Statistician

Duties

This position is located in the Department of Homeland Security, Office of the Secretary, Office of Policy, Office of Immigration Statistics, Anywhere in the U.S. (remote job).

The primary purpose of this position is to plan statistical research projects on evaluating the social, economic, environmental, and demographic impact of immigrations benefits, border security, migration flows, and immigration enforcement, serve as a professional consultant on immigration statistics, and coordinate cutting edge immigration research with experts on future trends.

Duties performed:

• Adapts a variety of methods to analyze data from a of variety of sources for analytical projects related to immigration.
• Plans procedures for collecting and tabulating data and recommends new or improved methods for analyzation.
• Analyzes data using statistical procedures, specifies full range of logically possible explanations and limitations.

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• You must be a U.S. citizen to apply for this position.
• You must successfully pass a background investigation. This may include a credit check, a review of financial issues, as well as certain criminal offenses and illegal use or possession of drugs.
• Males born after 12/31/59 must be registered or exempt from Selective Service (see http://www.sss.gov/).
• One-year probationary period may be required.
• A pre-employment drug test may be required.
• If you receive a conditional offer of employment for this position, you will be required to complete an Optional Form 306, Declaration for Federal Employment, and to sign and certify the accuracy of all information in your application.
• DHS uses e-Verify, an Internet-based system, to confirm the eligibility of all newly hired employees to work in the United States.
• All Federal employees are required to have Federal salary payments made by direct deposit to a financial institution of their choosing.
• License required: No
• Pre-employment physical required: No
• Bargaining Unit Position: Yes
• Permanent Change of Duty Station (PCS) Expenses will not be paid.
• Promotion Potential: When promotion potential is shown, the agency is not making a commitment and is not obligated to provide future promotions to you if you are selected. Future promotions will be dependent on your ability to perform the duties at a higher level, the continuing need for an employee assigned to the higher level, and administrative approval.

Qualifications

This is an open continuous announcement open for 90 days, or until all positions are filled. It will be used to fill immediate and future vacancies for this agency. There may be multiple cut-off dates with the first being on 02/01/2023. Additional cutoff dates will be established every 15th day after, or based on the needs of the agency.

Applicants must demonstrate that they meet the Basic Requirements AND Minimum Qualifications/Specialized Experience requirements below.

Basic Requirement for GS-11 and GS-12 positions:
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 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:

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.

Minimum Qualifications

GS-11 Minimum Qualifications

In addition to the basic requirement cited above, applicants must meet one of the following to be found qualified for the GS-11 grade level of this position.

A. Specialized Experience
GS-11: Applicant must demonstrate one (1) full year of specialized experience comparable in scope and responsibility to the GS-09 level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors) performing the following duties:

• Developing analytical projects requiring application of statistical theory and techniques;
• Recommending new or improved methods for analyzing data; and
• Assisting in the development of statistical approaches to address policy research questions.

NOTE: Your resume must explicitly indicate how you meet this requirement, otherwise you will be found ineligible. Only the first five pages of your resume will be utilized to make this determination.

OR

B. Education: Completion of a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree, or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree, from an accredited college or university that provided the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform this work. (NOTE: You must submit a copy of your college transcripts (official or unofficial) to support your claim).

OR:

C. Combination of experience and education: Combination of specialized experience (less than 1 year) and graduate education (beyond 2 years of graduate education), that when combined equals 100% of the qualification requirement. NOTE: Only graduate education in excess of two years (generally 36 semester hours) may be used in this calculation. You must submit a copy of your college transcripts (official or unofficial) and your resume must explicitly indicate how you meet the experience, otherwise you will be found ineligible.

GS-12 Minimum Qualifications

In addition to the basic requirement cited above, applicants must demonstrate the meet the specialized experience requirement below to be found qualified for the GS-12 grade level of this position.

Specialized Experience:
GS-12: Applicant must demonstrate one (1) full year of specialized experience comparable in scope and responsibility to the GS-11 level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors) performing the following duties:

• Managing studies that included multivariate analysis, factor analysis and forecasting of populations;
• Implementing improved methods of data management to (i.e. data masking, data anonymization, and linking data across datasets) using a variety of software packages and routines; and
• Serving as a lead presenter of statistical findings to senior leadership and/or in public forums.

NOTE: Your resume must explicitly indicate how you meet this requirement, otherwise you will be found ineligible. Only the first five pages of your resume will be utilized to make this determination.

All qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of this announcement. Applicants will need to have met these requirements by each established cutoff date to receive consideration on those dates. Qualification claims will be subject to verification.

NOTE: 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.

Education

This position requires specific coursework and/or a degree 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 course(s) listed in the qualification requirement section. 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.

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.

Special Instructions for Foreign Education: If 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. Failure to provide such documentation with your application will result in lost consideration. For further information, visit: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/ .

Additional information

Note: DHS continues to take necessary steps to keep our workforce safe amid the COVID-19 pandemic. If you receive a final job offer to onboard, please complete the onboarding forms and submit them electronically in an expeditious manner. Your start date may be delayed if the action above is not completed.

Background Investigation: To ensure the accomplishment of its mission, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requires each and every employee to be reliable and trustworthy. To meet those standards, all selected applicants must undergo and successfully complete a background investigation for a Secret clearance as a condition of placement in this position. This review includes financial issues such as delinquency in the payment of debts, child support and/or tax obligations, as well as certain criminal offenses and illegal use or possession of drugs.

Pursuant to Executive Order 12654 and DHS policy, DHS is committed to maintaining a drug-free workplace and, therefore, conducts random and other drug testing of its employees in order to ensure a safe and healthy work environment. Headquarters personnel in safety- or security-sensitive positions are subject to random drug testing and all applicants tentatively selected for employment at DHS Headquarters are subject to drug testing resulting in a negative test result.

Current or Former Political Appointees: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) must authorize employment offers made to current or former political appointees. If you are currently, or have been within the last 5 years, a political Schedule A, Schedule C, Non-career SES or Presidential Appointee employee in the Executive Branch, you must disclose this information to the Human Resources Office.

Interagency/Career Transition Assistance Program (ICTAP/CTAP): This program applies to Federal service employees whose positions have been deemed surplus or no longer needed, or employees who have been involuntarily separated from a Federal service position within the competitive service. To receive selection priority for this position, you must: 1) meet eligibility criteria for CTAP or ICTAP; 2) be rated well-qualified for the position; and 3) submit the appropriate documentation to support your CTAP or ICTAP eligibility. Well-Qualified includes those applicants whose knowledge, skills, and abilities clearly exceed the minimum qualification requirements for the position. For information on eligibility criteria and required documentation, go to: http://www.opm.gov/rif/employee_guides/career_transition.asp

Selective Service: Males born after 12/31/59 must be registered or exempt from Selective Service (see http://www.sss.gov/ ).

Applicants are strongly encouraged to apply online if at all possible. Applying online, through your USAJOBS account, will expedite the application process and allow you to check your application status as well as verify the documentation submitted with your application. If you utilize the Alternate Application method, your USAJOBS account will not display this application and you will not receive status updates.

If you are unable to apply online, please contact Philadelphia@opm.gov