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Interdisciplinary (Data Scientist)

Department of Agriculture
Food Safety and Inspection Service
This job announcement has closed

Summary

This position is located within the Office of Planning, Analysis, and Risk Management (OPARM).

OPARM performs complementary and collaborative work and is tasked with integrating and analyzing relational data. They provide data visualization and analytics services to support FSIS decision-making, policy development, risk management, and strategic planning.

Overview

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Hiring complete
Open & closing dates
12/21/2021 to 01/05/2022
This job will close when we have received 150 applications which may be sooner than the closing date. Learn more
Salary
$53,433 to - $122,884 per year
Pay scale & grade
GS 9 - 12
Locations
FEW vacancies in the following locations:
Washington, DC
Location Negotiable After Selection, United States
Telework eligible
Yes—as determined by the agency policy.
Travel Required
Occasional travel - You may be expected to travel for this position.
Relocation expenses reimbursed
No
Appointment type
Permanent
Work schedule
Full-time
Service
Competitive
Promotion potential
12
Supervisory status
No
Security clearance
Other
Drug test
No
Position sensitivity and risk
Moderate Risk (MR)
Trust determination process
Announcement number
FSIS-OPARM-22-11334571-ARS
Control number
628069600

This job is open to

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Clarification from the agency

Direct Hire Authority will be utilized for the Mathematical Statistics Series 1529 at the GS-11 and GS-12 grade levels only.

Duties

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  • Analyze and interpret data to inform decision making.
  • Verify and validate analysis results.
  • Write statistical computer programs and algorithms.
  • Use relational databases to extract and transform data.
  • Develop innovative approaches to analyze data.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

  • You must be a US Citizen or US National
  • Males born after 12/31/1959 must be Selective Service registered or exempt
  • Subject to satisfactory adjudication of background investigation and/or fingerprint check
  • Successful completion of one-year probationary period, unless previously served.
  • Direct Deposit: Per Public Law 104-134 all Federal employees are required to have federal payments made by direct deposit to their financial institution
  • Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit E-Verify at https://www.e-verify.gov/
  • Federal employees must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 regardless of their duty location. If selected, you will be required to submit documentation of COVID-19 vaccination by November 22, 2021 or before appointment, if after November 22.
  • The agency will provide additional information regarding what COVID-19 vaccination information or documentation will be needed and how you can request of the agency a legally required exception from this requirement.

Qualifications

Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement including specialized experience and/or education, as defined below.

NOTE: There are individual occupational requirements for the 1529 and 1550 job series. You must meet the individual occupational requirement (basic education requirement) for the respective job series, outlined in the education section of this announcement.

Qualifications Requirements for the GS-09 Grade Level: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-07 grade level in the Federal service or equivalent responsibility in the private sector/pay systems. This specialized experience must includeall the following:

  • Writing statistical computer programs and algorithms.
  • Training or experience extracting and transforming data from relational databases.
  • Cleaning data to address issues such as missing values, outliers, duplicates, functional dependencies, etc.
To substitute education for experience at the GS-09 grade level, you must meet at least one of the individual occupational requirements identified in the education section of the announcement.
AND
You must possess a master's or equivalent graduate degree or 2 years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a master's degree. This education demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of this position.
OR
Combination of Experience and Education: You must have an appropriate combination of successfully completed graduate level education and experience. The quality of the combination of education and experience must be sufficient to demonstrate that you possesses the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to perform work in the occupation. To determine your combination, first compute your experience as a percentage of the experience listed in the job announcement (1 year of specialized experience); then determine your education as a percentage of the education listed above; then add the two percentages. The total percentages must equal at least 100 percent. Only graduate education in excess of 1 year (18 semester hours) may be used to qualify.

Qualifications Requirements for the GS-11 Grade Level: In addition to the GS-09 specialized experience detailed above, to qualify at the GS-11 grade level applicants must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-09 grade level in the Federal service or equivalent responsibility in the private sector/pay systems that includesall the following:
  • Independently extracting and transforming data from relational databases.
  • Performing review of computer programing code for accuracy.
  • Experience engaging with leaders, colleagues, students, or clients to identify analytical needs or understand and define reporting requirements.
To substitute education for experience at the GS-11 grade level, you must meet at least one of the individual occupational requirements identified in the education section of the announcement.
AND
You must possess a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree. This education must demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of this position. One year of full-time graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent 1 year of full-time study. If that information cannot be determined from the school, 18 semester hours should be considered as equivalent to 1 year of full-time study.
OR
Combination of Experience and Education: You must have an appropriate combination of successfully completed graduate level education and experience. The quality of the combination of education and experience must be sufficient to demonstrate that you possesses the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to perform work in the occupation To determine your combination, first compute your experience as a percentage of the experience listed above; then determine your education as a percentage of the education listed above; then add the two percentages. The total percentages must equal at least 100 percent. Only graduate education in excess of 2 years (36 semester hours) may be used to qualify.

Qualifications Requirements for the GS-12 Grade Level: In addition to the GS-09 and GS-11 specialized experience detailed above, to qualify at the GS-12 grade level applicants must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-11 grade level in the Federal service or equivalent responsibility in the private sector/pay systems that includesall the following:
  • Designing and implementing plans to accomplish analytic or computer programming projects.
  • Leading data analysis projects to capture and implement data requirements and business rules.
  • Developing interactive visualizations that combine data from multiple sources using tools such as Tableau, SAS Visual Analytics, ArcGIS, ggplot2, matplotlib, plotly, etc.
There is no education substitute for the GS-12 grade level.

