Health Physicist (Radiation Safety)

Health Physicist (Radiation Safety)

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Salary Range: $76446 - $99375 Per Year

Job Summary: Radiation Safety Officer directs the managerial aspects of the Radiation Safety Program, ensuring all procedures and regulatory requirements are following Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRG) rules and regulations. This position is located within the VAPHS, serving thousands of unique patients and providing more than 117,000 radiological procedures annually. Supports clinical operations, research programs and teaching activities that deal with ionizing radiation and radioactive material.

Major Duties:

• The duties of this position are but not limited to: The Radiation Safety Officer is responsible for assisting in maintaining safe and healthy settings for research and clinical activities. Develops and reviews radiation safety aspects of clinical procedures Plans and directs special studies concerning uses of radiation sources, radiation exposure of personnel, patients and public Plans and implements safety and health programs to perform diagnostic and therapeutic procedures based on the results of the special studies Conducts special analyses of high complexity and manipulates radiation data using advanced equipment such as scintillation detector systems, multichannel analyzers, and computer systems. Determines the daily body retention of radiopharmaceutical in each patient 's body during in-house radiation therapy. Approves if radiopharmaceutical therapy patients can have some clinical tests, such as x-rays, blood drawing; assures x-ray machines are quality control tested annually by the contracted medical physicist. Provides expert radiation advice and guidance to researchers in designing and conducting experiments involving radiation sources. Determines when therapy patients can be discharged. Manages the postmortem of patients who received radiopharmaceuticals. Performs special surveys of patients and rooms used for radiopharmaceutical therapy, giving instructions and recommendations to patients, nursing, and medical staff when appropriate, regarding radiation protection. Oversees the radioactive waste management program to include collect, handle, store, process and dispose of radiological wastes. Monitors the occupational dose for >350 individual radiation workers. Ensures that occupational dose records are reviewed and maintained per regulatory requirements. Manages the inventory and security of all radioactive sealed sources. Conducts quarterly inventories and semi-annual leak testing per regulatory requirements. Ensures the annual calibration of all Geiger counters, ionization chambers and other radiation safety instruments per regulatory requirements. Provides technical assistance and instruction to the VAPHS Decontamination Team. Work Schedule: 7:00am to 3:30pm, Monday thru Friday Position Description Title/PD#: Health Physicist (Radiation Safety)~/PD646-05251-0 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Physical Requirements: While there are no standard physical requirements for this position, work is sedentary in nature and requires the ability to cope with diverse projects and frequent time pressures, as well as managing situations that require diplomacy. There are times that projects demand that the incumbent can work under stress, the ability to meet short deadlines and cope with changing priorities and ability to handle multiple projects and tasks of varied nature simultaneously. Occasional travel is required within the University Drive and H.J. Heinz facilities. Some slight physical effort may be required such as walking and carrying light to medium items. Incumbent's work demands use of computer terminal. Work is generally performed in an office setting. Travel to any of the VAPHS CBOCs may also be required.

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below. Please note, this position requires and individual occupational requirement in addition to qualifications for the GS-11 grade level: Basic Requirement (Individual Occupational Requirement): Successful completion of at least a full 4-year course of study in Natural Science or Engineering that included at least 30 semester hours in Health Physics, Engineering, Radiological Science, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Mathematics, and/or Calculus. OR, Combination of both education and experience that includes 30 courses semester hours in Health Physics, Engineering, Radiological Science, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Mathematics, and/or Calculus, plus appropriate experience or other education; or certification as a health physicist by the American Board of Health Physics, plus appropriate experience and other education that provided an understanding of sciences applicable to health physics comparable to that of described Health Physics, Engineering, Radiological Science, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Mathematics, and/or Calculus. AND Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-09 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Experience working in patient safety to include dealing with radiological product/waste. Knowledge of and skill in applying qualitative and/or quantitative, methodologies, and techniques of analysis and evaluation to plan, and conduct a variety, of analyses to assess and improve efficiency and effectiveness, and to identify and, recommend solutions and, strategies: to complex problems associated with the management of a complex health care system. Skilled to plan, organize, and develop studies/projects, and to direct team study work and integrate the work of others into a cohesive final product to develop policies, directives, and procedures, to addressing complex and controversial issues. Knowledge of a variety of Management Information System(s) various computer software programs and automated data processing concepts and systems in accomplishing assignments, developing, and implementing reviews and studies to generated products; plan and schedule studies/reviews; gather data; prepare charts, graphs, and reports; etc. Knowledge of the pertinent accrediting agencies and regulatory bodies, standards, regulations, and policies such as: The Joint Commission, National Council on Radiation Protection (NCRP), International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAMP).. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have successfully completed a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or successfully completed (3) years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree if related to Health Physics, Engineering, Radiological Science, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Mathematics, and/or Calculus. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond . Evidence of specialized experience must be supported by detailed documentation of duties performed in positions held on your resume. You must provide work experience information such as hours per week, salary, and starting/ending dates of employment (month and year format). Experience must be related to or in Health Physics, Engineering, Radiological Science, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Mathematics, and/or Calculus. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Analysis and Problem Solving Compliance Hazardous Materials Health Physics Technical Competence 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. 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/.

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 11/20/2025 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12832404. 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.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 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. The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal/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 for this vacancy. To be well-qualified: applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are proficient in most of the required competencies of the job. 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/. 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.

Application Deadline: 2025-11-20