PWS Fellow Recruitment OSMR.docx

Section C – Performance Work Statement

PART 1

BACKGROUND AND REQUIREMENTS

1. Introduction

A. BACKGROUND:

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) seeks a highly motivated doctoral-level statistician or data scientist to work with the BLS Office of Survey Methods Research (OSMR) in addressing the challenges associated with using alternative data sources to augment and/or replace survey data for producing official statistics.

BLS is the principal federal agency responsible for measuring labor market activity, working conditions, and price changes in the economy. The mission of BLS is to collect, analyze, and disseminate essential economic information to support public and private decision making. As a principal federal statistical agency, BLS has relied on large-scale sample surveys to collect the data necessary to meet its mission. However, the cost and burden of survey data collection has risen, in tandem with a desire for even more granular data. Influential reports and new legislation point to the growth of non-survey or alternative data sources and their potential to augment official statistics. Along with opportunity comes challenges, including evaluating the quality of alternative data sources, assessing tradeoffs between survey and non-survey data, determining if and how to blend survey and non-survey data sources, and protecting the privacy and confidentiality of increasingly granular and blended data products.

OSMR plans and directs activities for evaluating and improving BLS programs and data, and conducts primary research on statistical issues relevant to the BLS mission. The OSMR has two centers – the Behavioral Science Research Center (BSRC) and the Mathematical Statistics Research Center (MSRC). The primary mission of the BSRC is to understand and identify ways to reduce non-sampling or measurement error and to improve survey methodology. The mission of the Mathematical Statistics Research Center (MSRC) is to improve the accuracy of survey data and published estimates, improve the efficiency of BLS data collection and estimation methods, and provide general mathematical statistics support to the BLS.

B. SERVICE REQUIREMENTS:

This requirement is to provide a list of highly skilled doctoral-level statisticians and data scientists for a nine to 12 month assignment at the BLS Office of Survey Methods Research, to provide/manage a process whereby BLS personnel can select a suitable candidate from the list, and to provide the pay and benefits to the successful candidate, which will be referred to as a Fellow in what follows.

The Government will not exercise any supervision or control over the contract service providers performing the services herein. Such contract service providers shall be accountable solely to the Contractor who, in turn is responsible to the Government. However, the Government shall exercise control over access to BLS restricted information.

The services that BLS is requesting are listed below.

The Contractor must provide the following services:

a. Establish fellowship policies and procedures providing a fair and open recruitment process

b. Openly promote the opportunity for a BLS Fellow who must be highly qualified in the area of statistics, mathematics or data science

c. Recruit highly qualified candidates in statistics, mathematics or data science with experience in presenting research orally and in writing for the nine to 12 month fellowship assignment

d. Manage the application, selection, and placement processes, while also allowing OSMR to have inputs into the selection process

e. Provide the salary and benefits to the successful Fellow

f. Plan and implement a nine to 12 month professional development program for the Fellow, which shall include travel to relevant statistics conferences such as the Joint Statistical Meetings, workshops, and/or short courses

g. Monitor and evaluate fellowship assignments, activities and learning goals

The contractor shall conduct the following activities under an award: review and establish policies and procedures for a fellowship; promote the fellowship and the recruited BLS Fellow; recruit candidates; manage the application, selection and placement processes; plan and implement a nine to 12 month professional development program for the Fellow; monitor and evaluate fellowship assignments, activities, and learning goals; and conduct ongoing outreach and collaboration with the BLS OSMR. The fellowship is expected to run from September 2020 through August 2021. Thus, the successful BLS Fellow must be ready to work at the BLS starting in September 2020. These tasks and responsibilities are further outlined below.

The contractor shall implement a competitive multi-tiered merit review process to select the Fellow. The contractor shall provide a list of possible Fellow candidates to the BLS, where the final candidates have been evaluated on their educational and professional credentials and references, a demonstrated competence in statistics, economics or data science, an ability to communicate orally and in writing, and their leadership ability. The ultimate goal of the recruitment process will be to provide the best statistician, economist or data scientist from the applicant pool in keeping with the mission and interests of OSMR and BLS.

2. Objective The objective of this requirement is to fund the contractor to provide one OSMR BLS Fellow with expertise in statistics, mathematics, or data science; to establish and manage the entire process including advertisement, selection, payment of salary and benefits, training, networking, and evaluation of the program.

3. Period of Performance

The base period of performance (POP) is expected to be September 2020 through August 2021. The successful Fellow should report to the BLS Office of Survey Methods Research in September 2020.

Option years are expected to be as follows:

Option Year 1: September 2021-August 2022 Option Year 2: September 2022-August 2023 Option Year 3: September 2023-August 2024 Option Year 4: September 2024-August 2025

The exact dates for each POP will be established by the base award.

Although each POP is 12 months in length, each fellowship may be between nine to 12 months if all the following deliverables are complete and are acceptable to BLS: fellow orientation, teach short course, educational seminars, skill-building workshops, career-enhancement sessions, year-end summit, end-of-year report, end-of-year meeting, outreach event.

4. Specific Tasks

The contractor shall conduct the following activities under this contract: review and establish fellowship policies and procedures, with a special emphasis on including a fellowship retention plan to ensure the selected Fellow is able to commit to a nine to 12 month long fellowship assignment; promote the Fellow’s participation in the program; recruit candidates with inputs from OSMR; manage the application, selection and placement processes; plan and implement a professional development program; monitor and evaluate the fellowship assignment and activities and learning goals; support and coordinate the network of current and alumni Fellows in the contractor’s network; and conduct ongoing outreach and collaboration with OSMR. These responsibilities are detailed below.

4.1 Support:

The contractor shall establish, distribute and implement fellowship guidelines and policies; provide ongoing support to the Fellow and the BLS host office throughout the fellowship, including troubleshooting problems, providing advice, guiding creation of a Fellowship Impact Plan, and facilitating communication between the Fellow, supervisors, mentors, and BLS liaisons, and assisting all parties to take advantage of opportunities.

4.2 Professional Development for the Fellow:

The contractor shall accomplish the following tasks with a focus on professional development:

· Conduct a two-week orientation at the start of the fellowship that provides essential information about government operations, helps define the roles of the Fellow, and offers useful contacts for fellowship assignments.

· Facilitate the planning, logistics, and implementation of educational seminars and other events designed to expose the BLS Fellow to a range of issues related to government processes.

· Organize skill-building workshops to expand the Fellow’s professional capacity in communications and leadership.

· Provide career-enhancement sessions covering a range of issues such as soliciting and applying feedback from mentors and supervisors, developing a career plan, strategies for successful professional networking, developing achievement statements, and exploring career opportunities in academic, government, non-profit, and private sectors.

· Implement a day-long summit for the BLS Fellow and other Fellows in the contractor’s network to reflect on the fellowship, discuss and share resources for future career plans, and provide feedback on the fellowship experience.

4.3 Collaboration and Partnerships:

The contractor shall accomplish the following tasks to foster collaboration and networking for the Fellow:

· Organize at least one annual outreach event to foster interactions with national science-policy professionals and the contractor’s network of past and current Fellows.

· Maintain a Fellows Central web portal as the location of an online Fellows directory and as a primary venue for communication and connection for current and alumni Fellows.

4.4 Monitoring and Evaluation

The successful contractor shall solicit feedback from the Fellow (using a survey or questionnaire) at four points throughout the fellowship. These surveys will be used to assess the fellowship program in meeting its objectives of learning, professional development, networking and/or providing career growth opportunities. The contractor shall summarize results and provide it to OSMR at the end of the fellowship.

5. Place of Performance:

The work to be performed by the selected Fellow under this contract shall be performed on-site at 2 Massachusetts Ave NE, Washington DC, 20212. Telework may be offered in certain circumstances with approval of OSMR.

6. Recognized Holidays:

New Year’s Day, Labor Day, Inauguration Day, Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday, Columbus Day, President’s Day, Veteran’s Day, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving Day, Independence Day, and Christmas Day

7. On-Site Information.

The Contractor is responsible for ensuring that the Fellow:

7.1 Conduct business between the hours of 8:00 am and 4:30 pm, Monday thru Friday, except Federal holidays or when the Government facility is closed due to local or national emergencies, administrative closings, or similar Government directed facility closings.

7.2 Be responsible for safeguarding all government equipment, information and property provided for contractor use. At the close of each work period, government facilities, equipment, and materials shall be secured.

7.3 Establish and implement methods of making sure all keys/key cards issued to the Contractor by the Government are not lost or misplaced and are not used by unauthorized persons. NOTE: All references to keys include key cards. No keys issued to the Contractor by the Government will be duplicated. The Contractor shall develop procedures covering key control that shall be included in the Quality Control Plan. Such procedures shall include tum-in of any issued keys by personnel who no longer require access to locked areas. The Contractor shall immediately report any occurrences of lost or duplicate keys/key cards to the Contracting Officer (CO).

7.4 When attending meetings, answering Government telephones, and working in other situations where their Contractor status is not obvious to third parties are required to identify themselves as such to avoid creating an impression in the minds of members of the public that they are Government officials. They must also ensure that all documents or reports produced by Contractors are suitably marked as Contractor products or that Contractor participation is appropriately disclosed.

8. Security and Confidentiality Requirements.

8.1 Security Onboarding

The contractor shall provide personnel to work on the contract that are able to pass pre-screening conducted by Department of Labor (DOL). The contractor shall ensure that personnel have either (i) undergone a background investigation (minimum Tier 1/NACI) that was favorably adjudicated by the Federal Government within the past five (5) years without a break in Federal/Federal Contractor service of greater than 24 months or (ii) will be able to pass a background investigation conducted by the Office of Personnel Management or other entity as directed by the Federal government. The following information is provided to assist vendors in proposing suitable candidates

Prospective contractor employees must present at least three years’ proof of U.S. residency and must be able to provide proper identification as dictated by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Identification requirements linked below are for GSA’s USAccess program, as it relates to USAccess Enrollment (i.e. fingerprinting).

Identification requirements could be found in the following link:

https://www.fedidcard.gov/system/files/doc_AcceptableFormsofIDGuideSep2016.pdf?id=109

Pre-employment Checks

Before a contractor employee can begin work for DOL, they must provide the Contractor with a properly completed OF-306, Declaration for Federal Employment, which the Contractor has substantively reviewed to ensure that the information provided is correct and complete and for the identification of any areas of concern. The form can be found at the OPM website. Contractor employee must also be fingerprinted and complete the adjudication process successfully before any onsite work or data access can begin.

The onboarding process timeline will be adversely affected by failure to accurately and completely submit required documentation in a timely manner. The processing time for adjudication will be dependent on information uncovered over the course of OPM’s investigation.

8.2 Some of the work under this contract may involve access BLS restricted access data. Additional approval to access restricted data shall also be required. The contractor shall assist the BLS in obtaining the required information from the Fellow prior to their start date. The Contractor shall be required to comply with the BLS Confidentiality and Security Requirements (Section H) and the selected Fellow will be required to sign a BLS Agent Agreement in BLS Confidentiality & Security Requirements Attachment B of Attachment J.H.1 - BLS Confidentiality and Security Requirements and complete required training.

9. Documentation Rights:

All documents and materials, to include the source codes of any software, produced under this contract shall be Government owned and are the property of the Government with all rights and privileges of ownership/copyright belonging exclusively to the Government. These documents and materials may not be used or sold by the Contractor without written permission from the Contracting Officer. All materials supplied to the Government will be the sole property of the Government and may not be used for any other purpose. This right does not abrogate any other Government rights.

10. Organizational Conflict of Interest:

Contractor and subcontractor personnel performing work under this contract may receive, have access to or participate in the development of proprietary information that may create a current or subsequent Organizational Conflict of Interests (OCI) as defined in FAR Subpart 9.5. The Contractor shall notify the Contracting Officer immediately whenever it becomes aware that such access or participation may result in any actual or potential OCI and shall promptly submit a plan to the Contracting Officer to avoid or mitigate any such OCI. The Contractor’s mitigation plan shall be determined to be acceptable solely at the discretion of the Contracting Officer and in the event the Contracting Officer unilaterally determines that any such OCI cannot be satisfactorily avoided or mitigated, the Contracting Officer may affect other remedies as he or she deems necessary, including prohibiting the Contractor from participation in subsequent contracted requirements which may be affected by the OCI.

11. Quality Control:

The Contractor shall develop and maintain an effective quality control plan (QCP) to ensure services are performed in accordance with this PWS. The Contractor shall develop and implement procedures to identify, prevent, and ensure non-recurrence of defective, or subpar, services. The Contractor’s quality control program is the means by which the Contractor assures that work performed complies with the requirement of the contract. The QCP shall be delivered within 30 days after award of the contract. After acceptance of the quality control plan the Contractor shall receive the Contracting Officer’s acceptance in writing of any proposed change to the QCP.

PART 2

DEFINITIONS & ACRONYMS

2.1 Definitions

· VENDOR/CONTRACTOR. A supplier or vendor awarded a contract to provide specific supplies or service to the government. The term used in this contract refers to the prime.

· CONTRACTING OFFICER. A person with authority to enter into, administer, and or terminate contracts, and make related determinations and findings on behalf of the government. Note: The only individual who can legally bind the government.

· CONTRACTING OFFICER’S REPRESENTATIVE (COR). An employee of the U.S. Government appointed by the Contracting Officer to administer the contract. Such appointment shall be in writing and shall state the scope of authority and limitations. This individual has authority to provide technical direction to the Vendor as long as that direction is within the scope of the contract, does not constitute a change, and has no funding implications. This individual does NOT have authority to change the terms and conditions of the contract.

· DAY(S). A calendar day(s) unless stated otherwise.

· DEFECTIVE SERVICE. A service output that does not meet the standard of performance associated with the Performance Work Statement.

· DELIVERABLE. Anything that can be physically delivered, but may include non-manufactured things such as meeting minutes or reports.

· KEY PERSONNEL. Vendor personnel that are evaluated in the evaluation process and that may be required to be used in the performance of the contract. When key personnel are used as an evaluation factor in best value procurement, an offer can be rejected if it does not have a firm commitment from the persons that are listed in the proposal.

