Summary

This is an interdisciplinary position; you may be a Physical Scientist/Chemist or Food Technologist. The incumbent serves as a laboratory scientist/analyst conducting a wide range of physical, chemical, and/or biological analysis of agricultural commodities, food, and other sample types.

This job is open to

• Recent graduatesIndividuals who have graduated from an accredited educational institute or certificate program within the last 2 years or 6 years for Veterans.

Clarification from the agency

Recent graduate who has, within the previous two years, completed a qualifying Associate’s, Bachelors, Masters, Doctorate, professional, vocational or technical degree or certificate program. Veterans unable to apply within two years of receiving their degree due to military service obligation have up to six years after degree completion to apply.

Duties

• The duties described are for the full-performance level. At developmental grade levels, assignments will be of more limited scope, performed with less independence and limited complexity.
• Performs routine sample preparation, sample analysis, and evaluations using established methods and procedures.
• Operates analytical instrumentation along with other laboratory equipment to perform various analysis techniques.
• Utilizes a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) for sample login, sample results entry and sample report generation.
• Evaluates sample data to make decisions about the presence of analytes based on predetermined protocols.
• Generates laboratory reports and certificates and reviews for completeness, accuracy of computations, and reasonableness of results.
• Prepares packages of analytical data and test results according to standard protocols for review by the supervisor and quality management staff.
• Compiles and maintains chain-of-custody documentation for sample data sets and reviews for completeness and accuracy.
• Communicates and consults with stakeholders and is responsible for maintaining good customer relations.
• Evaluates and recommends repairs, updates, or replacement of analytical instruments and equipment as needed.

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• You must be a US Citizen or US National.
• Individuals who were born male after 12/31/1959 must be Selective Service registered or exempt.
• Satisfactory Background investigation and/or fingerprint check.
• Successful completion of one-year trial period.
• Direct Deposit: Per Public Law 104-134 all Federal employees are required to have federal payments made by direct deposit to their financial institution.
• Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit https://www.e-verify.gov/

Qualifications

Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement, including specialized experience and/or education, as defined below.BASIC REQUIREMENT: Physical Science Series (1301): Degree: physical science, engineering, or mathematics that included 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science such as mechanics, dynamics, properties of materials, and electronics.

OR: Combination of education and experience — education equivalent to one of the majors shown in A above that included at least 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science, plus appropriate experience or additional education.BASIC REQUIREMENT: Chemistry Series (1320): 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 in A 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.BASIC REQUIREMENT Food Technology Series (1382): Degree: food technology, or dairy technology, microbiology, biology, chemistry, physics, or a related discipline or field of biological or physical science. The course work must have been comprised of at least 30 semester hours in the basic biological and physical sciences, and included at least 20 semester hours in food technology and closely related subjects, or 20 semester hours in subjects that can be applied directly to food technology.OR: Combination of education and experience — courses equivalent to a major, including the course work specified, as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education.FOR THE GS-07 LEVEL: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience (equivalent to the GS-05 level) that may have been obtained in the private or public (local, county, state, Federal) sectors which demonstrates:

• Experience operating instrumentation utilized for chromatographic analysis.
• Experience troubleshooting and maintaining chromatographic instrumentation.
• Experience and skill utilizing analytical testing equipment such as balance, pipets, glassware, etc. in order to proficiently execute testing assays.

OR: 1 year of graduate-level education in courses relating to each individual basic requirement per job series.OR Superior Academic Achievement: To qualify based on superior academic achievement, you must have completed the requirements for a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution AND must meet certain GPA requirements.

TRANSCRIPTS are required if:

• This position requires specific coursework or a degree in a specific field to be basically qualified.
• You are qualifying for the position based on education.
• You are qualifying for this position based on a combination of experience and education.
• You are qualifying for this position based on Superior Academic Achievement.
• This education must have been successfully completed and obtained from an accredited school, college, or university

COMBINATION OF EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE AT THE GS-07/09 GRADE LEVELS: Applicants may have combinations of successfully completed education and specialized experience to meet total qualification requirements. The total percentages must equal at least 100 percent to qualify for that grade level.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

• Recent Graduate appointments are intended to last for 1 year. Recent Graduates who satisfactorily complete all the USDA Recent Graduates Program requirements may be non-competitively converted to a Term or Permanent appointment in the competitive service. Conversion is not guaranteed. Recent Graduates converted to Term appointments may later be non-competitively converted to a Permanent competitive service position.
• If selected, official transcripts will be required prior to entrance on duty.
• A Pathways Participant Agreement will be required if you are selected for a position. The agreement must be signed by all applicable parties prior to entrance on duty.
• First time hires to the federal government normally start at the lowest rate of the salary range for the grade selected.
• Travel, transportation, and relocation expenses will not be paid. Any travel, transportation, and relocation expense associated with reporting for duty will be the responsibility of the selected employee.
• Promotion Potential: 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.
• Selection will be at GS-7 with the possibility of conversion to a term or permanent position with promotion potential to the GS-9 level. Conversion eligibility and position is not guaranteed and depends upon the program unit’s needs.

