Department of Veterans Affairs

Hospital Housekeeping Officer

Boise, Idaho Full time

Hospital Housekeeping Officer

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Boise, Idaho

Salary Range: $89508 - $116362 Per Year

Job Summary: The Boise VA Medical Center (BVAMC) Hospital Housekeeping Officer (Chief of EMS) is responsible for the planning, organization, staffing, controlling, evaluating, and directing the environmental management functions. The incumbent is responsible for integrating short, intermediate, and long-range planning that meet the changing environmental management dynamics of a highly active, affiliated Medical Center complex. **Recruitment Incentives may be available to highly qualified candidates**

Major Duties:

  • Major duties include: Identify long and short range goals, and formulate policies independently and/or jointly with other BVAMC management staff. Plans and initiates improvement actions on a progressive basis. Implement and maintain a sound environmental sanitation program; an effective infection prevention program; a cost-efficient laundry, linen, uniform operation; integrated pest management, and wide-ranging recycling programs including a waste management program consisting of solid waste, regulated medical waste, RCRA, non-RCRA waste, and medical sharps. Formulates program policy; plans, organizes, directs, staff and budgets; and coordinates a comprehensive Environmental Management Service (EMS) program for this affiliated Medical Center. Responsible for making decisions and taking actions that have substantial impact on facility program objectives, goals, funding, scheduling, organizational structure, and allocation of resources. Responsible for the comprehensive planning, direction, and coordination of the entire EMS operation, as well as the evaluation of the Medical Center's Environmental Management Service programs and functions. Analyze the broad implications of higher levels of authority, laws, regulations, policies, as well as managerial, administrative, and technical trends. Contracts with private janitorial, pest control, and data privacy companies to augment in-house staff operations for the facility and for remote CBOCs. Routinely reviews and appraises the effectiveness of each phase of EMS activities. Serves as a member of the Environment of Care Rounds throughout the medical center complex, reporting, and directing the follow up of EMS issues to ensure timely correction of any identified deficiencies. Develops standards for the handling of toxic, and highly contagious bio-hazardous waste and sharps to assure the Medical Center complies with Local, State, and Federal regulations. Serves as a member of the Infection Control Committee and is responsible for recommending policies, procedures and products relative to the infection control responsibilities of Environmental Management Service, along with the infection control policies of the Infectious Disease department of the facility. Responsible for the Medical Center's Waste Management and Recycling Programs and the required compliance reporting. Responsible for directing efforts to meet regulatory goals for reducing solid waste disposal. Responsible for maintaining and managing various contracts as a Contracting Officer Representative (COR) for Regulated and Non- regulated waste, and Hazardous waste, tracks waste management and recycling; maintains records; and acts as point of contact for all environmental contracting issues. Serves as the facility Textile Care Officer (TCO) and oversees the Textile Care Processing Facility. Responsible for all activities related to linen, uniforms, and laundry functions, including determining the type of linen and uniforms to be used, overseeing the purchasing of the linen and uniforms, overseeing and managing the laundry department, determining stock level, distributing linen, assuring linen and uniforms are properly laundered, overseeing the transportation of clean and dirty items, determination of when linen is no longer usable, disposal of unusable linen, conducting annual linen inventories, and all other functions related to linen, uniform, and laundry management. Responsible for the planning, controlling, and directing the service to include budget development, staff needs, equipment needs, and utilization of all available resources to ensure adequate supplies of linen for a multi-facility operation. Serves as the facility Pest Management Officer directly responsible for the management of the Integrated Pest Management Program for the BVAMC, to include planning, organizing, directing, controlling, and evaluating the effectiveness of the program.. Develops and maintains a continuing strategic plan for all patient and staff areas throughout the BVAMC to provide an aesthetically pleasing, appropriate, and safe environment. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 07:30 am - 4:00 pm (MST). Telework: This is not a telework position. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Hospital Housekeeping Officer/PD603820 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: May Be Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not Required.

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement, 01/21/2026. 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 within 30 days of 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. Selective Placement Factor(s): Selective placement factors are applied in the same manner as minimum qualification requirements. Failure to meet a selective placement factor will result in you not receiving further consideration. In addition to the minimum qualifications described below, you must meet the following selective placement factor: Applicants must possess a current, valid state-issued driver's license. In addition to the Selective Placement Factor(s), applicants must also meet the below Specialized Experience requirements: 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. Your experience must be in two or more of the following areas, or other work related to the position to be filled: 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/or sterilization of surfaces and equipment. Experience in laundry and linen management. Experience that demonstrated a knowledge of waste management, including the requirements relating to hazardous, toxic, and infectious wastes and provisions for their final disposition. Experience that demonstrated a knowledge of pest management, including alternative methods of control and the selection and application of chemicals. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: knowledge of the range of administrative laws, policies, regulations, and precedents applicable to the administration of an environmental management program; analyzing and measuring the effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity of an Environmental Management Service and administrative programs; planning, organizing, and directing team work; establishing personnel management policies; and training, facilitating, and managing cross disciplinary teams. NOTE: Experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month and year start/end dates AND hours worked per week. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: 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: Incumbent is required to walk constantly, must climb stairs and ladders. Incumbent must be able to bend, stoop, crawl, for extended periods of time. Incumbent must be able to work with arms extended over head for extended periods of time. Incumbent must be able to lift 50+ pounds to shoulder height repeatedly. Incumbent must travel from building to building (30+ buildings on facility and 27 acres of improved grounds) in extreme weather conditions, in order to direct work of the programs assigned. Work Environment: Incumbent's work is primarily conducted in air conditioned office or building space, but due to the physical layout of the facility, incumbent is be required to travel out of doors 11 while moving from building to building to direct the work of the programs assigned to the position. Incumbent's work requires the handling and use a variety of industrial strength cleaning chemicals, which creates a potential for exposure to hazardous chemicals, fumes, and vapors. Incumbent handles medical center waste, contaminated linen, waste receptacles, sharps containers, etc., all of which have a potential for exposure to infectious or pathological waste (as defined by CDC). Incumbent may also be exposed to carcinogenic substances because of this same reason. Incumbent operates a variety of industrial type equipment, including gasoline or diesel powered motor vehicles with weight ratings up to 2 ½ tons, aerial high lifts, pallet jacks and fork lifts, air compressors, steam generating cleaning equipment, ultra-high speed buffers, large industrial scrubbers, etc. Incumbent is exposed to a variety of loud noises generated by industrial grade equipment, i.e., industrial vacuum cleaners, floor burnishing or scrubbing equipment, carpet extraction systems, miscellaneous types of hydraulic, steam, mechanical and electrical equipment, gasoline and diesel powered motors, etc. 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 01/21/2026 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12862855. 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: 2026-01-21