Clarification from the agency

See "Who May Apply" in the "Qualifications" section for more information on who is eligible to apply for this position.

• Supports personnel with handling a population of approximately 75 animals to administer medication, examination procedures, relocation, and grooming.
• Ensures accurate identification of animals moved, requested, or treated.
• Observes feeding habits of individual animals and reports any irregularities in appetite, consumption rate or rejection of food.
• Prepares and feeds regular and special diets to animals.
• Unloads, lifts, carries, and stacks large bags or boxes of animal feed weighing 40-50 pounds, bedding materials, and other supplies and equipment weighing up to 75 pounds.

Conditions of employment

• Appointment may be subject to a suitability or fitness determination, as determined by a completed background investigation.
• This position requires a pre-placement medical and annual medical surveillance exam in accordance with Occupational Health requirements.
• Required to work other than normal duty hours, which may include shift work, overtime, evenings, weekends, and/or holidays. Animal care services are provided at the Animal Training Annex seven days a week.
• Position may require certification of training at the assistant level in the laboratory animal field by the American Association of Laboratory Animal Science and four months experience with laboratory animals in a medical research facility.
• Employee must be willing and able to obtain and maintain all required American Association of Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS) training.
• This position has a requirement to lift up to 75 lbs. in the regular performance of duties.
• This position is subject to a pre-employment drug screening, and random testing thereafter, to include testing based on reasonable suspicion and testing due to direct involvement with an on-duty accident.
• Employee must be willing and able to obtain and maintain all required training as dictated by current Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) Policies within the time frame determined by management.

Qualifications

Who May Apply: Only applicants who meet one of the employment authority categories below are eligible to apply for this job. You will be asked to identify which category or categories you meet, and to provide documents which prove you meet the category or categories you selected. See Proof of Eligibility for an extensive list of document requirements for all employment authorities.

• 30 Percent or More Disabled Veterans
• Current Department of Army Civilian Employees
• Current Department of Defense (DOD) Civilian Employee (non-Army)
• Domestic Defense Industrial Base/Major Range and Test Facilities Base Civilian Personnel Workforce
• Executive Order (E.O.) 12721
• Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan
• Land Management Workforce Flexibility Act
• Military Spouses, under Executive Order (E.O.) 13473
• Non-Appropriated Fund Instrumentality (NAFI)
• Non-Department of Defense (DoD) Transfer
• Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Interchange Agreement Eligible
• People with Disabilities, Schedule A
• Postal Service/Peace Corps and Other Unique Authorities
• Priority Placement Program, DoD Military Reserve (MR) and National Guard (NG) Technician Eligible
• Priority Placement Program, DoD Military Spouse Preference (MSP) Eligible
• Priority Placement Program, DoD MR and NG Preference Eligible Tech Receiving Disability Retirement
• Priority Placement Program, DoD Retained Grade Preference Eligible
• Reinstatement
• Veterans Employment Opportunity Act (VEOA) of 1998

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; religious; spiritual; community; student; social). You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

There is no specific length of training or experience required. However, you must be able to demonstrate, through experience shown in your written application materials that you possess the sufficient knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the work of this position without more than normal supervision.

Minimum Qualifications (Screen Out Element): Ability to do the work of an Animal Caretaker without more than normal supervision. The ability to perform some task including simple care for common laboratory animal species; assisting personnel in handling animals, and reporting irregularities in appetite, consumption rate or rejection of food or have received training on handling laboratory animal species; performing husbandry of animals, and maintaining laboratory equipment to include the operation of washing machines, bottle washer, incinerators and/or other related equipment - Failure to meet this Screen Out Element will result in an ineligible rating.

