What are the responsibilities and job description for the Chemist position at Agricultural Research Service?
Summary This position is located at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center in Grand Forks, ND. In this position you will serve as an essential team member, an analytical chemist contributing highly accurate, high-throughput analyses to the scientific programs. Responsibilities Identifies and implements training courses, novel methodologies, and equipment that improve utilization of human, technical, or fiscal resources in Nutritional Analytic Laboratory (NAL). Provides oversight of NAL fiscal resources and prepares budgetary plans and assessments. Produces regular reports of laboratory productivity for use by the leadership team in research and financial planning. Develops unusual and difficult methodologies for a full range of analyses on a wide variety of materials including animal and human tissues, body fluids, excrements, and foods. Develops standard operating procedures and quality controls for analyses for inclusion in the NAL laboratory manual. Serves on external technical committees. Requirements Conditions of Employment Qualifications Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement including time-in-grade restrictions, specialized experience and / or education, as defined below. Time in grade : Applicants must have one year at the next lower grade to be considered for the next higher grade (e.g. one year at the GS-12 grade level for consideration for the GS-13 grade level). Basic Requirements : Degree : physical sciences, life sciences, or engineering that included 30 semester hours in chemistry, supplemented by course work in mathematics through differential and integral calculus, and at least 6 semester hours of physics. OR Combination of education and experience - course work equivalent to a major as shown above, including at least 30 semester hours in chemistry, supplemented by mathematics through differential and integral calculus, and at least 6 semester hours of physics, plus appropriate experience or additional education. AND Additional Requirements : In addition to meeting the basic requirements described above, applicants must also meet additional qualification requirements as stated below. GS-13 Specialized Experience : Specialized experience is experience directly related to the position to be filled. Specialized experience must be described for each grade level advertised. The specialized experience requirements for this position are : Qualifying experience for GS-13 includes one year of specialized experience comparable to GS-12 which is directly related to the work of this position, and which has equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position. For this position, specialized experience performing analyses that include wet bench procedures and instrumental analyses to include gas and liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry; experience participating in the design and planning of experiments by individual scientific laboratories; developing and validating novel analytical methods for analysis of multiple biological matrices and generating reports of laboratory productivity for use by leadership for research and financial planning. GS-14 Specialized Experience : Specialized experience is experience directly related to the position to be filled. Specialized experience must be described for each grade level advertised. The specialized experience requirements for this position are : Qualifying experience for GS-14 includes one year of specialized experience comparable to GS-13 which is directly related to the work of this position, and which has equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position. For this position, specialized experience includes experience performing analyses that include wet bench procedures and instrumental analyses to include inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, trapped ion mobility spectrometry and time-of-flight mass spectrometry; developing and validating methodologies for a full range of analyses on a wide variety of materials i.e. animal, human tissues, body fluids, excrements, or foods; generating reports of laboratory productivity for use by leadership for research and financial planning and writing papers and abstracts on data generated from methods development or reviews. 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 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 Please see above for education qualification requirement information. Additional Information Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP), Reemployment Priority List (RPL), or Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) : Visit the OPM website for information on how to apply as a CTAP, RPL, or ICTAP eligible. To exercise selection priority for this vacancy, CTAP / RPL / ICTAP candidates must meet the basic eligibility requirements and all selective factors. CTAP / ICTAP candidates must be rated and determined to be well qualified (or above) based on an evaluation of the competencies listed in the How You Will Be Evaluated section. When assessed through a score-based category rating method, CTAP / ICTAP applicants must receive a rating of at least 85 out of a possible 100. Veterans who are preference eligible or who have been separated from the armed forces under honorable conditions after three years or more of continuous active service are eligible for consideration under the Veteran's Employment Opportunity Act (VEOA). Farm Service Agency (FSA) County Employees : Permanent County employees without prior Federal tenure who are selected for a Civil Service position under Public Law 105-277 will be given a career-conditional appointment and must serve a 1-year probationary period. For more information on applying under special hiring authorities such as the 30 percent disabled veterans, certain military spouses, Schedule A Disabled, etc., explore the different Hiring Paths on the USAJOBS website. Land Management Workforce Flexibility Act (LMWFA) provides current or former temporary or term employees of federal land management agencies opportunity to compete for permanent competitive service positions. Individuals must have more than 24 months of service without a break between appointments of two or more years. Service must be in the competitive service and have been at a successful level of performance or better. Refer to PUBLIC LAW 114-47-AUG. 7, 2015 for more information. This position is being concurrently announced under Delegated Examining Announcement Number ARS-M25Y-12585050-NW. This announcement is open to all qualified candidates. Applying to both announcements may expand the possibilities of consideration since different referral criteria apply to each type of announcement. See the above announcement for more information. If you are selected for a position with further promotion potential, you will be placed under a career development plan, and may be non-competitively promoted if you successfully complete the requirements and if recommended by management. However, promotion is neither implied nor guaranteed. This position may be eligible to telework up to four days per week, based upon the duties of the position. This position may also be eligible for flexible work arrangements as determined by agency policy and any applicable collective bargaining agreements. Recruitment or Relocation Incentive may be authorized. Final determination to pay an incentive will be made by the hiring official at time of job offer.
