This position is in Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), Medical Disability Examination Office (MDEO) in Washington, D.C. The primary purpose for this position is to serve as a Data Scientist, supporting the data architecture modernization and sustainment, and analyzing data and trends associated with MDEO associated with Veterans and their claims. Analyses provide objective based information to MDEO leadership to support improved data driven decisions.

Qualifications:

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement:08/04/2023.

TIME-IN-GRADE REQUIREMENT: Applicants who are current Federal employees, former Federal employees applying for reinstatement, or a current federal employee applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment must meet time in grade requirements. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials.

NOTE: This does not apply to Non-Federal Applicants, or applicants applying for consideration under Non-Competitive Authority (i.e.... "30% or more Disability", and/or Schedule A).

To verify your eligibility, you must submit a copy of your most recent Notification of Personnel Action, Standard Form 50 (SF-50). You must provide a copy of your most recent SF-50 that indicates proof of status, and shows Time in Grade (for example, you were a career or career-conditional employee) and identifies your position title, series, grade, step, salary, tenure, and type of service (Competitive or Excepted). If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must also submit your most recent promotion or within-grade increase in addition to your recent SF-50. If you previously held a higher grade, you must also submit any SF-50 showing that grade. DO NOT submit Award SF-50's and/or General Adjustment SF-50's as they cannot be used to prove time-in-grade.

• For a GS-13 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-12 level.

AND

MINIMUM QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENT: You may qualify based on your experience/education as described below:
In order to qualify, you must meet the specialized experience requirements described in the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Qualification Standards for General Schedule Positions, Data Science Series 1560 and Group Coverage Qualification Standard for Professional and Scientific Positions
BASIC REQUIREMENT OR INDIVIDUAL OCCUPATIONAL REQUIREMENT:
Degree: Mathematics, statistics, computer science, data science or field directly related to the position. The degree must be in a major field of study (at least at the baccalaureate level) that is appropriate for the position.

OR

Combination of education and experience: Courses equivalent to a major field of study (30 semester hours) as shown in paragraph A above, plus additional education or appropriate experience. NOTE: You must submit a copy of your transcripts.

AND

GS-13 Grade Level:

• Specialized Experience: To qualify for the grade level GS-13: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade (GS-12) or a comparable pay band in federal or other service that demonstrates the particular competencies necessary to perform the work of this position, and that is typically in or related to the position to be filled. Specialized experience for this position is defined as: Leading data science projects to evaluate the effectiveness of a program/organization that included conducting hands-on work developing time series or predictive models; conducting statistical analyses; and extracting data by using computer programming without preset specifications. This work must have been conducted using at least two of the following tools: Toad, SAS, R, Python, Tableau, cloud analytics platforms, and the applicant must document knowledge of a complex field of laws, regulations and Federal legislation pertaining to the full range of Veterans benefits and a comprehensive and thorough knowledge of state, federal and local benefit programs in order to be able to explain them, both orally and in writing, to individuals of all educational backgrounds.

Volunteer Experience: 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; religions; 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.

Full vs. Part-Time Employment: Full-time employment is considered to be at least 35 hours per week. Part-time experience will be credited on a pro-rated basis; when including part-time employment in your resume you must specify the average hours worked per week.

Physical Requirements: Work is primarily sedentary.

For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at http://://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

Responsibilities:

Major Duties:

• Conducts regression analysis, statistical analysis, modeling, machine learning, Natural Language Processing, time series forecasting, exploratory data analysis and data visualization. Works in established and emerging data science tools such as Toad, SAS, R, Python, PowerBI, Tableau, and cloud analytics platforms. Conducts data extraction by using computer programming without preset specifications.
• Responsible for identifying the methods, processes, algorithms, tools, and systems to extract and interpret findings from varied structured and unstructured datasets related to the data science lifecycle. Work involves the development of algorithms or tools to support data manipulation and processing as well as the use of data visualization techniques to articulate findings.
• Utilizes visualization tools, such as Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE), and Power BI.
• Plans and conducts data science projects in support of workload forecasting; identifying Veteran, medical disability examinations, claims, and medical disability examination processing attributes that predict examination rates, types, timeliness, and status; vendor performance analysis; and various statistical analyses related to medical disability examinations.
• Responsibilities include detailed problem definition; identification and investigation of key variables or parameters; development and validation of assumptions; formulation of alternatives; development of performance measures of merit; selection, adaptation, or development of appropriate analytical methodology; development of recommendations, and presentation of results or findings.
• Analyzes, evaluates, and supports reporting platform and reporting/analysis tools to continually mature the MDEO data and analyses.
• Creates and designs dashboards and other data visualization reports to support MDEO leadership and external stakeholders. Support transition and migration of reporting platforms. Support continual improvements in data mining and automation in reports and dashboards.
• Analyzes and evaluate (on a quantitative or qualitative basis) the effectiveness of MDEO program operations in meeting business line or higher established goals and objectives. Develops code for new predictive or time series models that VBA will use to improve production and quality metrics.
• Performs assigned in-depth analyses of data and disseminate results of analysis in a manner appropriate to the audience. Evaluates models and findings of other VBA analysts and contractors in area of incumbent's specialization and provide detailed feedback to analysts or supervisors. Monitors, track, and communicate changes and developments in data science research and technology.
• Reports key advances and results from proof-of-concept testing to assigned project lead or supervisor.
• Communicates status of data-related activities, and performance metrics, formally in slides and briefings to all levels of MDEO leadership, as well as informally as required.

Promotion Potential: GS-13; full performance level.
Work Schedule: Full time, Monday through Friday,
Compressed/Flexible: Available
Telework: Yes
Virtual: Yes, If selected employee is required to report to one of the following VBA facilities: Washington, DC, Saint Petersburg, FL, Phoenix, AZ, or Nashville, TN.
Position Description/PD#: Data Scientist; PD#41180A
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Authorized; Relocation expenses and services (Permanent Change of Station - PCS) are authorized for this recruitment. PCS is the relocation of a household due to government convenience in connection with the transfer between duty stations or facilities. In consideration of the payment of expenses for travel and transportation, the selectee agrees to remain in federal service for twelve (12) months following the date of transfer. Failure to complete all conditions of the obligated service may result in repayment of travel/transportation expenses. Click here for more information.
Financial Disclosure Report: Not Required

Salary : $99,908 - $129,878