Da Scientist - AI Engineer Office of the Inspector General, USPS Summary

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PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT IS ONLY OPEN TO CURRENT UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL, UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE, UNITED STATES POSTAL INSPECTION SERVICE AND POSTAL REGULATORY COMMISSION EMPLOYEES. OTHER APPLICANTS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED.

Learn more about this agency Summary

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PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT IS ONLY OPEN TO CURRENT UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL, UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE, UNITED STATES POSTAL INSPECTION SERVICE AND POSTAL REGULATORY COMMISSION EMPLOYEES. OTHER APPLICANTS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED.

Learn more about this agency Overview Help Accepting applicions This job will close when we have received 100 applicions which may be sooner than the closing de. Learn more Locion 3 vacancies in the following locions: Bethesda, MD Arlington, VA No mching locions found. Work site options Telework eligible Yes—as determined by the agency policy. Remote job No Relocion expenses reimbursed No Salary $70,623 - $133,142 per year Pay scale & grade GG 00 Promotion potential 13 Learn more about pay scale and grade Pay scale and grade determines the salary of the job. Work schedule Full-time Travel Required Occasional travel - You may be expected to travel for this position. Appointment type Term Occupions and job series 2210 Informion Technology Management Supervisory stus No Federal service type This job is in the Excepted Service Represented by a union No Drug test Yes Security clearance Other Financial disclosure required No Some jobs require financial disclosure to identify conflicts of interests. Announcement number

IA-26-168A-13060716-PC

Control number 884225200 This job is open to Help Internal to an agency Current federal employees of the hiring agency th posted the job announcement. Clarificion from the agency Current United Stes Postal Service Office of Inspector General, United Stes Postal Service and United Stes Postal Inspection Service and Postal Regulory Commission Employees only. Videos Duties Help This announcement provides the opportunity for a reassignment/promotion to Da Scientist - AI Engineer position in the Research and Insights Solution Center loced in Arlington, Virginia or Bethesda, MD. Bring your skills and voice to our team! The Research and Insights Solution Center (RISC) is the chief da and research component of the OIG, comprised of da scientists, da analysts, programmic subject mter experts, geographic informion system professionals, da engineers, research specialists, economists, and public policy analysts. Our analytics group offers the opportunity to drive value to the organizion by designing and developing analytical solutions for auditors, investigors, and researchers. The RISC analytics group is currently seeking an experienced Da Scientist - AI Engineer who responsible for researching, assessing, evaluing, and realizing useful and valuable emerging technologies and techniques th can progress the analytic and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities and offerings across OIG. This position will provide thought leadership for RISC, in enabling da science work th requires applicion of da mining techniques, model development, stistical analysis, predictive analytics, text analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and other emerging technologies, to support OIG's oversight of USPS through audits, white papers, and investigions. Bring your skills and voice to our team!

NOTE:

This is a TERM appointment, with an initial term of two years, with the possibility of three additional extensions of up to one-year each. The position may be extended further without competition. Candides evalued on the skills th they possess th are directly reled to the duties of the position and the experience, educion and training th indice the applicant's ability to acquire the particular knowledge and skills needed to perform the duties of the position. Only those candides who meet all qualificion and eligibility requirements and who submit the required informion by 11:59 PM EST on 09/25/2026 This position is being advertised the Journey Band level, equivalent to a

GS-9 - GS-12.

The salary range for this position is $70,623.00 - $133,142.00. The salary figures include locality pay. Promotion potential to a GS-13 is management's discretion. Please note th the duties and responsibilities associed with this position may vary based upon the agency's needs the time of hire. The following description of major duties and responsibilities is only intended to give applicants a general overview of the expections. The following description of major duties and responsibilities is only intended to give applicants a general overview of the expections.

Infrastructure Tooling & Engineering:

Develops scalable infrastructure tooling and cloud-based engineering workflows to support the automed, reproducible deployment of analytics and artificial intelligence pipelines.

Graph Architecture Integrion:

Designs, implements, and maintains the core graph dabase ecosystem, focusing on relionship mapping to uncover hidden networks and anomalies within complex dasets. Generive

AI & LLM

Customizion:

Directs the integrion, prompt engineering, orchestrion, and fine-tuning of commercial and open-source Large Language Models (LLMs) to optimize the extraction of structured da from unstructured forms.

Model Validion & MLOps Monitoring:

Builds shared validion tools and operional systems to track machine learning model performance, detect da drift, and address live deployment anomalies.

