Research Ecologist Statistician (Interdisciplinary)

Smithsonian; Front Royal (VA); On-site; USD 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

The Smithsonian Institution, located in Front Royal, VA, seeks a candidate for an ecological statistics role within NZCBI. The position requires advancing original research that integrates ecology with statistical and mathematical modeling to understand, manage, and conserve species.

Applicants should have a degree in biological sciences or related fields and meet advanced statistics coursework requirements, with experience in sampling, data collection, and analysis to support conservation goals.

Qualifications

• Degree requirements include statistics coursework and related science or social science content with statistical methods.
• Experience required includes designing and conducting ecological research using statistical modeling and data analysis.

Skills

Statistical modeling

Data analysis

Ecology integration

Education

Degree in biological sciences, agriculture, natural resource management, chemistry, or related disciplines

15 semester hours in statistics plus 9 hours in related sciences or social sciences with statistics content

Job description

The Smithsonian Institution is the world's largest museum, education, and research complex, with 21 museums and the National Zoo. This position is located in the Conservation Ecology Center of the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) in Front Royal, VA.

I. GS-0408:

BASIC EDUCATION REQUIREMENT:

Degree: biological sciences, agriculture, natural resource management, chemistry, or related disciplines appropriate to the position.

II. GS-1530:

BASIC EDUCATION REQUIREMENT:

1. A. Degree: that included 15 semester hours in statistics (or in mathematics and statistics, provided at least 6 semester hours were in statistics), and 9 additional semester hours in one or more of the following: physical or biological sciences, medicine, education, or engineering; or in the social sciences including demography, history, economics, social welfare, geography, international relations, social or cultural anthropology, health sociology, political science, public administration, psychology, etc. Credit toward meeting statistical course requirements should be given for courses in which 50 percent of the course content appears to be statistical methods, e.g., courses that included studies in research methods in psychology or economics such as tests and measurements or business cycles, or courses in methods of processing mass statistical data such as tabulating methods or electronic data processing.
2. B. Combination of education and experience - courses as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. The experience should have included a full range of professional statistical work such as (a) sampling, (b) collecting, computing, and analyzing statistical data, and (c) applying statistical techniques such as measurement of central tendency, dispersion, skewness, sampling error, simple and multiple correlation, analysis of variance, and tests of significance.

In addition to the basic qualification requirement above:

Experience:

You qualify for this position if you have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-11 level in the Federal Service. For this position, specialized experience is defined as developing, planning, and conducting original research that integrates ecology with statistical and mathematical modeling to understand, manage, and conserve species.

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, 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.

Part-time and/or unpaid experience related to this position will be considered to determine the total number of years and months of experience. Be sure to note the number of paid or unpaid hours worked each week.