Data Scientist

Summary

The Data Scientist-Northeast Program Evaluation Center (NEPEC) is organizationally part of the VA Central Office (VACO) Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention (OMHSP). This position is in direct communication with OMHSP, as well as the Director and Associate Directors of NEPEC. The primary purpose of this position is to evaluate VA specialized mental health systems.

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Duties

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Data Scientist (NEPEC) GS-1560-12

The primary purpose of this position is to evaluate VA specialized mental health systems. The VA treats more than 1.7 million Veterans with psychiatric and substance use problems every year; these Veterans comprise more than 25% of all VA patients. Mental health care is delivered through more than 20 million outpatient encounters, 90,000 inpatient, and 30,000 stays in residential treatment facilities. The OMHSP (11OMHSP) monitors the delivery and quality of mental health care as guided by the Uniformed Mental Health Services Package (VHA Handbook 1160.01). NEPEC has the responsibility for providing strategic guidance in program evaluation to improve the quality and availability of mental health treatment. This includes, but is not limited to, performing ongoing national monitoring and evaluation of mental health services in VA, as well as designing, implementing, and evaluating innovative mental health programs being disseminated throughout VA. The data and reports are utilized by senior leadership in VACO and regularly provided to other Federal agencies, Congress and the White House.

The duties and responsibilities of the incumbent include but are not limited to the following:

Program Evaluation Duties:

The incumbent can conceptualize and conduct program evaluation projects involving large healthcare data sets using knowledge about multiple fields of research that bridge diverse disciplines. Work primarily related to identifying the methods, processes, algorithms, tools, and systems to extract and interpret findings from varied structured and unstructured data sets related to the data science lifecycle. The primary requirements of the work are applying professional knowledge of computer science and mathematical and statistical theories, techniques, and methods to gather, analyze, design, and construct new processes for modeling, interpret, and/or report quantitative information, trends, relationships, and correlations among or within data sets.

Conducting projects requires a versatile skill set within the realm of Data Analytics, Modeling, Optimization, Governance and Visualization while having the ability to utilize and apply statistical methods and techniques to enhance data analysis. Additionally, the incumbent should feel comfortable utilizing a variety of programming languages and environments, e.g., SQL, Python/R/SAS, and PowerShell/CMD/Bash.

Data Management and Data Syndication Duties:

NEPEC supports the needs of OMHSP's program evaluation efforts. As part of this support, the incumbent serves in a leadership role on projects focusing on meeting specific evaluation aims as defined by NEPEC leadership. The incumbent may provide technical and scientific supervision of the work of staff assigned to these projects and monitor progress toward project goals and deadlines. The incumbent engages in significant interaction and active coordination about data management and data syndication with staff at other OMHSP evaluation centers, OMHSP senior staff, and CDW. To support OMHSP activities the incumbent:

1. Uses multiple software packages and operating system environments suitable for working with, manipulating, and analyzing large datasets.
2. Contributes to and maintains a transparent and reusable data architecture for mental health data.
3. Provides NEPEC staff with technical training as deemed necessary by the Director, both orally and in writing.
4. Represents NEPEC on OMHSP, VHA wide, or interagency work groups in lieu of the Director or Associate Directors, attends conference calls or briefings, reviews materials, and reports on these activities.
5. Incumbent will use life cycle process models to perform their work. There are various data science lifecycle models that consist of a set of processes in an application that transforms data into useful knowledge. Data science life cycle models incorporates principles, techniques, and methods including data cleaning, data management, analytics, visualization, and engineering.

The incumbent may be called upon to support the data management needs of staff outside NEPEC who are involved in program evaluation, implementation, and research projects. They help the Director of NEPEC with the data management responsibilities associated with coordinating with these staff and facilitating their use of data in appropriate and efficient ways. Analyzing a variety of data sources to provide data-driven insights to the organization to streamline processes.

Work Schedule : Monday-Friday 8:00am-4:30pm

Telework : Ad-Hoc available in accordance with policy.

Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Functional Statement # :PD03739A

Relocation/Recruitment Incentives : Not Authorized.

Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English.
• Subject to background/security investigation.
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements ( Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued identification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).
• Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1 or 2-year trial period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider:

• your performance and conduct;
• the needs and interests of the agency;
• whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and
• whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.

