Health Science Specialist

Veterans Health Administration (DOVA); Albuquerque (NM); On-site; USD 90,000 - 118,000; Full time

Job summary

Veterans Health Administration (DOVA) in Albuquerque, NM seeks a Health Science Specialist to lead MDRO infection prevention and control efforts, providing expert guidance and program leadership.

The role focuses on developing, implementing, and evaluating strategies to reduce MDRO transmission, ensure regulatory compliance, and promote patient and staff safety within a complex healthcare system.

Responsibilities

• Reviews, analyzes, and applies information from current scientific literature to identify populations at high risk for infection and applies principles of public health to practice.
• Applies epidemiological principles and statistical methods to identify target populations, analyze trends and risk factors, and design prevention and control strategies including surveillance and investigations.
• Uses a systematic surveillance approach to monitor the effectiveness of prevention strategies and helps develop surveillance guidelines to track nosocomial infections.
• Meets with Medical Center committees to discuss laboratory findings, clinical significance, and infection prevention and control measures.
• Serves as an educational resource for infection prevention and health care epidemiology, reviewing products for cleaning and disinfection of equipment and surfaces.
• Acts as liaison to public health officials and collaborates with the Infection Prevention and Control team in all program activities.
• Provides leadership in addressing ethical issues affecting clients and staff and coordinates problem solving with services outside the responsible area.
• Collaborates with others in research activities to improve care and MDRO infection prevention and control practice.

Job description

Summary

The Health Science Specialist serves as the management of the Multi-Drug-Resistant Organism (MDRO) Prevention Coordinator and Infection Preventionist, providing expert guidance and leadership in infection prevention and control activities. This role is responsible for developing, implementing, and evaluating strategies to prevent multidrug-resistant organism (MDRO) transmission, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards, and promoting a safe environment for patients and staff.

Overview

Location: Albuquerque, NM. 1 vacancy.

Telework eligible

No

Remote job

No

Relocation expenses reimbursed

No

Salary

$90,479 – $117,625 per year

Pay scale & grade

GS 12

Promotion potential

None

Work schedule

Full-time

Travel Required

Not required

Appointment type

Permanent. Occupations and job series. 0601 General Health Science

Supervisory status

No

Federal service type

This job is in the Competitive Service

Represented by a union

No

Drug test

No

Security clearance

Not Required

Position sensitivity and risk

Non-sensitive (NS)/Low Risk

Jobs require a background check and some require a security clearance. The type depends on the job.

Background check type

• Credentialing
• Suitability/Fitness

Financial disclosure required

No

Some jobs require financial disclosure to identify conflicts of interests.

Announcement number

CBSX-13105345-27-JB

Control number

890966800

This job is open to

Federal employees – Competitive service

Federal employees – Excepted service

Internal to an agency

Career transition (CTAP, ICTAP, RPL)

Land and base management

Veterans

Military spouses

Individuals with disabilities

Peace Corps & AmeriCorps Vista

Clarification from the agency

Qualified candidates will be referred in the following order: 1) Current, permanent employees of the Albuquerque, New Mexico, VA Medical Center, 2) Other current, permanent employees of the Department of Veteran’s Affairs, 3) All other status eligible candidates.

Duties

Duties include but not limited to:

