Description:
This position is located in the Durham VA Medical Center Facilities and Engineering Service and serves as an Electronic Technician. The purpose of this position is to provide system and medical equipment analysis support through preventive maintenance inspections, assessments, instructional repairs, calibrations, installations, modification designations, and user training.Requirements:
To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/27/2025.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 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.
The Electronics Technician requires an Individual Occupation Requirement that must be met. Please understand that the Individual Occupational Requirement is required IN ADDITION to the required Specialized Experience.
Individual Occupation Requirement: This series covers technical positions supervising, leading, or performing work involving applying:
- knowledge of the techniques and theories characteristic of electronics, such as a knowledge of basic electricity and electronic theory, algebra, and elementary physics;
- knowledge of electronic equipment design, development, evaluation, testing, installation, and maintenance; and
- knowledge of the capabilities, limitations, operations, design, characteristics, and functional use of a variety of types and models of electronic equipment and systems related to, but less than, a full professional knowledge of electronic engineering.
Electronics technicians may have gained experience assisting in work situations including:
Maintenance - Developing maintenance standards and procedures for use by others. Analyzing repair practices and developing procedural instructions for use by others on methods and steps to repair equipment.
Installation - Planning and directing the installation of complex systems and associated facilities, particularly where there are site selection and construction problems, dealings with contractors and public utilities, and the possible need to modify equipment for novel site characteristics.
Fabrication - Designing and analyzing circuits, determining design feasibility, evaluating equipment performance under varying environmental conditions, and collecting performance data. Designing or modifying designs to achieve performance and cost objectives. Evaluating the adequacy of equipment for such purposes as repair, calibration, and testing.
Testing and Evaluation/Research and Development - Developing or evaluating new or modified electronic systems. Completing testing, evaluating data, and determining acceptability of equipment modifications, validity, test procedures and data, or legality of operation. Technicians support professional engineers in performing experiments, research, and developmental activities requiring an in-depth knowledge of technical engineering methods, applications, practices, and principles to work on concepts, prototypes, and experimental projects that are without precedent and support state-of-the-art research.
Sustainment - Developing, performing, evaluating, or modifying calibration and test equipment, systems, and procedures. Reporting, analyzing, and archiving test data. Performing complex calculations and manipulations of test data to improve performance of systems, instrumentation, measurement standards, techniques, and procedures.
Troubleshooting - Analyzing and diagnosing faults in the operational configuration of electronic systems and equipment. Interpreting circuit wiring, logic cable diagrams, drawings, specifications, and schematics of complete systems and equipment to understand the function and interconnections of the various assemblies and troubleshoot the system.
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-09 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to:
- Knowledge to recognize the ability to merge components of various systems assuring compatibility and continuity for the critical functions associate with the equipment.
- Plans, schedule and performs emergency maintenance on equipment to ensure that equipment is operating and calibrated within codes and standards compliance.
- Customer Service
- Electronics Engineering
- Problem Solving
- Systems Integration
- Technical Problem Solving
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.
Note : A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment.
Physical Requirements: Physical demands of this position involves walking, stooping, sitting, climbing ladders, standing, and long periods of intense concentration. Routinely required to crawl on rooftops and under buildings to investigate equipment malfunctions and recommend alternate methods and or other resolutions as applicable. Commonly lift objects between 10 and 40 pounds and heavier objects as required.
Working Conditions: Work is generally performed indoors and predominately performed in clinical settings that are well heated or air conditioned with proper lighting. The incumbent often work in patient environments that are sometimes under negative pressure or in highly contagious areas. Special safety precautions and personal protective equipment (PPE) compliance must be taken when working in non-ionizing radiation and infectious environments for the well being of the incumbent, staff and veterans. Incumbent occasionally work with, around, and otherwise exposed to hazardous such as; noisy machinery; aerosol solvents and other materials used while performing duties. Adherence to proper hazardous material safety practices and the use of personal safety protection equipment and universal precautions is a must. Often the setting is with uncooperative or controversial individuals wherein a consensus is needed or tact and diplomacy must be used to demonstrate the benefits of the new technology in order to assure compliance with the mandate.
OTHER SIGNIFICANT FACTS: Travel is sometimes required and incumbent may be required to work beyond normal duty hours or be subject to emergency call-back. Trips to Community Based Outpatient Clinics are sometimes necessary and will involve transportation via station vehicle or privately owned vehicle.
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/ .