Duties

Summary

Join the team! This position is located in the Office of Hazard Identification and Reduction, Directorate for Health Sciences. The Directorate provides pharmacologic, toxicologic, physiologic and medical evaluations of deaths, injuries and illnesses in support of U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) actions to protect consumers. The Directorate provides management/analytical and scientific support to other offices within the Commission.

Learn more about this agency

Responsibilities

At the full performance level of this position, you will serve as a subject-matter expert in a specialized hazard (for example, choking, drowning, head injuries) and/or product area (for example, sports and recreation products, or children's products). You will be responsible for providing advice and recommendations to the Directorate, other offices within the Agency, and the Commission. Your primary responsibility will be to critically review, evaluate, and interpret current scientific literature, research data and investigative reports, medical findings and injury reports, and proposed and existing mandatory and voluntary standards criteria to determine whether exposure to and/or use of particular consumer products can result in injuries or deaths. Your written and/or oral conclusions and recommendations must be concise, clear, scientifically sound, and reflect the significance of the information applicable to agency activities, including the development of mandatory and voluntary standards and support of compliance and enforcement actions.

Your assignments will involve a high degree of complexity and often will require innovative solutions to resolve any conflicting data. In some cases you may serve as the Commission's expert witness and may be required as such to testify in court on behalf of the Agency. You will prepare oral and written responses to inquiries involving potential injuries and death due to use of consumer products; make formal and informal presentations to the Commission as the technical expert; represent the Agency on inter-agency committees and at voluntary standards meetings; maintain liaison with other scientists and public health authorities whose work has direct bearing on ongoing Agency work.

You may also serve as a project manager for various Agency hazard assessment and reduction projects, leading a multidisciplinary team, with responsibility for developing and coordinating work plans, tasks, and schedules to meet program objectives and make formal presentations to the Commission.

Travel Required

Not required

Supervisory status
No

Promotion Potential
13

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• U.S. Citizenship Required.
• Background Investigation Required.
• Must meet education requirements.

Must be a U.S. Citizen.

This is a Public Trust Position. Employment in this position requires a background investigation. If you are selected and cannot obtain a favorable security determination within a reasonable period of time due to disclosed or undisclosed background issues, the tentative employment offer may be withdrawn.

If you are a male born after December 31, 1959 you must certify that you have registered with the Selective Service System, or are exempt from having to do so under the Selective Service Law. Please see http://www.sss.gov for more information.

Selectees will be required to complete a "Declaration of Federal Employment", (OF-306), prior to appointment and the appropriate background investigation forms to determine suitability for Federal employment. False statements or responses on these forms can jeopardize your employment opportunity and subject you to disciplinary action, including removal from Federal service.

The selectee will be required to complete a Personal Identity Verification (PIV) process that requires two forms of identification from the I-9 Form . We will compare information provided on the I-9 Form to records available from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The system confirms employee's identity and eligibility to work in the United States. Learn more about E-Verify , including your rights and responsibilities.

Upon appointment, you will be required to complete a Confidential Financial Disclosure Report, OGE-450. You will need to provide the information annually.

You are applying under Delegated Examining and if selected under this authority, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period, even if you are a transfer from another federal agency.

Qualifications

In addition to the mandatory education requirement, all applicants must have 52 weeks of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade level in the Federal Service. Specialized experience is experience that has equipped the candidate with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position.

Qualifying specialized experience must demonstrate the following:


GS-11: Applying professional knowledge of physiological principles, theories, methods or research to assist in determining whether exposure to and/or use of certain products are a hazard OR to assist in developing physiological analyses in order to produce reports.

GS-12: Analyzing and applying comprehensive knowledge of human physiological, anatomical, and biochemical principles, concepts, theories, and practices to injury-related issues in order to determine whether exposure to and/or use of certain products are a hazard; preparing written reports or verbally communicating your physiological analyses to laypersons or other scientists; providing advice and consultation services on a variety of physiological issues; and developing and maintaining working relationships with peers and supervisors, and acting as a scientific lead on work groups as needed.

GS-13: Experience in analyzing and applying comprehensive knowledge of human physiological, anatomical, and biochemical principles, concepts, theories, and practices to complex injury-related issues in order to determine whether exposure to and/or use of certain products are a hazard; independently preparing written reports or verbally communicating your physiological analyses to laypersons or other scientists; providing expert advice and consultation services on a variety of physiological issues; and developing and maintaining working relationships with peers and supervisors, and acting as a scientific lead on work groups as needed.

