Department of Veterans Affairs

Health Technician - Dietetic

Fort Harrison, Montana Full time

Health Technician - Dietetic

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Fort Harrison, Montana

Salary Range: $36049 - $52426 Per Year

Job Summary: This position is located in the Nutrition and Food Service (N&FS) of the VA Medical Center in Fort Harrison, MT serving as a Nutrition Communication Center (NCC) Ambassador, providing administrative and customer service support for the VA hospital food service program.

Major Duties:

  • Major duties and responsibilities will include: Has a broad knowledge of routing modified diets, combinations of diet modifications and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) dietetics software Handles patient meal service orders in person or by phone Interacts with Veterans, dietitians, nursing staff, and other medical center employees Receives patient meal orders and preferences, meal and nourishment requests from nursing, clinical staff, and other members of the interdisciplinary team Takes whatever action necessary, within authority, to maximize patient satisfaction with meal service Completes select and non-select menus as required Retrieves computerized information to assist with tray and/or nourishment assembly such as standing orders, nourishment labels, tabulated recipe lists, and other simple information to assist in meal delivery Provides education and information on local facility therapeutic diets to patients, guests, and nursing staff Assists patients in selection of the proper foods according to their individual diet Performs clerical and administrative duties in support of the service Performs other related duties as assigned. Promotion Potential: The selectee may be promoted to the full performance level without further competition when all regulatory, qualification, and performance requirements are met. Selection at a lower grade level does not guarantee promotion to the full performance level. Work Schedule: Various shifts from 6am - 6:30pm including weekends and holidays. To be discussed during interview process Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Health Technician - Dietetic/PD99855S Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not approved Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not authorized

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 12/05/2025. English Language Proficiency: Applicants must be proficient in basic written and spoken English There is an Individual Occupational Requirement for the GS-0640 series. Specialized Experience: Positions in this series range widely in type and include support duties to medical or health personnel such as audiologists, speech pathologists, medical officers, and optometrists. Therefore, technician experience is experience that required application of the knowledge, methods, and techniques of the position to be filled. Or; For GS-4: Successful completion of 2 years of study that included at least 12 semester hours in subjects related to the position. For GS-5: Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree, with major study or at least 24 semester hours in subjects directly related to the position. In addition to the above IOR, applicants must also meet the below grade requirements GS-04 Specialized Experience: At least six (6) months of specialize experience and six (6) months of general experience that has given you the particular knowledge, skills and abilities required to successfully perform the duties of this Health Technician (Dietetic) position. Specialized experience includes documenting dietary/nutrition information and updating patient records; knowledge of tray assembly area procedures; using dietetics software programs; following verbal and written instructions; and using computer equipment, phone system, and printers. This position requires effective communication skills both verbally and in writing and good customer service. General Experience is any type of work that demonstrates the ability to perform the work of the position or which provides a familiarity with the nutrition environment. NOTE: Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must clearly indicate the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. OR, Education: Successful completion of two (2) years of study that included at least 12 semester hours in subjects directly related to this position a bachelor's degree or four (4) years of education above the high school level with major study or at least 24 semester hours in subjects directly related to the position (i.e. nutrition, dietary therapy, food and nutrition science, food service systems management, etc.). This education must have been obtained in an accredited business or technical school, junior college, college or university for which high school graduation or the equivalent is the normal prerequisite. NOTE: Transcripts must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation. OR, Combination: An equivalent combination of successfully completed post-high school education (beyond the first year) and specialized experience, as described above, which meet the total qualification requirements for this grade level. This education must have been obtained at an accredited business, secretarial or technical school, junior college, college, or university. NOTE: Your experience must be documented in your resume and transcripts are required. GS-05 Specialized Experience: One (1) year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade level (GS-04) in the Federal Service that has given me the particular knowledge, skills and abilities required to successfully perform the duties of this Health Technician (Dietetic) position. Specialized experience includes performing duties in food service in a hospital environment; knowledge of tray assembly area procedures; using dietetics software programs; familiarity with regular and modified diets; assisting with food selections; following verbal and written instructions; and using computer equipment, phone system, and printers. This position requires effective communication skills both verbally and in writing and good customer service. NOTE: Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must clearly indicate the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. OR, Education: A bachelor's degree or four (4) years of education above the high school level with major study or at least 24 semester hours in subjects directly related to the position ((i.e. nutrition, dietary therapy, food and nutrition science, food service systems management, etc.). This education must have been obtained in an accredited business or technical school, junior college, college or university for which high school graduation or the equivalent is the normal prerequisite. NOTE: Transcripts must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation. OR, Combination: An equivalent combination of successfully completed post-high school education (beyond the second year) and specialized experience, as described above, which meet the total qualification requirements for this grade level. This education must have been obtained at an accredited business, secretarial or technical school, junior college, college, or university. NOTE: Your experience must be documented in your resume and transcripts are required. Preferred Experience: Room service/select menu ordering experience using computer system; hospital/nursing home food service experience. 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 questionnaire and submission of the required documentation specified in the How to Apply and Required Documents section. 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 application questionnaire, click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12840051. 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, 12/05/2025. If you are required to complete any USA Hire Assessments, you will be notified after submitting your application. The notification will be provided in your application submission screen and via email. The notification will include your unique assessment access link to the USA Hire system and the completion deadline. Additionally, in USAJOBS you can click "Track this application" to return to your assessment completion notice. Access USA Hire using your unique assessment link. Access is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Review all instructions prior to beginning your assessments. You will have the opportunity to request a testing accommodation before beginning the assessments should you have a disability covered under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended. 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 later, you can re-use your unique assessment link. NOTE: 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. To update your application, including supporting documentation: During the announcement open period, return to your USAJOBS account, find your application record, and click Edit my application. This option will no longer be available once the announcement has closed. 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. If initial application submission is updated and resubmitted with a new resume 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.

Application Deadline: 2025-12-05