Physical Scientist

Physical Scientist

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Salt Lake City, Utah

Salary Range: $89508 - $116362 Per Year

Job Summary: The position is located at the George E. Wahlen Salt Lake City VA. The VA has adopted an environmental management system framework to help facilities achieve their environmental goals through continual review, evaluation, and improvement of environmental performance. The consistent review and evaluation process will identify opportunities to improve a facility's environmental performance and ultimately reduce it's environmental impacts. This program is the Green Environmental Management System.

Major Duties:

• Duties include but are not limited to: Responsible for the VASLCHCS Green Environmental Management System (GEMS) program to include planning and implementation of program policy and procedures ensuring compliance with environmental laws and regulations, tracking of regulatory deadlines and completing permit applications and all required actions to avoid violating permit requirements. Develop and implement VASLCHCS environmental policies, procedures, process improvements, and systems for environmental compliance and environmental management systems focusing on meeting compliance requirements while reducing generation of wastes and increasing overall sustainability of the facilities. Independently schedule and conduct environmental audits to identify and evaluate program implementation and compliance activities in preparation for external audits. Develop corrective action plans to address findings. Review how expansion, modification, closures of existing facilities and infrastructure and new construction of structures and infrastructure will impact the environmental footprint of the medical center and primary care clinics. Provide sustainable solutions to minimize adverse impacts to human health and the environment. Trains or advises other scientists, clinicians and engineers regarding environmental compliance and protection programs. Coordinates environmental compliance training for all staff. Serve on regional and national committees and work groups developing policy to address emerging issues, new or amendments to Executive Orders, Federal Mandates or environmental laws that have the potential to impact operations at VA facilities. Leads a multi-disciplinary, cross-functional committee that evaluates environmental regulatory compliance issues and works to incorporate environmental management principles of stewardship and pollution prevention into the VASLCHCS planning and sustainability process. Serves as a Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) for assigned environmental projects. Prepares contracting packinges to include performance work statements, independent government cost estimates and market research. Author reports documenting any regulatory non-compliance issues; negotiate agreements on corrective action plans, potential monetary fees and non-compliance orders with Federal and non-Federal agencies. Work Schedule: Friday; 8:00am to 4:30pm. Telework: This position may be authorized for ADHOC telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Physical Scientist/PD134620 Physical Requirements: The employee must be able to travel by air, and surface vehicle, and undergo periodic physical examinations when there is potential for exposure to toxic and hazardous materials and waste. During audits and inspections, there is regular exposure to all of the hazards and discomforts to which the workers are subjected. This may include toxic chemicals, physical stresses, and safety hazards. The employee must use a variety of protective equipment and clothing. Inability to meet these qualifications could result in endangerment of the incumbent and co-workers.

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement. This position has a required individual occupational requirement. Individual Occupational Requirements: A. Degree: physical science, engineering, or mathematics that included 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science such as mechanics, dynamics, properties of materials, and electronics. or B. Combination of education and experience -- education equivalent to one of the majors shown in A above that included at least 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science, plus appropriate experience or additional education. In addition to meeting the Individual Occupation Requirement listed above, candidates must also meet the Specialized Experience. GS-12 grade level: One year of specialized experience (equivalent to the GS-11 grade level in the federal service); experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA's) and other characteristics to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled, in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Specialized experience includes: Experience in environmental compliance and environmental management systems. Experience in communicating technical information to a nontechnical audience. Experience in writing and presenting data and articulating concepts in a clear and logical manner. The Physical Scientist requires specialized knowledge of the principles, practices, and methods relating to environmental compliance and protection programs. This knowledge entails: (1) an understanding of environmental laws and regulations and how they relate to medical center operations, (2) knowledge of processes that have an environmental impact, and how to identify opportunities, plan, organize and implement actions that reduce the environmental impact, (3) practical knowledge of environmental sciences and related disciplines, and the relationship between environmental factors and human health and well-being, and (4) practical knowledge of important historic and natural resources and the relationship between the preservation and management of these resources and environmental protection. The work also requires a knowledge and understanding of program principles and procedures, applying the knowledge, and solving complex problems to a range of duties in several programs or functional areas pertaining to environmental compliance and protection. The employee is required to possess the knowledge of statutes, regulations, and precedent decisions governing environmental operations sufficient to plan, implement, monitor and improve environmental programs and services. Preferred experience: Experience reviewing and interpreting Federal, State, and local laws and ordinances to determine applicability and environmental compliance requirements, communicating technical information to a nontechnical audience, and writing and presenting data while articulating concepts in a clear and logical manner. 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/12892176. 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, 02/27/2026. 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. Visit the USA Hire Applicant Resource Center for practice assessments and assessment preparation resources at https://support-usahire.opm.gov/hc/en-us. 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. 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: 2026-02-27