Summary
This position is being filled under a stream-lined hiring authority, Title 21 of the United States Code (21 US Code 379d-3a) as amended by the 21st Century Cures Act of 2016, section 3072 and the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, Section 3624. The candidate selected for this position will serve under a career or career-conditional appointment and be paid under the provisions of this authority. This position is being recruited based on Title 21 Pay Table 2, Band C (equivalent to GS-13).
This job is open to
Clarification from the agency
You must be a U.S. Citizen or U.S. National. Foreign nationals or legal permanent residents are not eligible for consideration. This is a 21st Century Cures Act authority announcement. Traditional federal rules regarding rating, ranking, and veterans' preference do not apply.
Duties
- Utilize statistical analysis to identify patterns and signals within food safety and nutrition data, focusing on studies that can inform public health decisions.
- Select specific qualitative and quantitative data collection methods for food safety studies.
- Design, test, and update algorithms and data models to enhance the robustness and integrity of food safety data processes.
- Conduct independent, data-driven quantitative research with an emphasis on food safety and nutrition, integrating diverse datasets to support policy and operational decision-making.
Requirements
Conditions of Employment
- U.S. Citizenship requirement or proof of being a U.S. National must be met by closing date.
- The candidate selected for this position will serve under a career or career-conditional appointment within the competitive service.
- 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.
- 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.
- Males born after December 31, 1959, must be registered with the Selective Service. Please go to http://www.sss.gov for more information.
- One-year probationary period may be required.
- Financial Disclosure may be required.
- Ethics Clearance may be required.
- 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.
- 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.
Qualifications
The 21st Century Cures Act ("Cures" or The Act) grants the HHS/FDA the authority to appoint outstanding and qualified candidates to scientific, technical, or professional positions that support the development, review, and regulation of medical products. Such positions shall be within the competitive service. Candidates will be appointed and compensated without regard to Title 5 of the United States Code (U.S.C.) governing appointment in the competitive service. The Act further states the Commissioner of FDA may determine and set (1) the annual rate of pay of any individual appointed; (2) the annual rate of pay for any qualified scientific, technical, or professional personnel appointed to a position before the date of enactment of the 21st Century Cures Act. Based on the Act, it allows the FDA the authority to create and administer its own Alternative Pay System (APS) to recruit and retain qualified scientific, technical, or professional candidates to carry out mission-critical functions.
Title 21 Overview: Passed by Congress in December 2016, the 21st Century Cures Act improves FDA's ability to recruit and retain scientific, technical, and professional experts in certain occupational series that "support the development, review, and regulation of medical products." FY23 Omnibus expanded to include crosscutting positions and individuals that support the development, review, and regulation of food and cosmetics in addition to medical products. Both statutes amended the FD&C Act 21 USC. As Title 21 continues to evolve, so do our recruitment and retention strategies. Title 21 utilizes alternative qualifications standards: Minimum Years of Experience and Job Families. Title 21 is not bound to the traditional OPM qualifications and classifications standards.
In order to qualify for the Data Scientist position which falls under the 0301 occupational Series, you must meet the following requirements by 11:59 pm EST on 09/20/2024:
Minimal Qualifications Requirements for the Data Scientist, AD-0301 position:
Basic Requirements:
A. Education: A bachelor's degree or higher in data science, statistics, informatics, bioinformatics, information science, computer science, mathematics, computational biology, engineering, operations research, economics, public health, physics, quantitative analysis and/or methodologies or related field. The degree must be from an accredited program or institution.
or
B. Experience: Comparable work in or demonstrated understanding in data science or a related field (through project portfolios, research, certifications, etc.).
AND
IN ADDITION TO MEETING THE BASIC REQUIREMENTS OUTLINED ABOVE, APPLICANTS MUST ALSO MEET ONE OF THE FOLLOWING MINIMUM YEARS OF EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS DIRECTLY RELATED TO HIGHEST QUALIFYING DEGREE:
1. Have a Bachelor's degree and also have 4 years of relevant experience visualizing or manipulating datasets using analytical tools (such as R, Python, Tableau, SQL, TensorFlow, PyTorch, Bioconda, NumPy, SciPy).
2. Have a Master's degree and also have 3 years of relevant experience visualizing or manipulating datasets using analytical tools (such as R, Python, Tableau, SQL, TensorFlow, PyTorch, Bioconda, NumPy, SciPy).
3. Have a Doctorate and/or J.D. degree and also have 1 year of relevant experience visualizing or manipulating datasets using analytical tools (such as R, Python, Tableau, SQL, TensorFlow, PyTorch, Bioconda, NumPy, SciPy).
4. Have a MD, DO, DDS, DPM, or DVM degree.
5. Have comparable work experience in or demonstrated understanding in data science or a related field (through project portfolios, research, certifications, etc.) and also have 6 years of relevant experience visualizing or manipulating datasets using analytical tools (such as R, Python, Tableau, SQL, TensorFlow, PyTorch, Bioconda, NumPy, SciPy).
NOTE: Applicants must submit all relevant transcripts that demonstrate you possess the required education to meet the Basic Qualifications.
Education
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.
TRANSCRIPTS: Positions which are scientific or technical in nature often have very specific educational requirements. You must submit an official transcript, unofficial transcript, or a list including courses, grades earned, completion dates, and quarter and semester hours earned.
Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities, see the Foreign Education section below for additional 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.
See the Application Manager Documentation for tips on submitting your paper-based documents.
Foreign Education: If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet the qualification requirements, you must show that the education credentials have been evaluated by a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign education programs and such education has been deemed equivalent to that gained in an accredited U.S. education program; or full credit has been given for the courses at a U.S. accredited college or university. For further information, visit the U.S. Department of Education website for Foreign Education 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:
- National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES)
- 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.
Benefits
A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.
Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.
How You Will Be Evaluated
You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.
This is a Title 21 announcement. Traditional rating and ranking of applications, and veterans' preference does not apply to this vacancy. You will be evaluated against the basic qualifications and if found qualified, you will be referred to the Hiring Manager for consideration.
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), or 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.
Required Documents
Resume: At a minimum, your resume should list the position title, employer name, start and end dates (including month and year), salary (or grade and step), hours worked per week, and a list of duties performed or accomplishments, for EACH position listed. A CV (curriculum vitae) may not contain enough information to meet these resume requirements.
Transcripts: If the position has an education requirement or you are qualifying based on education, unofficial transcripts or a list of courses must be provided. See the Qualifications and Education Requirements section of this announcement.
Professional Licensure: If the position has a licensure requirement, a copy of your professional license must be provided. See the Qualifications and Education Requirements section of this announcement.
Additional Documents (if applicable):
- Cover Letter
- DD-214/ Statement of Service
- Disability Letter (Schedule A)
- Disability Letter (VA)
- License
- Other supporting documentation not listed above
- PCS Orders
- Performance Appraisal
- Professional Certification
- Resume
- Separation Notice (RIF)
- SF-15
- SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action
- Transcript
Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.
If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:
Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from
schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.
How to Apply
To apply for positions with the Food & Drug Administration, you must have a https://secure.login.gov/ account, and be signed in to that account, before you click "Apply Online". See the USAJOBS Help Site article "How does the application process work?" for more on this process. Additionally, you must provide a resume and any required supporting documentation listed on the announcement, and you must complete all assessment questionnaires BEFORE 11:59 pm Eastern Time on the closing date of this announcement, 09/20/2024. We recommend that you start the application process early enough that you can complete and submit your application before this deadline.
Please note that you cannot submit documentation or make changes to your application after the close date.
If you would like to learn how to use USAJOBS including: accessing and managing your account, adding saved documents, building a resume, or starting an application; we recommend you visit the USAJOBS How To site, and read up on any topic that you need help with. This site is located at: https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/how-to/. Additionally, if you need technical assistance with USAJOBS (such as account issues) please visit the main USAJOBS Help site at: https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/. FDA's Applicant Help Desk is not able to support USAJOBS-related issues.
The Food & Drug Administration uses a system called Application Manager (USA Staffing) to post jobs and accept applications. If you are not familiar with Application Manager or encounter any difficulty with the site, we recommend that you review the Applicant HELP Site at: https://help.usastaffing.gov/Apply/index.php?title=Applicant. This help site contains step-by-step instructions for completing the application process, submitting documentation, and completing questionnaires, and should be very helpful to you!
You are encouraged to apply online. Applying online will allow you to review and track the status of your application. The FDA will provide reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities who are not able to apply online. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process, please contact the Applicant Help Desk. Decisions on granting a reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis.
If after reviewing the USAJOBS and Application Manager help sites, you're not able to find the answer to your question or concern, or if you wish to request a reasonable accommodation, please contact the FDA Applicant Help Desk at 866-807-3742, or e-mail QuickQuestions@fda.gov.
The Applicant Help Desk is staffed between the hours of 7am and 6pm Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, except for government holidays. If you contact the Applicant Help Desk, please provide the following Vacancy Identification Number (VIN) 12527399 so that we may assist you faster.
Next steps
Once the online questionnaire is received you will receive an acknowledgement email that your submission was successful.
You will receive application status updates via email and via USAJOBS as the process unfolds.
|