Clarification from the agency

This is a Direct Hiring Authority Notice open to the public using the Department of Defense STEM DHA.

• Oversees and directs assigned laboratory administrative programs, including safety, environmental protection, waste management, security, and equipment.
• Manages the Quality Assurance and Quality Control Program for the laboratory, ensuring all processes are completed accurately and in a repeatable manner.
• Provides petroleum chemistry expertise to DLA Energy, resolving conflicts between technical, environmental, and logistical requirements to ensure product availability.
• Provides analytical testing, product certification, and investigative support on Class III and gaseous products to DLA Energy customers.
• Conducts tests and forensic investigations, assists with the maintenance, calibration and troubleshooting of laboratory equipment while ensuring completion of quality assurance/surveillance processes.
• Monitors lab consumables and equipment condition. Assists in procuring necessary test equipment, standards, and reagents to ensure effective laboratory operations for DLA product evaluation.

Conditions of employment

• Must be a U.S. citizen
• Tour of Duty: Set Schedule
• Security Requirements: Non-Critical Sensitive with Secret Access
• Appointment is subject to the completion of a favorable suitability or fitness determination, where reciprocity cannot be applied; unfavorably adjudicated background checks will be grounds for removal.
• Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA): Exempt
• Selective Service Requirement: Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered or exempt from Selective Service.
• Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
• Bargaining Unit Status: No
• Selectees are required to have a REAL ID or other acceptable identification documents to access certain federal facilities. See https://www.tsa.gov/real-id for more information.
• Pre-Employment Physical: Required
• Must meet the requirements specified within USCENTCOM MOD 18 Individual Protection and Individual-Unit Deployment Policy in relation to occupying a position at an overseas/deployed location within the CENTCOM area.
• Defense Acquisition Workforce position. Must complete DoD certification and other requirements. See Qualifications for additional info.
• Subject to Overseas Rotation Agreement: Yes
• Tour Length: 36 months ( https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/issuances/140025/140025v1230.pdf )
• You will be a Mission Essential employee. This requires you to work during an emergency to ensure continuation of essential functions. You may be required to work at the designated duty location, a telework site, or an alternate location/facility.

Qualifications

To qualify for a Chemist, your resume and supporting documentation must support:

A. Basic Requirement:
Bachelor's Degree or higher in 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

Combination of education and experience -- Bachelor's Degree or higher equivalent to a major in physical sciences, life sciences, or engineering, or a major in a related field 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, plus appropriate experience, or additional education.
Applicants MUST submit a copy of transcripts showing they meet the basic requirements

AND

B. Specialized Experience:
One year of specialized experience that equipped you with the particular competencies to successfully perform the duties of the position and is directly in or related to this position. To qualify at the GS-12 level, applicants must possess one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-11 level or equivalent under other pay systems in the Federal service, military, or private sector. Applicants must meet eligibility requirements, minimum qualifications, and any other regulatory requirements by the cut-off/closing date of the announcement. Creditable specialized experience include:

• Conducting routine studies, reviews and analysis of petroleum-based fuels.
• Conducting investigations and performing research testing.
• Conducting inspections, providing technical expertise in the field of petroleum chemistry, reports establishing the probability of contamination sources.
• Determines acceptance or rejection of products that deviate from procurement specifications.

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.

Physical Demands
The work requires prolonged standing at a chemistry bench or hood, periodic lifting and/or transporting of sample bottles and compressed gas cylinders (50 to 70 lbs), and occasional travel to perform site surveys, participate in technical conferences and meetings, and attend training classes. During site surveys, the employee will be involved in moderate physical exertion to include carrying equipment, climbing, standing, walking and bending. Work is also occasionally performed in confined environments wearing personal protective equipment.

Work Environment
The employee works in a chemistry laboratory where they may be toxic, flammable, corrosive and sometimes explosive chemicals. Specialized safety practices designed to minimize exposures are mandatory and may include using fume hoods and wearing protective clothing and gear (safety glasses, face shields, lab coats, aprons, gloves, safety shoes, etc). Work is occasionally required outside of normal duty hours and on weekends in response to critical customer and management requirements. Performs other duties as assigned.

Acquisition Workforce:
Position requires DoD Acquisition Engineering, Technical & Management (ETM), Foundational certification within required timeframes. Selectee must also achieve 80 hours of Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) every 2-years. Click here for more details and Resources.

Drug-Free Workplace Policy:
The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) is committed to maintaining a safe, drug-free workplace. All DLA employees are required to refrain from illegal drug use on and off duty. DLA conducts pre-employment, reasonable suspicion, post-accident, and random drug testing.

Applicants tentatively selected for employment in testing designated positions will undergo a urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Refusal to undergo testing or testing positive for illegal drugs will result in withdrawal of the tentative job offer and a six-month denial of employment with DLA from the date of the drug test. Employees in drug testing designated positions are subject to random drug testing.

The DLA drug testing panel tests for the following substances: marijuana, cocaine, opiates, heroin, phencyclidine, amphetamines, methamphetamines, fentanyl, norfentanyl, methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA), and opioids.

ADVISORY: Use of cannabidiol (CBD) products may result in a positive drug test for marijuana. DLA employees are subject to Federal law and under Federal law, Marijuana is a Schedule I drug and is illegal.

How you will be evaluated

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

Direct Hire Evaluation: Once the application process is complete, a review of your application will be made to ensure you meet the job requirements. This vacancy will be filled through a Direct Hire Authority. All applicants who meet the basic qualification requirements will be forwarded to the Selecting Official for consideration. The rule of Three, Veteran's Preference and traditional rating and ranking of applicants do not apply to this vacancy. We will evaluate your application for basic eligibility and to determine if your experience meets the basic qualification requirements described in the announcement. All applicants who meet the qualifications and other basic requirement are eligible for referral and selection consideration. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating.

To apply for this position you must provide a complete Application Package. Each Application Package MUST include:

1. Your Resume: IMPORTANT UPDATE: Your resume must not exceed two (2) pages. If your resume exceeds the two-page limit, you will be removed from consideration for this announcement. The resume and required supporting documentation should provide the minimum qualifications and relevant experience for the announced position. Must include the work schedule, hours worked per week, dates of employment, and duties performed. If multiple resumes are submitted by an applicant, only the last resume submitted will be reviewed for qualifications and referred for selection consideration, if eligible. The resume must not be more than 5MB and should be saved and uploaded as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. Page margins should be 0.5 inches, and font styles must be legible. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text. We recommend using a font like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans.
2. Applicable documents to support the eligibility(s) for which you are applying. Please review the following link for a listing of the additional documents you will need to provide: Supporting Documents.

Next steps