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Chief Data Officer AD-0301-00, GS-15 Equivalent (Excepted Service)

Department of Education
Federal Student Aid

Summary

This position is located in U.S. Department of Education (ED) Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA).  FSA is responsible for awarding billions of dollars in federal student aid funds. Our vision is to be the most trusted and reliable source of student financial aid, information, and services in the nation.

Overview

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Accepting applications
Open & closing dates
04/30/2026 to 05/13/2026
This job will close when we have received 200 applications which may be sooner than the closing date. Learn more
Salary
$179,436 - $209,600 per year
Pay scale & grade
AD 00
Locations
1 vacancy in the following locations:
San Francisco, CA
Denver, CO
District of Columbia, DC
Atlanta, GA
Remote job
No
Telework eligible
Yes—Situational telework may be approved in accordance with the agency's policy.
Travel Required
Occasional travel - Occasional Travel May be Required.
Relocation expenses reimbursed
No
Appointment type
Permanent
Work schedule
Full-time
Service
Excepted
Promotion potential
00 - This position is at the full performance level.
Supervisory status
Yes
Security clearance
Other
Drug test
Yes
Position sensitivity and risk
Critical-Sensitive (CS)/High Risk
Trust determination process
Financial disclosure
Yes - The duties and responsibilities of your position require you to file the Confidential Financial Disclosure Report OGE Form 450, (5 CFR Part 2634, Subpart I) to avoid involvement in a real or apparent conflict of interest. The form is required upon entering the position and annually thereafter.
Bargaining unit status
No
Announcement number
FSA-2026-0043
Control number
867325600

This job is open to

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Clarification from the agency

This announcement is open to all U.S. citizens. This is an excepted service position. This position is not in the competitive service and grants no eligibility to move to the competitive service.

Duties

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APPLICATION LIMIT: This vacancy announcement is limited to the first 200 applications received and will close at 11:59PM Eastern Time on the day that we receive the 200th application, or at 11:59PM Eastern Time on the listed closing date, whichever occurs first.  

We encourage you to read this entire vacancy announcement prior to submitting your application.

As a Chief Data Officer, AD-0301-00, you will be responsible for:
•    Overseeing budget, resource planning, and data governance, and operations of the Enterprise Data Warehouse Architecture group, ensuring the appropriate operation and administration of the warehouse, platform, and FTI Data Mart.
•    Establishing processes for data quality measurement and validation.
•    Advising the Executive Director for Strategic Planning and Policy Implementation and Deputy COO on strategic issues arising regarding department policy and the student financial aid programs as well as with the day-to-day operations of FSA.
•    Ensuring all responses to data requests and inquiries are accurate and timely and sensitive inquiries are dealt with appropriately.
•    Planning, directing, coordinating, and reviewing work of subordinates, sets priorities, and establishes schedules for work completion.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

  • Relocation will not be paid.
  • Must be a US Citizen
  • You may be subject to serve a one-year supervisory probationary period.
  • Males 18 and over must be registered with the Selective Service.
  • May be required to successfully complete a two-year trial period.
  • This position requires financial disclosure.
  • This position requires a pre-employment drug test.
  • The incumbent of this position is subject to random drug testing.

Condition of Employment:

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you may be required to serve a probationary period or trial period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider:

• your performance and conduct;

• the needs and interests of the agency;

• whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and

• whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.

Upon completion of your probationary period OR trial period your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

You must meet all qualification requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this vacancy announcement.

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.  We will consider all qualifying experience, including any volunteer experience.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualification Requirements
You may meet the minimum qualifications for the AD-0301-00, if you possess the specialize experience.

Specialized Experience for the AD-0301-00
One year of experience in either federal or non-federal service that is equivalent to at least a GS-14 performing two (2) out of three (3) of the following duties or work assignments:

1.  Experience implementing and enforcing organization-wide data quality framework and governance standards across cloud-based workflows (e.g., designing, building, and deploying automated data validation, monitoring, and alerting systems within Amazon Web Services (AWS) environments.)

2.  Experience defining best practices and tools for data validation, monitoring, compliance, and driving improvements through advanced automation techniques while ensuring data reliability, security, and compliance.

3.  Experience supervising employees, setting performance expectations, evaluating performance, mentoring staff, fostering collaboration and accountability, and innovating new operational approaches and concepts in a high-tempo environment with frequently changing priorities. 
 

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs)
The quality of your experience will be measured by the extent to which you possess the following knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs). You do not need to provide separate narrative responses to these KSAs, as they will be measured by your responses to the occupational questionnaire (you may preview the occupational questionnaire by clicking the link at the end of the Evaluations section of this vacancy announcement).

1.    Ability to oversee the strategic management of human, financial, contractor, and information resources.
2.    Knowledge of large-scale data warehouse and data analytics activities.
3.    Skill in verbal and written communication skills effectively conveying and presenting complex information of a technical and/or policy nature to senior leadership.
4.    Skill in setting and overseeing implementation of strategic goals and objectives in a manner which instills public trust and establishes and implements effective programs and policies crucial to the agency's mission.
5.    Ability to oversee the strategic management of human, financial, contractor, and information resources.

