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Interdisciplinary, Computer Scientist/General Engineer/Geologist/Oceanographer, GS-12

Department of the Interior
Geological Survey
This job announcement has closed

Summary

*Are you an Scientific professional looking for a position in the Federal workforce? *Do you have a passion for being a part of a research team? *Do you want to be part of an important aspect of the Federal Government, helping with exciting and groundbreaking incentives? If you answered "yes" to these questions, then this is the job for you! Come join the USGS and start doing the job you've always dreamed of!

Why Is It Great To Work For The USGS?
Embark on an exciting future! From the peaks of the highest mountains to the depths of the deepest seas, the U.S. Geological Survey has career opportunities that make a difference in both the lives of others and in the environment. Would you like to join the more than 10,000 scientists, technicians, and support staff of the USGS who are working in more than 400 locations throughout the United States? Apply today! As the Nation's largest water, earth, and biological science and civilian mapping agency, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collects, monitors, analyzes, and provides scientific understanding about natural resource conditions, issues, and problems. The diversity of our scientific expertise enables us to carry out large-scale, multi-disciplinary investigations and provide impartial, timely, and relevant scientific information to resource managers, planners, and other customers related to: the health of our ecosystems and environment; natural hazards that threaten us; natural resources we rely on, and; the impact of climate and land-use changes. For more information about the USGS please visit http://www.usgs.gov

What General Information Do I Need To Know About This Position?

This is a term appointment for which all qualified applicants with or without Federal status may apply and be considered. Appointment to this position, however, will not convey permanent status in the Federal service and will be for a period not to exceed 13 months with possible extensions up to a total of 4 years without further competition.

Salary: $79,448 (Step 01) to $103,337 (Step 10); NOTE: First time hires to the Federal Government are typically hired at the Step 01.

This is an interdisciplinary position and may be filled as a Computer Scientist, GS-1550, General Engineer, GS-0801, Geologist, GS-1350 or Oceanographer, GS-1360.

Overview

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Job canceled
Open & closing dates
11/14/2017 to 06/20/2018
Salary
$79,488 to - $103,337 per year
Pay scale & grade
GS 12
Location
1 vacancy in the following location:
Woods Hole, MA
1 vacancy
Travel Required
Occasional travel - An average of 2 nights a month.
Relocation expenses reimbursed
No
Appointment type
Term - Full-Time
Work schedule
Full-time - Term
Service
Promotion potential
12
Supervisory status
No
Security clearance
Other
Announcement number
RES-2018-0037
Control number
484369300

This job is open to

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Duties

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As a Computer Scientist, General Engineer, Geologist, or Oceanographer, within the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, some of your specific duties will include:

  • Serves as a member of the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, Sediment Transport Group.
  • Configure and run numerical simulation using a variety of oceanic, wave and sediment transport models, and develop new techniques and algorithms as needed to advance group research goals.
  • Develop and apply workflow for processing observational and modeled ocean data, including search, access, analysis and visualization, developing new techniques needed to advance group research goals.
  • Work with other group scientist, develop project proposals, publications, and presentations that summarize critical information and products that support group research goals

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

  • Applicants must be U.S. Citizens.
  • Suitable for Federal employment, as determined by background investigation.
  • Selectee may be subject to serving a one-year trial period.
  • More requirements are listed under Qualifications and Other Information.

Are There Any Special Requirements For This Position?

  • Because this position requires travel for official business, the selectee will be required to apply for a charge card within 30 calendar days of appointment. Individuals who have delinquent account balances from a previous Government charge card will be required to satisfy their existing obligation before a new card can be issued.
  • A background investigation will be required for this position. Continued employment will be subject to the applicant's successful completion of a background security investigation and favorable adjudication. Failure to successfully meet these requirements will be grounds for termination.
  • Throughout the recruitment and hiring process we will be communicating with you via email; therefore, it is imperative that the email address you provide when applying for this vacancy remains active. Should your email address change, please notify the point of contact identified in the vacancy announcement as soon as possible so that we can update our system.

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications:

Computer Scientist:

Basic Education Requirement: https://www2.usgs.gov/humancapital/sw/quals/1550.html

In addition to the basic education requirement, applicants must meet the following to qualify for the GS-12 level: One year of appropriate professional experience that is in or directly related to the duties of the position to be filled is qualifying if it is equivalent to at least the GS-11 level in the Federal service, and if it equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. Examples include: digital computer system design; system software organization, assembly and programming languages; and analysis, interpretation and evaluation of computer software data and techniques. Work generally has not required modification or adaptation of standard procedures, methods or techniques, and development has involved typical methods and techniques to address problems for which guidelines and precedents exist.

General Engineer: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/0800/files/all-professional-engineering-positions-0800.pdf

Degree: professional engineering. To be acceptable, the curriculum must: (1) be in a school of engineering with at least one curriculum accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) as a professional engineering curriculum; or (2) include differential and integral calculus and courses (more advanced than first-year physics and chemistry) in five of the following seven areas of engineering science or physics: (a) statics, dynamics; (b) strength of materials (stress-strain relationships); (c) fluid mechanics, hydraulics; (d) thermodynamics; (e) electrical fields and circuits; (f) nature and properties of materials (relating particle and aggregate structure to properties); and (g) any other comparable area of fundamental engineering science or physics, such as optics, heat transfer, soil mechanics, or electronics. *OR* Combination of education and experience - college-level education, training, and/or technical experience that furnished (1) a thorough knowledge of the physical and mathematical sciences underlying professional engineering, and (2) a good understanding, both theoretical and practical, of the engineering sciences and techniques and their applications to one of the branches of engineering. The adequacy of such background must be demonstrated by one of the following:

