Surgical Technician

Surgical Technician

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Salary Range: $56643 - $73635 Per Year

Job Summary: The Surgical Technician is a member of the surgical team and provides assistance to the surgeon and other team members during surgical procedures. The Surgical Technician participates with the surgical team members including surgeons, anesthesia providers, registered nurses, and other members of an operating room team in planning and implementing complex procedures under the general supervision of the surgical team.

Major Duties:

• Major duties include but not limited to: Prepare and maintain sterile field with all required items for each procedure such as, fiber optic equipment, laparoscopic equipment, microscopes, lasers, urologic equipment, recording devices, and other operating room supplies and equipment. Plans and discusses each procedure with surgical professionals and assures that all supplies and equipment are available prior to the surgical procedure. Provide surgical scrub on all procedures, including minor and major surgeries. Prepares, organizes and maintains highly complex sterile surgical setups which include but are not limited to Orthopedic (total joint replacement), Neuro (craniotomies tumors/ aneurysms, laminectomies, fusions), Cardiothoracic (open heart surgery), Vascular (Open surgical repair with vascular stent graft), Robotic procedures (Genitourinary, Gynecological, and General); Bariatric, General Surgery (colorectal); Plastic procedures, Podiatry procedures, LASER technology for various surgical services and/or ENT/ Ophthalmic procedures; all of which require knowledge of complex specialty instruments, equipment and supplies unique to each of the surgical services. Utilizes standard precautions and follows all infection control policies and procedures when handling specimens, supplies, and equipment. Assists the team members with care of the patient, i.e., positioning, transporting, prepping, draping and obtaining supplies. Handles all specimens appropriately. Assists the surgeon by performing such procedures as holding retractors, applying skin staples, and cutting sutures. Prepares prosthesis and Surgical devices during procedures. 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, and OR procedures to include the scrub role in surgical procedures. Functions as the second circulator for complex surgical procedures. Performs other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Various work schedules based on the needs of the unit Position Description Title/PD#: Surgical Technician/12805-A Physical Requirements and Work Environment: Duties regularly require providing manual assistance in lifting and positioning patients, most of which are stages of unconsciousness. There are extensive periods of regular and recurring standing, walking, bending, lifting at least 50lbs, 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 of aseptic technique and in a manner requiring little or no effort from the surgeon. Duties are performed in the operating rooms and other procedural areas 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 per the facility policy, including sterile gown and gloves, surgical caps and facial hair coverings to cover incumbent's hair, shoe covers, and surgical mask in order to provide an aseptic environment in the operating room. 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. The operating room can be an exceptionally stressful work environment and the incumbent must be able to provide a high level of care, even when under pressure. Good mental and emotional health is required in order to function at an optimum level.

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-06 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-05. The grade may have been in any occupation but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. Applicants may qualify for this position by meeting all requirements by the closing date of this announcement. Individual Occupational Requirement (IOR): The Health Aid and Technician Series 0640 has a minimum qualification entry requirement: Specialized Experience: 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 requires application of the knowledge, methods, and techniques of the position to be filled. AND, You may qualify based on your experience and/or education for the GS-6 grade level as described below: Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience (equivalent to the GS-5 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: assisting with the preparation and protection of sterile fields during surgery; monitoring and maintaining aseptic techniques throughout surgical procedures; handling medical instruments, supplies and equipment during surgical procedures; performing proper cleaning techniques, as well as the proper handling and rotation of sterile supplies; handling contaminated items, quality control, and personal hygiene, using knowledge of universal precautions and implementing infection control policies and procedures. OR Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have completed one-half year of graduate education (9 semester hours) or an internship in course matter that must include courses directly related to the work of the Surgical Technician position such as anatomy and physiology, surgical technology, aseptic techniques, etc. This education must have been obtained in an accredited college or university. OR Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an equivalent combination of specialized experience and graduate level education, as described above, which meet the total experience requirements for this grade level. The education portion must include graduate courses directly related to the work of the Surgical Technician position and must have been obtained in an accredited college or university. Note: To calculate, first identify the percentage of required education you have earned (when substituting, you cannot use the first 60 semester hours that you earned). Then identify the percentage of required experience you possess. Add two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify at the GS-6. For example, an applicant who has 9 semester hours of graduate level education (i.e. 50% of graduate education required) and 6 months of creditable specialized experience (i.e. 50% of the required experience) would equal 100% of the required experience for the position A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. 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/. tion at this grade level.

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/12933367. 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, 09/21/2026. 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: 2026-09-21