Surgical Technician

Description:

The Surgical Technician (ST) is a member of the surgical team who provides an assistance to the surgeon and other team members during surgical procedures. The Surgical Technician participates with the surgical team members in planning and implementing complex procedures under the general supervision of the surgical team.

Requirements:

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 05/27/2025.

Individual Occupational Requirements: 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.

***In addition to the IOR you may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below:


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-07 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-06. 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:

• Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-06 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: BLS 2 years recent OR experience with complex cases (Robotic, Neurosurgery, Orthopedic, ENT, Thoracic, Laparoscopy, Vascular, Plastic, GYN) Must be knowledgeable about and thoroughly understand the concepts and applicability of the Joint Commission, Occupational Safety Health, and Administration (OSHA), VA, and all other safety and occupational health regulations to assure compliance, or to provide methods for bringing medical center surgical programs into compliance with applicable regulations. Must possess effective communication skills to interact with physicians, co-workers, patients, patient's families, manufacturer representatives, and other medical center personnel.

OR,

Applicants may substitute education for the experience required for the GS-07 level.

• Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have: Graduate education or an internship meets the specialized experience required above GS-5 only in those instances where it is directly related to the work of the position. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have One (1) full year of graduate education related to the field to meet the requirements for the GS-7 level. One year of full-time graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent 1 year of full-time study. 18 semester hours should be considered as satisfying the 1 year of full-time study requirement.

NOTE: A transcript (unofficial or official) must be submitted if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. Applications submitted without this information will not be considered..

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

• Creative Thinking
• Decision Making
• Problem Solving

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: Duties regularly require providing manual assistance in lifting, positioning, and transporting patients, majority of whom will be at different level of consciousness related to anesthesia. Duties regularly require lifting and/or moving instrument trays, equipment, medical devices, and supplies. There are extensive periods of regular and recurring standing, walking, bending, lifting, pushing, reaching, and prolonged stretching to provide easy accessibility of instruments and supplies for the surgeon. Incumbent must be 6 dexterous in passing instruments to surgeons without compromising principles of aseptic technique and in a manner requiring little or no effort from the surgeon.

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/ .