Research Computer Scientist

Summary

Please note: There is no pay associated with this position. This position serves as Without Compensation Research Computer Scientist within the Office of Research and Development (ORD). The VA Research Program strives to promote Veteran-centered care to improve patient experiences and outcomes across VA healthcare and community settings, and to advance value-driven care by providing Veterans the highest quality care at the lowest financial burden.

Duties

The initial application review cut-off for this job announcement is 50 applications. The first 50 applications received will be considered first. Applications received after the initial cut-off number (50 applications) may not receive consideration unless otherwise requested by management. Major Duties: Develop programming specifications, designs, writes, tests and validates a variety of custom software applications to support a wide range of data collection and analysis needs for research studies. Apply relational databases and software development to research experience within the framework of health services research. Apply artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NLP) machine learning and deep learning methodologies and applications to support health services research and quality improvement projects. Work Schedule: Intermittent (Without Compensation)

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 10/10/2026. You may qualify based on your education and experience as described below. A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. Individual Occupational Requirements: Basic Requirements: Bachelor's degree in computer science or bachelor's degree with 30 semester hours in a combination of mathematics, statistics, and computer science. At least 15 of the 30 semester hours must have included any combination of statistics and mathematics that included differential and integral calculus. All academic degrees and course work must be from accredited or pre-accredited institutions. AND Experience: You must possess general experience in: Developing programming specifications, designs, writes, tests and validates a variety of custom software applications to support a wide range of data collection and analysis needs or research studies; provide standardized documentation of programs, evaluation and modification; Applying relational databases and software development to research experience within the framework of health services research; and Resolving unusual, novel and difficult problems that surface relating to the collection of research data, particularly related to the use of existing VA datasets and the development of novel electronic data collection applications 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: The work is predominantly sedentary. Typically, the employee sits comfortably to do the work. However, there will be some walking, standing, bending and carrying of items of moderate weight such as large binders, banker style file boxes, meeting materials, papers, books or small parts. Hand and eye coordination for delicate testing procedures may be the only special physical demand required to perform the work.

Education

PLEASE NOTE: Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications (particularly positions with a positive education requirement). Therefore, applicants must report only attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Applicants can verify accreditation at the following website: http://www.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/index.html. All education claimed by applicants will be verified by the appointing agency accordingly. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education.