Supervisory Biomedical Engineer

Summary

The Supervisory Biomedical Engineer is responsible to provide support for the hospital-wide Biomedical Engineering Program serving all Services throughout the campus of the Central Texas VA Healthcare System, and modern, state of the art outpatient clinics. He/she serves as a leader to the hospital in Healthcare Technology Management and is administratively under the Chief, Healthcare Technology Management.

Duties

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Major duties include, but are not limited to:

• Acts as a consultant to the Medical Center regarding Healthcare Technology Management. Incumbent develops new innovative strategies to complete assignments as required.
• Provides a wide range of technical input and oversight when analyzing benefits and costs of accomplishing work in-house vs contracts.
• Organizes projects of broad scope and objectives that affect many levels of medical and administrative staff. Typically, the assignment entails many variables for which precedent data, criteria, methods or techniques are significantly inadequate, are controversial or contain critical gaps.
• Responsible for developing and improving complex medical equipment systems by working closely with the Project Engineering staff in developing performance specifications, safety specifications, and Human Factors Engineering specifications, as well as directing the Biomedical Engineering department in establishing installation, and maintenance procedures.
• Evaluates functional and operational requirements of medical and engineering systems to establish and confirm specific requirements for final application.
• Develops policies and guidelines for the installation, maintenance, safety and application of all major modalities of Biomedical Instrumentation. He/she helps implement preventative maintenance programs for all medical equipment. He/she is also responsible for initial staff training and in ongoing retraining as well as modifying training for identified user errors.
• Analyzes continuing personnel problems and takes necessary corrective action, develops quality and quantity standards, recommends promotions or reassignments of employees and promotes the participation of employees in the achievement of all management goals. He schedules and approves leave requests, sets performance standards, conducts performance appraisals, counsels employees, adjusts complaints and grievances and initiates personnel actions as needed.
• Ensures that all electrical, networking, placement and design are compatible with the patient/hospital environment. The incumbent also assures compliance with JCAHO, and other regulatory agencies such as OSHA, CAP, CARF, NFPA, and NRC to aid in the overall mission of the patient care institution.
• Acts as technical consultant for all Biomedical Engineering Staff who must often rely on the incumbent to help coordinate and provide technical knowledge on networked medical devices. This oversight and management requires significant and extensive coordination and integration of a number of important projects and/or required Preventative Maintenance/Corrective Maintenance work loads.
• Makes recommendations in the creation of internal and external program policy issues affecting the overall organization that involve technological factors. He/she is involved in determining the optimum mix of reduced operating costs and assurance of program effectiveness. He/she is involved in the introduction of laborsaving devices, automated processes, and methods of improvements. He/she is significantly involved in policy formation and long-range planning regarding prospective changes in function and programs.

Work Schedule: Monday through Friday; 7:00am - 3:30pm

Telework: Ad-hoc; as determined by supervisor and agency policy

Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Functional Statement #: 52457-F

Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized

Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job.
• All applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English.
• 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 (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). 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.
• Must pass pre-employment physical examination.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).
• Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1 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; and
• whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.

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

Qualifications

Basic Requirements:

• United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• Education and/or Experience: The individual must meet either item (1) or (2) below to meet this requirement:
  
  • 1. Bachelor's Degree or Higher in Engineering. To be creditable, the curriculum must be from a school of engineering with at least one curriculum accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), as a professional engineering curriculum. Examples of acceptable engineering degrees include: Biomedical Engineering, Clinical Engineering, Bioengineering, Biomechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Biochemical Engineering. Titles may vary from educational institutions and change over time. OR
  • 2. Certification as a Certified Clinical Engineer (CCE) and a bachelor's degree not listed above.
• Grandfathering Provision: All persons employed in VHA in this occupation, on the effective date of this qualification standard, are considered to have met all qualification requirements for the title, series and grade held, including positive education, and/or certification/registration that are part of the basic requirements of the occupation. For employees who do not meet all the basic requirements in this standard, but who met the qualifications applicable to the position at the time they were appointed to it, the following provisions apply:
  