Upon completion of your trial period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Qualifications

Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met.

Basic Requirements :

• United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• English Language Proficiency. In accordance with 38 U.S.C. 7402(d), no person shall serve in direct patient care positions unless they are proficient in basic written and spoken English.

Individual Occupational Requirements:

• 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. (Transcript must be submitted).

OR

• Combination of education and experience: Courses equivalent to a major field of study (30 semester hours) as shown in paragraph above, plus additional education or appropriate experience.

AND

Time-In-Grade Requirement :

• Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-13 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-12. 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. 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 provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment.

You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below:

• Specialized Experience GS-13: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-12 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Conduct program evaluation projects involving large and complex healthcare data sets, Develop and maintain electronic program monitoring tools for wide dissemination of data, Expertise with natural language processing to analyze data and interpret results.

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:

• Analytical Thinking
• Attention to Detail
• Customer Service
• Data Management
• Database Administration
• Database Management Systems
• Decision Making
• Flexibility
• Integrity/Honesty
• Interpersonal Skills
• Learning
• Reasoning
• Research
• Self-Management
• Stress Tolerance
• Teamwork

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.

Note : A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment.

Preferred Experience:

The Incumbent will conduct program evaluation projects involving large and complex healthcare data sets using knowledge about multiple fields of research that bridge diverse disciplines.

Projects will require expertise to analyze data, and interpret results. Responsibilities include working on national work groups, providing technical support, implement OMH initiatives, serving as a liaison to other program offices, and write programs that use extremely large relational datasets to create complex measurements, analyze measurements, and summarize measurement data. Program evaluation includes, but are not limited to locate data and write SQL code to accurately identify a patient cohort of interest in VA's corporate data warehouse (CDW) and populate a table for this cohort with diverse data such as demographics, diagnoses, appointments, and VHA encounters.

Develops and maintains electronic program monitoring tools for wide dissemination of data inside and outside VA, including to VA Central Office, Office of Informatics and Analytics, professional organizations, and the public. These monitoring tools will include interactive reports and dashboards with the use of advanced data visualization software (e.g., Microsoft Power BI or SQL Server reporting Services).

The incumbent actively participates in national initiatives involving data syndication and data interoperability and collaborates with internal and external subject matter and data experts in data innovation and migration projects. Specifically, the data scientist will be heavily involved in VA's efforts to transition from VistA to the Federal electronic health record (EHR), a project of national significance. The incumbent may provide technical and scientific supervision of the work of staff assigned to these projects and monitor progress toward project goals and deadlines.

Attend conference calls or briefings about relevant activities in lieu of the Director or Deputy Director, review materials, and report on these activities.

This is a full performance level, non-supervisory position that is located in the Northeast Program Evaluation Center, which is within the Office of Mental Health (OMH), VA Central Office. The position reports to the NEPEC Deputy Director and works directly with senior leadership of the office.

The purpose of this position is to serve as a senior data scientist within NEPEC and advise the NEPEC leadership and others on a broad range of issues related to health care data. This position is to evaluate VA mental health systems, oversee and develop procedures, guidelines to enhance program monitoring and support the strategic priorities of the OMH. The range of activities includes ensuring that data products are continuously accessible, and engages in inter-agency collaboration, program evaluation with various health care data and participates in strategic planning around VHA's health care data.

The incumbent must be able to formulate projects related to clinical services, define data management and data syndication standards for assessing novel data infrastructure, and investigate and resolve unusual and highly technical problems with big health care data. To be successful, the incumbent must work productively with diverse elements outside VA (e.g., GAO, other Federal agencies, Oracle, and academic institutions), and advise leadership on communicating with these external stakeholders.

Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit

Physical Requirements: Sedentary, some walking, sitting, standing and carrying of light items.

Education

Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit:

Additional information

Receiving Service Credit for Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior work experience or military service experience. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed.

During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions.

This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies.

This position is in the Excepted Service and does not confer competitive status.

VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply. The health-related positions in VA are covered by Title 38, and are not covered by the Schedule A excepted appointment authority.

If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement.

Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer. For more information about the Act and the complaint process, visit Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP) at The Fair Chance Act.

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

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