Physical Security Specialist

Physical Security Specialist

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Madison, Wisconsin

Salary Range: $61722 - $80243 Per Year

Job Summary: The mission of the Physical Security Specialist is to serve and protect Veterans, patients, employees, contractors, volunteers, affiliates, visitors, and others who frequent VA facilities. This is accomplished through crime prevention activities, typical law enforcement actions, emergency response capabilities, special training and tactics, weapons, and equipment and systems utilization. The PS uses a Veteran Centered Policing (VCP), VA-specific law enforcement model.

Major Duties:

• Serves as a non-uniformed Physical Security Specialist providing services on behalf of the VHA, PCS, including assisting in managing the Security Program for the Medical Center/Health Care System which ensures that individuals requiring access have been vetted. Provides physical security support for Veterans Health Administration, Veterans Benefits Administration, National Cemetery Administration and Veterans Administration Regional Office (VHA/VBA/NCA/VARO). Assist in evaluating risk and developing procedures and physical security measures designed to safeguard personnel, property, and operations from unauthorized access, espionage, terrorism, sabotage, damage and theft. Participates with senior-level Physical Security Specialist and provides suggestions to the Chief of Police regarding matters pertaining to security systems and security of other VA/VHA/NCA/VARO assets. Serves on focused groups regarding physical security policy, doctrine, utility and implementation. Provides input in discussions and drafts changes for higher leadership's review and approval. Ensures security requirements, including appropriate safeguards, cameras, panic and intrusion alarms are implemented. Monitors and evaluates existing present and planned security projects to ensure timely and quality service conforms to statutory, contractual and technical requirements. Provides input during assigned phases of the design and construction of planned Veterans Health Administration (VHA) projects concerning security engineering and electronic security systems. Works closely with senior Physical Security Specialist to gain an understanding of requirements of contracting officers to ensure VA and contractor compliance with Federal/VA security protocols during construction. Collects information and prepares reports on the facilities compliance with VA operations, regulations Physical Security and Physical Access Control Systems (PACs). Level resources and knowledge of security program interrelationships. Identifies conflicts between VHA and OIT Security requirements/regulations during security surveys. Researches the requirements for each service and suggests courses of action to the Supervisor for a final decision. Receives training in conducting system audits and evaluates reports of alleged security violations. Analyzes facts and performs appropriate research and prepares detailed responses. Researches and recommends appropriate courses of action to correct physical and industrial security issues that impact an assigned area VHA/VBA/NCA/VARO facilities. Establishes, develops, and maintains effective working relationships with other staff offices. Meets with key customers and coordinates with officials to assess customer satisfaction, explain organization policy and procedures, and resolve problems that arise. Serves as a Physical Security participant on special projects and initiatives and performs special ad hoc assignments between VHA/VBA/NCA/VARO installations. Attends security meetings and gathers new or changed security program information to provide security personnel and others in attendance. Ensures that minutes of the meeting are taken; and reviews completed minutes for accuracy of recorded information. Completes formal training courses in the following areas: Conventional Physical Security, Electronic Security System Design Course, and Security Design Engineering Construction Course. Develops various physical security-related documents, spreadsheets, graphs, reports and presentations using various automated systems and software packages, including the Veterans Health Information and Technology Architecture (VistA) System, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint to enter, access and retrieve information in the medical center computer system. Maintains a Physical Security Tracking report to ensure physical security surveys are followed up promptly. Work Schedule: Monday to Friday 8:00am to 4:30pm. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Physical Security Specialist/PD99827S Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized PCS Appraised Value Offer (AVO): Not Authorized

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/27/2026. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: One year of specialized experience that has equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties of this position. To be creditable, experience must have been equivalent to the GS-07 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience includes: Providing physical security and assistance to patients, employees, contractors, volunteers, affiliates, visitors, and others entering a medical/office facility or campus; developing procedures designed to safeguard personnel and property; knowledge of security administration and protection regulations, policies, procedures, and practices to develop and implement plans; knowledge of various security equipment and devices; communicating with a variety of people to make recommendations, participate on committees, share information, and engage visitors. This experience must be detailed in your resume to receive credit. ~OR~ EDUCATION: A master's or equivalent graduate degree, 2 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree, or an LL.B. or J.D. in a related field. Such education must demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of this position. One year of full-time graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent 1 year of full-time study. If that information cannot be obtained from the school, 18 semester hours should be considered as satisfying the 1 year of full-time study requirement. Part-time graduate education is creditable in accordance with its relationship to a year of full-time study at the school attended. Transcripts required. ~OR~ COMBINATION: An equivalent combination of specialized experience and graduate education as described that demonstrates your ability to perform the duties of this position. Transcripts required, and experience must be detailed in your resume to receive credit. You will be rated on the following Competencies as part of the assessment questionnaire for this position: Personnel Security and Safety - Knowledge of methods and controls of personnel, public safety, and security operations; investigation and inspection techniques; or rules, regulations, precautions, and prevention techniques for the protection of people, data, or property. Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of intelligence operations; public safety and security operations; occupational health and safety; investigation and inspection techniques; or rules, regulations, precautions, and prevention techniques for the protection of people, data, and property. Computer Skills - Uses computers, software applications, databases, and automated systems to accomplish work. Interpersonal Skills - Shows understanding, friendliness, courtesy, tact, empathy, concern, and politeness to others; develops and maintains effective relationships with others; may include effectively dealing with individuals who are difficult, hostile, or distressed; relates well to people from varied backgrounds and different situations; is sensitive to cultural diversity, race, gender, disabilities, and other individual differences. 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/12902654. 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, 03/27/2026. 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: 2026-03-27