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

Physical Scientist (Data Scientist) / Data Scientist

Department of the Interior
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
Office of Strategic Resources (OSR), Marine Minerals Division (MMD)
This job announcement has closed

Summary

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) manages the exploration and development of the nation's offshore resources. It seeks to appropriately balance economic development, energy independence, and environmental protection through oil and gas leases, renewable energy development and environmental reviews and studies. For information about our bureau go to: http://www.boem.gov/

Overview

Help
Hiring complete
Open & closing dates
02/09/2024 to 02/29/2024
Salary
$68,405 to - $107,590 per year

First time hires to the federal government typically start at the beginning salary in the range for their respective grade level.

Pay scale & grade
GS 9 - 11
Location
Few vacancies in the following location:
Sterling, VA
Remote job
No
Telework eligible
Yes—as determined by the agency policy.
Travel Required
Occasional travel - You may be expected to travel for site visits, meetings, training, and conferences.
Relocation expenses reimbursed
No
Appointment type
Permanent
Work schedule
Full-time
Service
Competitive
Promotion potential
12
Supervisory status
No
Security clearance
Not Required
Drug test
No
Position sensitivity and risk
Moderate Risk (MR)
Trust determination process
Announcement number
BOEM-MMCC-24-AW-025(DEU)
Control number
775802100

Duties

Help

This position is located within the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), Office of Strategic Resources (OSR), Marine Minerals Division (MMD) in Sterling, Virginia.

At the full performance level, GS-12 the major duties of this position include, but are not limited to the following:

  1. Ingests, creates, processes, maintains, secures, uses, and archives data to bring value to BOEM decision making and improve business outcomes.
  2. Assists in and supports formulation, development, and implementation, and practices technical applications of BOEM's data and support the Marine Minerals Program MMP (e.g., scientists, business users) data needs.
  3. Serves as data analyst to support and assist with solving tangible business problems, manipulating data using tools like Structured Query Language (SQL), R or Python computer programming languages, visualization software and statistical analysis.
  4. Uses experience and/or graduate level education in data and marine sciences, and relevant methods and analytical techniques, to perform specialized analyses, or participate in or support leasing and research related to the Marine Minerals Program (MMP).
  5. Analyzes, interprets, and supports data solutions that enable BOEM to make effective use of data in business decisioning.
  6. Assists in preparing content for documents, Departmental and Bureau correspondence, and briefing materials supporting marine minerals or environmental matters, including those related to decisions, public or stakeholder inquiries, and or congressional requests.
  7. Applies procedures and works jointly to improve the conduct of data use, processing, findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability related to the MMP and advance data stewardship of mineral or environmental resources.
  8. Collaborates with scientists, data stewards, and analysts to identify and close gaps on marine minerals problems; devise creative data collection strategies to fill marine minerals gaps.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has determined that the duties of this position are suitable for telework and the selectee may be allowed to telework with supervisor approval.

Salary Information:
GS-9: $68,405 - $88,926 per annum
GS-11: $82,764 - $107,590 per annum
First time hires to the Federal government normally start at the lower salary range of the grade level.

This vacancy may be used to fill additional positions as vacancies become available.

This vacancy is also announced as BOEM-MMCC-24-AW-026(MP) for those applicants who wish to apply and be considered under Merit Promotion procedures.

Requirements

Help

Conditions of employment

  1. You must be a U.S. Citizen.
  2. You will be subject to a background/suitability investigation/determination.
  3. You will be required to have federal payments made by Direct Deposit.
  4. You must submit ALL required documents and a completed questionnaire.
  5. Selective Service: If you are a male applicant 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. See http://www.sss.gov/.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualification Requirements:
To qualify for this position you must meet the Basic Educational Requirements AND Specialized Experience AND/OR Education for the series/grade to which you are applying.

(1) Basic Educational Requirements:
Please Note: This position requires specific educational coursework to qualify. You MUST provide transcripts (unofficial are acceptable) in order to verify that the educational requirements have been met. This information must be received by the closing date of the announcement. Failure to provide this information may result in you receiving an "INELIGIBLE" rating.

Data Science Series, 1560:
Individual Occupational Requirements
(1) Basic Educational Requirements:
To be eligible for this position, you must meet either A or B below for the series to which you are applying.

  1. Degree: Mathematics, statistics, computer science, data science or field directly related to the position. The degree must be in a major field of study (at least at the baccalaureate level) that is appropriate for the position.
OR
  1. Combination of education and experience: Courses equivalent to a major field of study (30 semester hours) as shown in paragraph A above, plus additional education or appropriate experience.

Physical Science Series, 1301:
Individual Occupational Requirements
(1) Basic Educational Requirements:
To be eligible for this position, you must meet either A or B below for the series to which you are applying.
  1. Degree: Physical science, engineering, or mathematics that included 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science such as mechanics, dynamics, properties of materials, and electronics.
OR
  1. Combination of education and experience: Education equivalent to one of the majors shown in A above that included at least 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science, plus appropriate experience or additional education.
-AND-

In addition to meeting the Basic Educational Qualification requirements, applicants must have either A. Specialized Experience or B. Education (directly related) or C. Combination of Education and Experience to qualify for the grade to which you are applying.

