Housekeeping Aid/Environmental Services EVS Technician

Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Health Administration (3689 current openings)
Bedford, Massachusetts
Full-time Security Clearance: Not Required
Application Deadline:
2026-08-28
Posted:
2026-08-18

About 1 week left

Salary: $19.54 – $22.79 per hour (WG-2)

Salary context

Based on 134 hourly jobs in the same occupational series. This role pays above most similar positions.

Job Details

Position Overview

This Housekeeping Aid/Environmental Services EVS Technician position is located within the Environmental Management Service at the Bedford VA Healthcare System, located in Bedford, Massachusetts. It is full-time at 40 hours per week.

Duties

The Housekeeping Aid/Environmental Services EVS Technician who maintain VA facilities for Veterans and their families are essential to the patient care experience at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). A VA healthcare career as a HKA-EVS Technician means working alongside other Veterans, who make up 85 percent of the housekeeping staff. As a HKA-EVS Technician, you will perform a full range of light and heavy cleaning duties and routine housekeeping duties. Veterans rely on the skills of these professionals to keep patient areas clean and safe by addressing spills quickly, discarding trash, installing light bulbs in halls and rooms, and vacuuming and polishing floors.

Duties include but are not limited to:

  • Clean wards, patient rooms, storerooms, offices, corridors, restrooms, shower rooms, and other areas.
  • Sweep, mop, scrub (machine) floors, vacuum carpets and upholstered furniture, empty waste baskets, clean light globes and Venetian blinds, wash walls, windows and ceilings by climbing small ladders, refill toilet tissue and towel dispensers and move furniture.
  • Carry out assignments with minimal supervision.
  • Address spills quickly, install light bulbs in halls and rooms.
  • This includes, but is not limited to, making beds, changing linens, linen distribution, dusting furniture and blinds, cleaning the kitchen, loading, and unloading the dishwashers, vacuuming, collection and removal of waste, cleaning of walls, corners, and baseboards.
  • The incumbent cleans guest rooms as needed/upon checkout. This includes changing bed linens, emptying trash, vacuuming, and edging carpets, mopping bathroom floor, dusting all furniture (picture frames, bed frames, lamps, TVs, dressers), cleaning glass and mirrors, cleaning bathroom (cleans/disinfects floors, toilets, counters, showers), replenishing guest room supplies including folding and distributing all linens and towels to guest rooms and/or linen room.
  • Daily cleaning of common areas including kitchen and kitchen surfaces, kitchen appliances, ovens, and refrigerators; living room, dining room, family room, laundry room, hallways, main office and its bathroom, visitor bathroom and stairs.
  • The incumbent will inventory, and re-order all needed cleaning supplies and equipment through VA EVS.
Work Schedule: Full-time schedules, to be discussed at interview and determined on selection.
Position Description Title/PD#: Housekeeping Aid/Environmental Services EVS Technician/PD99909S
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized
Physical Requirements: The position demands continuous walking, standing, stooping, kneeling, pulling, and pushing. The work requires the occasional use of heavy powered cleaning equipment (e.g., wall washers, industrial type buffers) weighing over 50 pounds. The duties necessitate considerable dexterity, hand, foot, and eye coordination, and concentration as well as visual acuity to see dirt, dust and debris.

WORKING CONDITIONS: Work is normally performed indoors with adequate heat, light, and ventilation. Some work may be performed outdoors where there may be exposed to varying degrees of heat and cold as well as inclement weather. PPE may be required in some circumstance as exposure to possible contagious diseases, blood and bloody secretion are inherent to this position. Care is required to avoid serious injuries (i.e., broken bones) when working on ladders, or when using 30-100-pound power equipment or handling hazardous materials.

Notifications:
  • This position is not a Bargaining Unit position.
  • This position is covered by locality-based comparability pay.

Qualifications & Requirements

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

EXPERIENCE: A specific length of training and experience is not required, but you must show evidence of training or experience of sufficient scope and quality of your ability to do the work of this position. Evidence which demonstrates you possess the knowledge, skills, and ability to perform the duties of this position must be supported by detailed descriptions of such on your resume. Applicants will be rated in accordance with the OPM Federal Wage System Qualification Standards.

