Epidemiologist

Full Job Description

This position is located in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), Office of Science (OS), Division of Population Health Science (DPHS) in Silver Spring, MD.

CTP is responsible for carrying out the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, passed by Congress in 2009.

The law gives the CTP broad authority to regulate the manufacturing, distribution, and marketing of tobacco products. The position of Epidemiologist falls under the 0601 occupational series.

To qualify for this position at grade GS-13, you must meet https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/pay/time-in-grade requirements by 11:59 pm EST on 03/16/2026.

Basic Requirements: Bachelor's or graduate/higher level degree: major study in an academic field related to the medical field, health sciences or allied sciences appropriate to the work of the position.

This degree must be from an educational program from an accrediting body recognized by the U.S Department of Education at the time the degree was obtained.

AND; Minimum Qualifications: Specialized experience is experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled.

The specialized experience must demonstrate one year of full-time work experience , or the equivalent if part-time (for example, an employee working 20 hours per week for a 12-month period should be credited with 6 months of experience.) Experience may have been obtained in either the federal service or its equivalent with state or local government, the private sector, or nongovernmental organizations.

Specialized Experience: GS-13: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-12, which includes planning, designing, and conducting epidemiologic studies and surveys on tobacco and/or other regulated products that analyzes public health issues and their impact on public health policies and preparing and communicating reports documenting the epidemiological findings.

To qualify for this position, you MUST meet the Basic Requirements & Specialized Experience as described above.

In accordance with Office of Personnel Management policy, federal employees are assumed to have gained experience by performing duties and responsibilities appropriate for their official series and grade level as described in their position description.

Experience that would not normally be part of the employee's position is creditable, however, when documented by satisfactory evidence, such as a signed memorandum from the employee's supervisor or an SF-50 or SF-52 documenting an official detail or other official assignment.

The documentation must indicate whether the duties were performed full time or, if part time, the percentage of times the other duties were performed.

It is expected that this documentation is included in the employee's official personnel record.

In order to receive credit for experience in your resume that is not within the official series and grade level of your official position, you must provide a copy of the appropriate documentation of such experience as indicated above.

If you are applying based on some other qualifying eligibility (i.e.

you are not applying as a current Federal employee), you must meet the specific requirements of the eligibility you are claiming, and must have sufficient past experience to demonstrate that you are minimally qualified for this position.

See https://help.usajobs.gov/working-in-government/unique-hiring-paths on USAJOBS for more information about various ways you may be eligible to apply!

PHS Commissioned Corps Officers interested in performing the duties of this position within the Commissioned Corps may apply online to this announcement.

Candidates will be referred to (CC) personnel and not as candidates for conversion to a permanent career or career-conditional appointment.

NOTE: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date.

To verify your application is complete, log into your USAJOBS account, https://secure.login.gov/ select the Application Status link and then select the More Information link for this position.

The Details page will display the status of your application, the documentation received and processed, and any correspondence the agency has sent related to this application.

IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Qualifications are based on breadth/level of experience.

In addition to describing duties performed, applicants must provide the exact dates of each period of employment (from MM/YY to MM/YY) and the number of hours worked per week if part time.

As qualification determinations cannot be made when resumes do not include the required information, failure to provide this information may result in disqualification.

Applicants are encouraged to use the USAJOBS Resume Builder to develop their federal resume.

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.

You must submit https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents to verify your eligibility to apply for this vacancy.

For most applicants, an ttps://help.usajobs.gov/working-in-government/service/sf-50 will be required.

However, if you are applying as a https://help.usajobs.gov/working-in-government/unique-hiring-paths/veterans, individual with a https://help.usajobs.gov/working-in-government/unique-hiring-paths/individuals-with-disabilities, or a https://help.usajobs.gov/working-in-government/unique-hiring-paths/federal-employees/career-transition , you will be required to provide other supporting documents as applicable.

See the Required Documents section for details.

Be sure that any files you upload as supporting documentation are free of security or compression features which render such documents unreadable to our system. Major Duties:

• Serves as a subject-matter expert to facilitate the development of regulatory actions by providing expertise on current issues in epidemiology of tobacco products, particularly as they relate to the evaluation of relevant tobacco regulations.
• Independently designs and develops quantitative research protocols using evaluation and epidemiologic perspectives of public health issues.
• Evaluates and assesses epidemiologic study proposals, protocols, analyses, and reports submitted to the FDA by external individuals and organizations, such as tobacco product manufacturers in support of product applications or tobacco research.
• Coordinates and conducts epidemiologic studies, surveys, and/or analyses to inform program and policy decisions.
• Prepares reports and disseminates research results to supervisors and peers internally, and at professional meetings and conferences, industry meetings, and other public meetings externally.