Surgical Technician

Surgical Technician

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Baltimore, Maryland

Salary Range: $57736 - $75059 Per Year

Job Summary: The Surgical Technician (ST) is a member of the Surgical Specialty Operating Room surgical team. The Surgical Technician aids the surgeon and other team members during surgical procedures. The ST participates with the surgical team members in planning and implementing complex procedures under the supervision of the surgical team.

Major Duties:

• Some Duties are but not limited too: Functions as a primary scrub person responsible for handling instruments, supplies, and complex equipment during all surgical procedures. Sets up sterile field and maintains working knowledge of all required items used for each procedure such as disposable and non disposable surgical instrumentation. Plans and discusses each procedure with surgical professionals and assures all supplies and equipment are available prior to the surgical procedure. Prepares, organizes, and maintains highly complex sterile surgical setups. Observes and responds promptly to each stage of the surgical procedure and anticipates the needs of the surgeon by maintaining a high level of concentration for extended periods of time. Utilizes universal precautions and follows all infection control policies and procedures when handling specimens, supplies, and equipment. Assist the team members with care of the patient, i.e., positioning, prepping, sterile draping, and ensuring patient safety via participation in surgical time out processes. Responsible for ensuring sterility is maintained during the procedure by monitoring for breaches in technique of the surgical team members and/or the sterile field. Handles all specimens appropriately. In conjunction with the circulating registered nurse (RN), performs sponge and instrument counts to verify accuracy. Responsible for the accountability for all surgical instruments and equipment during the surgical procedure. Assists the surgeon by performing such procedures as preparing skin grafts, suctioning, holding retractors, applying skin staples, and cutting sutures. Prepares prosthesis and surgical devices during procedure. Assists in training residents, medical students, nursing students, operating room technology students, and new Operating Room (OR) staff in the operation of equipment, sterile technique, handling of instruments, or OR procedures to include the scrub role in surgical procedures. Functions as second circulator for complex surgical procedures. Provides transportation of patients to and from the Operating Room, as assigned. Accounts for the availability of correct prosthetics in the room, follows established procedures regarding prosthetic tracking. Follows correct site surgery policies. Assists in the implementation and utilization of the Generic inventory Package to maintain adequate surgical supplies. Monitors daily surgery schedules, provides input into case scheduling duties as assigned. Work Schedule: 11:00am - 7:30pm, Monday - Friday Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Surgical Technician/PD512-26004-A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 05/06/2026. Health Aid and Technician-0640 Individual Occupational Requirements Specialized Experience-GS 4 and above: Positions in this series range widely in type and include support duties to medical or health personnel such as audiologists, speech pathologists, medical officers, and optometrists. Therefore, technician experience is experience that required application of the knowledge, methods, and techniques of the position to be filled. In addition to the OPM Individual Occupational Requirements you must meet the specialized experience for the GS-7 below: You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience (equivalent to the GS-06 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: Prepare operating rooms by setting up surgical instruments, supplies and equipment, Assist surgeons during procedures by passing instruments and other sterile supplies, Handle specimens and label them accurately, Count sponges, needles, and instruments to ensure nothing is left in the patient, Maintain a sterile environment throughout the procedure, knowledge of surgical procedures, terminology, and sterilization techniques, Work primarily in the operating room environment. OR, Education: You must have successfully completed one full year of graduate education (18 semester hours or equivalent), or an internship in course matter with a major that included courses directly related to the work of the Health Technician position. OR Combination: You must have an combination of specialized experience and education. Preferred Experience: 3-5 years of recent scrubbing experience, certification preferred. Physical Requirements: Duties regularly require manual assistance in lifting and positioning patients, most of who are at stages of unconsciousness. There are extensive periods of regular and recurring standing, walking, bending, lifting, pushing, reaching, and prolonged stretching to provide easy accessibility of instruments and supplies for the surgeon. Incumbent must be dexterous in passing instruments to surgeons without compromising principles or aseptic technique and in a manner requiring little or no effort from the surgeon. Work Environment: Duties are performed in the operating rooms which require special OR attire with regular and recurring exposure to toxic and noxious gases such as: methylmethracrylate, glutaraldehyde, exposure to x-rays and pure oxygen exposure to blood and body fluids which are often infectious and laser beams requiring special safety precautions. Appropriate scrub attire is required, including sterile gown and gloves, surgical caps to cover incumbents hair, surgical mask or special attire such as a space helmet or hood used during total join replacements in order to maintain an aseptic environment. Incumbent must wear protective eyewear such as goggles or face shield to prevent inadvertent splash injuries to his or her eyes. Appropriate laser glasses must be worn when working with lasers. Incumbent must frequently wear a 20-30 pound lead apron as protection from radiation during various procedures. Required personal protective equipment is provided by the facility. The operating room work environment is complex intense and fast paced. Good mental and emotional health is required in order to function at optimum level. 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/12936902. 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, 05/06/2026. 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: 2026-05-06