• Reviewing, analyzing, and applying pertinent information from current scientific literature and publications, integrating relevant public health issues into practice; and identifying populations at high risk for infection, using the principles of human growth and development to assess patients’ requirements relative to age-specific needs.
• Applies epidemiological principles and statistical methods, including risk stratification, to identify target populations, analyze trends and risk factors, and design and evaluate prevention and control strategies, including conducting surveillance and investigations by using epidemiological principles and using appropriate statistical techniques to describe the data, calculate rates, and critically evaluate significance of findings.
• Uses a systematic approach to surveillance to monitor the effectiveness of prevention and control strategies that are consistent with the organization’s goals and objectives, including: participating in the development of the organization’s surveillance plan based on the population(s) served, services provided, and previous surveillance data, if available, develop and implement surveillance guidelines to track and predict the occurrence of nosocomial infections.
• Meets with Medical Center committees and teams to discuss pertinent laboratory findings, their clinical significance, necessary Infection Prevention and control measures, and concerns from teams.
• Serves as an educational resource for infection prevention, control and health care epidemiology, providing expert knowledge and guidance, including reviews and recommends products for use in cleaning and disinfection of equipment and environmental surfaces.
• Serving as a liaison to public health officials regarding reportable communicable diseases and other epidemiologically significant findings; and actively and continuously collaborating with the Infection Prevention and Control team in all program activities.
• Provides leadership in identifying and addressing ethical issues that impact clients and staff, including initiating and participating in ethics consultations, including maintaining confidentiality, practicing in a nonjudgmental, nondiscriminatory manner, with sensitivity to diversity, coordinating problem solving with supporting Services outside the responsible area supporting the APIC, the epidemiology code of ethics, and the Hospital’s policy on medical ethics.
• Collaborates with others in research activities to improve care, including applying relevant research findings to MDRO infection prevention and control practice.

Work Schedule

Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m.- 4:30 p.m.

Virtual

This is not a virtual position.

Position Description/PD#

Health Science Specialist/ PD150240

Relocation/Recruitment Incentives

Not Authorized

Permanent Change of Station (PCS)

Not Authorized

Requirements

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job
• To be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. In addition to the application and questionnaire, this position requires an online assessment. The online assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job.
• Physical Requirements: The work required does not inherently include any physical requirements essential for successful job performance that could not otherwise be performed with accommodation or workplace adjustment. A pre-placement physical examination is not required.
• Subject to background/security investigation
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements. Effective May 7, 2025, driver’s licenses or state-issued identification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP)

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period or 2-year trial period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider:

• Your performance and conduct;
• The needs and interests of the agency;
• Whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government;
• Whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.

Upon completion of your probationary period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/27/2026.

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.

Individual Occupational Requirements (IOR)

Basic Requirements-Education: Bachelor’s or graduate/higher level degree: major study in an academic field related to the medical field, health sciences or allied sciences appropriate to the work of the position. This degree must be from an educational program from an accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education at the time the degree was obtained. In addition to meeting the IOR, you may qualify based on your experience as described below:

• 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: conducting surveillance, analyzing infection data, developing and implementing prevention strategies, and ensuring compliance with regulatory standards, educating staff, coordinating outbreak investigations, and collaborating with interdisciplinary teams to improve patient safety and quality of care. B. I do not possess the experience described above.

Preferred Experience: 3 years of the specialized experience and/or Certification Infection Control (CIC) preferred

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

There is no educational substitution at this grade level.

Additional information

Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant’s criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer. For more information about the Act and the complaint process, visit Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP) at The Fair Chance Act.

Reasonable Accommodation (RA) Requests: If you believe you have a disability (i.e., physical or mental), covered by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended that would interfere with completing the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be granted the opportunity to request a RA in your online application. Requests for RA for the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments and appropriate supporting documentation for RA must be received prior to starting the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments. Decisions on requests for RA are made on a case-by-case basis. If you meet the minimum qualifications of the position, after notification of the adjudication of your request, you will receive an email invitation to complete the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, based on your adjudication decision. You must complete all assessments within 48 hours of receiving the URL to access the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments if you received the link after the close of the announcement.

Receiving Service Credit for Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. VA may offer newly-appointed Federal employee’s credit for a job-related non-federal experience or active duty uniformed military service. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed.

This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies.

The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced 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/.

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

Agency contact information

Brittaney Parks

Phone: [phone]

Email: [e-mail]

Address: Raymond G Murphy Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 1501 San Pedro Drive, Southeast, Albuquerque, NM 87108, US