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 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

To qualify for this position, you must meet at least one of the Individual Occupational Requirements (basic education) outlined below. You must submit a copy of all transcripts to validate that you meet at least one of the basic education requirements.

Individual Occupational Requirements
Mathematical Statistician (1529)
Basic Education Requirements:

A. Degree: that included 24 semester hours of mathematics and statistics, of which at least 12 semester hours were in mathematics and 6 semester hours were in statistics.
OR
B. Combination of education and experience -- at least 24 semester hours of mathematics and statistics, including at least 12 hours in mathematics and 6 hours in statistics, as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education.
Evaluation of Experience:
The experience offered in combination with educational courses to meet the requirements in paragraph B above should include evidence of statistical work such as (a) sampling, (b) collecting, computing, and analyzing statistical data, and (c) applying known statistical techniques to data such as measurement of central tendency, dispersion, skewness, sampling error, simple and multiple correlation, analysis of variance, and tests of significance.

Without other indications of statistical experience, work required in the processing of numerical or quantified information by other than statistical methods is not considered appropriate qualifying experience. Examples of such nonqualifying work include statistical clerical work; statistical drafting; calculation of totals, averages, percentages, or other arithmetic summations; preparation of simple tables or charts; or verification of data by simple comparison or proofreading.
Link to Mathematical Statistician (1529) Individual Occupational Requirement here.

Computer Scientist (1550)
Basic Education Requirements:

Bachelor's degree in computer science or bachelor's degree with 30 semester hours in a combination of mathematics, statistics, and computer science. At least 15 of the 30 semester hours must have included any combination of statistics and mathematics that included differential and integral calculus. All academic degrees and course work must be from accredited or pre-accredited institutions.
Evaluation of Education:
Applicants should have sufficient knowledge to understand the fundamental concepts and techniques of computer science. Courses designed to provide an introduction to computer science techniques and methodologies, to problems of system design, and to other specialized fields are acceptable. Courses or experience in teaching elementary, business, or shop mathematics are not acceptable.
Link to Computer Scientist (1550) Individual Occupational Requirement here.

To Substitute Education for Specialized Experience at GS-09 and GS-11 Grade Levels
To qualify at the GS-09 grade level based on Education, applicants must meet one of the individual occupational requirements identified above
AND

A. Successfully completed a master's or equivalent graduate degree or 2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree in a field which demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform the work of the position
OR
B. have the specialized experience as described in A, but less than one year; and I have at least one year of graduate education as described in B, but less than the required two years. I have computed the percentage of the requirements that I meet, and the total is at least 100% (To compute the percentage, divide your total months of qualifying experience by 12. Then, divide your semester hours of graduate education beyond the first year (total graduate semester hours minus 18) by 18. Add the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify.)

To qualify at the GS-11 grade level based on Education, applicants must meet one of the individual occupational requirements identified above
AND
A.
Have successfully completed a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree in a field which demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform the work of the position
OR
B. Have the specialized experience as described in A, but less than one year; and I have at least two years of graduate education as described in B, but less than the required three years. I have computed the percentage of the requirements that I meet, and the total is at least 100% (To compute the percentage, divide your total months of qualifying experience by 12. Then, divide your semester hours of graduate education beyond the second year (total graduate semester hours minus 36) by 18. Add the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify.).

Additional information

Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP), Reemployment Priority List (RPL), or Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP): Visit the OPM website for information on how to apply as a CTAP, RPL, or ICTAP eligible. To exercise selection priority for this vacancy, CTAP/RPL/ICTAP candidates must meet the basic eligibility requirements and all selective factors. CTAP/ICTAP candidates must be rated and determined to be well qualified (or above) based on an evaluation of the competencies listed in the How You Will Be Evaluated section. When assessed through a score-based category rating method, CTAP/ICTAP applicants must receive a rating of at least 85 out of a possible 100.

If you are selected for a position with further promotion potential, you will be placed under a career development plan, and may be non-competitively promoted if you successfully complete the requirements and if recommended by management. However, promotion is neither implied nor guaranteed.

This position may be eligible to telework up to four days per week, based upon the duties of the position. This position may also be eligible for flexible work arrangements as determined by agency policy and any applicable collective bargaining agreements.

How you will be evaluated

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

Applications will be evaluated in accordance with Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) Delegated Examining Procedures and USDA policy using category rating. Applicants who meet basic minimum qualifications will be placed in one of two or three categories: Best Qualified, Well Qualified, or Qualified. Within these categories, applicants eligible for veteran's preference will receive selection priority over non-veterans. Category placement will be determined based on applicants' quality of experience and the extent they possess the following knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA) or competencies:

    • Analytical Programming
    • Interpersonal Skills
    • Manages and Organizes Information
    • Mathematical Reasoning
    • Planning and Evaluating
    • Problem Solving
Your application, including the online Assessment Questionnaire, will be reviewed to determine if you meet (a) minimum qualification requirements and (b) the resume supports the answers provided to the job-specific questions. Your resume must clearly support your responses to all the questions addressing experience and education relevant to this position. Those determined to be in the best qualified category will be referred to the selecting official for consideration.

Note: If, after reviewing your resume and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications and or experience, your score may be adjusted to more accurately reflect your abilities, or you may be found ineligible. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating. Providing inaccurate information on Federal documents could be grounds for non-selection or disciplinary action up to including removal from the Federal service.

Clicking the link below will present a preview of the application form; i.e. the online questionnaire. The application form link below will only provide a preview and does not initiate the application process. To initiate the online application process, click the "Apply" button to the right.

To view the application form, visit: https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/11334571

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