Research Health Scientist

Research Health Scientist

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): San Antonio, Texas

Salary Range: $108001 - $140403 Per Year

Job Summary: Employee will serve as a Research Health Scientist within Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center (GRECC) Service, located at the South Texas Veterans Healthcare System, Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital in San Antonio, TX.

Major Duties:

• ***THIS IS NOT A VIRTUAL POSITION, YOU MUST LIVE WITHIN OR BE WILLING TO RELOCATE WITHIN A COMMUTABLE DISTANCE OF THE DUTY LOCATION*** NOTE: This is a TERM appointment (not-to-exceed 4 years). Term appointments are non-status, nonpermanent appointments of limited duration (more than 1 year but not more than 4). Term employees are eligible to earn leave and generally have the same benefits as permanent employees including health and life insurance, within-grade increases and Federal Employees Retirement System and Thrift Savings Plan coverage. Term appointments may be extended without further competition (up to the 4 year maximum). The appointment to a Term position does not confer eligibility for promotion or reassignment to other positions or the ability to be non-competitively converted to permanent employment. NOTE: This is a part-time position (15 hours/week). The salary listed represents full-time employment and will be pro-rated based on the actual number of hours worked each pay period. Likewise, benefits and time-off accrual will also be prorated and based on your part-time work schedule.The primary purpose of this position, employee will serve as an independent Principal Investigator and Team Leader of an original research program investigating the methodologies of cellular signaling and metabolic diseases of aging as they relate to geriatrics and gerontology. Duties will include but may not be limited to the following: Duties will include, but may not be limited to the following: Evaluates Research and Training Advising Others: Conducts investigations into the involvement of intracellular calcium signaling in the pathophysiology, complications, and treatment of metabolic diseases of aging, cellular disease mechanism, and signal transduction research. Maintains funding for research activities. Originates independent research with full responsibility for the management and operation of research activities. Leads staff/teams in diverse research areas, coordinates research program functions in a cost effective, efficient, and productive manner. Trains and advise other researchers at graduate and postdoctoral levels of training. Coordinates and conducts educational activities, including didactic and informal presentations at local, regional, and national levels. Collaborates with investigators from a variety of disciplines, including geriatrics, gerontology, chemistry, molecular biology, biotechnology, metabolism, immunology, and pathology. Administrative and Research Grants/Funding: Serves as a researcher with responsibility for conducting collaborative and independent research in the above areas of research. Leads teams of professional, technical, and support staff and trainees. Performs all administrative aspects of his/her research as outlined above. Coordinates the expenditure of support funding and ensures that the laboratory functions in a cost efficient and effective manner. Obtains research grants from grant funding agencies. Administers all aspects of funding for his/her research and executes grant budgets. Presentation, Manuscripts, Education: Presents papers at meetings of regional and national scientific societies and prepares and submit manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed journals. Coordinate and conduct research educational activities (including didactic and informal presentations at local, regional, and national levels). Conducts teaching sessions for postdoctoral fellows, residents, medical and graduate students, and other trainees. Perform other duties as necessary. Work Schedule: Compressed/Flexible Work Schedule will be discussed during interview. Telework: This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. Recruitment & Relocation Incentives: Not authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved

Qualifications: Basic Requirement: Applicants must meet the Basic Education Requirement to qualify for this Research Health Scientist. Basic Education: Bachelor's or graduate/higher level degree: major study in an academic field related to the medical field, health sciences or allied sciences appropriate to the work of the position. This degree must be from an educational program from an accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education at the time the degree was obtained. (UNOFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT REQUIRED: If you do not submit your transcript, your application may not be reviewed.) AND Selective Placement Factor (screen-out) - Selective Placement Factors (SPF) have been identified for this position. Selective Placement Factors (SPF) are a prerequisite to appointment and represent minimum requirements for the position. Applicants who do not meet the SPF are ineligible for further consideration. The SPFs for this position are: SPF 1: Completes investigations and dissemination of active research funding in the specialized fields of geriatric pathophysiology, complications, and treatment of metabolic age-related diseases, cellular disease mechanisms, and signal transduction research. SPF 2: Experience leading and managing a grant funding project team of diverse staff at all levels through collaboration to ensure effective, efficient, and productive geriatric research efforts (e.g. grant options available from the organization, National Institute of Health (NIH), government, public/private sector, and/or other grant agencies). AND In addition to meeting the basic requirement and the SPFs, applicants must meet the specialized experience described below to be qualified for this position. Specialized Experience: Requires at least one year of specialized experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. To be creditable, specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the next lower grade level in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Specialized experience includes: Providing direction and guidance regarding critical and complex geriatric problems; developing new methods, approaches, and procedures for grant funding research projects; these efforts include both clinical and translational studies; and Pursing aging based funding opportunities through National Institute of Health, local, and/or public/private sector grant approval; and Administering all aspects for funding research, including complete execution of assigned project grant salaries, equipment, protocols, and budgeting. NOTE: Resume(s) must clearly support the required experience to be eligible for this GS-13 level position. We will not make assumptions regarding experience. PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS: work is primarily sedentary but involves some walking and extended hours for the completion of experiments. Typically, the employee may sit comfortably to perform portions of the work. However, there is periodic walking, standing, bending, and carrying of light items such as equipment, instructional material, books, and manuals. No special physical demands are required to perform the work, although it is recommend the employee is physically capable of lifting 40 pounds. 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 assessment and submission of the required documentation specified in the Required Documents section above. 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 questionnaire, click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12916835. 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. After submitting the online application, you will be notified whether or not you are required to take additional online assessments through the USA Hire Competency Based Assessment system. This message will be delivered to you via email notification. The email may be routed to your "Spam" or "Junk" folder. IMPORTANT: If you are asked to take the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be presented with a unique URL to access the USA Hire system. Access to USA Hire is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Be sure to review all instructions prior to beginning your USA Hire Assessments. Click here for Computer System Requirements. 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 at a later time, you can re-use the URL sent to you via email and also found in your USAJOBS account under the "Track my application" link for the corresponding application. 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 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