Summary

This position is in Nutrition and Food Services (NFS) located in a Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The primary purpose of the position is to provide administrative and customer service support for the VA hospital food service program.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position - applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement - 05/26/2026. 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 5 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS 4. 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. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below:

Basic Requirements:

• Must have one of the following: Specialized Experience: Positions in this series range widely in type and include support duties to medical or health personnel such as audiologists - speech pathologists - medical officers - and optometrists
• Therefore - technician experience is experience that required application of the knowledge - methods - and techniques of the position to be filled
• -OR- Education and Training: Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree - with major study or at least 24 semester hours in subjects directly related to the position.
• You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Attention to Detail Customer Service Flexibility Integrity/Honesty Interpersonal Skills Reading Comprehension Self-Management Stress Tolerance Teamwork 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 work requires walking - standing - bending - lifting and carrying of light items - such as food trays - instruction materials - books - and manuals
• NCC Associate functions require long periods of sitting and moving about in an office environment - including repetitive motion activities of the hands and fingers for extensive keyboard and computer mouse use - and office tasks such as answering and holding a telephone phone - and writing
• The work may require walking indoors - outdoors or to and from other areas of the medical center
• It may be necessary to lift and/or push equipment
• Incumbent is subject to periods continuous standing - sitting - walking and frequent stooping - reaching - pushing - pulling - and bending
• Frequently lifts or moves objects weighing up to 20 pounds
• 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/.

Duties

• Practice excellent customer service skills in all forms of communication - either via telephone - e-mail - or in-person
• The incumbent must also practice proper business telephone etiquette while answering the phone
• When communicating with customers - incumbent will be pleasant - friendly - personable - and professional
• Welcome callers courteously and identify themselves/ the service/ the organization
• Communicates effectively via telephone and in-person and uses strong listening and speaking skills
• Properly operates telephone equipment in order to transfer or place calls on hold
• The incumbent will consider both verbal and nonverbal aspects of communication
• Maintain the vital connection between Nutrition Communication Center (NCC) Associates - Registered Dietitian - higher graded dietetic technicians - foodservice staff - Nursing - patients - and guests
• NCC Associate will follow local facility policies and standard procedures for patient feeding - including but not limited to missed patient meals - late tray requests - patient meal ordering - and adherence to prescribed therapeutic diet
• Triages calls from inpatient units or outpatient clinics and procedure areas relating to patient meal trays or nourishments at the lowest level and will refer issues that cannot be resolved to Food Service Supervisor or other as determined by local policy
• Retrieve computerized information/printouts to assist with tray and/or nourishment assembly such as standing orders - nourishment labels - tabulated recipe lists - and other simple information to assist in meal delivery
• Organizes work to complete assignments
• Has thorough knowledge of basic and routine modified diets and is able to provide basic level education and information on local facility therapeutic diets to patients - guests - and nursing staff
• Makes referrals to dietetic technician and/or dietitian as needed for more thorough diet education Assists patients in selection of the proper foods according to their individual diet
• Uses communication skills to converse with veteran's to accurately take menu orders via COTS Dietetic software System
• Must possess multitasking skills when entering menu orders and improving quality of life of veterans through social interaction
• Uses computer skills to precisely and swiftly move between functions in software systems and effectively logon and off the computer system
• Conducts meal rounds on units after tray delivery to ensure patient satisfaction and provides service recovery and meal corrections when needed
• Participates in Patient Satisfaction Survey process - from collection of data to making corrective actions based on results
• Assists with Cultural Transformation activities when food is being served to assure patient safety is maintained
• Work Schedule: 6am-7pm Position Description/PD#: Health Technician (Dietetic)/PD99796S