Skip to main content
U.S. flag
Back to results

Chemist

Department of Health and Human Services
Food and Drug Administration
Office of Regulatory Affairs, Office of Science, Office of Medical Products/Specialty Laboratory
This job announcement has closed

Summary

These positions are located in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA), Office of Regulatory Science (ORS). ORA protects consumers and enhance public health by maximizing compliance of FDA regulated products & minimizing risk associated with those products. ORA is responsible for inspecting regulated products and manufacturers, conducting sample analyses of regulated products, and reviewing imported products.

Overview

Help
Hiring complete
Open & closing dates
01/22/2024 to 02/02/2024
Salary
$51,068 to - $66,390 per year

The salary listed in the vacancy announcement includes the geographical locality pay.

Pay scale & grade
GS 7
Location
2 vacancies in the following location:
Cincinnati, OH
Remote job
No
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
No
Appointment type
Recent graduates
Work schedule
Full-time
Service
Excepted
Promotion potential
12
Job family (Series)
Supervisory status
No
Security clearance
Other
Drug test
No
Position sensitivity and risk
Moderate Risk (MR)
Trust determination process
Announcement number
FDA-ORA-24-RG-12278298-WW
Control number
771397900

This job is open to

Help

Clarification from the agency

Recent graduates who have completed a qualifying associates, bachelors, masters, professional, doctorate, vocational or technical degree or certificate from a qualifying educational institution within the previous two years; veterans unable to apply within two years of receiving their degree, due to military service obligation, have as much as six years after degree completion to apply; or students expecting to obtain a degree or certificate by June 30, 2024 may apply.

Duties

Help
  • Apply a wide variety of task such as selecting samples, interpolating missing data, uncovering clear discrepancies, solving minor problems, and performing analyses in support of projects.
  • Perform varied routine and limited chemistry, scientific analyses and tests on samples.
  • Record in detail, the receipt, handling and analysis of samples, including observations, measurements, and computations.
  • Present analyses and solicit information to support work.

Requirements

Help

Conditions of employment

  • U.S. Citizenship or nationals is required for this appointment.
  • Selective Service Registration: All applicants born male, on (or after) 12/31/1959, must be registered with the Selective Service System OR have an approved exemption. Visit www.SSS.gov for more info.
  • FDA participates in e-Verify: All new hires must complete the I-9 form; this information will be processed through e-Verify to determine your employment eligibility. If a discrepancy arises, you must take affirmative steps to resolve the matter.
  • Background Investigation Requirement: All employees must pass a security investigation. Failing to pass the background check may be grounds for removal or legal action. If hired, you may be subject to additional investigations at a later time.
  • You must meet ALL requirements by the closing date of this announcement to be considered. Only education, experience, and qualifications attained by this date will be considered. You must continue to meet all requirements through the hiring process.
  • Certification of Accuracy: All information concerning eligibility and qualification is subject to investigation and verification. False representation may be grounds for non-consideration, non-selection, or appropriate legal action.
  • Direct Deposit: You will be required to have all federal salary payments electronically deposited into a bank account with a financial institution of your choice.
  • Must sign FDA Pathways Program Participant Agreement.
  • Must serve one year trial period or the duration of the program.

Qualifications

The Recent Graduate Program is a program that provides employment opportunities for recent graduates and individuals who obtained certificates from qualified educational institutions or programs. The program enables individuals to explore Federal civil service employment at the beginning of their careers; and engages them at the onset of their work lives, before their career path are fully established. The program duration is one year. Upon successful completion of the program and at the agency's discretion, the appointee may be converted to a term or permanent position in the competitive service.

Applicants must meet the following eligibility requirements to participate in this Recent Graduate Program:

A.
Completed all requirements for an associates, bachelors, masters, professional, doctorate, vocational, or technical degree or qualifying certificate from an accredited educational institution within the 2 years preceding the closing date of this announcement. -OR-
B.
Released or discharged from active duty within the previous two years by 02/02/2024, where as a veteran who, due to a military service obligation, was precluded from applying to the Recent Graduate Program during any portion of the 2-year eligibility period following completion of degree or certificate requirements, are entitled to a full 2-year period of eligibility upon release or discharge from active duty. In no event, however, may the eligibility period extend beyond 6 years from the date on which the preference eligible veteran completed the requirements of the degree or certificate. -OR-
C. Individuals who are expected to graduate with a qualifying Associate's, Bachelor's, Master's, Doctorate, professional, vocational or technical degree or certificate program by 06-30-2024. Current students must meet all eligibility and qualification requirements before a final offer can be made.

NOTE: You must submit transcripts or official documentation to verify your eligibility under the Recent Graduate Program. Transcripts MUST reflect the degree/certificate program and the degree conferred date. If your degree/certificate has not been conferred, you must provide proof of the anticipated graduation date. Selectee's entry on duty date will be upon degree conferment.

In addition to the eligibility requirements for the Pathways Recent Graduate Program, you must also meet the following Individual Occupational Requirements by 02/02/2024 in order to qualify for the Chemist, 1320 positions.

