Duties

Summary

This position is located in the Division of Consumer Response and Operations (DCRO) in the Bureau of Consumer Protection (BCP) at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in Washington, D.C. BCP, through its consumer protection work in seven divisions and eight FTC regional offices, carries out the Commission's mandate to protect the American public from unfair and deceptive acts and practices in commerce.

Learn more about this agency

Responsibilities

If selected for this position, you will provide intelligence to both FTC and external law enforcement authorities concerning consumer complaints, law enforcement actions and other data maintained by the FTC. As part of your responsibilities, you will support the Consumer Sentinel Network (CSN). Consumer Sentinel is a secure Internet web site available to law enforcement authorities throughout the United States and Canada. It includes a searchable data bank of consumer complaints received by the FTC and external data contributors, as well as a host of other information concerning telemarketing, unsolicited commercial email and identity theft.

To support this program, you will perform the following duties:

- Develop methods to extract data from CSN or from data obtained during the course of investigations and to transmit this information to the appropriate internal and external users, including FTC management and staff at all levels as well as external parties including members of Congress, other government agencies, FOIA requesters and media outlets.
- Leverage analytics and visualization tools (Tableau) to present information in a way that drives fact based decision-making.
- Develop new analytical reports and represent large, complex sets of data through visual representation.
- Automate and optimize data extraction, cleaning, processing and analysis functions.
- Query and mine large data sets, including text data, to discover patterns, using traditional or advanced techniques such as machine learning.
- Regularly use various relational databases, SQL Server, MYSQL, etc to query databases.
- Use python (pandas, numpy), R or other programing languages to analyze large datasets of structured or unstructured data.
- Energetically work with teams to create data products for a wide-range of stakeholders.

Travel Required

Not required

Supervisory status
No

Promotion Potential
14

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• U.S. citizenship requirement must be met by the closing date of this vacancy.
• This position is subject to a background investigation.
• Males born after December 31, 1959 must register with Selective Service.
• You may serve a one-year probationary period under this appointment.
• You must meet time in grade requirement by the closing date of the vacancy.
• You must submit a copy of your performance appraisal with your application.
• You must be a current title 5, status employee of the Federal Trade Commission.

Qualifications

At the GS-13 level: Applicants must have (1) year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-12 level using data analysis tools (sql, python, R, etc) to build and execute data queries against databases with large volumes of data, extract and wrangle large datasets (over 1,000,000 records) and present results to internal audiences or external audiences, and a solid understanding of data science fundamentals.

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 does not have an education requirement.

Additional information

Career Transition Assistance Programs: These programs apply to employees who have been involuntarily separated from a Federal service position within the competitive service or Federal service employees whose positions have been deemed surplus or no longer needed. To receive selection priority for this position, you must: (1) meet CTAP eligibility criteria; (2) be rated well-qualified for the position with a score of 85 or above; and, (3) submit the appropriate documentation to support your CTAP eligibility.
For more information visit: http://www.opm.gov/rif/employee_guides/career_transition.asp.

How You Will Be Evaluated

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

Once the announcement has closed, your résumé and supporting documentation will be used to determine if you meet the qualifications listed on this announcement. If you are found qualified, your résumé and supporting documentation will be compared to your responses on the assessment questionnaire to determine your level of experience. If you rate yourself higher than is supported by your application package, your responses may be adjusted and/or you may be excluded from consideration for this position. If you are found to be among the top qualified candidates, you will be referred to the selecting official for employment consideration.

Your qualifications will be evaluated on the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics):

Background checks and security clearance

Security clearance
Not Required

Drug test required
No

Position sensitivity and risk
Moderate Risk (MR)

Trust determination process
Suitability/Fitness

Required Documents

To apply for this position, you must submit a complete Application Package which includes:

1. Your résumé showing work schedule, hours worked per week, dates of employment and duties performed.
2. Other supporting documents:
- Cover Letter, optional
- Most recent SF-50, "Notification of Personnel Action" showing you are/were in the competitive service and the highest grade or promotion potential held (if applying as a status candidate with current or former Federal Service) - Required.
- Most recent Performance Appraisal, - Required.
- Career Transition Assistance Program/ Documentation, if applicable (e.g. Certification of Expected Separation, Reduction-In-Force Separation Notice, or Notice of Proposed Removal; SF-50 that documents the RIF separation action; and most recent performance appraisal.)

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.