Computational Toxicologist - Consumer Product Safety Commission
Description:
At the full performance level of this position (GS-13), you will serve as a subject-matter expert in a specialized area of toxicology (such as risk assessment, dose-response assessment, read-across, computational toxicology, reproductive toxicology, developmental toxicology, inhalation toxicology, neurotoxicology, or carcinogenicity) and will be responsible for providing advice and recommendations to the Directorate, other offices within the Agency, and the Commission.
Your primary responsibility will be to critically review, evaluate, and interpret current scientific literature, research data and investigative reports, medical findings and reports, and proposed and existing mandatory and voluntary standards criteria, to determine whether exposure to and/or use of particular consumer products can result in adverse chronic and/or acute health effects. Your written and/or oral conclusions and recommendations must be concise, clear, scientifically sound, and reflect the significance of the information applicable to agency activities, including the development of mandatory and voluntary standards and support of compliance and enforcement actions.
Your assignments will involve a high degree of complexity and often will require innovative solutions to resolve any conflicting data. In some cases, you may serve as the Commission’s expert witness and may be required as such to testify in court on behalf of the Agency. You will prepare oral and written responses to inquiries involving potential toxicological effects of exposure to consumer products; make formal and informal presentations to the Commission as the technical expert; represent the Agency on interagency committees and at voluntary standards meetings; maintain liaison with other scientists and public health authorities whose work has direct bearing on ongoing Agency work.
You may also serve as a project manager for various Agency hazard identification and reduction projects, leading a multidisciplinary team, with responsibility for developing and coordinating work plans, tasks, and schedules to meet program.
Skills/Eligibility:In addition to the mandatory education requirement, all applicants must have 52 weeks of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade level (GS-12) in the Federal Service. Specialized experience is experience that has equipped the candidate with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position.
Qualifying specialized experience must demonstrate the following:
GS-13: Extensive experience in analyzing and applying professional knowledge of toxicological principles, theories, methods or research to experience determine whether exposure to and/or use of certain products are a hazard OR developing complex toxicological analyses in order to produce reports.
The specialized experience must be fully described in the duties section of your resume in order to receive credit.
Evidence of the above specialized experience must be supported by detailed documentation of duties performed in positions held. Your resume is the key means we have for evaluating your skills, knowledge, and abilities as they relate to this position. Therefore, we encourage you to be clear and specific when describing your experience. We will not make assumptions regarding your experience or based on job titles alone. If your resume does not support your questionnaire answers, we will not allow credit for your response(s).
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. 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.
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.
Applicants must meet the qualifications for this position by the closing date of this announcement.
Education
Mandatory Education Requirement. All applicants must meet the following requirements to qualify:
A degree in toxicology OR an appropriate discipline of the biological, medical, or veterinary sciences that included at least 30 semester hours in chemistry, biochemistry, or physiology, and 12 semester hours in toxicology.
Evaluation of Education: The positions in this series are multidisciplinary positions because the work may involve the application of a scientific knowledge of anatomy, chemistry, biochemistry, physiology, pathology, toxicology, and related sciences such as microbiology, biophysics, entomology, genetics, mathematics, and statistics.
A Ph.D., D.V.M., M.D., or D.O. is preferred, or a master’s degree is highly desirable in toxicology or a related scientific or medical field.