Software Engineering Standards:

Applies rigorous modern software engineering practices, including continuous integrion and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, to govern the end-to-end model lifecycle.

Algorithmic Product Creion:

Architects advanced analytics products and writes specialized software code to implement complex analytical frameworks targeted priority organizional objectives.

Testing, Safety, & Compliance:

Executes comprehensive testing protocols for AI integrions to ensure full compliance with performance baselines, security controls, and federal alignment standards.

Community Upskilling & Planning:

Partners with internal leadership to perform training needs assessments and execute stregic workforce development plans th build code-driven analytics capabilities across the agency.

Emergent Technology Prototyping:

Researches the frontiers of da science, commercial APIs, and knowledge management to perform rapid prototyping and rigorous experimention on novel technical workflows.

Cross-Functional Synergy & Adoption:

Facilites collaborive project delivery across technical boundaries, coordines with external providers, and crees accessible user documention to accelere system adoption. Requirements Help Conditions of employment Must be a U.S. citizen Must be able to pass a drug screening Must be able to pass a background investigion Must be able to obtain and maintain Modere Background Investigion security clearance Must be able to obtain and maintain a government-issued credit card May be required to successfully complete a 12-month probionary period Qualificions

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

You must meet ALL of the minimum qualificions listed below. Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in Computer Science, Da Science, Informion Technology, Engineering, Mhemics, Stistics, or a closely reled quantitive field. AND Applicants must have one (1) year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade level demonstring the following technical competencies: Programming for

AI/Da Science:

Experience using modern programming languages standard to da science and AI engineering (Python required; experience with SQL, Scala, or Rust is a plus) to build da pipelines and integre analytics applicions. Generive

AI & LLM

Frameworks:

Experience developing, configuring, or integring machine learning models and Large Language Model (LLM) orchestrion frameworks (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex, Hugging Face, or commercial AI APIs like Azure OpenAI). Enterprise Da & Tooling workflows: Experience utilizing collaborive notebooks, cloud-nive plforms, or da management tools (e.g., Dabricks, Jupyter, Copilot Studio, or Gemini) for experiment tracking, workflow automion, or model management.

Relionship & Graph Da Structures:

Practical, hands-on experience utilizing or configuring graph dabases (e.g., Neo4j, Memgraph) or relional dabase architectures to map and analyze complex da connections.

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS

Knowledge of the U.S. Postal Service Experience in web app development utilizing front and back-end languages, libraries, and frameworks (e.g. HTML5/CSS, JavaScript, Typescript, jQuery, Bootstrap, Angular, Flask, Django, REST/SOAP APIs) Experience with and an understanding of DevOps pipelines and familiarity with the principles of continuous integrion and continuous deployment (CI/CD) practices Practical experience with cloud plforms such as Azure (preferred), AWS, or

GCP EVALUATION FACTORS

You must have the experience, knowledge and skills as listed in EACH of the evaluion factors. Failure to demonstre th you meet all of the evaluion factor requirements as listed below will result in a score of zero (0); an ineligible stus, and you will not be referred for further considerion. Include your major accomplishments relevant to the position requirements in your resume.

Business Requirements & ML Translion:

Ability to capture complex business requirements and adeptly transform raw organizional da into production-ready machine learning solutions, visualizions, interactive dashboards, and executive presentions.

LLM Orchestrion & RAG Frameworks:

Skill in building and scaling Retrieval-Augmented Generion (RAG) architectures using orchestrion frameworks (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex) and vector dabases to safely connect commercial or open-source LLMs to enterprise da sources.

Model Selection & API Integrion:

Knowledge of commercial AI APIs (e.g., Azure OpenAI) and open-source foundion models (e.g., Llama, Mistral), with the ability to evalue model trade-offs regarding context window constraints, lency, cost, and hosting infrastructure.

Advanced Programming & Core Tooling:

Mastery of Python programming and analytical toolsets (e.g., Dabricks, Neo4j, Power BI) to manage da engineering pipelines, implement advanced prompt engineering techniques, and enable function calling/agentic workflows.

LLM Evaluion, Guardrails, & Security:

Skill in implementing validion frameworks to evalue model outputs for accuracy, bias, and faithfulness (mitiging hallucinions), alongside deploying safety guardrails, alignment techniques, and da privacy controls.

Pipeline Automion & Scalability:

Ability to design, implement, and maintain scalable, reliable, and secure da pipelines and MLOps architectures using containerizion and continuous integrion/continuous deployment (CI/CD) workflows.

Technical Communicions & Briefings:

Strong ability to provide structured technical briefings, white papers, and presentions both orally and in writing to clearly communice complex AI products, model limitions, and stregic recommendions to executives, technical peers, and law enforcement components.

Agile Frameworks & LLMOps Delivery:

Ability to set goals, prioritize project backlogs, and deliver high-quality code in an efficient manner applying Agile, DevOps, or LLMOps practices for model monitoring and continuous integrion/deployment (CI/CD). You will no longer be considered for this position if you: fail to respond to all of the questions in the self-assessment questionnaire; fail to address a factor in the narrive section (no response or "See resume" or similar language scored a zero (0)); or receive a zero (0) ring on any evaluion factor. Failure to demonstre th you meet all evaluion factor requirements will result in a score of zero (0). Upon receipt of a zero score, you deemed "not minimally qualified," and you will not be referred for further considerion. Educion Educion must be accredited by an institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Educion.

Applicants can verify accredition here:

https://www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/higher-educion-laws-and-policy/college-accredition . Special Instructions for Candides with

Foreign Educion:

Educion completed outside the United Stes must be deemed equivalent to th gained in U.S. educion programs. You must submit all necessary documents to a prive U.S. credential evaluion service to interpret equivalency of your educion against courses given in U.S. accredited colleges and universities. For further informion : https://sites.ed.gov/internional/recognition-of-foreign-qualificions . Additional informion Pay is only part of the compension you will earn working for the

USPS OIG.

We offer a broad array of benefits programs: As a result of the passage of the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 (PSRA), USPS employees (including

USPS OIG

) and retirees will transition from the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program to the Postal Service Health Benefits (PSHB) Program effective January 1, 2025. Detailed informion about eligibility and enrollment provided upon hiring. For more informion, the Postal Service Health Benefits (PSHB) Program website https://www.opm.gov/healthcare-insurance/pshb/. We offer Health, Dental, Vision, Life and Long-Term Care Insurances with Flexible Spending options as well.

For more informion about these programs : https://www.opm.gov/healthcare-insurance/Guide-Me/Federal-Employees/ Retirement and Thrift Savings. For more informion about these programs see https://www.opm.gov/retirement-center/ and tsp.gov/ . Flexible Work Schedules.

USPS OIG

offers a range of family-friendly flexibilities including flexible work schedules, telework and employee assistance programs. Leave and Holidays. In addition to eleven (11) paid holidays each year, you will earn thirteen (13) days of paid sick leave and thirteen (13) to twenty-six (26) paid vacion days each year depending on your years of service. Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

Stus:

Exempt (Nonexempt employees are entitled to overtime pay; Exempt employees are not). This agency provides Reasonable Accommodions to applicants with disabilities. If you require accommodions for any part of the applicion and/or hiring process, please send an email to jobs@uspsoig.gov. The decision on granting an accommodion request made on a case-by-case basis. For further informion, please refer to our website : https://www.uspsoig.gov/frequently-asked-questions The

USPS OIG

uses a Pay Banding system, which is equivalent to the Federal GS scale. Grade and salary determinions made based upon a candide's educion and professional experience. Expand Hide additional informion Candides should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passione about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United Stes Constitution. Benefits Help A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits th are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new window Learn more about federal benefits . Review our benefits Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more informion on the specific benefits offered. How you evalued You evalued for this job based on how well you meet the qualificions above. The Human Resources Office will review your resume and supporting documention to ensure th you meet the minimum qualificions required for this position. You will no longer be considered for this position if you: Receive a zero (0) ring on any evaluion factor Fail to tach all required documention Submit a resume th exceeds the two-page limit If your applicion merials indice th you are not minimally-qualified for this position If you fail to qualify on the interview Only the top-red candides referred to a review official or the selecting official for further considerion. Top-red applicants may be required to participe in an interview. Your ring may be further adjusted or red as ineligible by the review official or the selecting official based on your interview performance. Once all applicant scores are finalized, the selecting official will make a final decision.

NOTE:

If you receive a zero (0) ring on any evaluion factor or on the interview, you considered

NOT MINIMALLY QUALIFIED

for the position and red ineligible. Applicants for this position may be interviewed one or more times as part of the hiring process. During interviews, applicants may not use any AI tool or virtual assistant (such as ChGPT) to help them answer questions, except for accessibility tools used as part of a reasonable accommodion. Applicants who fail to follow these rules disqualified from the hiring process. Benefits Help A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits th are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new window Learn more about federal benefits . Review our benefits Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more informion on the specific benefits offered. Required documents Required Documents Help You must submit all required documents by 11:59 PM EST on the closing de of this announcement, Vacancy Announcement 13060716, by closing de 09/25/2026. 1.