• Ability To Do The Work Of The Position Without More Than Normal Supervision Screen Out
• Animal Husbandry
• Dexterity and Safety
• Medicine and Dentistry
• Physical Strength
• Technical Credibility
• Work Practices (Including Keeping Things Neat, Clean, and in Order)

• Physical Effort: Animal care and grounds/facility maintenance duties will involve the movement and manipulation of heavy, awkward, and potentially injurious equipment; and the handling and restraint of (less than cooperative) animals. Such duties must be undertaken with proper personal protection provisions, and when appropriate, with personnel or mechanical assistance. Duties require prolonged standing, kneeling, crawling, repeated bending and frequent bending, lifting, and standing/working on hard concrete or asphalt ground surfaces. Must be capable of performing moderately heavy physical labor for several consecutive hours in outdoor environment, typical for South Texas, at all times of the year.
• Working Conditions: Animal care and maintenance duties are performed in both indoor (climate controlled) and outdoor environments. Animal care and use facilities are a combination of modern, conventional laboratory animal design, and outdoor cage runs and kennels for dogs, sheep, goats and pigs. Potential duty-related hazards include animal bites, scratches, and kicks; animal-related allergies; heat/steam injury from cage washing; exposure to potentially hazardous compounds (pesticides, medical compounds as antibiotics and sanitizing chemicals) and materials; lifting and crush injuries from heavy animals, caging systems, and grounds maintenance equipment. There is a remote possibility of exposure to certain zoonotic diseases including, but not limited to, Pasturella infected animal bites and mycotic(fungus) infections of the skin.

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

Once the announcement has closed, a review of your application package (resume, supporting documents, and responses to the questionnaire) will be used to determine whether you meet the qualification requirements listed on this announcement. Please follow all instructions carefully when applying, errors or omissions may affect your eligibility.

If, after reviewing your resume and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications and/or experience, you may lose consideration for this position.

You may claim Military Spouse preference.

Military Spouse Preference (MSP) applicants will receive preference consideration and will be placed (if selected) at the highest grade for which they have applied and are determined best qualified, up to and including the full performance level.

You may claim Priority Placement Program (PPP) preference.

DoD Priority Placement Program (PPP) Applicants will receive preference consideration at the full-performance grade level only.

Only MSP/PPP applicants currently occupying a formal training program position are entitled to exercise their priority status.

Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program (ICTAP). If you are a Federal employee in the competitive service and your agency has notified you in writing that you are a displaced employee eligible for ICTAP consideration, you may receive selection priority for this position. To receive selection priority, you must: (1) meet ICTAP eligibility criteria (2) be rated well-qualified for the position and; (3) submit the appropriate documentation to support your ICTAP eligibility. To be considered well-qualified and receive selection priority applicants must satisfy all qualification requirements for the position and receive a score of 90 or above. Additional information about the program is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website.

The documents you are required to submit vary based on the authority you are using to apply (i.e., applying as a veteran, applying as a current permanent Federal employee, applying as a reinstatement, etc). Please review the following links to see which documents you need to provide to prove your eligibility to apply: Applicant Checklist for Internal/Merit Promotion Announcements

As described above, your complete application includes your resume, your responses to the online questionnaire, and documents which prove your eligibility to apply. If you fail to provide these documents, you will be marked as having an incomplete application package and you will not be considered any further.

1. Your resume:

• Your resume must be two pages or less and must support the specialized experience described in this announcement. Resumes exceeding two pages will be removed from consideration.
• For each relevant work experience, make sure you include the employer's name, job title, start and end dates (include month and year), for qualifications purposes, the number of hours worked per week, and a brief description that show you can perform the tasks at the required level listed in the job announcement. If your resume does not contain this information, your application may be marked as incomplete, and you may not receive consideration for this position.
• Use plain language. Avoid using acronyms and terms that are not easily understood. The hiring agency will not make assumptions about what's in your resume.
• If your resume includes a photograph or other inappropriate material or content, it will not be used to make eligibility and qualification determinations, and you may not be considered for this vacancy.
• For additional information, to include formatting tips, see: What to include in your resume.

2. Other supporting documents:

• Cover Letter, optional
• Most recent Performance Appraisal, if applicable
• Proof of Eligibility to Apply: Your application must include the documents which prove you are eligible to apply for the vacancy. The Proof of Eligibility document describes authorities commonly used in merit promotion recruitment and what document(s) are required to prove you meet the requirements of the authority. You must meet the requirements of at least one of the authorities listed in the Who May Apply section above to receive further consideration.

NOTE: Documents submitted as part of the application package, to include supplemental documents, may be shared beyond the Human Resources Office. Some supplemental documents such as military orders and marriage certificates may contain personal information for someone other than you. You may sanitize these documents to remove another person's personal information before you submit your application. You may be asked to provide an un-sanitized version of the documents if you are selected to confirm your eligibility.

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