Supervisory Biologist

Full Job Description

This position is located in the VA Mid-Atlantic Health Care Network in the state of North Carolina at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in the General Medical Research Service, Veterinary Medical Unit (VMU) under the direction of the Veterinary Medical Officer (VMO).

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 04/13/2026.

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-12 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-11. 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.

You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-11 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.

Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Directly supervising an animal research laboratory and staff.

Developing and providing advanced level training to staff.

Maintaining healthy pathogen free laboratory animal populations with the use of micro isolator cages, barrier techniques, and enforcement of transfer prohibitions between rooms.

Using proper bleeding, anesthesia, and euthanasia techniques for all species housed in the animal facility Coordinating animal husbandry and caging plans to ensure that the execution of important biomedical projects involving laboratory animals are supported.

AND The Individual Occupational Requirement: For the 0401 Occupational Series you must have A degree in biological sciences, agriculture, natural resource management, chemistry, or related disciplines OR A Combination of education and experience: Courses equivalent to a major, as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education.

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: 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. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week.

Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities.

Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment.

Physical Requirements: The work requires some physical exertion, such as regular and recurring running, walking, or bending, walking or climbing ladders or scaffolds to observe, collect, or record research data.

In many situations the duration of the activity (such as most of a workday) contributes to the arduous nature of the job.

In other situations, such as in a laboratory, there may be special requirements for agility or dexterity such as exceptional hand/eye coordination.

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/.

Major Duties:

This is a non-bargaining unit position. The initial application review cut-off for this job announcement is 50 applications. The first 50 applications received will be considered first.

Applications received after the initial cut-off number (50 applications) may not receive consideration unless otherwise requested by management.

If management requests additional certificates, applicants will continue to be reviewed in groups of 50 in the order they applied.

VA offers a comprehensive total rewards package: VA Total Rewards Work Schedule: 7am - 3:30pm Compressed/Flexible Schedule: Not Available Telework: Not Available Duty Location Status: Will work from a VA owned or leased space Position Description Title/PD#: Supervisory Biologist/ PD056140 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not Required Physical Demands: The work requires some physical exertion, such as regular and recurring running, walking, or bending, walking or climbing ladders or scaffolds to observe, collect, or record research data.

In many situations the duration of the activity (such as most of a workday) contributes to the arduous nature of the job.

In other situations, such as in a laboratory, there may be special requirements for agility or dexterity such as exceptional hand/eye coordination.

Applicants selected for this position may be required to serve a one-year supervisory probationary period.

Failure to successfully complete the supervisory probationary period will result in the employee being reassigned to a position in the agency of no lower grade and pay than the one the employee left to accept the supervisory or managerial position.

Major Duties: Directly supervising an animal research laboratory and staff. Developing and providing advanced level training to staff.

Maintaining healthy pathogen free laboratory animal populations with the use of micro isolator cages, barrier techniques, and enforcement of transfer prohibitions between rooms.

Using proper bleeding, anesthesia, and euthanasia techniques for all species housed in the animal facility Coordinating animal husbandry and caging plans to ensure that the execution of important biomedical projects involving laboratory animals are supported.