Data Modeling Scientists (two positions)

Organization
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Reference Code
EPA-SSP-0010-23
How to Apply
  • Submit application and supporting documents by clicking on Apply Now button.

  • For more information, contact EPAjobs@orau.org. Do not contact EPA directly.

Description

The EPA Environmental Research and Business Support Program has immediate  openings for two full-time Data Modeling Scientists at the EPA facility in Research Triangle Park, NC.

The Office of Research and Development at the EPA supports high-quality research to improve the scientific basis for decisions on national environmental issues and to help EPA achieve its environmental goals. Research is conducted in a broad range of environmental areas by scientists in EPA laboratories and at universities across the country.

What the EPA project is about

EPA’s National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) protects human health and the environment by developing and applying innovations in exposure science. NERL provides scientific leadership, understanding, and tools necessary to quantify exposure for humans and ecosystems. NERL’s Computational Exposure Division (CED) develops & evaluates data, decision support tools & models to be applied to media-specific or receptor-specific problem areas. Scientists use modeling-based approaches to characterize exposures, evaluate fate & transport, & support environmental diagnostics/forensics with input from multiple data sources.

What you will be doing

As part of the EPA team, you will support research under the Chemical Safety for Sustainability (CSS) research program on modeling of human exposure to chemicals.

Your contributions will support model development and data needs, including acquisition and development of datasets to parametrize exposure models, development of decision rules for implementation in models, assistance in the testing or evaluation of the models and databases, basic summaries and analyses of data, and extraction and curation of data from original sources.

Your work may include gathering additional datasets from online sources, formatting datasets into standard templates and uploading into databases, applying out-of- the-box thinking to determine rules to parametrize models of human behavior and product usage, testing and evaluating ease-of-use of software, completing QA workflows to ensure data quality and provenance, and development and application of cheminformatics and machine learning techniques to analyze data.

Required skills

  • Experience programming in the R and/or Python language;

  • Experience with quantitative techniques, basic statistics, and use of spreadsheets; and

  • Strong reading comprehension skills and experience logically interpreting pieces of data.

Desired skills

  • Master’s coursework in statistics, data science, machine learning, user experience and design, and data analysis;

  • Experience with computational or mathematical modeling and/or data science techniques in any discipline; and

  • Experience with databases (e.g. MySQL).

How you will apply your skills

  • Collecting, curating, and organizing data (e.g. in databases) on exposure factors related to chemical exposure;

  • Manipulating information on chemicals, exposure model inputs, and exposure estimates using statistical software. Collecting, curating, and organizing data (e.g. in databases) to parametrize exposure models;

  • Responding to data requests from colleagues as needed (e.g. retrieve data according to specified criteria) through development of programming scripts or SQL queries; and

  • Developing novel models and cheminformatics methods for data analysis.

Communications-related duties shall include:

  • Participating as a member of a multi-disciplinary research team;

  • Interacting with other members of the development team as well as EPA scientists;

  • Documenting thoroughly, all work as directed by EPA mentor to comply with EPA quality assurance procedures for transparency and reproducibility of work; and

  • Summarizing work in internal reports/memos to be used by EPA scientists.

Location: This job will be located at EPA’s Research Triangle Park facility in Raleigh-Durham, NC.

Salary: Selected applicants will become temporary employees of ORAU and will receive an hourly wage of $28.99 for hours worked.

Hours: Full time

Travel: Occasional overnight travel may be required.

Expected start date: This position is full-time and expected to begin in August 2019. The selected applicants will be temporary employees of ORAU working as a contractor to EPA. The initial contract period is through May 14, 2020.

Working conditions:

You will be supervised by a mentor who will provide day-to-day direction, as well as coach, advise and counsel the student, and review your work.  The mentor for this position will be a federal EPA employee.

This position will involve work in an administrative setting and is not expected to involve exposure to hazardous elements.

Qualifications
  • Be at least 18 years of age and

  • Have earned a Master’s degree in physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, applied sciences, environmental health, public health, exposure science, computer sciences, information technology, data science, or a related discipline from an accredited university within the last 24 months and

  • Be a citizen of the United States of America or a Legal Permanent Resident

Eligibility Requirements
  • Citizenship: LPR or U.S. Citizen
  • Degree: Master's Degree or Doctoral Degree received within the last 24 month(s).
  • Overall GPA: 2.00
  • Discipline(s):
    • Chemistry and Materials Sciences (12 )
    • Computer, Information, and Data Sciences (16 )
    • Engineering (27 )
    • Environmental and Marine Sciences (13 )
    • Life Health and Medical Sciences (45 )
    • Physics (16 )
Affirmation

I certify that I am at least 18 years of age; a recent graduate with a Master’s degree in physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, applied sciences, environmental health, public health, exposure science, computer sciences, information technology, data science, or a related discipline from an accredited university or college within the last 24 months; a citizen or a Legal Permanent Resident of the United States of America; and not a current employee of EPA ORD or the spouse or child of an EPA ORD employee.

ORAU is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE AA M/F/Vet/Disability); visit the ORAU website for required employment notices.