  • Professional registration -- Current registration as a professional engineer by any State, the District of Columbia, Guam, or Puerto Rico. Absent other means of qualifying under this standard, those applicants who achieved such registration by means other than written test (e.g., State grandfather or eminence provisions) are eligible only for positions that are within or closely related to the specialty field of their registration. For example, an applicant who attains registration through a State Board's eminence provision as a manufacturing engineer typically would be rated eligible only for manufacturing engineering positions.
  • Written Test-- Evidence of having succesfully passed the Engineer-in-Training (EIT) examination, or the written test required for professional registration, which is administered by the Boards of Engineering Examiners in the various States, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico.
  • Specified academic courses -- Successful completion of at least 60 semester hours of courses in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences and in engineering that included the courses specified in the basic requirements. The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of a professional engineering curriculum as described.
  • Related curriculum -- Successful completion of a curriculum leading to a bachelor's degree in engineering technology or in an appropriate professional field, e.g., physics, chemistry, architecture, computer science, mathematics, hydrology, or geology, may be accepted in lieu of a degree in engineering, provided the applicant has had at least 1 year of professional engineering experience acquired under professional engineering supervision and guidance. Ordinarily there should be either an established plan of intensive training to develop professional engineering competence, or several years of prior professional engineering-type experience, e.g., in interdisciplinary positions.

Geologist:

Basic Education Requirement: https://www2.usgs.gov/humancapital/sw/quals/1350.html.

In addition to the basic education requirement, applicants must have one year of appropriate professional experience in geology that is equivalent to at least the GS-11 level in the Federal service. Examples include: planning and executing complex geologic studies, which usually involved intensive investigations into recognized phenomena. This work typically involved conventional methods & techniques though it required going beyond clear precedents, and required adapting methods to the problems at hand and interpreting findings in terms of their scientific significance. At this level, Geologists have a very good knowledge of the principles of geology and their application, and the ability to independently perform scientific work of considerable difficulty.

Oceanographer:

Basic Education Requirement: https://www2.usgs.gov/humancapital/sw/quals/1360.html

In addition to the basic education requirement, applicants must have one year of appropriate professional experience in oceanography this is equivalent to at least the GS-11 level in the Federal service. Examples include: 1) independent responsibility for an oceanographic study, or for the oceanographic phase of a combined marine science study, e.g. measurement of acoustical phenomena, taking of systematic marine sedimentation samples, etc.; planning and preparing technical and operational specifications for such a study; directing technical survey operations for his/her phase of the project; and preparing scientific reports setting forth appropriate data and their interpretation; 2) searching the literature, including domestic and foreign technical reports on ocean phenomena; assembling and selecting pertinent data for analysis and interpretation; and preparing scientific manuscripts which consolidate, correlate and interpret the significance of data from various sources of an ocean phenomenon, e.g., the prediction of tides, the measurement of currents, etc. For examples 1-2, the work typically involved conventional methods and techniques though it required going beyond clear precedents, and required adapting methods to the problems at hand and interpreting findings in terms of their scientific significance. At this level, Oceanographers have the ability to independently perform scientific work of considerable difficulty.

You must meet all qualification and eligibility requirements for the position by the closing date of the announcement

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; religious; 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 completed in colleges or universities outside the United States may be used to meet the above requirements. You must provide acceptable documentation that the foreign education is comparable to that received in an accredited educational institution in the United States. For more information on how foreign education is evaluated, visit: http://www.usgs.gov/ohr/oars/quals/foreign.html.

Additional information

  • Applicants who include vulgar, offensive, or inappropriate language or information in their application package will be ineligible for further consideration for this position.
  • Under Executive Order 11935, only United States citizens and nationals (residents of American Samoa and Swains Island) may compete for civil service jobs. Agencies are permitted to hire non-citizens only in very limited circumstances where there are no qualified citizens available for the position.
  • USGS employees are subject to Title 43, USC Section 31(a) and may not: (a) have any personal, private, direct or indirect interest in lands or mineral wealth of lands under survey; (b) have any substantial personal, private, direct or indirect interests in any private mining or mineral enterprise doing business with the United States; or (c) execute surveys or examinations for private parties or corporations.
  • The application contains information subject to the Privacy Act (P.L. 93-579, 5 USC 552a). The information is used to determine qualifications for employment, and is authorized under Title 5, USC, Section 3302 and 3361.
  • DOI uses E-Verify to confirm the employment eligibility of all newly hired employees. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, please visit www.dhs.gov/E-Verify.
  • THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER.

How you will be evaluated

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

Vacancy Related Questions: As part of the online application process, you will need to respond to a series of questions designed to assess your possession of the following knowledge skills, abilities and/or competencies:

  • Interpersonal Communication
  • Scientific Knowledge
  • Team Work
  • Technology Application
  • Information Management
  • Compute/Analyze Data
  • Disseminate Data
  • Technical Reports
Basis of rating: Category rating will be used in the ranking and selection process for this position. The quality categories are Best Qualified and Qualified. You will be rated on the extent and quality of your experience, education, and training relevant to the duties of the position. If you are eligible, your on-line responses to the application questions will determine your placement in the appropriate quality category described above. Your responses must be substantiated by your resume. If you do not respond to the application questions you may be rated ineligible. Veterans' preference rules for category rating will be applied.

NOTE: If it is determined that you have rated yourself higher than is supported in your description of experience and/or education as described in your resume/application, or that your resume or application is incomplete, you may be rated ineligible, not qualified, or your score may be lowered.

To preview questions please click here.

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