Health Technician (Dietetic)

DIRECT HIRE AUTHORITY: This position is being filled using Direct-Hire Authority (5 CFR 337.201) for this occupation.

Major duties and responsibilities include:

• Handles patient meal service orders and enters meal orders into Dietetics Software system
• Provides professional and courteous customer service via telephone e-mail and in-person
• Collaborates with Dietitians regarding Food/Drug Interactions notifying clinical staff of potential issues with meal service and delivery
• Interprets and processes diet orders
• Prints prepares and reviews meal tickets
• Triages calls from inpatient units or outpatient clinics and procedure areas relating to patient meal trays or nourishments
• Retrieves computerized information/printouts to assist with tray and/or nourishment assembly such as standing orders nourishment labels tabulated recipe lists and other simple information to assist in meal delivery
• Provides basic-level education and information on therapeutic diets
• Correctly interprets diet activity and patient information to ensure meals trays contain food items adhering to patient requests and preferences and current therapeutic diet order
• Communicates patient concerns with registered dietitian or dietetic technician
• Verifies physician orders for unusual diets conflicting modifications tube feeding orders and nutritional supplements
• Uses a computer to record retrieve and print recipes menus and inventory reports
• Performs other related duties as assigned

Work Schedule: Part-Time - Monday through Thursday 10:00 am - 6:30 pm
Position Description Title/PD#: Health Technician (Dietetic)/PD99855S
Physical Requirements: The work requires walking standing bending lifting and carrying of light items such as food trays instruction materials books and manuals. NCC Associate functions require long periods of sitting and moving about in an office environment including repetitive motion activities of the hands and fingers for extensive keyboard and computer mouse use and office tasks such as answering and holding a telephone phone and writing. The work may require walking indoors outdoors or to and from other areas of the medical center. It may be necessary to lift and/or push equipment. Incumbent is subject to periods continuous standing sitting walking and frequent stooping reaching pushing pulling and bending. Frequently lifts or moves objects weighing up to 20 pounds and pushing loaded carts of trays and/or nourishments.

• You must be a U.S. citizen to apply for this job
• Subject to a background/suitability investigation
• Designated and/or random drug testing may be required
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
• A complete application package; including Resume Transcripts etc. is required
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements ( May 7 2025 drivers licenses or state-issued identification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.

Beginning September 27 2025 Federal agencies will only accept resumes up to two pages in length to comply with the Merit Hiring Plan. Resumes longer than two pages will result in ineligibility for further consideration for the position. USAJOBS will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages and you will need to update the resumes in your profile before applying for a job. Resumes should include information relevant to the knowledge skills abilities and competencies of the position to which you are applying. VA is unable to make assumptions about qualifications if not clearly listed.

Resumes must be legible so they can be reviewed for eligibility minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement.

Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF JPG JPEG PNG RTF TXT PDF ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato if available. Other widely available options are Calibri Helvetica Arial Verdana Open San Source Sans Pro Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started.

As a condition of employment for accepting this position you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public 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 probationary period your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification in writing that your continued employment advances the public interest.

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

You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below:

Individual Occupational Requirements:
Specialized Experience (for positions at GS-4 and above):
Positions in this series range widely in type and include support duties to medical or health personnel such as audiologists speech pathologists medical officers and optometrists. Therefore technician experience is experience that required application of the knowledge methods and techniques of the position to be filled.
OR
Education and Training:
For GS-5: Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study leading to a bachelors degree with major study or at least 24 semester hours in subjects directly related to the position.

GS-05 grade level:
SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: At least (1) full year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade level (GS-4) in the Federal Service that has given you the particular knowledge skills and abilities required to successfully perform the duties of a Health Technician (Dietetics). Qualifying specialized experience includes: Experience where you applied knowledge of quantity food service operations proper nutrition food items and appropriate quantities; working with clients patients and/or customers to assess their needs provide information or assistance resolve their problems or satisfy their expectations; use computers software applications databases and automated systems to accomplish work.
OR
EDUCATION: Successful completion of a full four (4) year course of study leading to a bachelors degree with a major study or at least 24 semester hours in subjects directly related to this position (i.e. nutrition dietary therapy food and nutrition science food service systems management etc.). This education must have been obtained in an accredited business or technical school junior college college or university for which high school graduation or the equivalent is the normal prerequisite. NOTE: Transcripts (unofficial or official) must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation.
OR
COMBINATION: Equivalent combination of successfully completed post-high school education (beyond the second year) and specialized experience as listed above. The education portion must include courses directly related to the work of the position (i.e. nutrition dietary therapy food and nutrition science food service systems management etc.). This education must have been obtained in an accredited college or university. NOTE: Transcripts (unofficial or official) must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation.

To calculate first identify the percentage of required education you have earned (when substituting you cannot use the first 60 semester hours that you earned). Then identify the percentage of required experience you possess. Add the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify at the GS-05. For example an applicant who has 9 semester hours of graduate level education (i.e. 50% of graduate education required) and 6 months of creditable specialized experience (i.e. 50% of the required experience) would equal 100% of the required experience for the position A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education.

Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g. Peace Corps AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g. professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies knowledge and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience including volunteer experience.