SCREEN-OUT ELEMENT: Your qualifications will first be evaluated against the prescribed screen out element, which usually appears as question 1 in the on-line questionnaire. Those applicants who appear to possess at least the minimal acceptable qualification requirement are considered for further rating; those who do not are rated ineligible and are eliminated. The potential eligibles are then rated against the remainder of the Job Elements:
  • Dexterity and Safety
  • Follow Directions
  • Handle Weights and Loads
  • Reliability And Dependability
  • Special Aptitude - Housekeeping Work
  • Work Practices


Preferred Experience: Any previous cleaning experience.

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.

Education

This job does not have an education qualification requirement.

Requirements

  • U.S. Citizenship; non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
  • Suitable for Federal employment, determined by a background investigation
  • All applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA.
  • Selective Services Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
  • 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 dentification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
  • Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.
  • You may be required to serve a probationary period
  • Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP)
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.

Evaluations

IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Applicants will be referred in the order in which they were received.

Required Documents

To apply for this position, you must provide a complete Application Package which includes:

Documents Required:
  • Resume

Résumé Reminder:
Your résumé must include the following information each job listed:
1. Job title
2. Duties (be as detailed as possible)
3. Month & year start/end dates (e.g. June 2007 to April 2008)
4. Full-time or part-time status (include hours worked per week).

Please be aware that your answers will be verified against information provided on your résumé. Be sure that your résumé clearly supports your responses to all of the questions by addressing your work experience in detail.

An incomplete application will receive a rating of IFFM (ineligible due to missing forms). Requests for reconsideration will not be considered for applicants who fail to submit a complete application package. We cannot be held responsible for incompatible software or fax transmissions.

The following documents are accepted, and may be required if applicable to your eligibility and/or qualifications for this position. Please make sure you have included other documents required for your application, such as a copy of your SF-50's (current/former Federal employees), documentation to support Veterans Preference claims, or ICTAP/CTAP documentation (for displaced Federal employees). You will not be contacted for additional information.

Documents Accepted:
  • Cover Letter
  • Other (1)
  • Resume
  • Separation Notice (RIF)
  • SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action


Please review the above list(s) to ensure you have included all necessary documents required for your application. Not every applicant will require the same documents, therefore it is the applicants responsibility to ensure that their application package includes all necessary documents to determine qualifications and eligibility for appointment, such as a copy of your SF-50, transcript, ICTAP/CTAP documentation (for displaced Federal employees).You will not be contacted for additional information. Applicants will be deemed ineligible if supporting documentation is not submitted.

Veterans' Preference: Since the Direct-Hire Recruitment Authority is being used, traditional Veterans' Preference rules do not apply. Qualified veterans will, however, be given full consideration for this position.

Applications are accepted online. Applying online will allow you to review and track the status of your application.

How to Apply

All applicants are encouraged to apply online.

To apply for this position, you must complete the occupational questionnaire and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (EST) on 08/28/2026 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/13040312.

1. To begin, click Apply Online to create a USAJOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USAJOBS resume and/or other supporting documents and complete the occupational questionnaire.

2. Click Submit My Answers to submit your application package.

NOTE: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date. You may check the status of your application at any time by logging into your USA Jobs account and clicking on Applications. Information regarding your application status can be found in the USAJobs Help Center.

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. If initial application submission is updated and resubmitted with a new resume, only the most current resume will be reviewed for consideration.

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.

Helpful Hints for Creating a Two-Page Resume:
  • Prioritize most relevant and recent experience
  • Use concise, results focused language
  • Align language from the job announcement
  • Focus on demonstrating skills and competencies
  • Remove outdated or unrelated experience
  • Use the USAJOBS resume builder
Additional guidance on this new requirement and resume building tools can be found at:
  • https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit
  • https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/merit-hiring-plan-resources/applicant-guidance-on-the-two-page-resume-limit/
To return to an incomplete application, log into your USAJOBS account and click Update Application in the vacancy announcement. You must re-select your resume and/or other documents from your USAJOBS account or your application will be incomplete. After the vacancy announcement closes, applicants are evaluated to ensure qualification and eligibility requirements are met. After the review is complete, a referral certificate(s) is issued and applicants will be notified of their status by email.