Education

Education cannot be substituted for experience for this position and grade level. 

Additional information

Veterans’ Career Counseling: If you are a veteran interested in receiving tips on preparing a Federal resume and/or how to prepare for an interview, you may email careers@ed.gov to schedule a session with a career counselor (“Veterans Counseling Session” should be placed in the subject line of the email).

Student Loan Default: If selected for this position, we will verify that you have not defaulted on any loan funded or guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Education. If you are found to be in default, we will contact you to make arrangements for repayment prior to making an official offer of employment.

Suitability and Investigation: If selected for this position, you will be required to complete the Declaration for Federal Employment (OF-306) to determine your suitability for federal employment and successfully complete a pre-appointment investigation/background check.

Essential/Non-Essential: This position is considered essential for purposes of reporting to work during federal government closures.

Financial Disclosure: This position requires financial disclosure.

Bargaining Unit: This position is not included in the bargaining unit.

Selections: Agencies have broad authority under law to hire from any appropriate source of eligibles and may fill a vacancy in the competitive service by any method authorized. We may make additional selections from this vacancy announcement within 90 days from the date the selection certificates are issued, should vacancies occur. We may also share selection certificates amongst program offices across the agency.

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

How you will be evaluated

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

We use a multi-step process to review and evaluate applicants:

          1. Eligibility and Minimum Qualifications

Once the vacancy announcement closes, we will review your resume and documents to determine if you meet the eligibility and minimum qualification requirements, including any required education, experience, and/or selective placement factors. You will be rated as ineligible if your application is missing any required documents. You will be rated as not qualified if you do not possess the minimum qualification requirements. 

          2. Rating and Ranking

If you are found to meet both the eligibility and minimum qualification requirements, we will assess the quality of your experience and the extent to which you possess the required KSAs by comparing your submitted resume and documents. You will be evaluated based on how well you meet the qualifications and competencies listed in this vacancy announcement. Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials, and the result of the Monster Competency Based Assessment(s) required for this position. You will be assessed on the following competencies. 

Supervisory: Oral Communications, Interpersonal Skills, Problem Solving, Decision Making, Customer Service, Leadership, Planning and Evaluating, Influencing/Negotiating, Strategic Thinking and Human Capital Management 

Based on the outcome of this evaluation candidates will be placed into one of three categories.

Under category rating procedures you are placed into one of three categories based on the evaluation results:

Best Qualified -Candidates who possess the type and quality of experience that substantially exceeds the position’s minimum qualifications, including appropriate quality ranking factors.

Highly Qualified- Candidates who possess the type and quality of experience that exceeds the position’s minimum qualifications.

Qualified-Candidates who meet the minimum qualifications and are proficient in some but not all of the position’s requirements.

Based on the outcome of this evaluation, your application data may be further assessed by a Subject Matter Expert (SME) panel.  If your qualifications are not substantiated by your submitted resume, you may be eliminated from receiving further consideration.

Veterans’ Preference: Veterans’ preference eligibles will be ranked ahead of qualified non-preference eligibles within each category for which they are qualified. Qualified veterans’ preference eligibles with a compensable service-connected disability of 10 percent or more (CPS and CP) will be placed at the top of the Best Qualified category, except in the case of scientific or professional positions at the GS-9 grade level or higher. 

     3. Referral and Selection

If you are found to be amongst the best qualified applicants, you will be referred to the selecting official. As part of the assessment and selection process, the selecting official may invite you to participate in a structured interview, check your references, and/or request a writing sample or complete a written assessment or exercise to further evaluate your qualifications for this position.


You may preview questions for this vacancy.

Federal Student Aid

Federal Student Aid oversees one of the nation’s largest collections of educational financial data, managing information for over 90 million aid applicants and student loan borrowers. This includes detailed records on loans, grants, applications, and operational data from institutions and loan servicers. The data spans disbursements, repayment statuses, personal borrower details, and institutional metrics, requiring secure, scalable systems for storage, processing, and analysis.  FSA’s data assets include structured data, such as loan transaction databases, and unstructured data, like correspondence and documentation from students and schools.

We seek a strategic Chief Data Officer to lead our Data Team. This role oversees Data Governance, promotes responsible data use, and drives business value across the organization. The CDO guides FSA’s data strategy, ensuring data is leveraged for analytics, decision‑making, and support of internal partners, institutions, loan servicers, and more than 40 million borrowers. The role is central to building strong data frameworks, fostering a culture of data excellence, and helping the organization harness information to boost innovation and performance.

Join us in transforming the student financial aid experience and empowering millions of Americans through smarter data use. The CDO’s team will address a wide range of strategic and tactical questions. Come help reshape the future of student financial aid.

Agency contact information

Sabrina House
Phone
(202) 987-0653
Email
sabrina.house@ed.gov
Address
EDUCATION-OFC OF FEDERAL STUDENT AID
801 F Street NW
Attn: Human Resources Services
Washington, District of Columbia 20202
United States

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