QUALITY ASSURANCE MANAGER - INTERDISCIPLINARY

QUALITY ASSURANCE MANAGER - INTERDISCIPLINARY

Department: Department of Agriculture

Location(s): Athens, Georgia

Salary Range: $112556 - $146325 Per Year

Job Summary: The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is the public health regulatory agency responsible for ensuring the safety of meat, poultry and processed eggs. The incumbent serves as Laboratory Quality Assurance Manager with designated authorities and responsibilities outlined in the laboratory quality manual and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard for testing laboratories.

Major Duties:

• Manages the Laboratory Quality Assurance Plan, Chemical Hygiene Plan, Biological Safety Program, and Radiation Safety Program.
• Serves as QA expert and information liaison between the Field Service Lab (FSL) and OPHS divisions, federal, state, local, and international agencies, ensuring compliance, scientific integrity, and effective collaboration on laboratory standards.
• Provides input at the laboratory's highest level of authority at which decisions are made on laboratory policy or resources; provides guidance to laboratory staff and OPHS personnel regarding the laboratory quality system.
• Maintains laboratory ISO 17025 accreditation status through developing, revising, reviewing, approving, issuing, monitoring, and controlling quality system policies and procedures.
• Collaborate with other FSL and Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) personnel to ensure any developments or modifications to the quality system are reflected and considered within LIMS.
• Performs laboratory audits and targeted assessments, acts as liaison during external audits, and prepares and compiles the laboratory response to audit reports.
• Documents through objective evidence whether the laboratory is compliant with the overall quality assurance system and analytical methodology and determines if corrective actions are required.
• Continually evaluates laboratory safety, health, security and environmental practices and programs and provides technical guidance.
• Oversee the laboratory’s hazardous waste management program by assuring hazardous wastes are properly classified, accumulated, transported and stored.
• Conducts quarterly inspections of laboratory operations to verify compliance with applicable occupational safety and health regulations and established procedures.

Qualifications: Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement including time-in-grade restrictions, specialized experience and/or education, as defined below. Time in Grade: Current federal employees applying for a promotion opportunity must meet the time in grade requirement of 52 weeks of service at the next lower grade level in the normal line of progression for the position being filled. Specialized Experience: For the GS-13 level: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience (equivalent to the GS-12 level) that demonstrates the following experiences: (You MUST demonstrate these requirements within your resume to show how you meet the experience requirements for this position). Performing microbiological or chemical laboratory analyses in a food laboratory setting. Working in a laboratory with a quality assurance or quality control program. Analyzing or reviewing microbiological or chemical data. Providing oral briefings, updates, or presentations involving microbiology or chemistry. Writing or participating in the creation or revision of scientific or quality system documents involving microbiology or chemistry. Experience in one of the following areas: developing project objectives, developing a plan to complete goals and objectives, working on a project to complete goals and deliverables, or evaluating methods, policies, or procedures for support of established guidelines. 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; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

How to Apply: Please read the entire announcement and all instructions before you begin. You must complete this application process and submit all required documents electronically by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on the closing date of this announcement. Applying online is highly encouraged. We are available to assist you during business hours (normally 8:00a.m. - 4:00p.m., Monday - Friday). If applying online poses a hardship, contact the Agency Contact listed below well before the closing date for an alternate method. All hardship application packages must be complete and submitted no later than noon ET on the closing date of the announcement to be entered into the system prior to its closing. Resumes must not exceed two pages. This agency provides reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities on a case-by-case basis; contact the Agency Contact to request this. Alternative Methods for Applying: If you are unable to apply using the internet, please fax your request for an application package along with your name and mailing address to HR: 1-833-840-9219. To begin, click "Apply" and follow the instructions to complete the Assessment Questionnaire and attach your resume and all required documents. Please verify that documents you are uploading from USAJOBs transfer into the Agency's staffing system as there is a limitation to the number of documents that can be transferred. However, once in the Agency's staffing system, you will have the opportunity to upload additional documents. Uploaded documents must be less than 5MB and in one of the following document formats: GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, PDF, TXT or Word (DOC or DOCX). Do not upload Adobe Portfolio documents because they are not viewable. Please ensure your resume does not exceed two pages. Applicants who submit a resume that exceeds two pages will be removed from consideration. Our office cannot be responsible for incompatible software, your system failure, etc.

Application Deadline: 2026-03-20