Health Physicist (Radiation Safety)

Health Physicist (Radiation Safety)

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Charleston, South Carolina

Salary Range: $88621 - $115213 Per Year

Job Summary: The Health Physicist serves as the Radiation Safety Officer (RSO) for the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center. The position functions within the Director's Office with direct report to and under administrative direction of the Medical Center's Chief of Staff. The RSO is an advisor to the Executive Leadership Team and is responsible for the overall safe and prudent use of all radioactive materials and x-ray producing equipment and controls the accountability for such material and equipment.

Major Duties:

• This position has the primary responsibility for implementing and managing the VAMC radiation safety program and supervisory duties over assigned staff. Duties and responsibilities include but not limited to: Purchase orders, or contracts for long term orders, for radioactive materials are routed to the Radiation Safety Office(hereafter, the office prior to the final processing and release vendor. The incumbent is responsible for compliance with the regulations governing the receipt, inspection, monitoring and recording of incoming shipments of radioactive materials. The health Physicist is involved in the maintenance of records of radioisotope inventory and waste disposal to assure compliance with the materials permit. Pursuant to the policies, procedures, and regulations of the NHPP/NRC, the Health Physicist, under the directions of the RSO administers the radiation safety program. Under the supervision of the RSO, the Health Physicist may carry the responsibility for evaluating personnel, equipment and facilities in the event of an accident involving radioactive materials or radiation producing equipment. The incumbent will be available and will respond promptly to emergencies, and will prepare the documentation of personnel, equipment and facilities in event of an accident.. The incumbent provides advise and instructions to Medical Center Personnel and research workers on issues bearing on radiation safety. The incumbent participates i seminars, classes and demonstrations for the instruction of medical personnel in the theory and practical aspects of radiation. Work Schedule: Day Shift, 7:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Work schedule subject to change due to needs of the agency. Telework: Yes (AD HOC) Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Health Physicist (Radiation Safety Officer)/PD094200 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 12/04/2025. 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 by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-12 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-11. 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. 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. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Individual Occupational Requirement (IOR): In order to meet the basic requirement of the Health Physicist, 1306 Occupational series, you must possess: Degree: natural science or engineering that included at least 30 semester hours in health physics, engineering, radiological science, chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics, and/or calculus. (Copy of transcript required) OR, Combination of education and experience -- courses as shown in A above, 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 described in paragraph A. (Copy of transcript required) IN ADDITION TO THE ABOVE IOR, you may qualify based on your experience as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-11 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Professional knowledge of health physics as it relates to a medical environment, to adapt standard practices, equipment, or techniques to solve a variety of health physics problems. Planning and conducting work that requires judgment in evaluating, selecting, and adapting precedents and in modifying procedures and criteria. Knowledge of health protection standards, theories, and practices and to operate instruments used for measuring radiation and radioactive materials. Identifying and solving complex scientific problems in medical and research laboratory functions and activities involving numerous and varied sources of radiation. Ensuring proper use of radioactive materials. Advising researchers and medical staff on how to design and conduct procedures. Identifying and evaluating radiation hazards and taking measures to eliminate or control exposure to those hazards. Experience also includes evaluating, overseeing and recommending proper safety measures for laser use. 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: The work involves considerable walking, standing, bending, and lifting, in all areas of the Medic'31 Center. The work is divided approximately equally between sedentary desk work and walking, bending and climbing required to inspect laboratory and equipment installations. Some occasional crouching, stooping, reaching, and pushing of moderately heavy items such as carts may be required. Often required to wear heavy, leaded radiation-protective garments for periods of one hour or more. Lifting up to 50 pounds in weight may occasionally be required. 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 12/04/2025 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12795015. 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: 2025-12-04