Job Summary

This position is located in the Railroad Retirement Board's Bureau of the Actuary and Research. The incumbent participates in planning and providing technical direction of the statistical programs of the division, including studies of the operations of benefit provisions of the Railroad Retirement Act and the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act, and special computations for the Financial Interchange Program. This announcement may be used to fill one or more vacancies.

Job Description

This is an interdisciplinary position and may be filled in either of the job series listed below. Basic Education Requirements for Statistics Series 1530: 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 -- courses as shown in A 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. Basic Education Requirements for Operations Research Series 1515: Degree: in operations research; or at least 24 semester hours in a combination of operations research, mathematics, probability, statistics, mathematical logic, science, or subject-matter courses requiring substantial competence in college-level mathematics or statistics. At least 3 of the 24 semester hours must have been in calculus. In addition to meeting the Basic Requirements listed above, applicants must meet the minimum qualifications as defined below. One year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-13 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience is defined as demonstrated experience: Conducting important statistical and research projects, special studies including on proposed legislation, and cost calculations using scientific methodologies, simulations, and models to deal with problems of interrelationships and complexities of data; Knowledge of analytical and technical procedures and techniques in order to study and assess benefit trends to reach sound conclusions and make pertinent recommendations; Developing and preparing high quality and comprehensive analytical reports; and Managing personnel, including assigning and balancing work, identifying training needs, and evaluating performance. 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. Only experience obtained by the closing date of this announcement will be considered.