CONVERSION REQUIREMENTS Recent Graduates may be non-competitively converted to a term or permanent position in the competitive service. To be eligible for conversion the Recent Graduate must meet all of the following:

• Successfully complete at least 1-year of continuous service in addition to all requirements of the Program as outlined in the Participant Agreement.
• Demonstrate successful job performance.
• Meet the qualifications for the position to which the Recent Graduate will be converted.
• Worksite Information: This position is located at the duty station(s) listed in this vacancy announcement and is not eligible for telework or remote work.

How You Will Be Evaluated

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

Your application, including the online Assessment Questionnaire, will be reviewed to determine if you meet (a) minimum qualification requirements and (b) the resume supports the answers provided to the job-specific questions. Your resume must clearly support your responses to all the questions addressing experience and education relevant to this position.

Category rating procedures will be used to rank and select eligible candidates. The following quality categories will be used: Best Qualified, Well Qualified, and Qualified. Within each quality category, veterans’ preference eligibles will receive selection priority over non-veterans. Your final category placement will be based on your responses to the assessment questionnaire.

Note: If, after reviewing your resume and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications and or experience, your score may be adjusted to more accurately reflect your abilities, or you may be found ineligible. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating. Providing inaccurate information on Federal documents could be grounds for non-selection or disciplinary action up to including removal from the Federal service.

To preview the application questionnaire, please visit: https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12159442

Required Documents

The following documents are required for your applicant package to be complete. Our office cannot be responsible for incompatible software, your system failure or downtime, etc. Encrypted documents will not be accepted. Failure to submit required, legible documents may result in loss of consideration.

• Resume that includes: 1) personal information such as name, address, contact information; 2) education; 3) detailed work experience related to this position as described in the major duties including work schedule, hours worked per week, dates of employment; title, series, grade (if applicable); 4) other qualifications; and 5) supervisors name and phone number for each work period listed and whether or not they may be contacted for reference checks.
• College Transcripts: You must submit a copy of your college transcripts. An unofficial copy is sufficient with the application; however, if you are selected, you will be required to submit official transcripts prior to entering on duty. Education must have been successfully obtained from an accredited school, college or university. If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet the qualification requirements, you must show that the education credentials have been evaluated by a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign education programs and such education has been deemed equivalent to that gained in an accredited U.S. education program. For further information, visit the following: Foreign Education Evaluation. All transcripts must be in English or include an English translation.
• If claiming veterans’ preference, you must submit a DD214, Certificate of Release from Active Duty, which shows dates of service and discharge under honorable conditions. If currently on active duty you must submit a certification of expected discharge or release from active duty service under honorable conditions within 120 days after the date the certification is submitted. The certification must be on the letterhead of the appropriate military branch and include the dates of military service. Veterans’ preference must be verified prior to appointment. Without this documentation, you will not receive veteran’s preference and your application will be evaluated based on the material(s) submitted.
• If claiming 10-point veterans’ preference you must provide the DD214 or certification requirements (see above bullet), plus the proof of entitlement of this preference as listed on the SF-15 Application for 10-point Veterans’ Preference. The SF-15 should be included but is not required. Failure to submit these documents could result in the determination that there is insufficient documentation to support your claim for 10-point preference. For more information on veterans’ preference visit FEDSHIREVETS

How to Apply

Please read the entire announcement and all instructions before you begin. You must complete this application process and submit all required documents electronically by 11:59p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on the closing date of this announcement.

Applying online is highly encouraged. We are available to assist you during business hours (normally 8:00a.m. – 4:00p.m., Monday – Friday). If applying online poses a hardship, contact the Agency Contact listed below well before the closing date for an alternate method. All hardship application packages must be complete and submitted no later than noon ET on the closing date of the announcement in order to be entered into the system prior to its closing.

This agency provides reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities on a case-by-case basis; contact the Agency Contact to request this.

Step 1: Create a USAJOBS account (if you do not already have one) at www.usajobs.gov. It is recommended that as part of your profile you set up automatic email notification to be informed when the status of your application changes. If you choose not to set up this automatic notification, then you will have to log into your USAJOBS account to check on the status of your application.

Step 2: Create a Resume with USAJOBS or upload a Resume into your USAJOBS account. You may want to customize your resume to ensure it documents duties and accomplishments you have gained that are directly related to this position in order to verify that qualifications are met. In addition, your resume must support your responses to the online questionnaire (you may preview the online questionnaire by clicking on the link at the end of the How You Will Be Evaluated section of the job announcement).

Step 3: Click “Apply Online” and follow the prompts to complete the Occupational Questionnaire and attach any additional documents that may be required. You can update your application or documents anytime while the announcement is open. Simply log into your USAJOBS account and click on “Application Status.” Click on the position title, and then select “Update Application” to continue.

NOTE: Please verify that documents you are uploading from USAJOBs transfer into the Agency’s staffing system as there is a limitation to the number of documents that can be transferred. However, once in the Agency’s staffing system, you will have the opportunity to upload additional documents. Uploaded documents must be less than 5MB and in one of the following document formats: GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, PDF, TXT or Word (DOC or DOCX). Do not upload Adobe Portfolio documents because they are not viewable.

Agency contact information

 MRP Human Resources

Phone

612-336-3227

Email

MRP.Application.Help@usda.gov

Address

Agricultural Marketing Service
USDA APHIS MRPBS
250 Marquette Avenue, Suite 410
Minneapolis, MN 55401

• Salary$47,549 – $61,813 per year
• Pay scale & gradeGS 7