This position is located in United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Soil & Water Management Research Unit (SWMRU) in Bushland, Texas. The mission of the SWMRU is to conduct dryland and irrigated crop research to improve crop water productivity.

Duties

Measurement of soil water using a neutron moisture meter; installation and removal of soil probes, infrared thermometers, and other specialized sensors. Installation, wiring, troubleshooting, and removal of data loggers; measurement and mapping of agricultural crops; maintenance and minor repair of sprinkler and drip irrigation systems; manual sampling of plants for yield data. Assembly, troubleshooting, disassembly, new fabrication, and bench testing of commercial and prototype sensors and data transfer equipment. Manual entry and automated acquisition of data into spreadsheets; preliminary data processing and graphing using spreadsheets. Automation of data acquisition, processing, and graphing using programming languages such as MATLAB, Python, Visual Basic, etc. Data logger programming of Campbell Scientific data loggers.

Requirements

• You must be a US Citizen or US National
• Males born after 12/31/1959 must be Selective Service registered or exempt
• Must be in good academic standing as defined by the agency as GPA of 2.0 or better.
• Complete at least 640 hrs of work experience prior to completion of degree
• Enrolled at least half-time at a qualifying educational institution
• A signed participant agreement is required for employment under Pathways
• Satisfactory Background investigation and/or fingerprint check
• Successful completion of two-year trial period
• Direct Deposit – Per Public Law 104-134 all Federal employees are required to have federal payments made by direct deposit to their financial institution
• Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit https://www.e-verify.gov/

Qualifications

Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement including specialized experience and/or education, as defined below. PATHWAYS ELIGIBILITY All applicants must be currently enrolled or accepted for enrollment as a student on at least a half-time schedule at a qualifying educational institution in a certificate, degree, or diploma program. At the GS-4 Education: Completion of 2 full academic years of post-high school study or an associate's degree. At the GS-5 Education: Completion of 4 academic years of post-high school leading to a bachelor's degree or equivalent degree.

Education

You must submit a copy of your college transcripts. An unofficial copy is sufficient with the application if it includes your name and the necessary course information; however, if you are selected, you will be required to submit official transcripts prior to entering on duty. Education must have been successfully obtained from an accredited school, college or university. If any education was completed at a foreign institute, you must submit with your application evidence that the institute was appropriately accredited by an accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as equivalent to U.S. education standards. There are private organizations that specialize in this evaluation and a fee is normally associated with this service. For a list of private organizations that evaluate education visit NACES website. All transcripts must be in English or include an English translation.

Contacts

• Address Agricultural Research Service 2150 Centre Avenue Building D, Suite 300 Fort Collins, CO 80526 US
• Name: Michelle Malott
• Email: [email protected]