· QUALITY ASSURANCE. The government procedures to verify that services being performed by the Vendor are performed according to acceptable standards.

· QUALITY CONTRL PLAN (QCP). A written document specifying how the Vendor shall monitor and control quality of all services to be provided.

· QUALITY ASSURANCE SURVELLIENCE PLAN (QASP). An organized written document specifying the surveillance methodology to be used for surveillance of Vendor performance.

· QUALITY CONTROL. All necessary measures taken by the Vendor to assure that the quality of an end product or service shall meet contract requirements.

· SUBVENDOR/SUBCONTRACTOR. One that enters into a contract with a prime Vendor. The Government does not have privity of contract with the subvendor/subcontractor.

· TASK MONITOR. BLS subject matter experts who shall support the COR in contract management and deliverable review.

2.2 Acronyms

PART 3

GOVERNMENT FURNISHED PROPERTY, EQUIPMENT, AND SERVICES

3.1 Facilities and Equipment: The Government will provide the necessary workspace for the Vendor staff to provide the support outlined in the PWS to include desk space, telephones, computers, and other items necessary to maintain an office environment.

3.2 Materials: The Government will provide all materials and information that are unique to the BLS or BLS programs.

PART 4

DELIVERABLES SCHEDULE

4.1 Deliverables Table: The following is a list of deliverables and their estimated timeframes. The final delivery dates/timeframes shall be mutually agreed upon between BLS, the contractor, and the Fellow prior to the execution of the contract.

4.2 Acceptance: The COR and BLS Task Monitor(s) shall make final inspection and acceptance of all deliverables to ensure they conform to the requirements listed throughout this PWS.

PART 5

PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS SUMMARY

5.1 Performance Requirements Summary: Below is a set of performance objectives and standards. The Vendor shall adhere to all performance objectives and standards.

Performance Objective

Staffing:

The Vendor shall provide key personnel (Fellow) with the qualifications required in the PWS.

Timelines:

The Vendor shall meet established deadlines for deliverables.

Communication:

The Vendor shall maintain communication with BLS about delays and unexpected issues that may impact the project schedule, or quality of deliverables.

Vendor informs BLS of any delays at least a week in advance of deadline.

Any issues that could impact performance at any point during performance are communicated to BLS within 3 business days of being identified.

Quality:

The Vendor shall ensure all deliverables are complete and accurate per the approved technical proposal.

inspection Impact on CPARS review.

PERFORMANCE STANDARDS

High quality of eligible candidates available for each submitted request (project listed below) Placement of a highly qualified Fellow.

High quality defined as knowledge, skills, abilities that match required and desired skills set forth in position description.

(Position filled)

PART 6

PROJECT SUMMARIES

OSMR will work with the Fellow and BLS programs to establish one or more research projects fitting the Fellow’s expertise and interests. Potential projects or areas of research include the following:

· Disclosure limitation: Ensuring the confidentiality of respondent identities and their data is important to the BLS. Thus, all BLS programs have a need for the development of innovative methods for disclosure limitation. This can include, but is not limited to, top coding, Bayesian modeling, and the generation of synthetic data.

· Missing data and imputation: All surveys suffer from missing data, which can arise from missing entire sample units (non-response) or items in a survey (e.g., missing income, age, etc. for a responding sample unit). The development of novel statistical machine learning methods or models to fill in missing data would be beneficial.

· Record linkage and the use of alternative data sets: BLS is interested in exploring the use of alternative data sources, such as administrative or transactional data, to augment and enhance BLS products. The development of methods, theory, and computer implementations to link records and to use alternative data in a principled way is desired.

· Text analysis and natural language processing: Several BLS programs have been utilizing approaches in text analysis to explore the content in interviewer notes for mitigation of non-response, to assign codes to occupational descriptions, and to extract entities from documents. Additional opportunities exist at the BLS, and a Fellow interested in this area could devise an interesting research project that would also be of use to BLS.

Besides the ability to give oral presentations and to convey research in writing, the BLS Fellow should have experience and/or training in the following areas.

· Statistics and machine learning

· Analytical software such as R, MATLAB, Python

Note that the selected BLS Fellow shall not share any BLS restricted access data with other Fellows or individuals who have not been made BLS agents or completed the required training.

Section D - Packaging and Marking There are no clauses in this section.

Section E - Inspection and Acceptance This section is intentionally left blank.

Section F - Deliveries or Performance The period of performance of the base year is expected to be September 2020 through August 2021. Option years are expected to be as follows:

Option Year 1: September 2021-August 2022 Option Year 2: September 2022-August 2023 Option Year 3: September 2023-August 2024 Option Year 4: September 2024-August 2025 Dates will be finalized prior to the execution of the contract.