Massachusetts Green Jobs

Summary This Environmental Protection Specialist position is located in Engineering Service at the VA Boston Healthcare System, West Roxbury Campus location. This position is full-time at 40 hours per week. Responsibilities Coordinates, develops and implements Green Environmental Management Systems (GEMS). Oversees continual improvement of environmental programs. Develops, implements, and advises on environmental policies, procedures, and systems. Collaborates with Engineering staff to provide technical expertise for the design, modification, operation and maintenance of facilities and infrastructure to ensure compliance with environmental regulations. Reviews the impact of expansion, modification, closures of existing facilities and new construction on the environment. Provides oversight and technical assistance for a wide range of environmental activities. Provides technical advice in response to environmental emergencies. Presents budgetary information pertaining to environmental programs. Coordinates the efforts of work units that relate to environmental matters. Serves as an expert on environmental statutes, policy, and OSHA requirements. Provides direction to management, professional and technical personnel regarding the continued implementation of the GEMS. Advises management on how environmental policies, procedures, and systems will affect operations. Develops and implements training and educational programs related to environmental activities. Facilitates the dissemination of information to facility staff. Conducts training for all levels of staff on the GEMS and environmental management issues. Educates, trains, and encourages staff, contractors, vendors, students, and users to adopt or comply with environmental program requirements and standards. Develops promotional and educational activities to promote stakeholder awareness of environmental issues. Coordinates 3rd party audits of environmental programs. Conducts surveys of the GEMS and ensures environmental regulatory compliance. Measures the effectiveness of environmental programs and recommends modification/additions to meet changing requirements. Conducts internal gap analyses of GEMS in preparation for agency evaluation. Conducts internal audits of environmental compliance activities, analyzes and presents findings, and monitors effectiveness of corrective actions. Cooperatively works with federal, state, and local environmental and occupational safety and health organizations. Works with employees, supervisors, managers, and employee representative groups to resolve environmental problems. Works with departments to develop and implement corrective actions. Works with persons and agencies outside of the facility to promote operation of the facility's environmental protection and management programs. Work Schedule: To be determined by management, 40 hours per week Telework/Remote: Not available Position Description/PD#: Environmental Protection Specialist/PD523-00040-A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required This is a TEMPORARY appointment not-to-exceed 06/03/2023. Temporary appointments are non-status, nonpermanent appointments of limited duration for one year or less. Should the need warrant, temporary appointments may be extended without further competition up to a maximum of one additional year (for a total of two years, or 24 months within the preceding three-year period). The appointment to a temporary position does not confer eligibility for promotion or reassignment to other positions or the ability to be non-competitively converted to permanent employment. Current and former Federal employees must submit copies of their most recent SF-50, (Notice of Personnel Action). The SF-50 must identify the position title, series, grade, step, tenure and type of service (Competitive or Excepted). In some cases, more than one SF-50 may be required to show a higher grade previously held. This position is in the Competitive Service. Time-in-Grade Restriction: 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. The grade may have been in any occupation but must have been held in the Federal service. Veterans' preference does not apply for current and permanent Federal agency employees. This position is covered by locality-based comparability pay. Requirements Conditions of Employment You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959 You may be required to serve a probationary period Subject to background/security investigation Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP) Participation in the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination program is a requirement for all Veterans Health Administration Health Care Personnel (HCP) - See "Additional Information" below for details. Qualifications To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/31/2023. 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-11 position, you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-09. 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-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: Examples of qualifying specialized experience include, but are not limited to: The incumbent, in collaboration with the engineering staff, provides technical expertise for the design, modification, operation and maintenance of facilities and infrastructure to ensure compliance with environmental regulations. Provides oversight and technical assistance for a wide range of environmental activities. Assignments include, but are not limited to, domestic and industrial wastewater treatment and disposal; safe drinking water; treatment, storage and disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous solid waste; release of hazardous material/spill response; air pollution control; environmental media permitting; toxic substances, underground storage tanks and general environmental regulatory oversight. Incumbent is responsible for managing environmental program(s) and coordinating the efforts of VABHS's organizations that relate to environmental matters. Additional responsibilities of the Environmental Protection Specialist are related to management of the Veterans Administration Physical Health & Safety environmental program(s); OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or three (3) full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M., if related. Degree must be relevant to the position to be filled. Completion of graduate level education is qualifying if it provided the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work. One year of full-time graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent 1 year of full­time study. If that number cannot be obtained from the school, 18 semester hours should be considered an academic year of graduate study. Part-time graduate education is creditable in accordance with its relationship to a year of full-time study at the school attended; OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. Combinations of successfully completed post-high school education and experience may be used to meet total qualification requirements, and may be computed by first determining the applicant's total qualifying experience as a percentage of the experience required for the grade level; then determining the applicant's education as a percentage of the education required for the grade level; and then adding the two percentages. The total percentages must equal at least 100 percent to qualify an applicant for that grade level. Only graduate education in excess of the amount required for the next lower grade level may be used to qualify applicants for positions at grade GS-11. (When crediting education that requires specific course work, prorate the number of hours of related courses required as a proportion of the total education to be used.) The following is an example of how education and experience may be combined. This is an example only, and is not all-inclusive. The position to be filled is a Program Analyst (Informatics), GS-0343-11. An applicant has 9 months of specialized experience equivalent to GS-9 and 2 1/2 years of creditable graduate level education in program informatics. The applicant meets 75 percent of the required experience and 50 percent of the required education, i.e., the applicant has 1/2 year of graduate study beyond that required for GS-9. Therefore, the applicant exceeds the total requirement and is qualified for the position. (The applicant's first 2 years of graduate study are not qualifying for GS-11.) You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Communications Compliance Environmental Engineering Technical Competence Technical Credibility 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: Work is performed in a wide range of environments and may involve exposure to potentially hazardous conditions such as asbestos, chemicals, extreme temperatures and damaged or defective buildings and structures. Work activity may involve prolonged periods of sitting, standing, climbing, work in cramped spaces, walking and bending. Incumbent occasionally lifts and moves moderately heavy objects. Some degree of agility and dexterity is required to conduct environmental surveys and inspections. 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/. Education A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html. Additional Information The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal/VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be well-qualified: applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are proficient in most of the required competencies of the job. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/. This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. Pursuant to VHA Directive 1193.01, VHA health care personnel (HCP) are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 subject to such accommodations as required by law (i.e., medical, religious or pregnancy). VHA HCPs do not include remote workers who only infrequently enter VHA locations. If selected, you will be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and submit documentation of proof of vaccination before your start date. The agency will provide additional information regarding what information or documentation will be needed and how you can request a legally required accommodation from this requirement using the reasonable accommodation process. If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement.