This position is located within the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), Office of Analysis and Estimation, Estimation Branch. In this position, you will serve as the Section Chief and the Agency's technical expert in the areas of development, implementation, and direction of major segments of the Section's programs relating to the surveys that provide agricultural production and economic statistics.

Qualifications:

Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement including time-in-grade restrictions, specialized experience and/or education, as defined below. Time in

Grade:

Current federal employees applying for a promotion opportunity must meet the time in grade requirement of 52 weeks of service at the next lower grade level in the normal line of progression for the position being filled.

Basic Requirement:

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. OR Combination of education and experience that included the courses shown 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 meeting the basic requirements described above, applicants must also meet additional qualification requirements as stated below.

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: One year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-13 level that includes: Leading or independently managing statistical survey or estimation programs Evaluating the quality, accuracy, and reliability of statistical data and estimates Applying statistical methodologies to develop or evaluate estimates, forecasts, statistical indicators, or other analytical products. Providing technical advice or recommendations to senior officials concerning statistical programs Applicants must submit transcript(s) at the time of application for verification of meeting the education requirement described above.