Data Scientist

USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service; Fort Collins (CO); On-site; USD 75,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service in Fort Collins, CO is seeking a data analytics professional to join the OPARM team. The role supports planning, analysis, risk management, and strategic decision-making through data-driven insights and visualization.

Applicants must meet the specialized experience or education required for GS-11 or GS-12, including programming, data cleaning, transformation, extraction, and visualization across multiple sources using Python, R, SAS, SQL, and BI tools.

Qualifications

• Experience writing programs in Python, R, SAS or SQL.
• Ability to clean and transform data from multiple sources.
• Experience extracting data from relational databases and networking with multiple sources for visualization.

Skills

Data cleaning

Data extraction

Data transformation

Data visualization

Code review

Education

Graduate education to Ph.D.

Tools

Python

R

SAS

SQL

Power BI

Tableau

Qlik

Job description

Creditable Service for Annual Leave Accrual and Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program are available.

This position is in the FSIS Office of Planning, Analysis and Risk Management (OPARM), OPARM is the FSIS centralized analytics group and tasked with integrating and analyzing relational data. The program also provides data visualization and analytics services to support FSIS decision-making, policy development, risk management, and strategic planning. Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement including specialized experience and/or education, as defined below.

FOR GS-11 CONSIDERATION: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-09 grade level in the Federal service or equivalent responsibility in the private sector/pay systems. This specialized experience must include all the following:

• Writing computer programs and algorithms using software/programming languages such as, but not limited to Python, R, SAS, and SQL.


• Cleaning/transforming data to address issues such as missing values, outliers, duplicates, functional dependencies, etc.


• Independently extracting and transforming data from relational databases using Python, R, SAS, or SQL. You must show specific examples of your experience and describe the systems you have utilized.


• Reviewing software coding for accuracy. Your resume should show specific examples of using Python, R, SAS, or SQL.


• Developing visualizations that combine data from multiple sources using tools such as Python, R, Qlik, Tableau, or Power BI.

OR 3 years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree

OR Combination of Experience and Education: You must have an appropriate combination of successfully completed graduate level education and experience. The quality of the combination of education and experience must be sufficient to demonstrate that you possesses the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to perform work in the occupation. To determine your combination, first compute your experience as a percentage of the experience listed in the job announcement (1 year of specialized experience); then determine your education as a percentage of the education listed above; then add the two percentages. The total percentages must equal at least 100 percent. Only graduate education in excess of 2 years (36 semester hours) may be used to qualify.

FOR GS-12 CONSIDERATION: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-11 grade level in the Federal service or equivalent responsibility in the private sector/pay systems. This specialized experience must include all the following:

• Writing computer programs and algorithms using software/programming languages such as, but not limited to Python, R, SAS, and SQL.


• Cleaning/transforming data to address issues such as missing values, outliers, duplicates, functional dependencies, etc.


• Independently extracting and transforming data from relational databases using Python, R, SAS, or SQL. You must show specific examples of your experience and describe the systems you have utilized.


• Reviewing software coding for accuracy. Your resume should show specific examples of using Python, R, SAS, or SQL.


• Developing visualizations that combine data from multiple sources using tools such as Python, R, Qlik, Tableau, or Power BI.


• Designing and implementing plans to accomplish analytic or computer programming projects.


• Leading data analysis projects to capture and implement data requirements and business rules.

Education is not substitutable at the GS-12 grade level. Applicants must show 52 weeks specialized experience and the required education shown below in the education section.

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.