  • Such employees in an occupation that does not require a certification/registration, may be reassigned, promoted, or demoted within the occupation.
  • Employees who are appointed on a temporary basis, prior to the effective date of the qualification standard, may not have their temporary appointment extended, or be reappointed on a temporary, or permanent basis, until they fully meet the basic requirements of the standard.
  • Employees initially grandfathered into this occupation, who subsequently obtain additional education and/or certification/registration, that meet all the basic requirements of this qualification standard, must maintain the required credentials as a condition of employment in the occupation.
  • If an employee, who was retained in an occupation listed in 38 U.S.C. a7 7401(3) under this provision, leaves that occupation, the employee loses protected status, and must meet the full VA qualification standard requirements in effect at the time of reentry to the occupation.
• Physical Requirements: See VA Directive and Handbook 5019, Employee Occupational Health Service.
• English Language Proficiency: Biomedical Engineers must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with chapter 2, section D, paragraph 5a, this part.

Grade Determinations:

Supervisory Biomedical Engineer (Clinical), GS-13 (Above Full Performance)

• Experience. Completion of at least one year of experience equivalent to the next lower level, and must fully meet the KSAs at that level.
• Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate all of the following KSAs:
  
  • Knowledge of the management of overall department resources, i.e., finances, space, equipment, supplies, and staffing at the local level.
  • Ability to draft and/or recommend local policies and/or directives related to healthcare technology management.
  • Ability to balance multiple responsibilities, set priorities, delegate tasks, meet multiple deadlines, analyze organizational problems, and develop and implement effective solutions.
  • Ability to analyze organizational and operational problems to develop and implement solutions that result in efficient operations, and use data effectively to manage workload, quality, performance, and productivity within the area of responsibility.
  • Skill in interpersonal relationships in leading and dealing with employees, team leaders, and managers, both within and outside the biomedical engineering program, to include conflict management, dispute resolution, mediation, or reasonable accommodations.
• Assignment. For all assignments above the full performance level, the higher-level duties must consist of significant scope, complexity (difficulty), range of variety, and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time. At this level, employees are supervisors and are at the facility level. The supervisory biomedical engineer (clinical) is responsible for the professional and administrative management of a facility biomedical engineering program. Such individuals have responsibility supervising technical staff, including lower level engineers, biomedical engineering technicians, and other staff. The range of supervisory responsibility includes development of performance standards and performance evaluations; recommendations for appointments, awards, advancements, and when appropriate, disciplinary actions; and identification of continuing training needs etc. The supervisory biomedical engineer (clinical) is responsible for financial management of budget resources allocated to support quality assurance and maintenance activities necessary to assure the facility's medical equipment is available for patient care activities. The supervisory biomedical engineer (clinical) is responsible for compliance and reporting of medical device cyber security and isolation for facilities under their management oversight.

Preferred Experience:

• Graduate of the Biomedical Engineer TCF program
• 3 years' experience in NAC ordering
• Knowledge of medical servers/networks
• Demonstrated medical equipment project management
• Medical 3D printing experience

References: VA Handbook 5005/104 Part II Appendix G38 Biomedical Engineering Qualification Standard GS-0858 Veterans Health Administration March 25, 2019.

The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-13.

Physical Requirements: The work is sedentary. Some work may require movement between offices, hospitals, warehouses, and similar areas for meetings and to conduct work. Work may also require walking/standing, in conjunctions with travel to and attendance at meetings and/or conferences away from the work site. Incumbent may carry and lift light items weighing less than 15 pounds.

Functional Requirements:

Individuals, including wage-grade drivers, title 5, title 38, and hybrid title 38 employees or volunteers who are required to operate a government owned or leased vehicle to successfully carry out their assigned duties must be medically cleared prior to appointment (positions that require a CDL are covered under a separate OF-178).

Assessment must be made for any acute or chronic medical/physical condition or medication use which interferes with the ability operate the appropriate Government-owned or -leased vehicle safely and without undue risk to themselves or others. The following requirements must be met:

• distant vision 20/40 in one eye with or without correction,
• field of vision 70 degrees,
• ability to distinguish red, green and amber,
• whispered voice at five feet, or average hearing loss of not greater than 40 dbs. at 500, 1000 and 2,000 Hz.

Education

If your school was accredited by Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) at the time of graduation but is no longer listed on the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) website, you must provide documentation of accreditation with your application packet. https://www.abet.org/

Note: If your school has changed names, or is no longer in existence, you must provide this information in your application

Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qu