Emergency Management Specialist

About the role

The position is located in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Veterans Health Administration (VHA), New England Health Care Network (VISN 1), VA Boston Healthcare system, Jamaica Plain Campus. The Emergency Management Specialist (EMS) provides the healthcare system in sustaining national and regional support to the comprehensive Emergency Management Program. In addition to providing local and regional support, duties include but are not limited to:

• Provides support for emergency management assessments, operations, planning, liaison, mission activities and functions
• Maintains databases and resource requirements
• Ensures supplies, communication requirements, and technology support are deployed and operational when activated in response to any exercises or a real event
• Assists in the development and implementation of Emergency Management protocols and methods
• Assists in developing and implementing a variety of emergency management guidelines and structures for general and specific operations including contingency plans and the continuity of operations
• Ensures that emergency management training and operations requirements are fully integrated, coordinated, and in compliance with all legal and regulatory requirements
• Coordinates personnel resources, to include periods of activation
• Manages and coordinates the procurement, mobilization, utilization and demobilization of resources and assets
• Applies working knowledge of technical requirements, wrap around services, and training needs to deploy resources to alternate care sites, including critical communication assets to ensure interoperability with local, state and national agencies
• Coordinates the implementation and evaluation of exercises to test and critique comprehensive emergency management plans and programs
• Works with emergency management and community partners to perform hazard vulnerability analysis designed to assess the risks that have the potential to interrupt the continuity of critical operations
• Works with federal, state, and local partners to coordinate and collaborate on emergency management planning and response
• In the absence of the Emergency Management manager, supports and provides advice and guidance on all aspects of emergency management
• Analyzes and evaluates, on a quantitative and qualitative basis, the effectiveness of programs and operations in meeting established goals and objectives

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement - 07/31/2026.

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 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.

Experience and Education Requirements

To qualify for the GS-0089-11 based on specialized experience: You must have one (1) year of specialized experience at the GS-09 level or equivalent for this position. Specialized experience is experience that equipped 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.

At the GS-11 full performance level, the incumbent demonstrates:

• Knowledge of the pertinent laws, objectives, precedents, guidelines, and procedures governing various emergency management programs and operations enough to assist with development and execution of a comprehensive emergency management program
• Knowledge of analytical and evaluation methods and thorough understanding of how regulatory programs are administered to select and apply program evaluation and management techniques (data gathering methodologies) in determining compliance with emergency preparedness, management rules and regulations
• Ability to respond quickly to emergency situations where degree of hazard could be of a high nature
• Knowledge of a variety of emergency contingency, and operations plans, policies and directives enough to provide advice and assistance
• Knowledge of the Microsoft office suite (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint)
• Skill in applying basic data gathering methodologies to collect various types of information and knowledge of database entry programs and management

To qualify for the GS-0089-11 based on education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or three (3) full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M., if related.

To qualify for the GS-0089-11 based on combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. Combinations of successfully completed post-high school education and experience may be used to meet total qualification requirements and may be computed by first determining the applicant's total qualifying experience as a percentage of the experience required for the grade level; then determining the applicant's education as a percentage of the education required for the grade level; and then adding the two percentages. The total percentages must equal at least 100 percent to qualify an applicant for that grade level. Only graduate education in excess of the amount required for the next lower grade level may be used to qualify applicants for positions at grades GS-9 and GS-11. When crediting education that requires specific course work, prorate the number of hours of related courses required as a proportion of the total education to be used.

Competencies

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:

• Emergency Management
• Incident Management
• Planning and Evaluating
• Communication

Physical Requirements

The work is primarily sedentary, although some slight physical effort may be required. Assignments regularly involve long periods of standing, bending, and stooping to observe and study work operations in an industrial, storage, or comparable work area.

Schedule

Monday-Friday 7:30am-4:00pm. Compressed schedule may be available.