Industrial Hygienist

US-Department-of-Veterans-Affair; Marshall Corner (MA); On-site; USD 70,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

VA Boston Healthcare System seeks an Industrial Hygienist for its Facilities Management team at West Roxbury and Brockton campuses. This full-time, 40-hour-per-week position requires professional knowledge of industrial hygiene, exposure assessment, and control strategies to protect workers’ health.

Applicants must meet the education/experience requirements, which may be satisfied by graduate education or equivalent experience, and may qualify via education, experience, or a combination.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in industrial hygiene or related science meets basic requirement.
• Engineering/physical science degree with chemistry coursework plus related sciences qualifies.
• Professional certification from BG(E) Credentialing is acceptable in lieu of degree.
• Education must be accredited and course content must be appropriate for professional work.

Education

Bachelor's degree in industrial hygiene or related science

Bachelor's degree in engineering or physical/life science with chemistry coursework

Certification from the Board for Global EHS Credentialing

Job description

These Industrial Hygienist positions are organizationally located in Facilities Management at the VA Boston Healthcare System (West Roxbury and Brockton campuses). Each position is full-time at 40 hours per week. To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 12/31/2026.

Industrial Hygiene Series, 0690

Individual Occupational Requirements

Basic Requirements

The education must be accredited by an accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education 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 Board for Global EHS Credentialing (formerly American Board of Industrial Hygiene).

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.

In addition to meeting the Individual Occupational Requirements listed above, you may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below:

GS-09: One (1) year of specialized experience equivalent to at least GS-07. Specialized experience equips the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. To be creditable, specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the next lower grade level in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. 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.

OR Applicants may substitute education for the experience required for the GS-09 level. The applicant must possess two (2) years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a master's degree or master's or equivalent graduate degree. The degree must be relevant and gained in a curriculum that is qualifying for the position to be filled in a course of study that directly reflects the job-related competencies necessary to satisfy the minimum qualifications and perform the duties of the position. 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 full-time 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 Applicants may also combine graduate education and professional experience to qualify at the GS-09 level. Combinations of successfully completed graduate level education gained in a curriculum that is qualifying for the position to be filled and specialized experience may be used to meet total experience requirements. Only graduate level education in excess of the amount required for the next lower grade level may be combined with experience. For example, an applicant with 6 months of appropriate experience equivalent to GS-7 (50 percent of the experience requirement for GS-9) and 27 semester hours of appropriate graduate education (50 percent of the education requirement for GS-9, in excess of that required for GS-7) would be qualified for a GS-9 position (assuming that there is no evidence that the attended college or university requires more than 18 semester hours as equivalent to a year of graduate study).

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/.