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This Direct-Hire position is in the Food and Drug Administration, Office of Regulatory Affairs, Office of Food and Feed Lab Operations, Arkansas Lab, located in Jefferson, Arkansas.
This announcement may be used to fill Biologist, GS-401-13, and/or Lead Biologist, GS-401-13, positions.
See the sections below for more details on the duties & qualifications for this position.
11/21/2019 to 11/27/2019
$88,704 - $115,313 per year
GS 13
No
25% or less - You may be expected to travel for this position.
No
Permanent
Full-Time
Competitive
13
No
No
FDA-ORA-20-DH-10658713-LP
552348200
You must be a U.S. Citizen or U.S. National. Foreign nationals or legal permanent residents are not eligible for consideration. This is a direct hire authority announcement. Traditional federal rules regarding rating, ranking, and veterans' preference do not apply.
BASIC QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENT: This position requires a degree or completion of specific courses 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 courses. 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 will be required for verification prior to appointment.
Applicants must have successfully completed one of the following (A or B):
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.
SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENT: Specialized experience is directly related to the position to be filled and has equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position, and it is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled.
GS-13: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience at least equivalent to the GS-12 grade level in the Federal service which includes providing technical advice for complex scientific tests, investigating environmental/biological conditions and/or protocols to develop new techniques, analyzing scientific data to evaluate biological conditions and preparing synopsis of data submitted for review.
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://my.usajobs.gov/Account/Login, 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.
To return to an incomplete application, log into your USAJOBS account and click Update Application in the vacancy announcement. You must re-select your resume and/or other documents from your USAJOBS account or your application will be incomplete.
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.
Foreign EducationIf you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet the qualification requirements, you must show that 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 more information about this requirement, please visit the U.S. Department of Education website for Foreign Education Evaluation.
SUBMITTING YOUR TRANSCRIPTSPositions which are scientific or technical in nature often have very specific educational requirements. A transcript is required to verify educational achievement. 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.
If you are claiming education as any part of your qualifications for this position, you must submit an official transcript, unofficial transcript, or a list including courses, grades earned, completion dates, and quarter and semester hours earned.
We may make additional selections for similar positions across the entire Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) within the local commuting area(s) identified in this vacancy announcement. By applying, you agree to have your application shared with any interested selecting official(s) at HHS. There is no option to opt-out as your information will not be shared with other hiring agencies outside of HHS.
Additional Conditions of Employment:
You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.
Once the job opportunity announcement closes (at 11:59 pm ET on 11/27/2019), your resume and all supporting documents will be reviewed by HR to determine your eligibility for Federal employment and your qualification for this position specifically.
This is a direct hire announcement. Traditional rating and ranking of applications, and veterans' preference does not apply to this vacancy. We will evaluate you against the basic qualifications. Qualified applicants will be referred for consideration in accordance with the Office of Personnel Management direct hire guidelines.
Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your eligibility.
A document that is required must be submitted by all applicants because the document is needed to verify your qualifications, education, or other eligibility information. Failure to provide one of the documents in the list below may result in your application being considered incomplete.
These documents may be required for some applicants. Applicants relying on education to qualify, those seeking consideration under a special hiring authority, or those who need to verify a license or certification, will need to submit appropriate supporting documentation from this list.
RESUME REQUIREMENTS:
The federal government has very specific resume requirements. If you have not written a federal resume before, you should watch this Resume Writing Tutorial video on the USAJOBS YouTube channel, or read through a helpful Resume Writing FAQ on the USAJOBS Help Site to learn what details you should, and should not, include in your resume.
At a minimum your resume should list the position title, employer, start and end dates (including month and year), salary (or grade and step), hours worked per week, and a list of duties performed or accomplishments, for EACH position listed. A CV (curriculum vitae) may not contain enough information to meet these resume requirements.
Learn more about supporting documents and documentation requirements on USAJOBS:
Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.
To apply for positions with the Food & Drug Administration, you must have a USAJOBS Login.GOV account, and be signed in to that account, before you click "Apply Online". See the USAJOBS Help Site article "How does the application process work?" for more on this process. Additionally, you must provide a resume and any required supporting documentation listed on the announcement, and you must complete all assessment questionnaires BEFORE 11:59 pm Eastern Time on the closing date of this announcement, 11/27/2019 We recommend that you start the application process early enough that you can complete and submit your application before this deadline.
Please note that you cannot submit documentation or make changes to your application after the close date.
If you would like to learn how to use USAJOBS including: accessing and managing your account, adding saved documents, building a resume, or starting an application; we recommend you visit the USAJOBS How To site, and read up on any topic that you need help with. This site is located at: https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/how-to/. Additionally, if you need technical assistance with USAJOBS (such as account issues) please visit the main USAJOBS Help site at: https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/. FDA's Applicant Help Desk is not able to support USAJOBS-related issues.
The Food & Drug Administration uses a system called Application Manager (USA Staffing) to post jobs and accept applications. If you are not familiar with Application Manager or encounter any difficulty with the site, we recommend that you review the Applicant HELP Site at: https://help.usastaffing.gov/Apply/index.php?title=Applicant. This help site contains step-by-step instructions for completing the application process, submitting documentation, and completing questionnaires, and should be very helpful to you!
You are encouraged to apply online. Applying online will allow you to review and track the status of your application. The FDA will provide reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities who are not able to apply online. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process, please contact the Applicant Help Desk. Decisions on granting a reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis.
If after reviewing the USAJOBS and Application Manager help sites, you're not able to find the answer to your question or concern, or if you wish to request a reasonable accommodation, please contact the FDA Applicant Help Desk at 888-478-4340, or e-mail QuickQuestions@fda.gov. The Applicant Help Desk is staffed between the hours of 7am and 6pm Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, except for government holidays. If you contact the Applicant Help Desk, please provide the following Vacancy Identification Number (VIN) 10658713 so that we may assist you faster.
Once you have submitted your complete application, (to include the resume, all required supporting documentation, and the responses to the assessment questionnaires), your application will be reviewed by HR to determine your eligibility and qualification status. If you are referred to the hiring office, they may contact you at their discretion for an interview. If you are not referred, you may not immediately receive a notification due to the high volume of applications that are typically submitted to direct-hire advertisements.
The Federal hiring process is set up to be fair and transparent. Please read the following guidance.
This job originated on www.usajobs.gov. For the full announcement and to apply, visit www.usajobs.gov/job/552348200. Only resumes submitted according to the instructions on the job announcement listed at www.usajobs.gov will be considered.
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