The FTC seeks candidates for the position of Statistician within the Bureau of Economics (BE). The position of Statistician is for an initial term of 14 months and is renewable up to four years. In this role, you will gain real-world experience working alongside economists to protect consumers and promote competition in the US economy.

Duties

The specific duties of a Statistician within the Bureau of Economics at the Federal Trade Commission include, but are not limited to: Identifying, documenting, organizing, and summarizing government and third-party data relevant to antitrust and consumer protection investigations. Demonstrates an ability to update analytical skills and learn new software packages quickly. Processes, stages, and manipulates large, complex, disparate, or unstructured data sets. Performs a variety of tasks for analysis, including data cleaning, data summaries, database management, diagnostics for model assessment, model evaluation, and simulation algorithms. Conducts statistical, econometric, and data analysis such as regression analysis, modeling, machine learning, mathematical programming, or Natural Language Processing in the context of antitrust or consumer protection litigation maintaining a high level of quality under extremely tight and moving deadlines. Writing programs in Stata, SAS, R, Python, SQL Server, including interfacing with distributed computing programming applications (e.g., Spark, Hadoop). Using scripting tools in ArcGIS, R, or similar software to geocode data, calculate distances between locations of interest, and prepare maps. Preparing clear and accurate graphs, tables, and other visualizations that effectively summarize data and results of analyses. Collaborate with others in the agency to develop effective solutions to accommodate the efficient processing and analysis of extremely large data sets. Communicating professionally and respectfully with colleagues - both orally and in writing. Listening, clarifying ambiguities, and acting on guidance from economists and supervisors. Working effectively and proactively with minimal supervision. Statisticians perform these duties under the supervision of, and with guidance from, staff economists in the Bureau of Economics.

Requirements

• U.S. citizenship requirement must be met by the closing date of this vacancy.
• Position is subject to a background investigation.
• Males born after December 31, 1959 must register with Selective Service.
• You may serve a one-year probationary period under this appointment.
• Résumé and supporting documents (See How To Apply).
• This position is in the bargaining unit.
• This position has an education requirement, you must submit a copy of your transcripts.

Qualifications

You must meet the following requirements by the closing date of this announcement. Basic Requirements: A. Degree: that included 15 semester hours in statistics (or in mathematics and statistics, provided at least 6 semester hours were in statistics), and 9 additional semester hours in one or more of the following: physical or biological sciences, medicine, education, or engineering; or in the social sciences including demography, history, economics, social welfare, geography, international relations, social or cultural anthropology, health sociology, political science, public administration, psychology, etc. Credit toward meeting statistical course requirements will be given for courses in which 50 percent of the course content appears to be statistical methods, e.g., courses that included studies in research methods in psychology or economics such as tests and measurements or business cycles, or courses in methods of processing mass statistical data such as tabulating methods or electronic data processing. OR B. Combination of education and experience - courses as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. The experience should have included a full range of professional statistical work such as (a) sampling, (b) collecting, computing, and analyzing statistical data, and (c) applying statistical techniques such as measurement of central tendency, dispersion, skewness, sampling error, simple and multiple correlation, analysis of variance, and tests of significance. In addition to the above, you must meet the requirements described below: For the GS-07 Level: To qualify for the GS-07, you must have one year of specialized experience at the GS-05 level in the Federal service or equivalent experience in the private sector. Specialized experience is defined as experience that has equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position. Such experience is defined as: Assisting in preparing statistical data for analysis; Assisting in analyzing statistical data using statistical software (e.g. Stata, SAS, etc.) Analyzing large-scale structured data using appropriate software (e.g. ArcGIS, QGIS, SQL Server, R, Python); AND Utilizing statistical analysis and statistical software to assist in producing reports. OR One (1) year of graduate-level education directly related to the position or superior academic achievement in a curriculum that is qualifying for the position to be filled. Note on Superior academic achievement (S.A.A.) - S.A.A. recognizes students who have achieved superior academic standing as evidenced by one of the three methods described below. In order to be creditable under this provision, superior academic achievement must have been gained in a curriculum that is qualifying for the position to be filled. S.A.A. is based on (1) class standing, (2) grade-point average, or (3) honor society membership:1.Class standing-- Applicants must be in the upper third of the graduating class in the college, university, or major subdivision, such as the College of Liberal Arts or the School of Business Administration, based on completed courses.2. Grade-point average (G.P.A.)-- Applicants must have a grade-point average of:a.3.0 or higher out of a possible 4.0 ("B" or better) as recorded on their official transcript, or as computed based on 4years of education, or as computed based on courses completed during the final 2 years of the curriculum; or b. 3.5 or higher out of a possible 4.0 ("B+" or better) based on the average of the required courses completed in the major field or the required courses in the major field completed during the final 2 years of the curriculum. (Grade-point averages will be rounded to one decimal place. For example, 2.95 will round to 3.0 and 2.94 will round to 2.9.) 3. Election to membership in a national scholastic honor society-- Applicants can be considered eligible based on membership in one of the national scholastic honor societies listed in the following link: Honor Societies (https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-policies/#url=General-Policies) OR A combination of graduate education and specialized experience as listed above. The ideal candidate has: A strong interest in and intuition for applied microeconomics; Proficiency in programming languages widely used in economics, statistics, and/or data science such as Stata, R, or Python; Excitement about conducting data analysis on a wide range of datasets in support of consumer protection and competition missions of the FTC; Interest and aptitude in working with PhD economists on economics research projects that serve the mission of the FTC; and A desire to grow and build on skills in data analysis and microeconomics. For the GS-09 Level: To qualify for the GS-09, you must have one year of specialized experience at the GS-07 level in the Federal service or equivalent experience in the private sector. Specialized experience is defined as experience that has equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position. Such experience is defined as: Assisting in preparing statistical data for analysis; Assisting in analyzing statistical data using statistical software (e.g. Stata, SAS, etc.); Analyzing large-scale structured data using appropriate software (e.g. ArcGIS, QGIS, SQL Server, R, Python); AND Utilizing statistical analysis and statistical software to assist in producing reports. OR Two (2) years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a master's degree or master's or equivalent graduate degree directly related to the position. OR A combination of graduate education and specialized experience as listed above. 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. The ideal candidate has: A strong interest in and aptitude for applied microeconomics, data analysis, and computer programming; Proficiency in programming languages widely used in economics, statistics, data science, and/or computer science such as Stata, R, Python, SQL, or C++; Excitement about analyzing terabyte size datasets to support competition and consumer protection policy and law enforcement; Experience conducting statistical, econometric, or data analysis tasks such as regression analysis, model evaluation, machine learning, or Natural Language Processing. The ability to learn new software packages quickly and apply new analytical skills under tight deadlines.

Education

This position has an education requirement. You must submit a copy of your transcripts. Unofficial transcripts will be accepted in the application package; however, official transcripts will be required prior to receiving an official offer.

If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet the qualification requirements, you must show 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: FOREIGN EDUCATION

Contacts

• Address Federal Trade Commission 600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW Suite H-723 Washington, DC 20580 US
• Name: Riandra Bates
• Email: [email protected]