health and well-being and live their lives to the fullest. As an employee operating in a Whole Health System of care, you will operate in a model with three core elements, seeking to create a personalized health plan for each Veteran. This is done in the context of healing relationships and healing environments and a connection back to the Veteran's community. This aligns with the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Mission Statement to Honor America's Veterans by providing exceptional health care that improves their health and well-being.

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 05/01/2026. 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. For this position, the job element method is used to match what you, the applicant, can do against what the work calls for. Your knowledge, skills, and abilities will be compared to the knowledge, skills, and abilities (called job elements) needed for success. SCREEN-OUT ELEMENT: Your qualifications will first be evaluated against the prescribed screen out element, "Ability to Lead," which usually appears as question 1 in the on-line questionnaire. Applicants who appear to meet the screen out element are considered for further rating; those who do not are rated ineligible and are eliminated from consideration. 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 While a specific length of training and experience is not required, your responses to the questionnaire must be supported by detailed descriptions of your experience on your resume. 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: 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 up to 18 kilograms (40 pounds) and occasionally lift or move objects weighing more than 60 pounds. Working Conditions: 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.

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 05/01/2026 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire, click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12945378. 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/ The Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified, you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified (have a final rating of 85 or more) for this vacancy. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/.

Application Deadline: 2026-05-01