Supervisory Safety & Occupational Health Manager

Full Job Description

The Safety and Occupational Health Manager is organizationally located at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System's (VAPHS) Safety and Emergency Management Service reporting to the Associate Director.

The purpose of the position is to serve as the Chief of the Safety and Emergency Management (SEM) section with responsibility and accountability for directing, planning, developing, implementing, and assessing VAPHS's emergency management and safety programs.

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/16/2026.

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.

Please note, this position requires and individual occupational requirement in addition to qualifications for the GS-12 grade level: Basic Requirement (Individual Occupational Requirement): Undergraduate and Graduate Education : Major study -- safety or occupational health fields (safety, occupational health, industrial hygiene), or degree in other related fields that included or was supplemented by at least 24 semester hours of study from among the following (or closely related) disciplines: safety, occupational health, industrial hygiene, occupational medicine, toxicology, public health, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biological sciences, engineering, and industrial psychology.

OR Experience in or related to safety and occupational health that provided the specific knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position.

Examples of qualifying specialized experience include: Managing safety or occupational health program elements.

Developing and recommending safety and occupational health policy to higher levels of management.

Applying safety and occupational health laws, regulations, principles, theories, practices, and procedures to advise on or resolve technical matters dealing with occupational safety and health requirements.

Developing safety and occupational health standards, regulations, practices, and procedures to eliminate or control potential hazards.

Developing or implementing programs to reduce the frequency, severity, and cost of accidents and occupational illnesses.

Analyzing or evaluating new and existing jobs, processes, products, or other systems to determine the existence, severity, probability, and outcome of hazards.

Designing or modifying workplaces, processes, products, or other systems to control or eliminate hazards.

Inspecting or surveying workplaces, processes, products, or other systems for compliance with established safety and occupational health policies or standards and to identify potential new hazards.

Training of workers, supervisors, managers, or other safety and occupational health personnel in safety or occupational health subjects.

Work in occupational fields such as industrial hygienist, safety engineer, fire prevention engineer, health physicist, and occupational health nurse.

OR, Certification as a Certified Safety Professional (CSP), Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH), or Certified Health Physicist (CHP), or similar certification that included successful completion of a written examination meets the requirements for GS-5.

Applicants may also qualify for higher grade levels based on their education and/or experience.

AND 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: Knowledge of safety and occupational health concepts, principles, techniques, practices, laws, and regulations that enables to plan, organize, administer, coordinate, and evaluate wide-ranging occupational safety and health programs as a technical authority.

Comprehensive knowledge of other pertinent scientific and technological fields which contribute to the achievement of comprehensive safety and occupational health objectives.

Knowledge and skill in the use of innovative criteria, data, and techniques to identify and analyze safety and occupational health problems.

Understanding of concepts and principles of proposals and contracts to ensure safety techniques were considered in the master development plans.

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Organizational Awareness Problem Solving Safety Engineering Teamwork 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 regular and recurring physical exertion related to frequent inspections and surveys requiring considerable standing, walking, climbing, bending, crouching, stretching, reaching or similar movements.

Occasionally, there may be a need to lift and carry moderately heavy objects. The work may require some degree of agility and dexterity when, for example, it involves inspecting construction sites.

There is also some standing, bending, and carrying of small and light objects. The work is usually performed in an office setting.

There may be occasional exposure to the risks and hazards of work environments and conditions requiring special safety precautions and clothing.

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:

The duties of this position are but not limited to: Oversees, monitors, and evaluates multiple programs associated with VAPHS's Oversees, monitors, and evaluates multiple programs associated with VAPHS's emergency management and safety activities of the environmental protection specialist, occupational health specialists, and Industrial Hygienists.

Responsible for the full range of personnel activity and organizational design proposals for Safety and other programs throughout the health care system, such as the Fit Testing/Respiratory Protection program and Environment of Care programs to assure the accomplishment of the agency mission.

Responsible and accountability for directing, planning, developing, implementing, and assessing VAPHS's emergency management and safety programs.

Manages the overall SEM programs to provide patients, visitors, and staff of VAPHS with the highest attainable level of safety possible and identifies opportunities for improvement through an ongoing effort of problem identification, evaluation, resolution, monitoring and evaluation.

Oversees the Joint Commission Environment of Care Standards to ensure that VAPHS is in compliance.

Develops monitors and evaluates four of the seven Joint Commission required management plans to include Safety Management, Life Safety Management, Hazardous Material Management, and Emergency Preparedness Management, but also Utility Management, Equipment Management, and Security Management areas which are the responsibility of other departments and services at the healthcare system.

Directs employees in conducting inspections and processing reports of unsafe or unhealthy working conditions.

Provides direction to the VAPHS Accident Review Board in development of processes to reduce compensation costs and work-related injury or illness.

Assesses the effectiveness of specific programs, projects, and functions; plans alternative courses of actions to resolve hazardous conditions and unsafe work practices.

Responsible for defining safety issues, collecting reports, investigating accidents and incidents, assisting in prioritizing the activities of the SEMS.

Works with VISN 4 Safety staff as a subject matter expert on NFPA codes and standards, Joint Commission standards on Life Safety, and the Environment of Care standards consultant.

Reviews, analyzes, and makes recommendations on all levels of medical center construction projects, including Major, Minor, Non-Recurring Maintenance (NRM) and Station Level Projects (SLP) to verify compliance with VA, federal, NFPA, OSHA, EPA, ADA, State, local and any other applicable safety codes or requirements.

Work Schedule: 7:00am to 3:30pm, Monday thru Friday Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Position Description/PD#: Supervisory Safety & Occupational Health Manager/PD060710 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized