Lead Police Officer

The GS-8 Lead Police Officer (Sergeant) assist in managing representatives in the general operation, coordination, and direction of the assigned duty personnel. The incumbent's primary duties are ensuring a safe and secure environment across all VA Administrations and properties within various settings, including a variety of jurisdictional environments, such as VHA Medical Centers and facilities, Inpatient/ Outpatient Clinics, domiciliaries and administrative sites.Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 02/20/2024.
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-08 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-07. 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: Creditable specialized experience may have been gained in work on a police force; through service as a military Police Officer; in work providing visitor protection and law enforcement in parks, forests, or other natural resource or recreational environments; in performing criminal investigative duties; or in other work that provided the required knowledge and skills. Experience as a security guard or corrections officer is generally not qualifying. Note: You must provide detailed information of your experience performed. Information such as "I was a Patrolman", "I was a Police Officer for a number of years," or "I enforced Federal, State, county, and laws" is insufficient to determine your qualifications. Experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month and year start/end dates AND hour worked per week.
You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below:

• Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-07 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: ensuring a safe and secure environment across all VA Administrations within various settings, including a variety of jurisdictional environments, such as VHA Medical Centers and facilities, Inpatient Clinics, Outpatient Clinics, domiciliaries and administrative sites throughout the United States. This position serves as a vital part of the VA Police Services often serving as the face of the VA and as the first person a Veteran or visitor encounters when entering a VA facility. The incumbent provides security and assistance to Veterans, patients, employees, contractors, volunteers, affiliates, visitors, and others who frequent VA facilities daily. The incumbent is also responsible for the protection of high valued assets from theft, intentional damage and unauthorized removal. The incumbent is expected to empathize, engage, and communicate with all individuals they encounter to ensure a positive outcome and the safety of the facility and all its occupants.

• Preferred Experience: Experience that provided knowledge of a body of basic laws and regulations, law enforcement operations, practices, and techniques and involved responsibility for maintaining order and protecting life and property. Creditable specialized experience may have been gained in work on a police force; through service as a military Police Officer; in work providing visitor protection and law enforcement in parks, forests, or other natural resource or recreational environments; in performing criminal investigative duties; or in other work that provided the required knowledge and skills.

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

• Arrest
• Criminal Law
• Leadership
• Manages Human Resources
• Security
• Teaching Others

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: The position is required to exert considerable and strenuous physical effort on a regular basis while performing the functions of the position. These functions are normally performed while the position conducts security surveys and inspections, which require crawling in unusually confined building areas. May be called upon to defend themselves and members of staff, patients or the public against physical attack and may be required to exercise deadly force if necessary. Requirements of the position include maintaining firearms qualifications, climbing flights of stairs, carrying heavy equipment/patients during emergencies, running, bending, stooping, physical restraint of aggressive persons, being subjected to assaults by persons evading arrest. Inspections and audits of security systems, constructions sites, and full searches require the performance of duties in a variety of inclement weather conditions walking, crawling in wooded or over-grown field conditions in all elements of seasonal weather.
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/.Education: There is no educational substitution at this grade level.
Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.Employment Type: FULL_TIME