RESUME - IMPORTANT UPDATE

Your resume must not exceed two (2) pages. You will no longer be considered for this announcement if your resume exceeds the two-page limit. It is essential th your resume and supporting documention provide sufficient informion to substantie your qualificions for the announced position (cegorize as "Resume"). Additional guidance on writing a federal resume can be found : USAJOBS Help Center - How do I write a resume for a federal job? Make sure your page margins are 0.5 inches. The recommended font styles are Sans-Serif, Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open Sans, Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noto Sans. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formting and number of pages. The resume builder can help you cree a resume using these recommendions and uses the informion in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started. 2.

COMPLETE OCCUPATIONAL QUESTIONNAIRE

. Click the "Apply Online" button and follow the prompts to complete the Occupional Questionnaire. (

Required:

You must click on "Submit My Answers" button the end of the Questionnaire to complete this process) 3.

TRANSCRIPTS

from an accredited college or university. The informion presented in the transcript must be verifiable and should contain the name of the institution, applicant's name, list of completed courses, semester hours, GPA, de and type of Bachelor's Degree issued. Educion completed outside the United Stes must be deemed equivalent to th gained in conventional/accredited U.S. educion programs to be acceptable for Federal employment. Attach document verifying th it has been deemed equivalent. For further informion : http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/internional/usnei/us/edlite-us-forrecog.html . (

Required :

Upload and save as "Transcript" document.) 4.

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL

ded within the last 15 months. This is required from all applicants including Federal, USPS, OIG, and prive sector employees. If a

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL

is not available, you must submit a separe stement with the reason a performance appraisal is not available. (

Required:

Upload and save as "Performance Appraisal" document.)

NOTE:

An

SF-50 IS NOT

acceptable as a performance appraisal. 5. SF-50. You can access your Form 50 by logging into LiteBlue.usps.gov and accessing your e

OPF. 6. UPLOAD SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS

which may include: Certifices or Licenses, if applicable . Upload and save as "Certifices or Licenses" document. If you are relying on your educion to meet qualificion requirements: Educion must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Educion in order for it to be credited towards qualificions. Therefore, provide only the tendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Educion . Failure to provide all of the required informion as sted in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible ring or may affect the overall ring. How to Apply Help To apply for this position, you must complete the online applicion and submit the documention specified in the Required Documents section.

IMPORTANT UPDATE

Your resume must not exceed two (2) pages. You will no longer be considered for this announcement if your resume exceeds the two-page limit. The complete applicion package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (EST) on the closing de, 09/25/2026, to receive considerion. To begin, click Apply Online to access an online applicion. Follow the prompts to select your USAJOBS resume and/or other supporting documents. You will need to be logged into your USAJOBS account or you may need to cree a new account. You taken to an online applicion. Complete the online applicion, verify the required documention, and submit the applicion. You will receive an email notificion when your applicion has been received for the announcement. To verify the stus of your applicion, log into your USAJOBS account, https://my.usajobs.gov/Account/Login, select the Applicion Stus link and then select the More Informion link for this position. The Applicion Stus page will display the stus of your applicion, the documention received and processed, and your responses submitted to the online applicion. Your uploaded documents may take several hours to clear the virus scan process. You are strongly urged to read and print the entire vacancy announcement. Agency contact informion Vacancy Inquiries jobs@uspsoig.gov Address AIG Research Insight Solution Center 1735 North Lynn Street Arlington, VA 22209 US Next steps Once the Occupional Questionnaire has been received you will receive an acknowledgement e-mail th your submission was successful. After a review of your applicion package has been completed, you notified of your ring and/or referral to the Selecting Official. Fair and transparent The Federal hiring process is set up to be fair and transparent. Please read the following guidance. Criminal history inquiries Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Policy Financial suitability New employee probionary period Privacy Act Reasonable accommodion policy Selective Service Signure and false stements Social security number request Required Documents Help You must submit all required documents by 11:59 PM EST on the closing de of this announcement, Vacancy Announcement 13060716, by closing de 09/25/2026. 1.

