Statistician (Direct Hire)

This position is located in the Food and Nutrition Administration, Deputy Administrator of State Support & Evaluations.

Major duties

• Develops, analyzes and evaluates the statistical work of program operations to include sampling plans, to appraise viability and accuracy of statistical modeling.
• Conducts data analysis tasks using statistical models and methodologies to evaluate SNAP performance, policies, and trends in order to improve overall program administration and responds to data call(s) from internal USDA or external stakeholders.
• Responsible for providing technical input into policy recommendations as determined by political appointees and senior agency management officials.
• Interacts directly with critical stakeholders, including other federal agencies, as it relates to sampling or statistical aspects of improper payments during policy development.
• Develops, monitors, tracks programs, and writes queries/macros using Statistical Analysis System (SAS), Excel, and similar analytical tools towards the progress of completing projects/assignments.
• Collaborates with FNA Statisticians and/or staff, as a team member in work group(s) to diagnose statistical issues and research solutions that impact more than one Regional office or could have national implications.

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. 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 and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. To meet the GS-13, you must at least demonstrate one year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade level GS-12 or pay band in the federal service or equivalent experience in the private or public sector that demonstrates knowledge in statistics and data analysis. Specific work experience must demonstrate some or all of the following duties: Analyzing, evaluating, interpreting, and explaining findings resulting from statistical work; Utilizing complex database systems to collect statistical information and perform analyses of data; and Initiating, planning, executing, and controlling an organization's statistical study or project. Applicants must meet the following Basic Education Requirements for the 1530 Statistics series for the GS-13 position. 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 should 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 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.

Education

There is no substitution of education at this grade level.