Summary
The incumbent serves as the authoritative technical expert responsible for the architecture, engineering, cybersecurity, and sustained operation of special purpose networked systems that are mission-critical to patient care, life safety, and regulatory compliance within a complex medical center environment. The position plans, designs, implements, integrates, and maintains high-availability server and network infrastructures supporting clinical, environmental, and compliance-driven systems.
Duties
The Healthcare Engineer operates in an environment where system failure, latency, or data loss carries immediate patient safety, financial, and accreditation risk, requiring expert judgment and rapid response. The work involves non-routine, highly complex engineering problems that cannot be resolved through standard operating procedures or vendor documentation alone and frequently requires original engineering solutions tailored to healthcare operations. Duties of the Healthcare Engineer include, but are not limited to: Provides technical advice and guidance to the directorate and to contractor personnel to facilitate tasks and projects. Engineers, administers, and sustains dedicated on-premises and virtual servers supporting special purpose healthcare systems, including temperature monitoring, pharmaceutical storage compliance, laboratory environments, blood banks, operating rooms, and data centers. Designs high-availability and fault-tolerant architectures ensuring continuous monitoring and alerting to protect medications, biologics, vaccines, and patient-critical assets. Serves as the technical lead for TempTrak system infrastructure, ensuring reliable connectivity between sensors, gateways, application servers, and alerting mechanisms. Configures and maintains secure network pathways to support real-time monitoring, alert escalation, historical data retention, and regulatory reporting. Implements and maintains Defense-in-Depth strategies for special purpose servers, including segmentation, access controls, encryption, logging, and monitoring. Develops and maintains documentation, diagrams, and SOPs required for audits, inspections, and accreditation surveys. Designs and supports enterprise network solutions that integrate special purpose systems without degrading performance or security of the broader hospital network. Leads network changes impacting clinical infrastructure, including firewall changes, routing updates, switch configurations, and wireless connectivity required for monitoring devices. Acts as the subject matter expert (SME) for special purpose systems during construction, renovation, equipment replacement, and system expansion projects. Leads or supports multidisciplinary teams during system outages, environmental excursions, or emergent risk scenarios. Communicates complex technical information to clinical and executive leadership in a clear, actionable manner. Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional Work Schedule: Monday - Friday; 8:00am- 4:30pm Recruitment Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): Not Authorized. Permanent Change of Station (Relocation Assistance): Not Authorized. Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases. When setting pay, a higher step rate of the appropriate grade may be determined after consideration of higher or unique qualifications or special needs of the VA (Above Minimum Rate of the Grade). Paid Time Off: 37-50 days of annual paid time offer per year (13-26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year)Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior [work experience] or military service experience. Parental Leave: After 12 months of employment, up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child. Child Care Subsidy: After 60 days of employment, full time employees with a total family income below $144,000 may be eligible for a childcare subsidy up to 25% of total eligible childcare costs for eligible children up to the monthly maximum of $416.66. Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement) Telework: Ad-hoc, based on supervisory discretion. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 31316-F Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized.
Requirements
You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job. Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959. Must be proficient in written and spoken English. Subject to background/security investigation. Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued identification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment. Must pass pre-employment physical examination. Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP). Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement. As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1 or 2-year trial period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider: your performance and conduct; the needs and interests of the agency; whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service. Upon completion of your trial period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.
Education
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/.
How you will be evaluated
IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE MAY NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Your application, resume, C.V., and/or supporting documentation will be verified. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect consideration for employment. This is an OPEN CONTINUOUS ANNOUNCEMENT and will remain open until September 25, 2026. The initial cut-off date for referral of eligible applications will be June 1, 2026, with subsequent cut-off dates on the 1st of each month. 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. The Department of Veterans Affairs performs pre-employment reference checks as an assessment method used in the hiring process to verify information provided by a candidate (e.g., on resume or during interview or hiring process); gain additional knowledge regarding a candidate's abilities; and assist a hiring manager with making a final selection for a position. It is the policy of the VA to not deny employment to those that have faced financial hardships or periods of unemployment. Veterans and Transitioning Service Members: Please visit the VA for Vets site for career-search tools for Veterans seeking employment at VA, career development services for our existing Veterans, and coaching and reintegration support for military service members.