Physician Assistant GS-0603-12

Physician AssistantFull-Time

Listed compensation

$132,923/yr

The week · per this posting · weekdays assumed

Ask the employer about the work setting, call expectations, weekend coverage and time off.

Posted 1mo ago

Job Description

"Are you a dedicated Physician Assistant looking to make a profound impact on the health, readiness, and resilience of our nation’s heroes?"

Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton, Sport Medicine is seeking a talented, mission-driven Physician Assistant to join our primary and urgent care teams in beautiful Southern California.

"Nestled along 17 miles of pristine coastline in San Diego County, Camp Pendleton is the prime amphibious training base for the Marine Corps—and your next career destination."

  • Physician Assistant
  • A recruitment or relocation incentive may be authorized
  • Salary negotiation may be available for those candidates who are new to Federal service
  • Salary: Up to- $132,923 per year
  • Benefits: civilianmedicaljobs.com

Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton is located on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton which is the major West Coast base of the U.S. Marine Corps and serves as its primary amphibious training base. It's the U.S. Marine Corps largest West Coast expeditionary training facility, encompassing more than 125,000 acres of Southern California terrain. It's located on the coast, in San Diego County, and bordered by Oceanside to the south, San Clemente to the north, and Fallbrook to the east.

NHCP is housed in a four story, 500,000 square foot medical treatment facility located near the main gate of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. The 38-bed facility is a medium size, teaching hospital that provides outpatient and inpatient care for active duty service members, their family members, retirees, and other eligible beneficiaries.

Responsibilities

Clinical Assessment & Diagnosis: Performs medical screening exams and initial work-ups for patients of all ages, secures histories, orders necessary diagnostic tests (labs, X-rays), diagnoses illnesses, and establishes treatment plans.

Medical Readiness Support: Conducts periodic health, deployment, separation, commissioning, and retirement physicals to support military readiness.

Patient & Chronic Care Management: Manages routine follow-ups, treats documented chronic illnesses, writes outpatient orders, dictates narrative summaries, and defines unknown or critical clinical conditions.

Collaborative Practice & Referrals: Works with supervising physicians to evaluate and adjust therapeutic plans, referring complex, serious, or uncommon cases to specialized medical management.

Inpatient & Specialty Coverage: Provides pre- and post-operative care, assists in major surgeries, provides hospital care for surgical patients, performs minor surgeries independently, and writes/dictates discharge summaries. May support specialty areas like emergency medicine, orthopedics, geriatrics, or thoracic surgery.

Organizational Leadership & Governance: Serves as a voting medical staff member, participates in policy-making committees, and attends required medical staff, Morbidity & Mortality (M&M), and department meetings.

Quality & Performance Improvement: Actively participates in clinic accreditation/inspection preparations, risk management, medical record peer reviews, and Performance Improvement initiatives.

Care Coordination & Advocacy: Partners with external professionals and agencies to coordinate comprehensive care plans, and develops new clinic approaches to improve healthcare delivery for military families and beneficiaries.

Patient & Family Education: Assesses the educational needs of patients and families, designs and implements tailored teaching programs, and provides continuing guidance on treatments, preventive wellness, and drug usage.

Qualifications

Eligibility: Open to all U.S. Citizens. Qualifying experience includes both paid and unpaid/volunteer work.

Education

Graduate of a physician assistant program accredited by the ARC-PA (or its predecessors).

Certification

Must possess and maintain active certification from the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA), including CME and re-certification requirements.

Licensure

Must hold a current, active, full, and unrestricted state, territory, or District of Columbia PA license. (Note: Current federal 0603-series PAs continuously employed since on or before September 27, 2017, are exempt).

Required Experience

Minimum of 1 full year of work experience as a certified PA (equivalent to the GS-11 level in federal service), specifically including obtaining medical histories, performing physical exams, and prescribing medications.

Qualifications

Education
Professional certificate or licensure
Experience
2+ years of experience

Key Skills

Patient careSurgical assistanceTreatment planningDiagnostic testingPatient educationQuality improvementPeer review

Sports Medicine — Physician Assistant Career Context

Of the 50 active Physician Assistant listings this role was benchmarked against, 6% are remote, 58% have no call, 74% require no weekends.

The cost-of-living index for California is 110.7 (US average = 100; BEA Regional Price Parities (2024)), so the posted ~$133k midpoint carries the purchasing power of roughly $120k in an average-cost state. 63.6% of California clinicians report burnout symptoms in WeekdayDoc's Burnout Index (2026-01 data).

Top Physician Assistant Jobs

50 matches · ranked by pay

Salary Distribution50 jobs · 39 employers

12
<$160k
12
$160k-180k
19
$180k-200k
4
$200k-220k
3
$220k+

Annual compensation range

Benefits & Perks43 jobs · 39 employers

401k / retirement match
91% this job
CME allowance
72% this job
Sign-on bonus
60%
Loan repayment
19%
Relocation assistance
16%

Share of similar jobs offering each benefit

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Ageless Mens Health · Reno, Nevada

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#2

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$150k-$225k
#3

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#4

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+ 48 more · ranked by pay

Work-life snapshot

median 4.8this job 3.0
Better work-life than 30% of Physician Assistant roles listings

Listing-based score, 0–10, across 4,540 comparable listings. Shaded area = the share scoring below this one.

Living in Oceanside

Rent affordability

26% of gross pay

Market rent compared with this listing’s advertised pay.

Purchasing power

$118,801/yr

At national-average prices · Before taxes

Typical 3-bedroom home value
$846k≈ 6.4× annual pay
Typical market rent
$2,931/mo
Residents’ average commute
29 min
Metro price indexU.S. average = 100
111.9
State income tax
Up to 13.3%
Sources & methodology

Sources: Zillow home values (Aug 2026), Zillow market rents (Aug 2026), U.S. Census ACS 2024 five-year.

BEA 2024 · San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA metro prices. Housing figures are city-level.

Ratios use the advertised annual pay range’s lower bound, before taxes. Regional prices are not a personal budget.

Peer group: physician assistant · sports medicine · Full-time · hours not stated · Pay composition not stated. National listings with usable annual USD pay and local data, posted within 180 days of the 2026-09-22 snapshot. Rankings use lower pay bounds; higher percentiles mean more favorable comparisons. Only the same rent observation month is compared.

Ratings need at least 30 other listings, five employers and three locations; no employer may contribute over 35%. Strong: top quarter; Typical: middle half; Weaker: bottom quarter. Missing ratings mean insufficient comparable data, not a poor offer. These are offer comparisons, not city grades.

Defense Health Agency Civilian Corps, Falls Church, VA logo

About Defense Health Agency Civilian Corps, Falls Church, VA

Hospitals and Health Care
Falls Church, VA
5,001-10,000 employees

Benefits & Perks

Health, dental, vision
Retirement plan
Paid time off
Life insurance
Recruitment or relocation incentive may be authorized