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Health Technician (Dietetic)

Veterans Health Administration · Department of Veterans Affairs

Open to the publicPermanentPart-timeSecurity clearance required
Location
Waco, TX
Salary
$40,736 – $52,957/yr
Pay grade
GS 5
Openings
1
Posted
Oct 27, 2026
Closes
Closes today

Summary

The Health Technician (Dietetic) (NFS Ambassador) serves within Nutrition and Food Services (NFS) at a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center. The position provides essential customer service, administrative, and food service support to ensure Veterans receive accurate, timely, and appropriate meals and nourishments in accordance with prescribed therapeutic diets.

DIRECT HIRE AUTHORITY: This position is being filled using Direct-Hire Authority (5 CFR 337.201) for this occupation.

Duties

Major duties and responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
  • Provides professional and courteous customer service to Veterans, family members, nursing staff, and other healthcare personnel.
  • Receives and processes patient meal orders using computerized dietetics software and established procedures.
  • Conducts patient meal rounds to assess satisfaction, resolve meal service concerns, and coordinate necessary corrections.
  • Serves as a liaison between Veterans, registered dietitians, nursing personnel, and food service staff regarding meal service needs.
  • Responds to inquiries concerning meal orders, late trays, missed meals, nourishments, and available menu selections.
  • Provides basic information regarding therapeutic diets and refers complex dietary questions to appropriate clinical nutrition personnel.
  • Enters, retrieves, and verifies patient meal orders, diet modifications, food preferences, and nourishment requests using computerized dietetics software.
  • Reviews diet orders and menu selections to ensure accuracy and compliance with prescribed dietary restrictions.
  • Prepares, prints, and reviews meal tickets, menus, nourishment labels, and related food service documentation.
  • Identifies and communicates discrepancies involving diet orders, nutritional supplements, and special meal requirements to appropriate personnel.
  • Coordinates menu changes, meal substitutions, and special dietary requests with food service supervisors and clinical staff.
  • Maintains accurate records and assists with implementing established contingency procedures during computerized system interruptions.
  • Supports daily Nutrition Communication Center operations and assists with training other staff as needed.
  • Assists with meal tray preparation, distribution, delivery, and retrieval in accordance with established procedures.
  • Prepares and distributes patient nourishments and supplemental feedings according to prescribed orders.
  • Verifies patient identification using two patient identifiers before delivering meals.
  • Maintains cleanliness, organization, and proper storage of food and nourishment supplies.
  • Monitors food storage areas, rotates inventory, and removes outdated food and beverages.
  • Supports quality improvement activities to promote meal accuracy, food safety, and patient satisfaction.
  • Performs other related duties as assigned.
Work Schedule: Part-Time, Monday, Thursday, Friday 7:30am - 4:00pm; Saturday 9:00am - 5:30pm
Position Description Title/PD#: Health Technician (Dietetic)/PD99855S
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 and pushing loaded carts of trays and/or nourishments

Qualifications

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary 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 probationary period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement.
  • Specialized Experience. You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-4 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Performing duties in food service in a hospital environment; knowledge of tray assembly area procedures; using dietetics software programs; familiarity with regular and modified diets; assisting with food selections; following verbal and written instructions; and using computer equipment, phone system, and printers. OR,
  • EDUCATION. Applicants may substitute education for the experience required for the GS-05 level: Completion of a full four (4) year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree, with a major study or at least 24 semester hours in subjects directly related to this position (i.e. nutrition, dietary therapy, food and nutrition science, food service systems management, etc.). This education must have been obtained in an accredited business or technical school, junior college, college or university for which high school graduation or the equivalent is the normal prerequisite. NOTE: Transcripts (unofficial or official) must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation. OR,
  • COMBINATION. Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at the GS-05 level: Equivalent combination of successfully completed post-high school education (beyond the second year) and specialized experience, as listed above. The education portion must include courses directly related to the work of the position (i.e. nutrition, dietary therapy, food and nutrition science, food service systems management, etc.). This education must have been obtained in an accredited college or university. NOTE: Your experience must be documented in your resume and transcripts are required.
To calculate, first identify the percentage of required education you have earned (when substituting, you cannot use the first 60 semester hours that you earned). Then identify the percentage of required experience you possess. Add the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify at the GS-05. For example, an applicant who has 9 semester hours of graduate level education (i.e. 50% of graduate education required) and 6 months of creditable specialized experience (i.e. 50% of the required experience) would equal 100% of the required experience for the position A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education.

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.

Education

A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on 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/.

NOTE: If your school has changed names, or is no longer in existence, you must provide this information your application.

Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer (TJO). Please visit the Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP), va.gov/EMPLOYEE/docs/The-Fair-Chance-to-Compete-Act.pdf for more information.

Requirements

  • You must be a U.S. citizen to apply for this job
  • Subject to a background/suitability investigation
  • Designated and/or random drug testing may be required
  • Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
  • A complete application package; including Resume, Transcripts, etc. is required
  • 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.
Beginning September 27, 2025, Federal agencies will only accept resumes up to two pages in length to comply with the Merit Hiring Plan. Resumes longer than two pages will result in ineligibility for further consideration for the position. USAJOBS will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages, and you will need to update the resumes in your profile before applying for a job. Resumes should include information relevant to the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of the position to which you are applying. VA is unable to make assumptions about qualifications if not clearly listed.

Resumes must be legible so they can be reviewed for eligibility, minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement.

Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started.

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