In this position you will work as a member of the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center (MWEOC), Executive Officer, Environmental, Safety and Occupational Health (ESOH) office. MWEOC is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, approximately 60 miles west of Washington, DC. The ideal candidate for this position will have extensive experience conducting indoor air quality surveys (IAQ), sampling and remediation of asbestos, lead and mold projects.
This position has a positive education requirement. In addition to the Specialized Experience requirement, you must meet the listed education requirement below. (Submission of transcript is required.) The education must be accredited by an accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education (external link) at the time the degree was obtained. Applicants must meet one of the following requirements: A bachelor's or graduate/higher level degree in industrial hygiene, occupational health sciences, occupational and environmental health, toxicology, safety sciences, or related science; or A bachelor's degree in a branch of engineering, physical science, or life science that included 12 semester hours in chemistry, including organic chemistry, and 18 additional semester hours of courses in any combination of chemistry, physics, engineering, health physics, environmental health, biostatistics, biology, physiology, toxicology, epidemiology, or industrial hygiene; or Certification from the American Board of Industrial Hygiene (external link) (ABIH). Courses in the history or teaching of chemistry are not acceptable. Evaluation of Education All science or engineering courses offered in fulfillment of the above requirements must be acceptable for credit toward the completion of a standard 4-year professional curriculum leading to a bachelor's degree in science or engineering at an accredited college or university. For engineering degrees to be acceptable, the curriculum must be in a school of engineering with at least one curriculum accredited by the ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) as a professional engineering curriculum. Evaluation of Experience Qualifying experience involves the recognition, evaluation, corrective actions, and elimination of environmental conditions in the workplace that causes sickness, impaired health, or illness. This experience must demonstrate a professional knowledge of the theory and application of the principles of industrial hygiene and closely related sciences such as physics and engineering controls. Such work must have involved experience in all of the following areas: the acquisition of quantitative and qualitative data, and the measurement of exposures for a variety of chemical, physical, and biological stresses; the analysis of the data acquired and the prediction of probable effects of exposures on the health and well-being of workers; and the selection and recommendation of appropriate controls, including management, medical, engineering, education or training, and personal protective equipment. And in addition to the basic requirements above you must meet the below specialized experience. Current Federal employees must have served 52 weeks at the next lower grade or equivalent grade band in the Federal service. The time-in-grade requirement must be met within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement. To qualify for this position at the GS-13 level, you must possess one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-12 level in the Federal government, which has equipped you with the skills needed to successfully perform the duties of the position. Experience may be obtained in the federal government, a state or local government, or private sector, and must demonstrate the following: . Identifying, evaluating, and controlling workplace hazards (i.e., chemical, physical, biological) to be able to design and implement sampling programs for mitigation AND; 2. Ensuring facility programs are in compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), with federal, state, and local law regulations AND; 3. Performing investigations for complex industrial hygiene (IH) programs and providing recommendations and/or corrective actions AND; 4. Reviewing processes, procedures, specifications for industrial hygiene (IH) programs AND; 5. Conducting and providing assistance with sampling, monitoring, environmental data for industrial hygiene (IH) programs. Please read the following important information to ensure we have everything we need to consider your application: Do not copy and paste the duties, specialized experience, or occupational assessment questionnaire from this announcement into your resume as that will not be considered a demonstration of your qualifications for this position. Please limit your resume to two pages. The USAJOBS database will not allow an applicant to submit an application that includes a resume over two pages. Your resume serves as the basis for experience related qualification determinations, and you must highlight your most relevant and significant work experience and education (if applicable), as it relates to this job opportunity. Please use your own words, be clear, and specific when describing your work history. We cannot make assumptions regarding your experience. Are you qualifying based on your work experience? Qualifications are based on your ability to demonstrate in your resume that you possess one year of the specialized experience for this announcement at a comparable scope and responsibility. To ensure all of the essential information is in your resume, we encourage you to use the USAJOBS online Resume Builder. If you choose to use your own resume, it must contain the following information organized by experience/position: (1) job title, (2) name of employer, (3) start and end dates of each period of employment (from MM/DD/YY to MM/DD/YY), (4) detailed description of duties performed, accomplishments, and related skills, and (5) hours worked per week (part-time employment will be prorated in crediting experience). Federal experience/positions must also include the occupational series, grade level, and dates in which you held each grade level. Are you a current or former FEMA Reservist/DAE employee? To accurately credit your experience from intermittent positions and Reservist Deployments, you must list the dates (from MM/DD/YY to MM/DD/YY) of deployments that are relevant to your qualifying experience, along with the job title and specific duties you were responsible for during each deployment. Determining length of General or Specialized Experience is dependent on the above information. Failure to provide the above information in your resume may result in your application being found "not qualified." 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, religious, spiritual, community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills, and provides valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. For additional information on crediting experience and/or education, please reference the OPM General Schedule Qualification Standards
All MWEOC staff have emergency assignments and are considered deployed in place. Exercises and activations are planned and unplanned, and may require long hours, nights, weekends and holidays. All MWEOC employees are: (1) required to use a government-issued electronic device (to include cellular phones); (2) subject to recall during emergency situations; and (3) required to perform work in locations both above and below ground. What will I do in this position if hired? In this position, you will be responsible for Industrial Hygiene (IH) systems, principles, best practices, and calculations and the application of IH methods, standards and materials. Typical assignments include: Developing and maintaining environmental, industrial hygiene, occupational health, and safety policies and procedures for a facility, ensuring that the facility meets federal and state requirements and regulations. Conducting indoor air quality surveys (IAQ), sampling and remediation of asbestos. Maintaining industrial hygiene, and Environment, Safety, and Occupational Health (ESOH) technical capabilities in support of essential Federal emergency missions always and under all conditions. Serving as the point of contact for inspections conducted by Federal agencies and the State of Virginia and as the central point of contact with mission partners for environmental, industrial hygiene, occupational health, and safety matters. Coordinating with DHS's Health and Medical Readiness (HMR) Branch and FEMA Headquarters to support FEMA's strategic goal to provide preparedness and response capability to support the Federal response to acts of terrorism and execute plans and procedures to prevent or mitigate the effects. What else do I need to know? At FEMA, our mission is to help people before, during and after disasters, and every employee at FEMA has a role in emergency management. Every FEMA employee has regular and recurring emergency management responsibilities, though not every position requires routine deployment to disaster sites. All positions are subject to recall around the clock for emergency management operations, which may require irregular work hours, work at locations other than the official duty station, and may include duties other than those specified in the employee's official position description. Travel requirements in support of emergency operations may be extensive in nature (weeks to months), with little advance notice, and may require employees to relocate to emergency sites with physically austere and operationally challenging conditions.