RESUME - IMPORTANT UPDATE

Your resume must not exceed two (2) pages. You will no longer be considered for this announcement if your resume exceeds the two-page limit. It is essential th your resume and supporting documention provide sufficient informion to substantie your qualificions for the announced position (cegorize as "Resume"). Additional guidance on writing a federal resume can be found : USAJOBS Help Center - How do I write a resume for a federal job? Make sure your page margins are 0.5 inches. The recommended font styles are Sans-Serif, Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open Sans, Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noto Sans. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formting and number of pages. The resume builder can help you cree a resume using these recommendions and uses the informion in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started. 2.

COMPLETE OCCUPATIONAL QUESTIONNAIRE

. Click the "Apply Online" button and follow the prompts to complete the Occupional Questionnaire. (

Required:

You must click on "Submit My Answers" button the end of the Questionnaire to complete this process) 3.

TRANSCRIPTS

from an accredited college or university. The informion presented in the transcript must be verifiable and should contain the name of the institution, applicant's name, list of completed courses, semester hours, GPA, de and type of Bachelor's Degree issued. Educion completed outside the United Stes must be deemed equivalent to th gained in conventional/accredited U.S. educion programs to be acceptable for Federal employment. Attach document verifying th it has been deemed equivalent. For further informion : http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/internional/usnei/us/edlite-us-forrecog.html . (

Required :

Upload and save as "Transcript" document.) 4.

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL

ded within the last 15 months. This is required from all applicants including Federal, USPS, OIG, and prive sector employees. If a

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL

is not available, you must submit a separe stement with the reason a performance appraisal is not available. (

Required:

Upload and save as "Performance Appraisal" document.)

NOTE:

An

SF-50 IS NOT

acceptable as a performance appraisal. 5. SF-50. You can access your Form 50 by logging into LiteBlue.usps.gov and accessing your e

OPF. 6. UPLOAD SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS

which may include: Certifices or Licenses, if applicable . Upload and save as "Certifices or Licenses" document. If you are relying on your educion to meet qualificion requirements: Educion must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Educion in order for it to be credited towards qualificions. Therefore, provide only the tendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Educion . Failure to provide all of the required informion as sted in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible ring or may affect the overall ring. How to Apply Help To apply for this position, you must complete the online applicion and submit the documention specified in the Required Documents section.

IMPORTANT UPDATE

Your resume must not exceed two (2) pages. You will no longer be considered for this announcement if your resume exceeds the two-page limit. The complete applicion package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (EST) on the closing de, 09/25/2026, to receive considerion. To begin, click Apply Online to access an online applicion. Follow the prompts to select your USAJOBS resume and/or other supporting documents. You will need to be logged into your USAJOBS account or you may need to cree a new account. You taken to an online applicion. Complete the online applicion, verify the required documention, and submit the applicion. You will receive an email notificion when your applicion has been received for the announcement. To verify the stus of your applicion, log into your USAJOBS account, https://my.usajobs.gov/Account/Login, select the Applicion Stus link and then select the More Informion link for this position. The Applicion Stus page will display the stus of your applicion, the documention received and processed, and your responses submitted to the online applicion. Your uploaded documents may take several hours to clear the virus scan process. You are strongly urged to read and print the entire vacancy announcement. Expand Hide how to apply Agency contact informion Vacancy Inquiries jobs@uspsoig.gov Address AIG Research Insight Solution Center 1735 North Lynn Street Arlington, VA 22209 US Next steps Once the Occupional Questionnaire has been received you will receive an acknowledgement e-mail th your submission was successful. After a review of your applicion package has been completed, you notified of your ring and/or referral to the Selecting Official. Expand Hide next steps Fair and transparent The Federal hiring process is set up to be fair and transparent. Please read the following guidance. Criminal history inquiries Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Policy Financial suitability New employee probionary period Privacy Act Reasonable accommodion policy Selective Service Signure and false stements Social security number request Overview Help Accepting applicions This job will close when we have received 100 applicions which may be sooner than the closing de. Locion 3 vacancies in the following locions: Bethesda, MD Arlington, VA No mching locions found. Work site options Telework eligible Yes—as determined by the agency policy. Remote job No Relocion expenses reimbursed No Salary $70,623 - $133,142 per year Pay scale & grade GG 00 Promotion potential 13 Pay scale and grade determines the salary of the job. Work schedule Full-time Travel Required Occasional travel - You may be expected to travel for this position. Appointment type Term Occupions and job series Supervisory stus No Federal service type This job is in the Excepted Service Represented by a union No Drug test Yes Security clearance Other Financial disclosure required No Some jobs require to identify conflicts of interests. Announcement number

IA-26-168A-13060716-PC

Control number 884225200