Supervisory Medical Supply Technician-Sterile Processing

Veterans Health Administration • Salt Lake City, UT

6d • Onsite

About The Position

The Supervisory Medical Supply Technician (Sterile Processing) reports to the Assistant Chief or Chief of Sterile Processing Services (SPS) and serves as a first-line supervisor for assigned Medical Supply Technician (MST) staff. The role is focused on daily safe execution of reprocessing work and formal personnel supervision. Specialty program owners and higher-level management retain responsibility for independent quality-assurance program management, reusable medical device lifecycle governance, education-system ownership, strategic budget and resource decisions, and executive policy.

The supervisor assigns and directs work, oversees attendance and leave, schedules, evaluates performance, identifies training needs, addresses staff concerns, coordinates labor and employee relations, and makes personnel recommendations within delegated authority. The supervisor oversees daily staffing and workflow, checks process and area readiness, provides technical oversight of reprocessing work, and directs immediate responses to unsafe conditions and process failures. The role also enforces competency and certification requirements, executes assigned corrective actions, ensures documentation and traceability integrity, provides shift handoffs, and directs staff under approved downtime and emergency procedures.

The position is onsite; telework and virtual work are not authorized. Work may occur in contaminated and clean reprocessing environments and may involve personal protective equipment and exposure to noise, heat, humidity, chemicals, sharps, and contaminated reusable medical devices. The position has a listed schedule with three shift options: Monday 6:00 a.m.–Friday 2:30 p.m.; Monday 10:00 p.m.–Saturday 6:30 a.m.; or Monday 2:00 p.m.–Friday 10:30 p.m.

Requirements

• U.S. citizenship, subject to the stated VA policy exception for non-citizens when qualified citizens cannot be recruited.
• Proficiency in spoken and written English.
• Meet the basic experience and/or education requirement through one of the stated pathways: six months of qualifying experience; one year of education above high school that includes at least six semester hours in health-care-related courses; or an equivalent combination of qualifying experience and education.
• For the GS-08 grade, one year of experience equivalent to the next lower grade level, GS-7.
• Demonstrate ability to manage, interact with, and deal with individuals of varying backgrounds.
• Demonstrate ability to direct staff and manage tasks to be completed.
• Demonstrate ability to oversee and supervise decontamination, preparation, sterilization, monitoring, and distribution of reusable medical equipment.
• Demonstrate ability to perform a full range of supervisory duties, including assigning, planning, and evaluating work; recommending awards; approving leave; identifying training needs; and resolving staff issues.
• Maintain VA-recognized supervisory certification as required by current VHA policy.
• Meet applicable occupational-health and physical requirements for work in sterile-processing environments.
• Education used to qualify must be from an institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education; foreign education must be evaluated as described in the announcement.
• Meet the stated pre-employment conditions, including applicable background/security investigation, drug testing for tentatively selected applicants in testing-designated positions, seasonal influenza vaccination, and required onboarding and documentation.

Nice To Haves

• Three years of sterile-processing experience.
• VA Sterile Processing Level 2 certification, HSPA Certified Registered Central Service Technician certification, or CBSPD certification.

Responsibilities

• Perform first-line supervisory duties, including work assignment, attendance and leave oversight, scheduling, performance feedback and appraisal, recognition, training-needs identification, corrective interviews, informal complaint resolution, labor and employee-relations coordination, and personnel recommendations within delegated authority.
• Conduct shift huddles; assign staff according to current competency and workload; balance priorities; anticipate changes; and report unresolved staffing or capacity risks.
• Verify daily equipment and process checks, environmental status, supplies, and operational readiness; stop or limit affected work and initiate work orders or escalation when criteria are not met.
• Provide technical supervision, direct observation, spot checks, and immediate correction of decontamination, assembly, packaging, sterilization or high-level disinfection, storage and distribution, and documentation work within scope.
• Lead immediate stop, contain, notify, and document actions for failed controls, equipment alarms, traceability gaps, damaged or incorrect reusable medical devices, compromised packaging, environmental excursions, and other unsafe conditions; ensure affected devices are not released until authorized criteria are met.
• Ensure staff are assigned only to authorized tasks; coordinate remediation and revalidation with Education; track supervisory certification requirements and maintain VA-recognized certification as required by current VHA policy.
• Respond to quality-assurance findings, quality feedback, and assigned corrective actions; verify frontline implementation and report barriers or repeat issues.
• Ensure required traceability, process records, count sheets, logs, and instrument tracking system data are completed accurately, and correct or escalate unresolved documentation exceptions.
• Provide structured end-of-shift and status reports covering workload, staffing, quality events, equipment and environmental issues, shortages, overdue actions, and unfinished priority work.
• Direct staff under approved downtime, emergency, and continuity procedures and ensure alternate documentation, segregation, traceability, and recovery actions are followed.
• Oversee attendance and leave, including approval of sick and annual leave and vacation schedules; inform higher-level management of anticipated vacancies or workload increases.
• Recommend promotions, reassignments, recognition of superior performance, retention or release of probationary employees, and other changes to assigned personnel; refer disciplinary problems to higher-level management and deal with union representatives on personnel matters.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and regular salary increases.
• 37–50 days of annual paid time off per year, including 13–26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, and 11 paid federal holidays.
• Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual based on prior work or military service experience.
• Up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave after 12 months of employment, in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster-care placement of a child.
• Eligible full-time employees may qualify for a childcare subsidy after 60 days of employment, subject to family-income and other eligibility limits; the subsidy may cover up to 25% of eligible childcare costs, up to a monthly maximum of $416.66.
• Traditional federal pension with five-year vesting and federal 401(k) with up to 5% in contributions by VA.
• Federal health, vision, dental, term life, and long-term care insurance; many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Education Level: High school or GED