Environmental Protection Specialist (GEMS Coordinator)

Major Duties of this position include but may not be limited to the following:

• Administers the Green Environmental Management System (GEMS) program with responsibility for management of GEMS activities and internal reporting activities.
• Advises senior level management officials within the facility on the status of environmental programs and recommends changes in the design of facility work programs to meet new environmental requirements.
• Interacts with Federal state and local environmental agencies with respect to facility environmental issues.
• Schedules and leads environmental audits to identify and evaluate program implementation and compliance activities.
• Trains other employees providing instruction on a variety of subjects related to specific and specialized environmental topics; adapts various available media to fit special and unique training requirements; and participates in the development of novel or innovative environmental training and promotion activities.
• Evaluates modifies and implements pollution prevention alternatives to reduce the generation of waste.
• Conducts or oversees the identification collection segregation packaging and manifesting of hazardous wastes.
• Manages the facilitys GEMS committee.
• Performs other related duties as required.

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 addition to the application and questionnaire this position requires an online assessment. The online assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
• Physical Requirements: The work includes frequent audits of waste storage areas and involves a good deal of walking standing bending and climbing. 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 drivers licenses or state-issued dentification 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)

• 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.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement 02/09/2026.

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-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 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:

GS-11 Grade Requirements:
SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: Applicants must possess one (1) year of specialized experience that equipped them with the particular knowledge skills and abilities to perform successfully the duties of this position and that is typically in or related to the work of this position. To be creditable this specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the GS-9 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience includes: planning implementing and evaluating environmental protection programs; administering a green environmental management program; leading environmental facility inspections to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations; advising management on environmental program status; preparing reports; and training others on specific environmental topics.
OR
SUBSTITUTION OF EDUCATION FOR EXPERIENCE (TRANSCRIPT REQUIRED) - Applicants must possess a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M if related. This education must demonstrate the knowledge skills and abilities necessary to do the work of this position.
OR
COMBINING EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE (TRANSCRIPT REQUIRED) - Combination of successfully completed graduate education and experience may be used to meet total qualification requirements.

For more information on these qualification standards please visit the United States Office of Personnel Managements website at

Required Experience:

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