DATA ENGINEER

Summary

This position is located in the Office of Inspector General, Office of Data, Analytics, and Technology (ODAT). The Office of Inspector General is an independent office within EPA that helps the agency protect the environment in a more efficient and cost-effective manner. We consist of auditors, program analysts, investigators, and others with extensive expertise. Although we are a part of EPA, Congress provides us with our funding separate from the agency, to ensure our independence.

Duties

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As a DATA ENGINEER GS-2210-13, the incumbent will be responsible for building and maintaining the on-premises and cloud infrastructures that collect, transform, and store data at scale while ensuring data quality, security and accessibility for data scientists, data analysts, statisticians, and business intelligence (BI) reporting platforms.

Typical work assignments may include the following under supervision:

• Designs and maintains data pipelines that feed into different IT systems including, but not limited to, on-premises SQL and Oracle databases, Amazon Web Services (AWS) environments, BI reporting platforms, and Microsoft Office 365
• Builds and maintains data pipelines for ODAT involving audit, evaluation, and investigative oversight projects
• Implements data architecture, governance, and compliance solutions for on-premises and cloud environments
• Develops production-grade extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) pipelines for ingesting and transforming large, disparate data from databases, Application Programming Interface (API)s, and web-scraped feeds
• Orchestrates with Airflow/Luigi and accelerates processing with Spark/PySpark or similar tools
• Applies advanced techniques for data modeling and analytics to meet oversight needs; and provides technical leadership in the development or modernization of IT data systems

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

• Must be a U.S. Citizen or National
• If you are a male born after December 31, 1959 you must certify that you have registered with the Selective Service System, or are exempt from having to do so under the Selective Service Law
• Depending on your status, this position may require serving a 1-year probationary period
• Selectees will be required to complete a "Declaration of Federal Employment" (OF-306), prior to appointment and the appropriate background investigation forms to determine suitability for Federal employment. False statements or responses on these forms can jeopardize your employment opportunity and subject you to disciplinary action, including removal from Federal service
• This is a Public Trust Position. Employment in this position requires a background investigation. If you are selected and cannot obtain a favorable security determination within a reasonable period of time due to disclosed or undisclosed background issues, the tentative employment offer may be withdrawn

Qualifications

This announcement will close at 11:59 PM (ET) on 10/17/2026. Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the close date.

Minimum Qualification Requirement:

Under the updated Competency-Based Qualification Standard for the IT Management Series (2210), applicants must:

1. Meet or exceed all required general competencies at the minimum proficiency level for the GS-13 grade,
2. Meet or exceed all required technical competencies established for this announcement for the GS-13 grade, and
3. Demonstrate you have the required specialized experience for the position.

You may be considered ineligible and removed from further consideration for the position, if you fail to meet any of the criteria above.

Specialized Experience:

You must demonstrate the competencies required to successfully perform the duties of the position. These competencies are normally attained through one year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade level of the position being filled.

You may qualify for the GS-13grade level, if you possess at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-12 grade level in the federal sector, or the equivalent in the private sector. Specialized experience is experience that has equipped the candidate with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. For this position your specialized experience must demonstrate the following:

1. Designing a production Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) pipeline to ingest data from disparate sources into an enterprise environment feeding both, Structured Query Language (SQL) databases and Business Intelligence (Power BI) reporting endpoints;
2. Implementing controls to ensure data compliance and governance standards (e.g., metadata tagging, role-based access, data cataloging) across both, cloud and on-premises environments;
3. Implementing a testing and monitoring strategy to guarantee data integrity; AND
4. Leading or participating orally in meetings to collect data and technical requirements.

Evidence of the above specialized experience must be supported by detailed documentation of duties performed in positions held. Your resume is the key means we have for evaluating your skills, knowledge, and abilities as they relate to this position. Therefore, we encourage you to be clear and specific when describing your experience. We will not make assumptions regarding your experience or based on job titles alone. If your resume does not support your questionnaire answers, we will not allow credit for your response(s).

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). Experience must be validated through the assessment process, consistent with OPM's skills-based hiring policy.

Competencies Being Evaluated:

Attention to Detail

Is thorough when performing work and conscientious about attending to detail.

Customer Service

Works with clients and customers (that is, any individuals who use or receive the services or products that your work unit produces, including the general public, individuals who work in the agency, other agencies, or organizations outside the Government) to assess their needs, provide information or assistance, resolve their problems, or satisfy their expectations; knows about available products and services; is committed to providing quality products and services.

Decision Making

Makes sound, well-informed, and objective decisions; perceives the impact and implications of decisions; commits to action, even in uncertain situations, to accomplish organizational goals; causes change.

Information Management

Identifies a need for and knows where or how to gather information; organizes and maintains information or information management systems.

Interpersonal Skills

Shows understanding, friendliness, courtesy, tact, empathy, concern, and politeness to others; develops and maintains effective relationships with others; may include effectively dealing with individuals who are difficult, hostile, or distressed; relates well to people from varied backgrounds and different situations.

Oral Communication

Expresses information (for example, ideas or facts) to individuals or groups effectively, taking into account the audience and nature of the information (for example, technical, sensitive, controversial); makes clear and convincing oral presentations; listens to others, attends to nonverbal cues, and responds appropriately.

Problem Solving

Identifies problems; determines accuracy and relevance of information; uses sound judgment to generate and evaluate alternatives, and to make recommendations.

Teamwork

Encourages and facilitates cooperation, pride, trust, and group identity; fosters commitment and team spirit; works with others to achieve goals.

Technical Competency

Uses knowledge that is acquired through formal training or on-the-job experience to perform one's job; works with, understands, and evaluates technical information related to the job; advises others on technical issues.

Education

Education cannot be used to qualify for this position.

Additional information

• The selectee will be required to complete a Personal Identity Verification (PIV) process that requires two forms. Selectees will be required to complete a "Declaration of Federal Employment", (OF-306), prior to appointment and the appropriate background investigation forms to determine suitability for Federal employment. False statements or responses on these forms can jeopardize your employment opportunity and subject you to disciplinary action, including removal from Federal service.
• Identification from the I-9 Form. We will compare information provided on the I-9 Form to records available from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The system confirms employee's identity and eligibility to work in the United States. Learn more about e-verify, including your rights and responsibilities.
• Payment of relocation expenses is NOT authorized.

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

Benefits

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A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Learn more about federal benefits.

Review our benefits