• Job Description

  Req#: 776190500
  This position is located within the USDA, Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Plains Area, National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), located in Manhattan, KS.
  
  In this position, you will be responsible for providing technical/scientific support in the development of diagnostics and therapeutic countermeasures such as vaccines and biotherapeutics to combat infectious animal diseases, zoonotic, and foreign animal diseases that threaten agriculture, food, and human health.
  
  Duties
  
  
  • Provide analytical chemistry and serological/ immunological assay support for bioassay development projects.
  • Work on resolving complex problems such as protein-protein interactions, protein precipitation out of solution, charge variant analyses for antibodies and expressed proteins, recovery and purification of proteins from multiple expression platforms.
  • Operate, maintain, calibrate, and modify complex laboratory instruments to independently perform measurements, analyses, and interpretation, and build new applications to meet objectives.
  • Develop technologies for new research to precisely measure chemical and biological analytes in the laboratory.
  • Oversee the work of personnel including technicians, professional support staff, post doctorates, graduate students, temporary and/or seasonal, and contractors of the project.
  • Evaluate data and perform appropriate calculations and analyses to ensure work meets regulatory requirements for biological products.
  • Modify existing protocols and develop new methods to solve problems, recommend and/or develop alternative methods/techniques to accomplish objectives, and identify and conduct research to develop improved methods.
  
  
  Requirements
  
  
  • You must be a US Citizen or US National.
  • Males born after 12/31/1959 must be Selective Service registered or exempt.
  • Subject to satisfactory adjudication of background investigation and/or fingerprint check.
  • Successful completion of one-year probationary period, unless previously served.
  • 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 E-Verify at https://www.e-verify.gov/
  • Must possess and maintain a valid, State-issued motor vehicle operator license to operate Government-owned vehicles.
  • Drug test required.
  
  
  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 Requirements
  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 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.
  
  AND
  In addition to meeting the basic education requirement above, all applicants must meet the following minimum qualification requirements:
  
  GS-12
  Specialized Experience: Specialized experience is experience directly related to the position to be filled. Specialized experience must be described for each grade level advertised. The specialized experience requirements for this position are: Qualifying experience for GS-12 includes one year of specialized experience comparable to GS-11 which is directly related to the work of this position and which has equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. For this position, specialized experience is experience assisting in the development of diagnostic assays or vaccines for veterinary or human diseases; applying analytical chemistry techniques to protein isolation and purification; and operating and maintaining a variety of complex laboratory instruments.
  
  GS-13
  Specialized Experience: Specialized experience is experience directly related to the position to be filled. Specialized experience must be described for each grade level advertised. The specialized experience requirements for this position are: Qualifying experience for GS-13 includes one year of specialized experience comparable to GS-12 which is directly related to the work of this position and which has equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. For this position, specialized experience is experience participating in the development, production, and testing of veterinary diagnostic assays; developing and formulating veterinary vaccines; utilizing chromatography in the analysis of proteins or large molecules; and participating in the development of new techniques to improve accuracy of results.
  
  GS-14
  Specialized Experience: Specialized experience is experience directly related to the position to be filled. Specialized experience must be described for each grade level advertised. The specialized experience requirements for this position are: Qualifying experience for GS-14 includes one year of specialized experience comparable to GS-13 which is directly related to the work of this position and which has equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. For this position, specialized experience is experience leading and managing a bioassay development or animal disease program for scientific research related to veterinary pathogens; developing or modifying complex mixtures for novel and standard vaccine adjuvants; developing, producing, and testing multiple assay types, such as lateral assay flow; and ensuring diagnostic laboratory activities meet mandated requirements and regulations.
  
  Physical Demands
  The work is performed in both an office environment and biocontainment laboratory. Work may require long periods of standing and recurring bending, reaching, or similar activities, and lifting of equipment or samples weighing less than 50 pounds. Some work may involve wearing of personal protective equipment, including a respirator (N-95 or PAPR), while entering infectious disease laboratories, engineering support areas, or animal facilities areas. The incumbent may be required to work around large, restrained animals. This further requires working around quickly often frightened, unpredictable, and ill-natured animals. Travel may be required.
  
  Work Environment
  The work is performed in an office, laboratories, and as needed, animal containment facilities. The work involves exposure to the risks and hazards of harmful biological, chemical, and physical agents are possible. Immunizations with vaccines may be required to enter facilities conducting work with human diseases. The incumbent may be required to occasionally wear personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks or respirators, air pressurized suits, hearing protection, eye protection, boots, gloves, and coveralls. The health status of personnel is monitored periodically using biologic and serologic tests and physical examinations.
  
  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.

• About the company

  The United States Department of Agriculture, also known as the Agriculture Department, is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and production, works to assure food safety, protects natural resources, fosters rural communities and works to end hunger in the United States and internationally.

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