Evidence of the above specialized experience must be supported by detailed documentation of duties performed in positions held. Your resume is the key means we have for evaluating your skills, knowledge, and abilities as they relate to this position. Therefore, we encourage you to be clear and specific when describing your experience.

Applicants must meet the qualifications for this position within thirty (30) days of the closing date of this announcement.

Education

Mandatory Education Requirement - All applicants must meet the following basic education requirement to qualify:

Bachelor's degree or higher in one of the basic animal sciences or physiology; or a related discipline or field of science that included at least 24 semester hours in the basic animal sciences, of which 10 semester hours were in animal physiology.

For more information about the evaluation of education and coursework, please see the Office of Personnel Management's website for the 0413 - Physiologist series .

In addition to meeting the basic education requirement indicated above, applicants must have specialized experience and/or directly related education in the amounts shown below:

GS-11: Applicants must have 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree OR Ph.D or equivalent doctoral degree OR 1 year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-9 grade level.

GS-12: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-11.

GS-13: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-12.

You MUST provide transcripts to support your educational claims. Unofficial transcripts are acceptable during the application process. Official transcripts will be required upon appointment.

All education claimed by applicants will be verified.

All materials must be submitted by the closing date of this announcement.

Additional information

CPSC provides reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities on a case-by-case basis. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process, please contact the Human Resources Specialist listed in this vacancy announcement.

Payment of relocation expenses is NOT authorized.

All the information you provide will be verified by a review of the work experience and/or education as shown on your application, by checking reference and through other means, such as the interview process. Any exaggeration of your experience, false statements, or attempts to conceal information may be grounds for not hiring you or for firing you after you begin work.

Additional selections may be made through this vacancy announcement.

How You Will Be Evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

After the vacancy closes, we will review your application package to determine if you meet the minimum qualifications for the position. If you meet the minimum qualifications, your responses to the questionnaire, resume and supporting documentation will then be reviewed. You will be placed in one of the three pre-defined categories. Your responses to the questionnaire will serve as the basis for your initial rating in one of three pre-defined categories: "best", "better", and "good". Within each category, those eligible through veterans preference will be listed at the top of the category. Your resume must support your answers to the questionnaire, or your category may be changed. The candidates in the highest category will be certified for referral to the selecting official and may be invited to an interview.

CTAP/ICTAP candidates will be eligible if it is determined that they have exceeded the minimum qualifications for the position by attaining at least a category rating of BETTER.

Please ensure that your resume contains specific information such as position titles, beginning and ending dates of employment for each position, average number of hours worked per week, salary, duties performed for each position, and if the position is/was in the Federal government, you should provide the position series and grade level/pay band.

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Background checks and security clearance

Security clearance
Not Required

Drug test required
No

Required Documents

Your package must be complete and submitted in the manner specified in this section. Packages that are submitted in any other manner without prior approval from the agency point of contact will not be considered.

A complete application includes: 1. Resume; 2. Vacancy question responses; and 3. Submission of any required documents. Please note that if you do not provide all required information, as specified in this announcement, you may not be considered for this position (or may not receive the special consideration for which you may be eligible).

If you are a current or former federal employee you must a copy of your most recent SF Form 50, Notification of Personnel Action, that shows: (1) permanent or career-conditional tenure (codes 1 or 2, in block 24), and (2) position occupied in the competitive service (code 1, in block 34). To be considered as a non-competitive eligible candidate, the SF-50 must show the highest grade level or promotion potential level applicant has attained competitively and grade must be equivalent or higher than the grade for which applying. Indicate on your application the highest permanent grade you have held; if this grade is different from your current grade, submit a copy of an additional SF-50 showing this grade.

For proof of Veterans Preference you must submit a DD-214 (member copy 4)and, if applicable, Standard Form 15, VA Letter. You can find additional information about Veterans' Preference at http://www.fedshirevets.gov/ .

If you are eligible for special hiring authority, please indicate this when you apply, and submit the supporting documentation for proof of eligibility for the special hiring authority, such as disability, Peace Corps service, Interchange Agreement, etc.

Other documents identified in this announcement.

All supplemental documents must be submitted electronically before the closing date of this vacancy announcement. You have three choices for submitting your supplemental documents:
1. Download from your USAJOBS account; or
2. Upload your file(s); or
3. Fax using the online Fax Cover Sheet.

Failure to submit required documents, based upon how you apply, may result in loss of consideration due to an incomplete application package. It is your responsibility to ensure all required documents have been submitted. Official documents are not required at the time of application, copies are sufficient. If selected, official documentation must be submitted prior to appointment.

If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:

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.