Safety and Occupational Health Specialist

Summary

This position is located within the United States Fire Administration located in Emmitsburg, Maryland. The ideal candidate for this position will: have knowledge of safety and health requirements, emergency preparedness practices, hazard assessment methods, and facility safety procedures.

Duties

What will I do in this position if hired? In this position, you will serve as the Safety and Occupational Health Specialist. Typical assignments include: Overseeing safety and health requirements, criteria and compliance strategies for FEMA's Office operations that may require coordination with a) the building owner b) General Services Administration (GSA) and/or c) FEMA Divisions and Offices. Providing technical input on Office safety, occupational health, life safety, fire protection, and industrial hygiene matters, and reviews engineering and pre-construction plans, renovation plans, building/maintenance schedules and contracts to ensure construction projects do not affect occupant safety and occupational health. Performing safety and health inspections of facility workplaces and operations and maintains required documentation. The incumbent recommends interim protective action, maintains an abatement log, and tracks hazard abatement actions. Consulting and maintaining relationships with Federal, State, local, and private-sector safety, health and life safety professionals and organizations to remain abreast of the latest techniques, devices, and recommended practices in the areas of safety, safety engineering, fire protection, and occupational health. Implementing and managing the Office Life Safety Program including development and implementation of Occupant Emergency Guides. Ensures all employees are trained on current Occupant Emergency Plan procedures including on how to evacuate the building, shelter-in-place procedures. The incumbent will be responsible for creating and overseeing an Occupant Emergency Team and Evacuation/Fire Drills. 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.

Qualifications

The qualification requirements listed below must be met by the closing date of this announcement. To qualify for this position at the GS-12 level, you must possess one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-11 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: Appling health policies, directives, procedures, and laws and regulations issued by higher authorities such as Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) AND; Appling techniques and procedures applied by practitioners in safety and occupational health specialty areas sufficient to perform facility and program audits and evaluations and review, evaluate, and advise on a range of safety and occupational health activities; AND; Using occupant emergency plan and practical knowledge of Organizing and Overseeing occupant emergency teams. And 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.) 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 Specialized Experience (for positions above GS-5): 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. 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. 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 sk