Health Physicist (Radiation Safety Officer)

Description:

The primary purpose of this position is to function as the Health Physicist/Radiation Safety Officer (RSO) serving as an independent subject matter expert for the Radiation Safety Program to ensure that safety is maintained, policies are implemented, and providing expert, comprehensive radiation safety oversight for the Medical Center.

Requirements:

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/09/2026.

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-09 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-07. 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:

Basic Requirements

You must possess a degree in natural science or engineering that includes at least 30 semester hours in health physics, engineering, radiological science chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics, and/or calculus? TRANSCRIPTS REQUIRED OR
You must possess courses as per the education requirements above, plus appropriate experience or other education or certification as a health physicist by American Board of Health Physics, plus appropriate experience and other education that provided an understanding of sciences applicable to health physics comparable to the basic education as described above? TRANSCRIPTS REQUIRED

In addition to meeting the Basic Requirements above, the following experience and/or education is required to qualify for this position.

GS-09

Experience: Must possess at least one (1) year of specialized experience that equipped you with the knowledge, skills and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the Health Physicist position, and that is typically in or related to the duties of this position? To be credible, specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the GS-07 level in the Federal Service. Specialized experience for this position consists of: experience in positions that provided professional knowledge of radiation safety, health physics principles, radiation dosimetry, radiation calculations, radiation biology, and radiation shielding techniques; knowledge of federal regulations promulgated by the VHA, NHPP, FDA, OSHA, DOT, and EPA; knowledge of categories of radiation hazards, potential for internal and external exposure, and common methods of corrective actions in nuclear medicine and research practice; and broad knowledge of the underlying principles of X-ray producing devices and methods of assessing satisfactory performance of these systems including all types of radiographic and fluoroscopic instrumentation.
-OR-
Education: Must possess 2 years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a master's degree or master's or equivalent graduate degree
-OR-
Combination: Combination of education and experience -- courses as shown above, plus appropriate experience or other education


GS-11

Experience: Must possess at least one (1) year of specialized experience that equipped you with the knowledge, skills and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the Health Physicist position, and that is typically in or related to the duties of this position? To be credible, specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the GS-9 level in the Federal Service. Specialized experience for this position consists of: experience in positions that provided professional knowledge of radiation safety, health physics principles, radiation dosimetry, radiation calculations, radiation biology, and radiation shielding techniques; knowledge of federal regulations promulgated by the VHA, NHPP, FDA, OSHA, DOT, and EPA; knowledge of categories of radiation hazards, potential for internal and external exposure, and common methods of corrective actions in nuclear medicine and research practice; and broad knowledge of the underlying principles of X-ray producing devices and methods of assessing satisfactory performance of these systems including all types of radiographic and fluoroscopic instrumentation.
-OR-
Education: Must possess 3 years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree
-OR-
Combination: Combination of education and experience -- courses as shown above, plus appropriate experience or other education


You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:

• Education and Training
• Health Physics
• Planning and Evaluating
• Quality Assurance
• Risk Management

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: Most work is performed in an office or laboratory setting; however, the use of protective clothing, aprons or other safety devices and gear may be required for certain activities related to the work. In the course of duties associated with the position, the health physicist is periodically exposed to radioactive materials and ionizing radiation. Essential Employee Travel to/from the Wm. S Middleton VA Hospital, to/from affiliated outpatient clinics and to/from Clement J. Zablocki VAMC will be required on occasion.

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/ .