Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 01/30/2026. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-09 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-07. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment.

Basic Requirements:

• Individual Occupational Requirements (IOR): The education must be accredited by an accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education at the time the degree was obtained
• To qualify for the GS 0181 occupational series
• Education: Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree with major study in Psychology or related subject or at least 24 semester hours in Psychology
• (Transcripts required)
• In addition to meeting the basic requirements one of the following minimum requirement criteria must be met to be qualified for this position
• You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-07 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization
• Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: administering and scoring a wide variety of psychological and neuropsychological tests in a standardized manner, with sensitivity to individual patient characteristics
• managing conflict and problems in dealing with the patients and family members constructively and appropriately
• performing research and outcome studies using the clinical research database
• interviewing patients or research subjects, obtaining relevant information in a standardized format
• OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience
• To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have two full years of graduate education or a master's degree meets the requirements for GS-9. (Transcripts required) OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level
• You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond
• o calculate, first identify the percentage of required education you have earned (when substituting, you cannot use the first 60 semester hours that you earned)
• Then identify the percentage of required experience you possess
• Add the two percentages
• The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify at the GS-09
• For example, an applicant who has 9 semester hours of graduate level education (i.e
• 50% of graduate education required) and 6 months of creditable specialized experience (i.e
• 50% of the required experience) would equal 100% of the required experience for the position
• (Transcripts required)
• You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Communication Interpersonal Effectiveness Psychology 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
• religions
• 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
• Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week
• Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities
• Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment
• Physical Requirements: Include walking, standing, bending, reaching, light lifting, assisting patients to and from testing room and section waiting area (Le., pushing wheelchairs) and carrying light items such as books and papers
• For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.