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Statistician (Biology)

Department of the Interior
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
This job announcement has closed

Summary

This position is a Statistician (Biology), GS-1530 or 401-12 working in Anchorage, Alaska for the Region 7 Marine Mammals Management Office.


This position is also open to status candidates under announcement R7-21-11249587-CL-MP. You must apply to each announcement separately if you wish to be considered under both recruitment methods.

Overview

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Hiring complete
Open & closing dates
10/01/2021 to 10/15/2021
Salary
$86,657 to - $112,659 per year
Pay scale & grade
GS 12
Location
Anchorage, AK
1 vacancy
Telework eligible
Yes—as determined by the agency policy.
Travel Required
25% or less - You may be expected to travel for this position.
Relocation expenses reimbursed
Yes—You may qualify for reimbursement of relocation expenses in accordance with agency policy.
Appointment type
Permanent
Work schedule
Full-time
Service
Competitive
Promotion potential
13
Supervisory status
No
Security clearance
Not Required
Drug test
No
Position sensitivity and risk
Moderate Risk (MR)
Trust determination process
Announcement number
R7-21-11249586-CL-DE
Control number
616220700

This job is open to

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Clarification from the agency

U.S. Citizens, CTAP

Duties

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As a Statistician (Biology) your duties will include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Use a range of statistical methods including advanced biometric principles, statistical theories, wildlife habitat and population estimation and dynamics, including hierarchical Bayesian modelling and analysis using programming languages to provide analytical leadership and guidance.
  • Coordinate with internal and external partners to develop assessment frameworks that recommendations for strategies to conserve and protect habitat and populations.
  • Develop new statistical approaches for analyzing complex data sets and performing advanced and innovative statistical analyses of data.
  • Deliver presentations on study results and analyses to peers, scientific audiences, and the public or other non-technical audiences.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

  • Must be a U.S. Citizen or National.
  • Individuals assigned male at birth after 12-31-59 must be registered for Selective Service. To verify registration visit SSS.gov.
  • Resume and supporting documents (See How to Apply).
  • Suitability for employment, as determined by background investigation
  • Driver's License: Selectees must possess and maintain a valid State driver's license at all times during their tenure.
  • Probationary Period: Selectees may be required to successfully complete a probationary period.

Qualifications

Only experience and education obtained by 10/15/2021 will be considered.

Basic Education Requirement:

Possess a bachelor's or higher degree that included 15 semester hours in statistics (or in mathematics and statistics, provided at least 6 semester hours were in statistics), and 9 additional semester hours in one or more of the following: physical or biological sciences, medicine, education, or engineering; or in the social sciences including demography, history, economics, social welfare, geography, international relations, social or cultural anthropology, health sociology, political science, public administration, psychology, etc. Credit toward meeting statistical course requirements should be given for courses in which 50 percent of the course content appears to be statistical methods, e.g., courses that included studies in research methods in psychology or economics such as tests and measurements or business cycles, or courses in methods of processing mass statistical data such as tabulating methods or electronic data processing, OR

Possess a combination of education and experience, courses as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. The experience should have included a full range of professional statistical work such as (a) sampling, (b) collecting, computing, and analyzing statistical data, and (c) applying statistical techniques such as measurement of central tendency, dispersion, skewness, sampling error, simple and multiple correlation, analysis of variance, and tests of significance.

Specialized Experience GS-12:

Possess one full year of specialized experience comparable in scope and responsibility to at least the GS-11 level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). Specialized experience for this grade is defined as: applying biometric principles to the study of threatened or endangered fish or wildlife to provide insight into the success of actions (e.g., habitat restoration projects, fish reintroduction actions, study design improvement, etc.); applying statistical analyses to databases using statistical software to provide information about fish population dynamics, population estimates, or to develop resource or statistical modeling or statistical treatment of data; assisting with presenting results of biometric or bio statistical studies at professional scientific meetings and in technical reports and scientific literature.


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

PROOF OF EDUCATION: All applicants who are using education or a combination of education and experience to qualify must submit copies of official or unofficial transcripts which include grades, credit hours earned, major(s), grade point average or class ranking, institution name, and student name. If any required coursework is not easily recognizable on transcripts, or if you believe a portion of a particular course can be credited toward meeting an educational requirement, you must also provide a memorandum on letterhead from the institution's registrar, dean, or other appropriate official stating the percentage of the course that should be considered to meet the requirement and the equivalent number of units. Unofficial transcripts are acceptable; however, if you are selected for the position, you will be required to produce the original official transcripts.

