Data Scientist Specialist

Office of the Inspector General, USPS • Arlington, VA

4d • Onsite

About The Position

The Data Scientist Specialist position is in the Research & Insights Solution Center (RISC), Strategic Foresight & Oversight team, located in Arlington, Virginia. RISC conducts research and analysis on Postal Service operations to support auditors and agents. The SFO team uses qualitative and quantitative analysis of USPS and postal/parcel market data to develop industry intelligence and provide senior OIG leadership with insights and options on emerging strategic issues. This announcement is open only to current USPS OIG, USPS, USPS Inspection Service, and Postal Regulatory Commission employees; it offers a reassignment or promotion at the Specialist Band level, equivalent to GS-14. Salary is $143,913–$187,093, including locality pay, with grade and salary determined based on education and professional experience. Duties may vary according to agency needs.

The successful candidate works independently and collaboratively with audit and investigative clients, subject matter experts, project leaders, and executive stakeholders. The role requires strong analytical, written, and verbal communication skills to address ambiguous problems, develop effective methodologies, explain technical findings, and present to varied audiences. The position develops analytical products and actionable intelligence to help detect, prevent, and respond to fraud, waste, and abuse.

The role involves preparing and validating data; researching, extracting, interpreting, analyzing, and visualizing information; designing experiments and scalable models; and developing statistical, econometric, mathematical, and AI-based solutions. It also leads AI activities such as natural language processing, predictive analytics, and machine-learning model development and deployment. The specialist documents requirements and methods, develops project and training materials, advises on data access, quality, storage, and automation, and builds relationships with stakeholders and other agencies. The position uses structured and unstructured sources, relational databases, data lakes, and other data environments to create analytical products and share expertise with coworkers.

Applicants must be U.S. citizens and pass drug screening and a background investigation, obtain and maintain a Moderate Background Investigation security clearance and a government-issued credit card, and may need to complete a 12-month probationary period. A bachelor's degree and specified specialized experience are required. The position provides access to federal employee benefits; specific eligibility depends on position type. The agency provides reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university.
• At least two years of specialized experience with query languages such as SQL, programming languages such as Python, business intelligence tools such as Power BI, and analytics platforms such as Databricks.
• At least one year of specialized experience equivalent to GS-13, including organizing and analyzing large structured and unstructured datasets using data analytics tools; developing and implementing data collection and analysis tools with programming languages and environments; and using Python and analytics software to develop complex analytics, predictive modeling, and AI solutions.
• Demonstrated mastery and application of advanced data-mining and AI principles, methods, standards, and practices to develop products and solutions and interpret and implement policies, procedures, and governance strategies.
• Advanced experience using Python and analytics software to develop complex analytics and AI solutions.
• Experience planning, conducting, and leading complex analytical projects.
• Experience defining problems, assessing alternatives, and recommending solutions for complex data and analysis issues.
• Extensive experience ingesting, transforming, analyzing, and visualizing large, disparate datasets.
• Ability to communicate complex business and technical information effectively, orally and in writing.
• Must be a U.S. citizen.
• Must pass a drug screening and background investigation.
• Must obtain and maintain a Moderate Background Investigation security clearance.
• Must obtain and maintain a government-issued credit card.
• May be required to successfully complete a 12-month probationary period.
• Applicants must be current employees of USPS OIG, USPS, USPS Inspection Service, or the Postal Regulatory Commission.
• Applicants must respond to all self-assessment questionnaire questions and demonstrate that they meet every evaluation factor.

Nice To Haves

• Knowledge and experience in law enforcement and/or the audit industry.
• Knowledge and experience using cloud computing platforms such as Azure.
• Knowledge and experience with relational databases and SQL.

Responsibilities

• Prepare, clean, normalize, validate, extract, manipulate, and aggregate data for projects and tasks.
• Research, extract, evaluate, interpret, analyze, and visualize data and information as actionable intelligence for auditors and investigators.
• Advise on potential automation uses to improve program-operation efficiency.
• Design experiments, test hypotheses, and build scalable models using data science and AI methods, including machine learning.
• Design, develop, and adapt mathematical, statistical, econometric, and other analytical solutions for audit, investigation, research, and support functions.
• Lead AI activities, including natural language processing, predictive analytics, and machine-learning model development, training, evaluation, testing, refinement, deployment, and maintenance.
• Translate complex technical findings into accessible narratives.
• Prepare documentation such as requirements, test plans, user manuals, technical diagrams, and training materials.
• Develop project communications and maintain effective working relationships with project teams, stakeholders, and management.
• Advise on project issues such as data access, quality, and storage.
• Contribute to and present training and conference materials to large audiences.
• Collect and analyze data from varied sources to develop trends, descriptive statistics, and other insights.
• Identify and develop information sources from structured and unstructured data, criminal intelligence databases, public sources, internal Postal Service databases, reference manuals, and audit and law enforcement reports.
• Use relational databases, data lakes, data lake houses, and other data environments to create analytical products such as business intelligence tools, summary tables, comparison graphs, and temporal, association, and link-analysis charts.
• Interact with other agencies and build peer relationships to share information and learn about developments in analytical tools and techniques.
• Develop knowledge of database applications and environments and share expertise with coworkers.

Benefits

• Federal employee benefits package; employees and their families have access to a range of benefits, with eligibility dependent on position type.
• Reasonable accommodations are available to applicants with disabilities.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior