Clarification from the agency

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Modal Only - wide employees with competitive status only.

As a Senior Program Analyst, you will:

• Diagnoses operational problems and other system deficiencies and suggest projects and solutions to address and improve them. 
• Conducts CRSS quality control studies on completeness of key data elements, timeliness of data entry, accuracy of coding, and interpretation of results.  In doing so, consults with appropriate contractors, staff, and other data users to ensure that system deficiencies are identified and remedied with minimal impact on routine data acquisition.
• Provides technical support on the quarterly and annual FARS/CRSS/NTS edit check development and modifications for the data systems. Reviews quarterly CRSS quality control reports regarding sampling and coding.  
• Conducts quality control studies on the completeness of key data elements, timeliness of data entry, accuracy of coding, and interpretation of results.
• Reviews and provides edits quarterly to the coding and validation manuals to address coding anomalies.  Suggest annual proposed changes based on quality control findings and coding anomalies identified in the previous data collection year. 

IDEAL CANDIDATE STATEMENT: The candidate is highly motivated and possesses excellent communicative, analytical, and logical skills. The candidate must have the capability of developing collaborative relationships to facilitate the accomplishment of work goals for data collection efforts. The candidate must possess a strong understanding of problem identification, skills in applying quality control techniques sufficient to support the infrastructure/design implementation, and evaluation of a quality-controlled system.

Conditions of employment

• Must meet specialized experience stated in Qualifications section.
• Submit application and resume online by 11:59 PM EST on the closing date.
• Required documents must be submitted by the closing date.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT:

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary 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 the 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, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

• SELECTIVE SERVICE: Males born after 12/31/1959 must be registered for the Selective Service.
• BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION: You may be required to complete a background/security investigation and meet preliminary requirements prior to onboarding.
• GOVERNMENT TRAVEL CARD: This position involves travel.  A government contractor-issued travel card will be issued and must be retained for official business only.
• PROBATIONARY PERIOD: You must complete a one-year probationary period (unless already completed).
• TIME-IN-GRADE: Federal applicants must have served 52 weeks at the next lower grade in the competitive or excepted service in the executive branch to satisfy time-in-grade restrictions contained in 5 CFR 300, Subpart F.

Qualifications

To meet the minimum qualifications for this position, you must meet the specialized experience qualifications:

To qualify for Grade 14, you must have at least one year of experience equal or equivalent to the GS-13, it must include: 

• Experience evaluating and analyzing State crash data files to drive improvements in data quality, collection efficiency, and completeness.
• Experience in designing, implementing, and evaluating quality-controlled systems through the application of advanced quality control techniques.
• Experience in problem diagnosis: identifying significant factors, collecting relevant crash data, and formulating clear solutions.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES (KSAs): Your qualifications will be evaluated on the based on your level of knowledge, skills, abilities and/or competencies in the following areas:

1. Technical Knowledge - Ability to exercise originality, flexibility, and creativity in addressing and approaching technical problems encountered in working with major data programs.        
2. Critical Solving -  Ability to independently apply quality control techniques sufficient to support the infrastructure/design, and evaluation of a quality-controlled system with minimal supervision.
3. Problem Solving -  Knowledge of how to analyze problems to identify significant factors, gather pertinent crash data, and recognize solutions.

For all types of consideration, 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.

For additional information about applying to Federal positions, please click on the following link:  https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-policies/#url=e4

All applicants must meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

How you will be evaluated

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

DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE: PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. If your resume/ application does not support your questionnaire answers, we will not allow credit for your response(s). Your resume must contain sufficiently detailed information upon which to make a qualification determination. Please ensure that your resume contains specific information such as position titles, beginning and ending dates of employment for each position, average number of hours worked per week, and if the position is/was in the Federal government, you should provide the position series and grade level. 

Eligible Federal employees also seeking consideration for noncompetitive reassignment for this position must indicate interest in the assessment. Noncompetitive federal candidates must have competitive status on a SF-50, meet minimum qualifications, have served at the same grade or higher, and held or exceeded the promotion potential of this position.

Your application will be reviewed in two phases to determine how you move forward in the hiring process.  Phase I: Your resume will be reviewed to determine your technical qualifications for this position based on the required specialized experience. ONLY two (2) pages of your resume will be reviewed. Additional information beyond your resume (e.g., cover letter, links embedded in your resume) will not be reviewed.  Applicants passing “Phase I” will move on to the “Phase II” of the assessment process where your application will be reviewed and rated based on the KSAs/Competencies listed in the vacancy announcement by a Subject Matter Expert (SME).

• your most recent performance appraisal,
• the proof of eligibility letter from the Agency, and
• your most current SF-50, displaying current series and grade. 
• YOU MUST SUBMIT ALL 3 documents and meet the well-qualified standards for this vacancy (meeting minimum requirements for position and scoring at least an 80) to be considered under CTAP.

Displaced employees may be eligible for CTAP priority consideration. For more information, please review the OPM Employee's Guide to Career Transition.

Failure to submit any of the required documents by the closing date of the vacancy will result in your removal from consideration for this position. Please review your application prior to final submission and ensure you have submitted all appropriate documents.  Uploading documents to USAJobs does NOT ensure inclusion with your application to our system.

Next steps