Data Scientist (Resource Capacity Planning Staff)
This position is being filled under a stream-lined hiring authority, Title 21, Section 3072 of the 21st Century Cures Act. The candidate selected for this position will serve under a career or career-conditional appointment and be paid under the provisions of the authority. Additional information on 21st Century Cures Act can be found here: https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/selected-amendments-fdc-act/21st-century-cures-act
View full vacancy announcement here: https://www.fda.gov/media/159076/download
Application Period: June 10, 2022- June 24, 2022
Area of Consideration: United States Citizenship is required. You must be a U.S. Citizen or U.S. National. Foreign nationals or legal permanent residents are not eligible for consideration.
Position: Data Scientist, RCPS
Series: AD-0301
Location(s): Silver Spring, MD
Work Schedule: Full Time
Salary: Starting at:
$74,950 (Band A)
$89,834 (Band B)
$106,823 (Band C)
Cures Band(s): Band A/B/C
Full Performance Band Level: Band C
Travel Requirements: 5% or less
Bargaining Unit: Non-Bargaining Unit
Relocation Expenses Reimbursement: You may qualify for reimbursement of relocation expenses in accordance with agency policy.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the regulatory, scientific, public health and consumer protection agency responsible for ensuring all human and animal drugs, medical devices, cosmetics, foods, food additives, drugs and medicated feeds for food producing animals, tobacco and radiation emitting devices are safe, and effective.
The mission of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) is to perform an essential public health task by making sure that safe and effective drugs are available to improve the health of people in the United States. CDER regulates over the counter and prescription drugs, including biological therapeutics and generic drugs.
Duties/Responsibilities
As a Data Scientist, the incumbent will serve as an analyst to provide consultative services to the Center and have a direct effect on decisions impacting major Center regulatory policies and programs. At the full performance level in this role, the incumbent supports the conceptualization, design, and conduct of complex studies leveraging data into aspect of the operations, management, and resource decision-making processes within the Center. Assists with identifying actual or potential problems, trends, and opportunities in Center program operations, management, and resource decision making and recommends solutions leveraging internal and external data to senior management for consideration.
- Conceptualizes, designs, and conducts simple and complex studies leveraging internal and external data to produce analyses and recommendations regarding optimal allocation of Center and program resources.
- Evaluates and recommends the most appropriate analytical methods for a single project including recommending the appropriate analytical techniques to uncover current, historic, and likely future workload levels. Techniques include all aspects of data science, with particular focus on forecasting using machine learning techniques, including random forest models, survival models, classification models, regression models, mixed effect models, and other relevant techniques as applicable to the specific challenges at hand.
- Serves as a senior analyst on programmatic, financial, and other data sources available within CDER, the FDA, publicly, and commercially as relevant to human medical product program regulations, policies, operations, and resources.
- Develops strategic planning processes for the resource capacity planning capability, identifying opportunities to methodically develop and mature the resource capacity planning capability to serve and support the resource decision-making needs of the Center.
- Serves as a senior analyst in the appropriate design and application of analytical processes.
- Oversees the development and implementation of benchmarks or other metrics to assess whether the desired project outcomes were attained, identifies potential unintended side effects, and discusses the extent to which an output, solution, or process produces the intended result.
- Leads the research of novel approaches to implementation and exploration of options, production, and implementation of tools and methodologies.
- Communicates findings in writing, including in prose reports, emails, PowerPoint presentations, and related media.
- Collaborates with team members through the development of professional relationships.
- Represents the Resource Capacity Planning (RCP) Staff in presentations and other collaborations across FDA.
- Serves as an expert in the applications of programming and visualization tools, including R, R Studio, R Shiny, Python, Structured Query Language (SQL).
- Serves as an expert on resource capacity planning data and its application within the FDA’s operating paradigm. Presents analytical work products to Center and program leadership in support of optimal resource allocation decision-making.
- Providing guidance on resource capacity planning data and its application within the FDA’s operating paradigm. Presents analytical work products to senior analyst in support of optimal resource allocation decision-making.
Qualifications
To be placed into a Cures position, candidates must meet the following criteria:
- Scientific, Technical, and Professional Fields
- Qualified and Outstanding Candidates
- Qualified applies to all candidates for Cures appointments. The FDA OTS will use the basic requirements defined in the OPM Qualification Standards as a baseline for comparing experience levels and other candidate attributes for relevant positions.
- Outstanding candidates can be defined by existing outstanding work experience, outstanding performance rating, or both.
To qualify for this Title 21 Cures position, the candidate(s) must meet the following required qualifications. Please note: Additional education and experience listed that is not indicated as required is preferable and desired. Candidates who do not meet the “desired” criteria will not be excluded from consideration for this position.
Education Requirement: Data Scientist, AD-0301
Degree: None.
Education and/or professional experience commensurate with that of an expert data scientist. Educational training in such fields of statistics, or similar computationally intensive field providing the skills necessary to serve as an expert data scientist
Desired Professional Experience:
- Skill in applying the principles, concepts, tools, and methodologies related to data science, particularly utilizing, and emphasizing forecasting and predictive analytical techniques, including machine learning techniques.
- Demonstrated analytical ability, judgement, discretion in executing Food & Drug Law activities.
- Ability to select, interpret, and apply relevant guidelines to determine appropriate course of action.
- Skill in working independently and collaboratively across organizational boundaries.
- Experience effectively and efficiently communicating with various audiences, both verbally and in writing
How to Apply
Submit resume or curriculum vitae with cover letter by June 24, 2022, to: Brad.Goins@fda.hhs.gov. Candidate resumes may be shared with hiring official within CDER with a similar job vacancy. Candidates can opt out of this process by annotating resume with “do not share”. Please reference Job Reference ID: T-22-768-ABC
Announcement Contact
For questions regarding this Cures position, please contact Brad.Goins@fda.hhs.gov.
The United States Government does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, retaliation, parental status, military service, or other non-merit factor. Federal agencies must provide reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities where appropriate.