Health Physicist - Radiation Safety Officer

Health Physicist - Radiation Safety Officer

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Albany, New York

Salary Range: $107814 - $140165 Per Year

Job Summary: This position is located at the Stratton VA Medical Center (SVAMC) as the Radiation Safety Officer (RSO). He/she is responsible for developing and enforcing radiation safety policies and procedures for protection of people and the environment from the hazards of radiation.

Major Duties:

• ***THIS IS NOT A VIRTUAL POSITION, YOU MUST LIVE WITHIN OR BE WILLING TO RELOCATE WITHIN A COMMUTABLE DISTANCE OF THE DUTY LOCATION*** DESIGNATED DRUG-TESTING POSITION: Applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA. Applicants will not be appointed to the position if a verified positive drug test result is received. Duties include, but not limited to: The incumbent serves as the Radiation Safety Officer overseeing a comprehensive program in support of hundreds of individuals in the Services of Radiology, Nuclear Medicine, Radiation Oncology, Cardiology, Surgery, Dental, Research, and various other Medical and Surgical specialties using ionizing radiation in clinical or research settings under a single NHPP radioactive materials permit (issued under the authority of the NRC). The incumbent plans, directs, leads, and executes the radiation safety and medical health physics programs of the VAMC in a technical, scientific, and administrative scope of function with responsibility for all diagnostic, therapeutic and research modalities that require the use of ionizing radiation. Advises ancillary staff, researchers, technical, and medical personnel in the safe use of radioactive materials and devices producing ionizing radiation. Review of experimental procedures including dose-specific calculations and development of risk wording, occupational dosimetry determinations for employees, and evaluation of data regarding patient absorbed radiation dose. Evaluates shielding requirements for radiographic devices, linear accelerators, and radioactive materials and sets a monitoring program to determine resulting exposure levels. Evaluates the training and experience of the medical staff and other professional personnel relative to regulatory compliance requirements for the use of radioactive materials and machine-produced ionizing radiation in clinical and research settings. Interprets regulations which contain little detail and develops a detailed program to meet the required standards. Independently planning, coordinating, and carrying out the duties, resolving any conflict that arises, working with others and interpreting policies and regulations and develops local protocols and SOPs to meet these requirements. Responding to radiation incidents involving patients, employees, or visitors and taking appropriate corrective action(s) as a subject matter expert to mitigate the impact to the individuals and the facility. Work Schedule: Full Time, Monday thru Friday, 8:00am to 4:30pm Recruitment & Relocation Incentives: Not authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved Telework: This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process.

Qualifications: Basic Qualification Requirements - you must meet one of the following: A) Successfully completed of a full 4-year course of study at an accredited college or university leading to a bachelor's degree or higher 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. NOTE: Transcripts must be included to meet the requirement. -OR- B) A combination of education and experience -- This must include 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 (copy of certification must be submitted with your application materials), plus appropriate experience and other education that provided an understanding of sciences applicable to health physics comparable to that described in paragraph A. NOTE: Transcripts must be included to meet the requirement. -AND- In addition to the above, to qualify for this position at the GS-11 grade level, you must meet the minimum qualifications: Specialized Experience: You must have at least one (1) full year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade level (GS-9) in the Federal Service. Specialized experience must have been in a medical/healthcare setting within a radiation safety program involving both radioactive materials and machine-produced radiation with x-ray and CT units; advising on radiation safety and decontamination matters and to senior management and recommends courses of action to senior management and when complex radiation safety problems are encountered. (Experience must be detailed in your resume to receive credit). -OR- Education: You must have 3 years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree that provides the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work. NOTE: Transcripts must be included to receive credit. -OR- Combination of Education and Experience: Combinations of successfully completed graduate level education and specialized experience as described above may be used to meet total experience requirements. Only graduate level education over 2 years may be combined with experience. NOTE: Transcripts must be included to receive credit. 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: Please read the entire announcement and all the instructions before you begin an application. To apply for this position, you must complete the initial online application, to include the initial online assessment and submission of the required documentation specified in the Required Documents section above. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on the closing date of the announcement to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire, click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12943647. The application process is as follows: 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. Answer the questions presented in the application and attach all necessary supporting documentation. Click the Submit Application button prior to 11:59 PM (ET) on the announcement closing date, 04/30/2026. After submitting the online application, you will be notified whether or not you are required to take additional online assessments through the USA Hire Competency Based Assessment system. This message will be delivered to you via email notification. The email may be routed to your "Spam" or "Junk" folder. IMPORTANT: If you are asked to take the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be presented with a unique URL to access the USA Hire system. Access to USA Hire is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Be sure to review all instructions prior to beginning your USA Hire Assessments. Click here for Computer System Requirements. Set aside at least 3 hours to take the USA Hire assessments; however, most applicants complete the assessments in less time. If you need to stop the assessments and continue at a later time, you can re-use the URL sent to you via email and also found in your USAJOBS account under the "Track my application" link for the corresponding application. Your responses to the USA Hire Assessments will be reused for one year (in most cases) from the date you complete an assessment. If future applications you submit require completion of the same assessments, your responses will be automatically reused. Visit the USA Hire Applicant Resource Center for practice assessments and assessment preparation resources at https://support-usahire.opm.gov/hc/en-us. To view the announcement status or your application status: https://help.usajobs.gov/how-to. 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. 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.

Application Deadline: 2026-04-30