Technical Assistance Support

The EPA National Student Services Contract has an immediate opening for a full time Technical Assistance Support position with the Office of Research and Development at the EPA facility in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The Office of Research and Development at the EPA supports high-quality research to improve the scientific basis for decisions on national environmental issues and help EPA achieve its environmental goals. Research is conducted in a broad range of environmental areas by scientists in EPA laboratories and at universities across the country.

What the EPA project is about

The Office of Research and Development (ORD) at the EPA directly supports the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) on multiple technical assistance efforts to benefit the implementation of the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) Emerging Contaminants infrastructure program and the use of lead Service Lines (LSL) identification technologies authorized by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) (Public Law 117-58 - Nov. 15,2021, 135 STAT. 1399). ORD's efforts will work with multiple, small and disadvantaged drinking-water systems, along with the associated state primacy agencies and technology vendors to help identify an appropriate treatment technology to remove CECs/PFAS from their water and to manage any residual waste stream (solids, liquids, or gases) generated by that technology, and to develop the information and tools needed by states and public water systems to select and implement technologies that rapidly identify LSLs, build accurate inventories, and thus cost-effectively leverage available funding to remove them.

ORD is the premier provider of research and technical assistance on scientific matters dealing with protecting human health and the environment. The Center for Environmental Solutions and Emergency Response (CESER) provides leadership and expertise in the areas of drinking water technical assistance for the nation.

As a team member, you will assist EPA staff with the administrative duties required to support and maintain day-to-day program operations, including the administration, program support, data analysis, modeling, and logistics of the programs described above. The team members responsibilities will include:

How you will apply your skills

General Administrative Support

Organizing and preparing briefing material and presentations that describes the program, goals, and status
• Developing, managing, and maintaining systems, databases, and dashboards to track data results from field projects from throughout the United States
• Maintaining records of meetings, correspondence and documents
• Developing and maintaining document control systems for control of the location, arrangement, access, and use of electronic and paper files
• Assisting with the logistics and coordination activities for briefings, meetings, workshops, video teleconferences and other collaborative efforts.

Programmatic Support

• Tracking sample results across numerous project locations and analytical methods
• Utilizing automated systems to enter, search, edit, and extract data and information
• Utilizing treatment performance models to fit existing data and predict future system performance at the drinking water utilities
• Utilizing software to evaluate technologies and approaches used to remotely or passively identify lead service lines
• Utilizing cost models to predict the cost of full-scale implementation of the technologies being evaluated in these programs
• Collecting, developing, editing, creating, and updating materials for ORD websites, intranet pages, dashboards, team sites, and presentations related to these technical assistance programs.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Work Experience, and Education

• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office applications (i.e., Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook,);
• Experience in administrative support functions (i.e., recordkeeping, filing) and managing records (electronic and hardcopy) or databases;
• Experience conducting internet research;
• Strong communication skills (i.e., written, oral, telephone etiquette) as evidenced by a writing sample;
• Strong time management and organizational skills, including experience handling multiple assignments with competing deadlines; and
• Strong proofreading and editing skills.

Desired Knowledge, Skills, Work Experience, and Education

• Experience with Power BI;
• Experience involving the management of databases and dashboards; and
• Experience organizing, tracking and coordinating large amounts of electronic information.

Location: This job will be located EPA's facility in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Salary: Selected applicant will become a temporary employee of ORAU and will receive an hourly wage of $24.01 for hours worked.

Hours: Full-time.

Travel: Occasional overnight travel may be required.

Expected start date: The position is full time and expected to begin December 2024. The selected applicant will become a temporary employee of ORAU working as a contractor to EPA.

For more information, contact EPANSSC@orau.org. Do not contact EPA directly.

• Be at least 18 years of age and
• Have earned at least a bachelor's degree from an accredited university or college within the last 24 months and
• Be a citizen of the United States of America or a Legal Permanent Resident.

EPA ORD employees, their spouses, and children are not eligible to participate in this program.