PASS/FAIL COURSES: If more than 10 percent of your undergraduate course work (credit hours) were taken on a pass/fail basis, your claim of superior academic achievement must be based upon class standing or membership in an honor society.

GRADUATE EDUCATION: One academic year of graduate education is considered to be the number of credits hours your graduate school has determined to represent one academic year of full-time study. Such study may have been performed on a full-time or part-time basis. If you cannot obtain your graduate school's definition of one year of graduate study, 18 semester hours (or 27 quarter hours) should be considered as satisfying the requirement for one year of full-time graduate study.

FOREIGN EDUCATION: If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet the qualification requirements, you must show the education credentials have been evaluated by a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign education. For further information, visit: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html

Additional information

As required by Executive Order 14043, Federal employees are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 regardless of the employee's duty location or work arrangement (e.g., telework, remote work, etc.), subject to such exceptions as required by law. If selected, you will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and submit documentation of proof of vaccination by November 22, 2021 or before appointment or onboarding with the agency, if after November 22. The agency will provide additional information regarding what information or documentation will be needed and how you can request of the agency a legally required exception from this requirement.

PCS Information:
Entitlements for payment of basic moving expenses, as required and to the extent allowed by the Federal Travel Regulation (FTR) 302-3.101, are authorized for eligible applicants changing duty station when the change meets the distance tests as provided in FTR 302-1.1 and 302-2.6. All moving expenses are taxable. In addition, relocation discretionary entitlements MAY be authorized for this position excluding contractor-provided home sale

Telework: This position is suitable for telework and may be allowed to telework with supervisory approval.

Additional Vacancies: One or more positions may be filled from applications received under this announcement in the advertised office or other U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service offices in the local commuting area.


Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) or Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP):Department of Interior (DOI) Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) procedures apply in filling this vacancy. CTAP/ICTAP provides placement assistance to permanent Federal employees who are surplus, displaced, or involuntarily separated. Applicants claiming CTAP/ICTAP eligibility must submit a copy of their most recent performance appraisal, proof of eligibility, and most current SF-50 noting position, grade level, and duty location with their application. To be considered under CTAP/ICTAP, applicants must be well-qualified (i.e., meet the minimum qualification requirements, including any selective placement factors; education, and experience requirements), score at least 85 on the assessment questionnaire, and be able to perform the duties of the position upon entry.
For information on CTAP and ICTAP visit: https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/working-in-government/unique-hiring-paths/federal-employees/career-transition/"

Alaska Positions: The salary range given above includes base pay and locality pay. You will receive a 2.86% cost of living allowance for Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau, or 5.80% for all other Alaska locations. This allowance is subject to annual review, adjustment and grade decrease.

How you will be evaluated

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

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

Once the announcement has closed, a review of your resume and supporting documentation will be used to determine whether you meet the qualification requirements listed on this announcement. If you meet the qualifications your resume and supporting documentation will be compared against your responses to the assessment questionnaire to determine your level of experience. Note: If, after reviewing your resume and supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications which resulted in you being listed in the highest quality category, you may lose consideration, or be assigned to a lower quality category for this position. Please follow all instructions carefully when applying, errors or omissions may affect your eligibility.

Your qualifications will be evaluated on the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics):

  1. Ability to present statistical theory, biometric principles, analytical methods and models, study results, and data analyses and interpretations in a clear and concise manner orally to a variety of audiences.
  2. Ability to present statistical theory, biometric principles, analytical methods and models, study results, and data analyses and interpretations in a clear and concise manner in professional publications, to a variety of audiences.
  3. Expertise in the theory and application of biometric methods and models, and mathematics and statistics and apply them to complex data and logically extend existing statistical techniques or to develop new statistical approaches to provide expert advice on their application to wildlife, fisheries, plants and habitat.
  4. Expertise in advanced biometric principles, statistical theories, wildlife habitat and population estimation and dynamics, including frequentist, machine learning, hierarchical Bayesian statistics, analysis expertise in computer using programming languages and spatial and statistical software, data compilation and database creation and management, and practices needed to perform the full range of duties required for the development of statistically sound study proposals and scientifically valid interpretation of study results, and to provide analytical leadership and guidance.

All qualified candidates will be assigned to a quality category. The category assignment is a measure of the degree in which your background matches the competencies required for this position. The category ratings for this position are: Best Qualified, Well Qualified, and Qualified

The category rating process protects the rights of veterans by placing them ahead of non-preference eligibles within each quality category. Veterans' preference eligibles who meet the qualification requirements and who have a compensable service-connected disability of at least 10 percent will be listed in the highest quality category (except in the case of scientific or professional positions at the GS-09 level or higher).

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