The positions are located in the Office of Regulatory Science (ORS) / Office of Human and Animal Foods Laboratory Operations(OHAFLO) Arkansas Laboratory (ARL). The incumbent advises the supervisors on scientific issues related to laboratory operations; provides strategic leadership and support for high quality, collaborative, scientific activities that advance regulatory science and addresses important public health issues concerning FDA regulated products.

Duties

Interprets findings, devises solutions, and records them in a form useable by others. Develops, plans and performs research which may result in new method development and validation in concert with FDA priorities. Plans, directs and/or presents workshops and seminars concerning current research and state-of-the-art technology. Keeps abreast of the scientific literature relating to area of expertise and the state-of-the-art in microanalytical analysis and identifications.

Requirements

• Citizenship Requirement: You must be a U.S. Citizen to be considered for this advertisement unless explicitly stated otherwise.
• 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.
• Selective Service Registration: All applicants born male, on (or after) 12/31/1959, must be registered with the Selective Service System OR have an approved exemption. Visit www.SSS.gov for more info.
• 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.
• Time-in-Grade Requirement: If you are applying as a current Federal employee, you must meet the time-in-grade requirements described in the Qualifications section, generally, 52-weeks of comparable experience at the next lowest grade.
• 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.
• You must meet ALL requirements by the closing date of this announcement to be considered. Only education, experience, and qualifications attained by this date will be considered. You must continue to meet all requirements through the hiring process.
• 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.
• Additional selections may be made from this vacancy, within the same geographical area, by other organizational elements from within FDA, through shared corporate recruiting activities.

Qualifications

The position of Interdisciplinary Scientist falls within the 0401/0403/0414/1320 occupational series. To qualify for this position at grade GS-13, you must meet Time-in-Grade requirements by 11:59 pm EST on 07/16/2024. Time-in-Grade: Any individual who is currently holding, or has held within the previous 52 weeks, a General Schedule position under non-temporary appointment in the competitive or excepted service, must meet time-in-grade requirements (must have served 52 weeks at the next lower grade or equivalent in the Federal service).Time-in-grade requirements must be met by the closing date of this announcement. GS-13: Applicants must have 52 weeks at the GS-12 grade level or higher in the Federal service. You must possess the basic requirements identified below to be considered eligible for the position. Transcripts must be provided with the application to validate that coursework requirements are met. Failure to submit all transcripts will be considered an incomplete application. Basic Requirements This position requires a degree or completion of specific courses in order to meet the basic education requirement. You must submit an official transcript, unofficial transcript, or a list including courses, grades earned, completion dates, and quarter and semester hours earned. Your transcript(s) must clearly demonstrate the course(s) listed in the basic qualification requirement section. If the transcript(s) does not clearly demonstrate this, you must submit a copy of the course description and/or other documentation demonstrating that the courses are equivalent. Degree requirements must be met by the closing date of this job announcement and your transcript(s) submitted must reflect this. If you are selected for the position, an official transcript sent directly from your educational institution may be required for verification prior to appointment. Applicants must have successfully completed one of the following: GS-0401, Biologist: A. Degree: biological sciences, agriculture, natural resource management, chemistry, or related disciplines appropriate to the position; -OR- B. Combination of education and experience: Courses equivalent to a major, as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education GS-0403, Microbiologist: A. Degree: microbiology; or biology, chemistry, or basic medical science that included at least 20 semester hours in microbiology and other subjects related to the study of microorganisms, and 20 semester hours in the physical and mathematical sciences combining course work in organic chemistry or biochemistry, physics, and college algebra, or their equivalent; -OR- B. Combination of education and experience: courses equivalent to a major in microbiology, biology, chemistry, or basic medical science that included courses as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. GS-0414- Entomologist: A. Degree: Entomology; or a related discipline of the biological or physical sciences that included at least 16 semester hours in entomology. -OR- B. Combination of education and experience: courses equivalent to a major that included course work described in the statement above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. GS-1320, Chemist: A. Degree: 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- B. Combination of education and experience course work equivalent to a major as shown in A above, including at least 30 semester hours in chemistry, supplemented by mathematics through differential and integral calculus, and at least 6 semester hours of physics, plus appropriate experience or additional education. SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: GS-13: Applicants must have 52 weeks of specialized experience at least equivalent to the GS-12 in the Federal service which includes Serving as an expert microanalytical scientist; Advising on scientific issues related to food and feed laboratory operations; Providing strategic leadership and support for high quality, collaborative, scientific activities; and collaborating with other international, Federal, State, and local partners in the development of policies and procedures. In accordance with Office of Personnel Management policy, federal employees are assumed to have gained experience by performing duties and responsibilities appropriate for their official series and grade level as described in their position description. Experience that would not normally be part of the employee's position is creditable, however, when documented by satisfactory evidence, such as a signed memorandum from the employee's supervisor or an SF-50 or SF-52 documenting an official detail or other official assignment. The documentation must indicate whether the duties were performed full time or, if part time, the percentage of times the other duties were performed. It is expected that this documentation is included in the employee's official personnel record. In order to receive credit for experience in your resume that is not within the official series and grade level of your official position, you must provide a copy of the appropriate documentation of such experience as indicated above. PHS Commissioned Corps Officers interested in performing the duties of this position within the Commissioned Corps may apply online to this announcement. Candidates will be referred to (CC) personnel and not as candidates for conversion to a permanent career or career-conditional appointment. NOTE: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date. To verify your application is complete, log into your USAJOBS account,https://secure.login.gov/ select the Application Status link and then select the More Information link for this position. The Details page will display the status of your application, the documentation received and processed, and any correspondence the agency has sent related to this application. Your uploaded documents may take several hours to clear the virus scan process. IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Qualifications are based on breadth/level of experience. In addition to describing duties performed, applicants must provide the exact dates of each period of employment (from MM/YY to MM/YY) and the number of hours worked per week if part time. As qualification determinations cannot be made when resumes do not include the required information, failure to provide this information may result in disqualification. Applicants are encouraged to use the USAJOBS Resume Builder to develop their federal resume. 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. You must submit supporting documentation to verify your eligibility to apply for this vacancy. For internal applicants an SF-50 will be required. If Educational requirements are listed, you must submit a Transcript, even if you occupy the series/grade in question. See the Required Documents section for full details...

Education

There is no education substitution for this position at the GS-13 grade level. See Qualifications section for information on education-related individual occupational requirements (IOR) for this occupational series.

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. If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities, see the Foreign Education section below for additional requirements.

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.

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
Applicants using part, or all of their education completed outside of the U.S. to meet the qualification requirements, must have their foreign education evaluated by an accredited organization to ensure that the foreign education is comparable to education received in accredited educational institutions in the U.S. We will only accept the completed foreign credential 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:

1. National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES)
2. 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 https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/

Contacts

• Address FDA Office of Regulatory Affairs 10903 New Hampshire Ave Silver Spring, MD 20993 US
• Name: FDA Applicant Help Desk
• Phone: 866-807-3742
• Email: [email protected]