About this role

Basic Requirements: United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy. Education, Experience, or Certification. Associates or higher degree in the biomedical technology or biomedical engineering field; OR Associates or higher degree in electronics, a field of information technology, or engineering (other than biomedical engineering) AND 1 year of creditable experience; OR Completion of the Department of Defense (DOD) biomedical equipment technician training program; OR Completion of a DOD training program in repair and maintenance of electronic systems or information technology AND 1 year of creditable experience; OR Completion of a biomedical engineering technician or Healthcare Technology Management (HTM) certificate program that included an internship or apprenticeship; OR Completion of biomedical engineering technician or HTM certificate program that did not include an internship AND 1 year of creditable experience; OR Hold or having ever held certification as a Certified Biomedical Equipment Technician (CBET), Certified Radiology Equipment Specialist (CRES), Certified Laboratory Equipment Specialist (CLES), or Certified Healthcare Technology Manager (CHTM).

Continuous maintenance of certification is not required throughout VHA employment. Foreign Education. To be creditable, education completed outside the U.S. must be deemed at least equivalent to that gained in a conventional U.S. program by a private organization specializing in the interpretation of foreign educational credentials. English Language Proficiency. Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with 38 U.S.C.

§ 7403(f). May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria). Grade Determinations: In addition to the basic requirements for employment, candidates must meet the following grade-determining criteria for placement at grade levels specified. Biomedical Support Specialist (Information Systems) GS-12 Experience: One year of creditable experience equivalent to the next lower grade (GS-11).

Experience includes managing medical equipment and clinical systems including installation, planned maintenance, troubleshooting, repair, calibrations, electrical safety inspections, patient safety, cybersecurity, and decommissioning. BESSs plan, implement, and provide technical and project oversight for medical equipment and clinical systems. BESSs develop technical requirements, draft requests for proposal (RFP) language, sole-source justifications, and statements of work (SOW).

They conduct market research, product evaluations, evaluate contractor performance, and conduct pre-procurement assessments. They serve as a Contracting Officer Representative (COR) or Contracting Officer Technical Representative (COTR) to purchase medical equipment, maintenance and repair contracts, and facility projects as needed. BESSs conduct pre- purchase evaluations and address pre-implementation security issues to ensure medical device isolation architecture (MDIA) requirements are met.

Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities: Knowledge of Health Level 7 (HL7) and Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) standards. Knowledge of advanced testing methods to troubleshoot networked medical equipment and clinical system interfaces. Skill in maintaining computer and server based medical equipment, databases, and software. Skill in managing medical equipment and clinical system projects that interface with an electronic health record or other information systems.

Skill in applying cybersecurity standards to medical devices and clinical systems such as Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA), and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines. Ability to apply information security tools including virus protection, software updates, and operating system patches. Ability to establish a medical network including VLAN configuration, Internet Protocol addressing, and network security.

Assignment: For all assignments above the FPL, the higher-level duties must be of significant scope, administrative independence, complexity, and range of variety, as described in this standard at the specific grade level and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time. At the advanced level, the BESS, in addition to the duties at the FPL, manage medical servers and networks, diagnostic software, virtual platforms, and clinical applications software.

They manage projects for medical equipment and clinical systems that interface with the electronic health record or other information systems. BESSs (Information Systems) manage virtual and physical hardware components including storage, memory, processing, graphical, and network interfaces. They facilitate operating system updates, upgrades, and virus protection. BESSs (Information Systems) perform maintenance for networked systems.

They leverage resources and knowledge to minimize the need for unit and intermediate-level service contracts and manufacturer or vendor expenditures for tasks that can be completed in-house. BESSs (Information Systems) identify and troubleshoot issues related to networked medical equipment and clinical systems. They evaluate compatibility and adaptability of biomedical devices for integration to the electronic health record.

BESSs (Information Systems) regularly review, coordinate, and implement available software patches, updates, and system or data backups with other BESSs, manufacturers, informatics, and IT staff. They are responsible for compliance with physical security, privacy, and information standards and infrastructure standards. BESSs (Information Systems) ensure compliance of networked clinical systems to all Medical Device Protection Program (MDPP) requirements.

They design, implement, and manage appropriate security measures and disaster recovery plans critical to ensure system uptime and prevent loss of patient data from critical medical equipment and clinical systems. Preferred Experience: Preferred at least 3 years demonstrated ability, experience, and subject matter expertise managing networked medical equipment at a 2 complexity or similar hospital biomedical engineering section.

Thorough understanding and subject matter expertise of the Enterprise Risk Assessment process, Medical Device Protection Program, and VA Medical Device Isolation Architecture Subject matter expertise in mitigating and addressing cybersecurity threats in a healthcare setting on medical servers and workstations Preferred at least 2 years demonstrated experience with virtual machines/servers set up and overall system administration (Such as Cisco Hyperflex) Preferred training/certifications such as CompTIA N+, and CompTIA S+, Comp TIA A+, and CCNA, etc.

as well as training for cybersecurity and healthcare information technology management Demonstrated excellent administrative and communication skills Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/. The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12. Physical Requirements: A pre-placement examination will be required to be able to determine if the incumbent is able to safely operate a Government Vehicle." Preferably under the Requirements

Source listing: usajobs