Data Scientist
What you'd do
WHAT IS IT - INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY? A description of the business units can be found at: https://www.jobs.irs.gov/about/who/business-divisions Position(s) are to be filled in following area(s): IRS PROGRAM MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION Consider each location carefully when applying. If you are selected for a location, that location will become your official post of duty. REVIEW THE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BELOW FOR FURTHER DETAILS
Major duties
The following are the duties of this position at the full working level. If this vacancy includes more than one grade and you are selected at a lower grade level, you will have the opportunity to learn to perform these duties and receive training to help you grow in this position. Serves as a Data Scientist on advanced analytics projects by interpreting requirements, contributing to solution designs, and delivering data science tasks and artifacts. Responsibilities include code and model reviews, coordination for acceptance of deliverables, and clear communication within and outside the team. The incumbent may provide training, mentor junior team members, and drive improvements to the analytics environment while aligning solutions to business needs. Key technical duties include developing predictive and clustering models, performing feature engineering, and cleaning datasets to optimize them for analysis. The incumbent collaborates on machine learning (ML) deployment pipelines to ensure models are efficiently operationalized and integrated into production environments. Additionally, they apply techniques to validate the performance of data science models and artificial intelligence (AI), ensuring responsible AI implementation aligned with governance principles. The incumbent contributes to streamlined designs for data extraction, transformation, governance, and cataloguing, enabling insights from prepared data. They apply expertise in computer science, mathematics, and statistical techniques to design complex analytical models, interpret results, and report quantitative trends or relationships effectively and efficiently. Works with the senior data scientist to define advanced analytics, Machine Learning (ML), and AI project objectives, including metrics and measures of effectiveness and expected outcomes. Collaborates to identify and develop innovative methodologies for quantitative analysis, forecasting, predictive modeling, optimization, natural language processing, and large language models, while validating analysis and outcomes. The incumbent is responsible for coding and developing algorithms using advanced tools and platforms such as Python, R, Tableau, SQL, Databricks, Graph Databases, and other modern analytics environments. These tools support data manipulation, processing, visualization, and the articulation of findings through reports and dashboards, to enhance real-time insights and decision-making.
What you need to qualify
Federal experience is not required. Experience may have been gained in the public sector, private sector or through Volunteer Service. One year of experience refers to full-time work; part-timework is considered on a prorated basis. To ensure full credit for your work experience, please indicate dates of employment by month/day/year, and indicate number of hours worked per week, on your resume. You must meet the following requirements by the closing date of this announcement. BASIC REQUIREMENTS: EDUCATION: You must have a bachelor's or higher degree in mathematics, statistics, computer science, data science or other 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: A combination of education and experience that includes courses equivalent to a major field of study (30 semester hours) as shown in the paragraph above, plus additional education or appropriate experience. SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE GRADE 13: In addition to the basic requirements above, to be eligible for this position at the GS-13 level, you must have one (1) year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-12 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience for this position must include: Experience applying statistical methods, hypothesis testing, experimental design, causal inference, and model evaluation techniques to support data-driven decision making. Experience working with large-scale structured and unstructured datasets using distributed computing platforms, cloud-based analytics environments, and data processing frameworks such as Spark, Databricks, or similar technologies. Experience developing, validating, deploying, monitoring, and maintaining machine learning and artificial intelligence solutions in production environments. Experience applying data governance, data quality, privacy, security, explainability, and responsible AI principles throughout the analytics lifecycle. Experience translating complex business, program, or operational requirements into analytical solutions and actionable recommendations that support organizational objectives. Experience developing dashboards, reports, and data visualizations that communicate analytical findings and support executive decision making. Experience evaluating model performance using appropriate metrics, conducting model validation, and implementing continuous improvement strategies. Experience communicating technical information orally and in writing to leadership, stakeholders, and cross-functional teams, and translating analytical findings into models, business rules, and operational decisions. AND You must also meet the following requirement(s): PERFORMANCE RATING: Current federal employees must have at least a fully successful or equivalent performance rating to receive consideration. TIME AFTER COMPETITIVE APPOINTMENT (TACA): By the closing date (or if this is an open continuous announcement, by the cut-off date) specified in this job announcement, current civilian employees must have completed at least 90 days of federal civilian service since their latest non-temporary appointment from a competitive referral certificate, known as time after competitive appointment. For this requirement, a competitive appointment is one where you applied to and were appointed from an announcement open to "All US Citizens" TIME IN GRADE (TIG): Federal employees must meet time-in-grade requirements. For positions above the GS-05, applicants must meet applicable time-in-grade requirements to be considered eligible. One year (52 weeks) at the next lower grade level is required to meet the time-in-grade requirements for the grade you are applying for. For positions at the GS-05, you cannot advance to the GS-05 if you have held a GS-02 in the past 52 weeks. There is no TIG restriction for GS-02, 03, or 04 positions. MINIMUM AGE REQUIREMENT: Minimum age for federal employment is 18 years old, or at least 16 years old and have: Graduated from high school or been awarded a certificate equivalent to graduating from high school; or Completed a formal vocational training program; or Received a statement from school authorities agreeing with your preference for employment rather than continuing your education. For more information on qualifications please refer to OPM's Qualifications Standards.
Before you apply
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