EDUCATION STATEMENT - Individual Occupational Requirement: This position has an education requirement. You must submit a copy of your transcripts (or a list of your courses including titles, credit hours completed and grades) to document that you have met the education requirement. Unofficial transcripts will be accepted in the application package; however, official transcripts will be required prior to beginning employment. Most colleges and universities offer unofficial transcripts online - please check your school website to obtain a copy quickly. Applicants must have successfully completed one of the following (A or B):

A. Degree: physical sciences, life sciences, or engineering that included 30 semester hours in chemistry, supplemented by course work in mathematics through differential and integral calculus, and at least 6 semester hours of physics; -OR-
B. Combination of education and experience -- course work equivalent to a major as shown in A above, including at least 30 semester hours in chemistry, supplemented by mathematics through differential and integral calculus, and at least 6 semester hours of physics, plus appropriate experience or additional education.

In addition to meeting the Individual Occupational Requirements above, you must also meet the OPM Qualification Requirements listed below by 02/02/2024 in order to qualify for the Chemist, 1320, at GS - 7.

A. Applicants must have one year of experience, equivalent to at least the GS-05 level in the Federal service which includes gathering and performing chemical scientific analyses and tests on sample substances; and recording laboratory analyses and measurements.-OR-
B. One year of graduate level education in related to the position being filled from an accredited college and/or university. -OR-
C. A bachelor's degree as described in the Basic Qualification Requirements above AND meet Superior Academic Achievement provision (S.A.A.) criteria (visit the site for more detail information). S.A.A. is based on (1) class standing, (2) grade-point average, or (3) honor society membership. -OR-
D. Have a combination of experience as described in "A" above and education as described in "B" above. When combining education with experience, first determine the applicant's total qualifying education as a percentage of the education required for the grade level; then determine the applicant's experience as a percentage of the experience required for the grade level; finally, add the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify.

Note: One year of full-time graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school you attended has determined to represent one year of study. If this information cannot be obtained from your school, we will consider 18 semester/27 quarter hours to be equal to one year of full-time study. This position requires a degree or completion of specific courses in order to meet the basic education requirement. You must submit an official transcript, unofficial transcript, or a list including courses, grades earned, completion dates, and quarter and semester hours earned. Your transcript(s) must clearly demonstrate the course(s) listed in the Basic Qualification requirement section. If the transcript(s) does not clearly demonstrate this, you must submit a copy of the course description and/or other documentation demonstrating that the courses are equivalent. Degree requirements must be met by the closing date of this job announcement and your transcript(s) submitted must reflect this.

IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Qualifications are based on breadth/level of experience. In addition to describing duties performed, applicants must provide the exact dates of each period of employment (from MM/YY to MM/YY) and the number of hours worked per week if part time. As qualification determinations cannot be made when resumes do not include the required information, failure to provide this information may result in disqualification. Applicants are encouraged to use the USAJOBS Resume Builder to develop their federal resume.

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

FOREIGN EDUCATION

Applicants using part, or all of their education completed outside of the U.S. to meet the qualification requirements, must have their foreign education evaluated by an accredited organization to ensure that the foreign education is comparable to education received in accredited educational institutions in the U.S. We will only accept the completed foreign credential evaluation.

To be acceptable, the foreign credential evaluation must include/describe at a minimum, the following information: (1) The type of education received by the applicant; (2) The level of education in relation to the U.S. education system, and state that its comparability recommendations follow the general guidelines of the International Evaluation Standards Council; (3) The content of the applicant's educational program earned abroad, and the standard obtained; (4) The status of the awarding foreign school's recognition and legitimacy in its home country's education system; and (5) Any other information of interest such as what the evaluation service did to obtain this information, the qualifications of the evaluator, and any indications as to other problems such as forgery. Note: Some positions require the completion of specific courses or a specified number of credit hours. Therefore, the foreign credential evaluation should provide information similar to that of an official transcript, to include a list of the courses taken, quarter and/or semester hours awarded, the cumulative grade point average (GPA), honors received, if any, date degree awarded.

Applicants can request an evaluation from a member organization of one of the two national associations of credential evaluation services listed below:

  1. National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES)
  2. Association of International Credentials Evaluators (AICE)
Credential evaluations are not free, and applicants are responsible for the cost of the selected service.
For more information about this requirement, please visit the U.S. Department of Education website for Foreign Education Evaluation

SUBMITTING YOUR TRANSCRIPTS: Positions which are scientific or technical in nature often have very specific educational requirements. A transcript is required to verify educational achievement. Pay careful attention to the Qualifications and Education sections to identify vacancies where a transcript is required. Even if you hold a similar position or are a current employee, you are not exempt from transcript requirements.

Electronic Transcript Caution: If you have obtained your transcripts electronically, the file might contain security measures that could prevent our application system from reading the file. Therefore, you should consider asking the institution to provide the file in a non-secured electronic format. Alternatively, you could scan or take a photo of the printed copy of the transcript. If your uploaded transcript cannot be read by our system, you may receive consideration and credit for the information we can access.

