Clarification from the agency

UNITED STATES CITIZENS MAY APPLY (no prior federal experience is required).

At the full performance level of this position (GS-13), you will serve as a subject-matter expert in a specialized area of toxicology (such as risk assessment, dose-response assessment, read-across, computational toxicology, reproductive toxicology, developmental toxicology, inhalation toxicology, neurotoxicology, or carcinogenicity) and will be responsible for providing advice and recommendations to the Directorate, other offices within the Agency, and the Commission.

Your primary responsibility will be to critically review, evaluate, and interpret current scientific literature, research data and investigative reports, medical findings and reports, and proposed and existing mandatory and voluntary standards criteria, to determine whether exposure to and/or use of particular consumer products can result in adverse chronic and/or acute health effects. Your written and/or oral conclusions and recommendations must be concise, clear, scientifically sound, and reflect the significance of the information applicable to agency activities, including the development of mandatory and voluntary standards and support of compliance and enforcement actions.

Your assignments will involve a high degree of complexity and often will require innovative solutions to resolve any conflicting data. In some cases, you may serve as the Commission's expert witness and may be required as such to testify in court on behalf of the Agency. You will prepare oral and written responses to inquiries involving potential toxicological effects of exposure to consumer products; make formal and informal presentations to the Commission as the technical expert; represent the Agency on interagency committees and at voluntary standards meetings; maintain liaison with other scientists and public health authorities whose work has direct bearing on ongoing Agency work.

You may also serve as a project manager for various Agency hazard identification and reduction projects, leading a multidisciplinary team, with responsibility for developing and coordinating work plans, tasks, and schedules to meet program.

Conditions of employment

• U.S. Citizenship Required.
• Background Investigation Required.
• Must meet education requirements.

Must be a U.S. Citizen.

This is a Public Trust Position. Employment in this position requires a background investigation. If you are selected and cannot obtain a favorable security determination within a reasonable period of time due to disclosed or undisclosed background issues, the tentative employment offer may be withdrawn.

If you are a male born after December 31, 1959, you must certify that you have registered with the Selective Service System or are exempt from having to do so under the Selective Service Law. Please see http://www.sss.gov for more information.

Selectees will be required to complete a "Declaration of Federal Employment", (OF-306), prior to appointment and the appropriate background investigation forms to determine suitability for Federal employment.  False statements or responses on these forms can jeopardize your employment opportunity and subject you to disciplinary action, including removal from Federal service.

The selectee will be required to complete a Personal Identity Verification (PIV) process that requires two forms of identification from the I-9 Form. We will compare information provided on the I-9 Form to records available from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.  The system confirms employee’s identity and eligibility to work in the United States. Learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities.

Upon appointment, you will be required to complete a Confidential Financial Disclosure Report, OGE-450. You will need to provide the information annually.

Depending on your status, this position may require serving a 1-year probationary period.

Qualifications

In addition to the mandatory education requirement, all applicants must have 52 weeks of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade level (GS-12) in the Federal Service. Specialized experience is experience that has equipped the candidate with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position.

Qualifying specialized experience must demonstrate the following: 

GS-13: Extensive experience in analyzing and applying professional knowledge of toxicological principles, theories, methods or research to experience determine whether exposure to and/or use of certain products are a hazard OR developing complex toxicological analyses in order to produce reports.

The specialized experience must be fully described in the duties section of your resume in order to receive credit.

Evidence of the above specialized experience must be supported by detailed documentation of duties performed in positions held.  Your resume is the key means we have for evaluating your skills, knowledge, and abilities as they relate to this position. Therefore, we encourage you to be clear and specific when describing your experience. We will not make assumptions regarding your experience or based on job titles alone.  If your resume does not support your questionnaire answers, we will not allow credit for your response(s).

Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade.

Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment.

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.

Applicants must meet the qualifications for this position by the closing date of this announcement.

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 above.

After the vacancy closes, we will review your application package to determine if you meet the minimum qualifications for the position. If you meet the minimum qualifications, your responses to the questionnaire, resume and supporting documentation will then be reviewed. Your responses to the questionnaire will serve as the basis for your initial rating in one of three categories: "best", "better" or "good".

For scientific and professional positions at the GS-9 and above: qualified CPS and CP preference eligibles will be placed above non-preference eligibles within the same category for which they are assessed. For all other positions (series and grade levels): qualified CPS and CP preference eligibles will be placed above non-preference eligibles in the "best" category. 

ICTAP candidates will be eligible if they are assessed as well-qualified.

Please ensure that your resume contains specific information such as position titles, beginning and ending dates of employment for each position, average number of hours worked per week, salary, duties performed for each position, and if the position is/was in the Federal government, you should provide the position series and grade level/pay band.