Industrial Hygienist

Full Job Description

Serve as a Industrial Hygienist for the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, assigned to the Facilities Management Service.

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

GS-11 grade level: One year of specialized experience (equivalent to the GS-09 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.

Individual Occupational Requirement: Applicants can meet the individual occupational requirements based on education or certification: A bachelor's or graduate/higher level degree in industrial hygiene, occupational health science, occupational and environmental health, toxicology, safety sciences or related sciences.

OR A bachelor's degree of engineering, physical science, or life science that included 12 semester hours in chemistry, including organic chemistry, environmental health, biostatistics, biology, physiology, toxicology, epidemiology or industrial hygiene OR Certification from the American Board of Industrial Hygiene.

In addition to meeting the Individual Occupational Requirements, applicants must meet the specialized experience and/or education below.

You may qualify based on your experience and/or education s described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade (GS-09) in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.

Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Identifying, analyzing, and controlling occupational health hazards, such as chemical, biological, physical, and ergonomic hazards; Conducting risk assessments to evaluate the potential health effects of exposure to hazardous materials and conditions in the workplace; Performing exposure assessments and monitoring to identify levels of exposure to hazardous materials and recommend appropriate control measures; Providing training and education to employees and management on occupational health hazards and safe work practices; Conducting industrial hygiene surveys, inspections, and audits to assess workplace conditions and recommend corrective actions; Proficiency in using industrial hygiene instruments and equipment to measure and monitor workplace contaminants; Preparing comprehensive technical reports, documenting findings, and recommending control measures to mitigate workplace hazards; Investigating occupational health incidents and near-misses to identify root causes and develop preventive measures.

This experience must be supported by your resume to be creditable. OR Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience.

To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have 3 years of graduate level education leading to a Ph.D degree or equivalent degree in a field related to the position to be filled.

(TRANSCRIPT REQUIRED). Applicants may substitute education for the experience required for the GS-XX level.

OR Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond the post graduate level.

Preferred Experience: Experience should include working in/with indoor air quality/sick building/odors, exposure assessment/surveillance, hazard communication/chemical inventory, Hearing Conservation Program, ergonomics, Eyewash/Shower Program calibration of IH Equipment, water sampling.

Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at the GS-11 level.

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 the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify at the GS-XX.

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.

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; religions; spiritual; community; student; social).

Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment.

You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

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. Major Duties:

As a Industrial Hygienist, you will: Advise management of methods to comply with the Industrial Hygiene and Occupational Safety standards.

Conduct industrial hygiene inspections of all work areas to determine compliance with standards set by OSHA, VA and other regulatory agencies.

Select analytical instruments and sampling criteria to evaluate potential hazards. Maintain a Centralized Safety Data and Hazard Communication Library for the Medical Center..

Update and advise Employee Health Physician as to medical surveillance requirements for employees working with hazardous materials as determined by OSHA.

Investigate working conditions in all areas of the Medical Center to determine compliance with all occupational health/industrial hygiene/safety regulations.

Work Schedule: Monday-Friday, 8:00am-4:30pm; subject to change based on the needs of the facility. Position Description Title/PD#: Industrial Hygienist/PD04134A Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Physical Requirements: The performance of duties requires long periods of walking, standing, crawling, kneeling, and bending.

Moderate lifting and carrying of equipment, use of personal protective devices, and work in hazardous and confined spaces is required. Use of all appendages, good vision and hearing is necessary.

Emotional and mental stability are required. He/she must be physically capable of wearing/donning personal protective equipment required to enter potentially hazardous environments.