Research Data Scientist

Summary

Please note, there is no pay associated with this position.

This position serves as a Without Compensation Research Data Scientist within the Office of Research and Development (ORD). The VA Research Program strives to promote Veteran-centered care to improve patient experiences and outcomes across VA healthcare and community settings, and to advance value-driven care by providing Veterans the highest quality care at the lowest financial burden.

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Duties

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• Processing raw microbiome sequencing data using established bioinformatics pipelines
• Performing sequence quality control, taxonomic and functional profiling, and preparation of analysis-ready feature tables
• Conducting routine statistical summaries, including diversity calculations, simple comparisons between groups, and preliminary visualizations to support downstream modeling performed by senior team members
• Assisting with transferring, merging, and validating microbiome outputs within the secure VA computing environment, ensuring consistency with clinical datasets prepared by the statistics team
• Working closely with the Senior Statistician to troubleshoot data issues, adjust preprocessing steps as needed, and produce preliminary figures and descriptive results for internal discussions
• Contributing to the preparation of study reports, abstracts, and manuscript supplements by generating tables and visual materials
• Supporting ongoing project needs by implementing minor analytical tasks, updating pipelines as new samples or methods become available
• Coordinating with investigators to ensure that microbiome data products align with project requirements

Work Schedule: Full time; Monday - Friday; 8:00am- 4:30pm (Without compensation)

Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

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.

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

Individual Occupational Requirement :

Education: 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.

OR

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

AND

Basic Qualifications:

This Without Compensation position is equivalent to the GS-11.

Experience : You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-09. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to performing statistical analysis for clinicians; developing statistical tools for Shared Resources, developing and maintaining data pipelines for microbiome data analysis and visualization using Python and R. 3, collaborating with researchers to do statistical analyses for various studies, facilitating downstream statistical analysis, providing technical support for research projects by performing sequencing data preprocessing, quality control, and feature extraction.

OR

Education: A Master's or equivalent graduate degree

OR

Combination: Experience and education that equals 100%, when the percentage of experience and education are combined

AND

Selective Placement Factor: Experience analyzing large-scale microbiome datasets using bioinformatics tools (QIIME 2, MetaPhlAn 4) to generate insights into population health

Note: OPM defines a selective factor as "A competency/KSAs or special qualification without which a candidate could not perform the duties of a position in a satisfactory manner. Selective factors are applied in addition to minimum qualifications. Applicants who do not meet a selective factor are ineligible for further consideration."

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

The full performance level of this vacancy is 00.

Physical Requirements: The work is predominantly sedentary. Typically, the employee sits comfortably to do the work. However, there will be some walking, standing, bending and carrying of items of moderate weight such as large binders, banker style file boxes, meeting materials, papers, books or small parts. Hand and eye coordination for delicate testing procedures may be the only special physical demand required to perform the work.

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

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

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

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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A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.

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Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.