Background

This position is in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Headquarters office, Rockville, MD, or in NRC Technical Training Center, Chattanooga, TN; or in NRC Offices in Naperville, IL; King of Prussia, PA; Atlanta, GA; Arlington, TX.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is proud to be ranked among the best places to work for compensation, work-life balance, and performance for mid-sized agencies in the Federal Government.

The NRC protects public health and safety and advances the nation common defense and security by enabling the safe and secure use and deployment of civilian nuclear energy technologies and radioactive materials through efficient and reliable licensing, oversight, and regulation for the benefit of society and the environment.

Duties

Note: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will use Direct Hire Authority to fill vacancies for the Data Scientist positions within the agency.

This vacancy is announced to establish a REPOSITORY of applications.

Applicants MAY BE periodically referred to Selecting Officials both during the open period and for up to 90 days after the closing date of the vacancy. Because of the large number of applications anticipated, applicant status will not be updated UNLESS referred.

Duties may include conducting and coordinating highly specialized analysis of a wide range of data mining/data analysis methods (e.g., data cleansing, data management, analytics, visualization and engineering), modeling (e. g., model selection, training, evaluation and tuning), mathematics, statistics and artificial intelligence to collect, analyze, and interpret large data sets.

Work involves thorough technical expertise to accomplish gathering and maintenance of data, data analytics, development of methodological approaches, study design, development of data strategies and data policies, and advanced written, verbal, and visual communications of study / analysis output.

Duties and responsibilities vary and may increase according to the grade level of the position.

These positions may be subject to Confidential Financial Disclosure reporting requirements and subject to security ownership restriction reporting requirements.

Additional Employment-related Information:

Salary and Benefits

Employees receive the full package of federal employment benefits that include health and insurance plans, a generous annual and sick leave program, and participation in the Thrift Savings Plan, a retirement plan akin to a traditional 401(k) offering.

Qualifications

This position is being filled using the agency Direct Hire Authority and will be filled at either the GG-11, 12, 13, 14, or 15 grade level.

All positions, dependent upon grade levels being filled, require some level of related experience and education.

In order to qualify for these positions, you must have at least one year of specialized experience at the next lower grade level in the Federal Service or equivalent experience in the private or public sector. Specialized experience is experience that has equipped the applicant with the competencies/knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position and is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled.

Specialized Experience by Grade Level:

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE for the GG-11 grade level is defined as At least 1 year of specialized experience, equivalent to the GG-09 grade level in the Federal service, or at least 1 year equivalent experience in the private or public sector to include:
Assisting efforts to assess and document current state business processes and data/technical architectures; assisting efforts to develop and document future state business processes and data/technical architectures; assisting efforts to perform gap analyses and develop recommendations for business process and data/technical architecture improvements; assisting efforts to translate business needs into data/technical requirements; demonstrating working knowledge of data mining/data analysis methods, modeling, mathematics, statistics, programming languages (e.g., SQL, Python, R), web-based application development (e.g., JavaScript, Java, Python, C/C++, R/Shiny apps), and business intelligence platforms (e.g., Tableau, SharePoint, PowerBI), and demonstrating working knowledge of artificial intelligence capabilities for intelligent automation, knowledge discovery, conversational UIs and/or content generation.

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE for the GG-12, 13, 14 and 15 grade levels is defined as increasingly responsible experience, as described above, in coordinating, assessing, overseeing and documenting or leading cross-functional teams in data-based projects.

The ideal candidate for these positions must demonstrate:

1) Ability to plan, direct, coordinate, and manage complex, highly technical projects;
3) Ability to present technical information both orally and in writing; and
4) Ability to develop and implement successful approaches to problem solving and conflict resolution.

A description of how you possess the specialized experience as well as how you meet the qualifications desired in an ideal candidate should be addressed in your resume. The NRC encourages applicants to provide concise job experience details in your resume. Applicants may also use the supplemental vacancy question to provide additional information pertaining to specialized experience and ideal candidate criteria.

Education

Basic Requirements:
A. Degree: Mathematics, statistics, computer science, data science or field directly related to the position. The degree must be in a major field of study (at least at the baccalaureate level) that is appropriate for the position.
or
B. Combination of education and experience: Courses equivalent to a major field of study (30 semester hours) as shown in paragraph A above, plus additional education or appropriate experience.
How to Apply

Visit www.nrc.gov Review the NRC Career Opportunities page, click on Apply Now then Search for New Opportunities and click on view a list of current NRC vacancies at USAJOBS. Or, click on the apply button/link on this site to be taken to NRC USAJOBS.gov employment page. Find the Direct Hire Public Notice Data Scientist Announcement number DE-12951156-26-EM and apply on-line by August 6, 2026.

Your complete application must include your resume, responses to all required vacancy questions, and any required documents that prove your eligibility to apply. If you are viewing this opportunity after August 6 please visit the NRC website and discover additional opportunities for which you might be interested.