Department: Department of Veterans Affairs
Location(s): Hines, Illinois
Salary Range: $118984 - $154682 Per Year
Job Summary: This position is located at the Edward Hines Jr VA Hospital, Hines, IL, a 1A level complexity facility and reports to the Assistant Hospital Director. The Hospital Housekeeping Officer-Chief directs operations of an expanded Environmental Management Service (EMS) for a 147 acre campus and six Community Based Outpatient Clinics spanning multiple counties. EMS operations includes program areas of environmental sanitation, textile care, grounds maintenance, transportation and motor pool.
Major Duties:
Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/26/2026. 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-13 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-12. 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. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Basic Requirements Individual Occupational Requirement (IOR): You must meet one of the following Education or Experience requirements to qualify for this occupation. Education: Undergraduate Education: Major field of study - Chemistry or biological sciences, sanitary science or administration, institutional sanitation or administration, hospital administration, hotel administration, public administration, business administration, or other fields related to the position. -OR- Graduate Education: Major field of study -Public health or business administration with emphasis in hospital administration. (Transcripts required) -OR- Experience: Specialized Experience: Possess experience in in two or more of the following areas or other work related to the position to be filled such as: (1) Experience that demonstrated a practical working knowledge of the basic principles of chemistry, biology, and bacteriology as applied to environmental sanitation, infection control, and to the choice and use of antimicrobial agents in the disinfection, sanitization, and sterilization of surfaces and equipment; (2) Experience in laundry and linen management; (3) Experience in interior design management; (4) Experience that demonstrated a knowledge of waste management, including the requirements relating to hazardous, toxic, and infectious wastes and provisions for their final disposal; (5) Experience that demonstrated a knowledge of pest management, including alternative methods of control and the selection and application of chemicals. In addition to the Basic Requirements above, you must also meet the following Grade Requirements below to qualify for this occupation at the GS-13 grade level: GS-13 Grade Requirement: Specialized Experience: Possess at least one (1) full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-12 level in the Federal service that has given you the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities required to successfully perform the duties of a Hospital Housekeeping Officer-Chief position and that is typically in or related to the work of this position? Examples of specialized experience would typically include but are not limited to: Performing or assisting in performing duties associated with planning, directing, managing and monitoring all aspects of an environmental management services in a healthcare setting; exercising administrative, managerial, and budget responsibilities in overseeing areas to include environmental sanitation, pest management, waste management, transportation and motor pool, grounds maintenance, and laundry/linen service; assisting with determining long range, intermediate and short-range environmental management program goals and policies; participate in employee training, counseling, disciplining, and establishment and evaluation of employee performance measures. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Accountability Customer Service Manages and Organizes Information Organizational Stewardship 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 is primarily sedentary, although there may be standing, walking, climbing, bending, kneeling, stooping or pushing/pulling involved in activities such as investigating problems, or indoor/outdoor site visits. Moderate lifting or carrying may be required infrequently (15 to 44 pounds). There is regular and recurring exposure to moderate discomforts and unpleasantness such as high noise levels, dust, high or low temperatures, or adverse weather conditions. 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 03/26/2026 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12901503. 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/ The 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 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: 2026-03-26