Additional information

More information on the Pathways Programs for Recent Graduates can be found at: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/students-recent-graduates/

The Pathways Recent Graduates may be non-competitively converted to a term, career-conditional, or career appointment following successful completion of at least one year of continuous service, demonstrated successful job performance, and after meeting all other qualification requirements in accordance with 5 CFR 362.305. To be eligible for conversion to a permanent or term position, Recent Graduates must:

  • Successfully completed at least 1-year of continuous service in addition to all requirements of the Program.
  • Demonstrate successful job performance.
  • Meet the Office of Personnel Management's qualifications for the position to which the Recent Graduate will be converted.
  • Recent Graduates are on a trial period for the duration of the program.
  • Positions will require 40 hours of formal training per year.
  • Must be a citizen of the United States.
ADDITIONAL CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT:
  • If you are serving, or have served in the last 5 years (from 02/02/2024) as an Executive Branch political, Schedule C, or Non-career SES appointee, HHS/FDA may be required to obtain approval by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) prior to beginning employment. You can find out if you have held one of these appointment types by looking at your Standard Form 50s in your Electronic Official Personnel Folder (eOPF), in Section 5 where the legal authorities are listed. If you have served or are currently serving, you must provide a copy of your SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action, documenting this appointment. In addition, you will be required to respond to the question in the assessment and certify your responses to the questionnaire. Political Appointee FAQ - OPM
  • Incentives may be authorized; however, this is contingent upon funds availability. If authorized, certain incentives will require you to sign a service agreement to remain in the Federal government for a period of up to 3 years. Note: This statement does not imply nor guarantee an incentive will be offered and paid. Incentives include the following: moving expenses, recruitment or relocation incentive; student loan repayment, superior qualifications appointment, creditable service for annual leave for prior non-federal work experience or prior uniformed military service, etc.
  • Financial disclosure statement, OGE-450: This position may require financial disclosure reporting and will be subject to FDA's prohibited financial interest regulation. If you are hired, you may be required to divest of certain financial interests. You are advised to seek additional information on this requirement from the hiring official before accepting any job offers. For more information please visit the FDA Ethics web page: https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/jobs-and-training-fda/ethics.
  • Pre-employment physical required: No
  • Drug testing required: No
  • License required: Yes, valid driver's license
  • Mobility agreement required: No
  • Immunization required: No
  • Annual leave for non-federal service authorized: No
  • Bargaining Unit Position: Yes - 3591 - National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU)
Additional selections may be made within the same geographical area FDA-wide.

How you will be evaluated

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

Once the job opportunity announcement closes (at 11:59 pm Eastern Time on 02/02/2024), a review of your resume and supporting documentation will be conducted, the information will be compared against your responses to the assessment questionnaire to determine your eligibility for Federal employment, and then whether you are qualified for this particular position. If, after reviewing your resume and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your responses when compared to your background information, you may be deemed ineligible, or your score may be adjusted to more accurately reflect your skills and abilities.
If you are referred to the hiring manager for consideration, you may be further evaluated based on an interview; review of requested work samples, writing samples, most recent performance evaluation(s), professional references, or results of an oral presentation or work-related test. Failure to comply with any of the additional assessment requirements will result in removal from further consideration.

Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your eligibility.

About Category Rating (DEU) Like Procedures (Basis for Rating):

  • Category rating (like) procedures will be used to rate and rank candidates.
  • The answers you provide to the applicant self-assessment questions will be used, in conjunction with the supporting documents you include, and your resume, to determine your eligibility for Federal employment and your qualification for this position specifically.
  • Your application score is used to place you into one of three quality categories: "Best Qualified", "Well Qualified", and "Qualified". (The category assignment is a measure of the degree in which your background matches the competencies required for this position.)
  • The cut-off score for each quality category may vary from announcement to announcement, and is determined by each agency, in advance of the advertisement going live.
  • Category Rating does not add veterans preference points but protects the rights of veterans by placing them ahead of non-preference eligibles within each category. Preference eligibles Vets who meet the minimum qualification requirements and who have a compensable service-connected disability of at least 30% must be listed in the highest quality category (except in the case of scientific or professional positions at the GS-9 level or higher).
  • Only applications in the Best Qualified category are referred to the hiring office for consideration.
  • If a high volume of applications are from highly qualified preference eligible Veterans, FDA's HR office may elect to refer ONLY those preference eligible Veterans to the hiring office for consideration.
  • If FDA receives a small number of applications, or if the score range of applications in the highest quality category is low enough, the Best Qualified category may be merged with the Well Qualified category and the merged list may be provided to the hiring office instead.
The category assignment is a measure of the degree in which your background matches the required competencies listed below for this position.
  1. Research
  2. Technical Competence
  3. Written Communication
  4. Oral Communication
To preview the application assessment questions, click the link below:
https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12278298

Your session is about to expire!

Your USAJOBS session will expire due to inactivity in 8 minutes. Any unsaved data will be lost if you allow the session to expire. Click the button below to continue your session.