Veterinary Medical Officer (Laboratory Animal Medicine)

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/29/2024. You may qualify based on your education/experience as described below. A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing your qualifications on education. Individual Occupational Requirements: a. Education (1) Possess a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) or equivalent degree, i.e., Veterinary Medical Doctor (VMD), obtained at a college or school of veterinary medicine accredited by the AVMA Council on Education; or (2) Graduate from a foreign veterinary medical school not accredited by the AVMA Council on Education possessing one of the following: (a) Proof of certification of final transcript by the Educational Commission for Foreign Veterinary Graduates (ECFVG); or (b) Current, permanent, full and unrestricted license to practice veterinary medicine in a State, District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or a territory of the United States that includes successful completion of the North American Veterinary Licensing Examination (NAVLE) or its predecessors, the National Board Examination (NBE) and the Clinical Competency Test (CCT); or (c) Proof that the education obtained in a foreign veterinary medical program is equivalent to that gained in a veterinary medical program that is accredited by the AVMA Council on Education. Under this provision, equivalency is established only if an AVMA-accredited veterinary medical school or college accepts the graduate’s final transcript from the foreign veterinary medical school at full value for placement into an advanced degree, postgraduate educational program or training program (e.g., residency or graduate program); and (d) Graduates of foreign veterinary medical programs must also provide proof of proficiency in the English language by successfully completing one of the nationally and internationally recognized examinations that incorporate assessments of reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. Examples of examinations that assess mastery of the English language include: 1. Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) – Minimum scores for the TOEFL are 560 for the paper-based version; 220 for the computer-based version; or overall score of 83 for the internet-based version (including 26 or higher in speaking, 26 or higher in listening, and 17 or higher in writing). For the computer-based and paper-based test versions, applicants must also complete the Test of Spoken English (TSE) and the Test of Written English (TWE). Minimum required scores are 55 for the TSE and 5.5 for the TWE; or 2. Academic tests (listening, writing and speaking) offered by the International English Language II-F32-3Testing System (IELTS). Applicants must achieve a minimum overall band score of 7.0, with at least 7.0 in speaking, 6.5 in listening, and 6.0 in writing; or 3. Canadian Academic English Language Assessment (CAEL). Applicants must achieve a minimum overall band score of 70, with at least 60 in speaking, 60 in listening, and 50 in writing. b. Licensure (1) Possess a current, permanent, full and unrestricted license to practice veterinary medicine in a State, District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or a territory of the United States that includes successful completion of the NAVLE or its predecessors, the NBE and the CCT. (2) An employee who enters this occupation with the basic requirement for licensure, but fails to maintain licensure must be immediately removed from the occupation, which may also result in termination of employment. At the discretion of the appointing official, an employee who fails to maintain licensure may be reassigned to another occupation for which he/she qualifies if a placement opportunity exists. AND Specialized Experience: Specialized experience must demonstrate the ability of the applicant to independently perform the veterinary medical duties required for the position. Only experience gained after completing the basic education requirements described in paragraph 3 and in a biomedical research setting in which Public Health Service Policy and United States Department of Agriculture Animal Welfare Act Regulations were applied under the jurisdiction of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee is creditable. Experience gained at a pet veterinary clinic with species commonly used in research does not count towards meeting the specialized experience requirements. When calculating the length of specialized experience, applicants are considered to have gained 1 year of experience through the completion of either 12 months or 52 weeks of specialized experience, whichever comes first. Qualifying part-time specialized experience is credited according to its relation to the full-time workweek (i.e., 40 hours). You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-13 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Specialized experience is defined as: overseeing research staff and investigators to ensure activities follow the approved animal research protocol and that all animals are treated in a humane and caring fashion facilitates the development of biomedical research protocols and successful submission of requests for research project support, experience in providing medical and surgical care for large number of animal subjects in medical research and education; experience as member or consultant to policy making committees; experience in planning work to be accomplished by subordinates, setting, and adjusting short-term priorities; experience in developing, implementing, and monitoring a program for personnel having significant animal contact; experience in maintaining accurate records of animal housing costs and charge backs to investigators; conduct analyses of the annual accumulated animal care costs; and experience in developing, directing and conducting a training program for research investigator and technician and laboratory animal medicine. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Administration and Management Animal Husbandry Research Manages Human Resources Per Office of Personnel Management General Schedule Qualification Policies, federal employees are assumed to have gained experience by performing duties and responsibilities appropriate for their official series and grade level as described in their position description. Experience that would not normally be part of the employee’s position is creditable when documented by satisfactory evidence (e.g., a memorandum from the manager, human resources director, or official documentation such as SF-52, SF-50 documenting an official detail/assignments, or other comparable documentation). The documentation must indicate whether the employee performed the duties full time or, if part-time, the percentage of times the employee performed the additional duties. To receive credit for experience in your resume that is not within the official series and grade level of your position, you must provide official documentation of such experience as indicated above. 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. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit OPM’s web site at http://www.opm.gov/qualifications/standards/indexes/alph-ndx.asp.
Veterinary Medical Unit (VMU) is in the Office of Research and Development of the VA Portland Health Care System (VAPORHCS). This facility serves 170 national funded investigators with combined funding of $40 million (in FY23) and is the 6th largest research program in the VA system.