A. Specialized Experience:

GS-9
To qualify for the GS-9, you must possess at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-7 grade level in the Federal service, or comparable experience not gained through Federal service. Specialized experience is experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. Specialized experience is defined as demonstrated experience:
  1. Performing data preprocessing, including data cleaning, normalization, and standardization; AND
  2. Reviewing, analyzing, and providing information from multiple systems and sources to prepare data reports: AND
  3. Reading, interpreting, modifying and executing basic scripts.
MUST MEET ALL.

-OR-

Education: 2 years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a master's degree or master's or equivalent graduate degree.

-OR-

Combination of education and experience: A combination of successfully completed graduate education and specialized experience equivalent to the GS-7 level that totals 100% of the requirement for this grade level.

GS-11
To qualify for the GS-11, you must possess at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-9 grade level in the Federal service, or comparable experience not gained through Federal service. Specialized experience is experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. Specialized experience is defined as demonstrated experience:
  1. Analyzing and interpreting data modeling, algorithms, and coding data requirements; AND
  2. Writing basic scripts to normalize, manipulate and enrich datasets; AND
  3. Using data tools and techniques to process datasets into structured formats for matching, analysis, or estimation.
MUST MEET ALL.

-OR-

Education: 3 years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree.

-OR-

Combination of education and experience: A combination of education and experience that totals 100% of the requirement for this grade level. Note: Only graduate level education in excess of 36 semester hours may be applied toward the combination at this grade level.

Additional information on the qualification requirements is outlined in the OPM Qualification Standards Handbook of General Schedule Positions and is available at OPM's website: https://www.opm.gov/qualifications/standards/indexes/num-ndx.asp

All qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of this announcement.

Education

Education: If this position requires specific educational course work to qualify, or you are qualifying based in whole or part on education, you are required to provide transcripts as proof of meeting the requirements.

Foreign Education: Education completed in colleges or universities outside the United States may be used to meet the specific educational requirements as stated above. 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.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-policies/#url=e4

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.

Identification of promotion potential in this announcement does not constitute a commitment or an obligation on the part of management to promote the employee selected at some future date. Promotion will depend upon administrative approval and the continuing need for and performance of higher-level duties.

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.

Important Note: All Department of the Interior (DOI) employees are subject to the conflict of interest restrictions imposed upon all employees of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government and may be required to file a Financial Disclosure Report. In addition, DOI employees, GS-15 and above, who work in the Office of the Secretary; along with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) employees (at ALL grade levels), are further restricted concerning their interests in Federal lands and resources administered or controlled by the Department of the Interior. This includes holding stock in energy corporations which lease Federal lands (e.g.: oil, gas, coal, alternative energy resources, etc.). If you have any such investments you should contact the DOI, BOEM or BSEE Ethics Office before accepting employment. DOI employees are held to the highest level of integrity. Employees must be objective and impartial in the performance of their work. All potential issues (e.g.: work-related interactions with friends, family members, or previous employers) must be disclosed at the time of application or during the interview process.

NOTICE: This employer participates in E-Verify and will utilize your Form I-9 information to confirm you are authorized to work in the U.S.
A preliminary background check must be completed before a new employee can begin work with the U.S. Department of the Interior. The preliminary background check consists of a search of Office of Personnel Management and Department of Defense background investigation files and an FBI National Criminal History Fingerprint Check; it may take up to 3 weeks to complete. If selected for this position, you will be extended a tentative offer of employment pending a satisfactory background check. Current Federal employees or individuals with an existing completed background investigation may not be required to undergo another background check; these will be handled on a case-by-case basis in coordination with the Bureau security office.

How you will be evaluated

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

Once the application process is complete, we will review your application to ensure you meet the job requirements. To determine if you are qualified for this job, a review of your resume, supporting documentation and responses to the online questionnaire will be made. Your responses to the online assessment will be used to measure the degree to which your background matches the requirements for this position. You are being evaluated under the Category Rating method, which means, if you are determined to be qualified you will be placed in one of three pre-defined categories. These categories are "Platinum", "Gold", and "Silver". However, your resume must support your responses to the scored occupational questionnaire, or your score may be lowered. Candidates placed in the "Platinum" category will be identified for referral to the hiring manager and may be invited for an interview. Veterans' preference rules for category rating will be applied.

Your answers to the on-line assessment will be used to evaluate your competencies in the following areas:

  • Attention to Detail: Is thorough when performing work and conscientious about attending to detail.
  • Data Management: Knowledge of the principles, procedures, and tools of data management, such as modeling techniques, data backup, data recovery, data dictionaries, data warehousing, data mining, data disposal, and data standardization processes.
  • Oral Communication: Expresses information (for example, ideas or facts) to individuals or groups effectively, taking into account the audience and nature of the information (for example, technical, sensitive, controversial); makes clear and convincing oral presentations; listens to others, attends to nonverbal cues, and responds appropriately.
  • Teamwork: Encourages and facilitates cooperation, pride, trust, and group identity; fosters commitment and team spirit; works with others to achieve goals.
  • Manages and Organizes Information: Identifies a need; gathers, organizes, and maintains information; determines its importance and accuracy, and communicates it by a variety of methods.
  • Computer Languages: Knowledge of computer languages and their applications to enable a system to perform specific functions.
If you are a status applicant (current career or career-conditional Federal employee or former permanent Federal employee with reinstatement eligibility in the competitive service), or are eligible under a special appointing authority and you are selected under this vacancy, you may be subject to serving a new one-year probationary period.

To preview the assessment questionnaire click: https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12310506

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.