Department of Agriculture

Materials Examiners and Identifier

Manhattan, Kansas Full time

Materials Examiners and Identifier

Department: Department of Agriculture

Location(s): Manhattan, Kansas

Salary Range: $26.05 - $30.4 Per Hour

Job Summary: As a Materials Examiner and Identifier you will perform duties and tasks related to the proper receipt, identification/examination, storage, and preparation of submitted samples, veterinary biologics, laboratory reagents, equipment, supplies and related materials, as well as, disposing of decontaminated biological waste and/or materials at the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF).

Major Duties:

  • The duties may include, but are not limited to:
  • Performs the full range of examining and identifying explosive materials for the most complex categories of materials and equipment.
  • Examines and identifies complex and difficult items received such as: no markings or documentation; require exhaustive and extensive research; require reference to complex, subjective specifications.
  • Issues inventory, supplies and materials; stores and pulls warehouse stock; packs and unpacks materials; loads and unloads materials; uses computerized equipment to process orders issued..
  • Assembles and arranges for Foreign and Domestic shipments of infectious materials, including Select Agents and Toxins, sample kits, check tests, reagents and supplies.

Qualifications: To qualify, you must show you have had training and experience of sufficient scope and quality to provide you with the knowledge, skills and abilities to perform the duties of the position. Your answers to the vacancy specific questions must be supported by the work experience in your resume. For example, if you respond in the affirmative when questioned whether you have experience handling and shipping select agents your resume must include this experience, mindful that experience may not be inferred by job title. 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). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

How to Apply: Please read the entire announcement and all instructions before you begin. You must complete this application process and submit all required documents electronically by 11:59p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on the closing date of this announcement. Applying online is highly encouraged. We are available to assist you during business hours (normally 8:00a.m. - 4:00p.m., Monday - Friday). If applying online poses a hardship, contact the Agency Contact listed below well before the closing date for an alternate method. All hardship application packages must be complete and submitted no later than noon ET on the closing date of the announcement in order to be entered into the system prior to its closing. Resume cannot exceed two pages. This agency provides reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities on a case-by-case basis; contact the Agency Contact to request this. Step 1: Create a USAJOBS account (if you do not already have one) at www.usajobs.gov. It is recommended that as part of your profile you set up automatic email notification to be informed when the status of your application changes. If you choose not to set up this automatic notification, then you will have to log into your USAJOBS account to check on the status of your application. Step 2: Create a Resume with USAJOBS or upload a Resume into your USAJOBS account. You may want to customize your resume to ensure it documents duties and accomplishments you have gained that are directly related to this position in order to verify that qualifications are met. In addition, your resume must support your responses to the online questionnaire (you may preview the online questionnaire by clicking on the link at the end of the How You Will Be Evaluated section of the job announcement). Step 3: Click "Apply Online" and follow the prompts to complete the Occupational Questionnaire and attach any additional documents that may be required. You can update your application or documents anytime while the announcement is open. Simply log into your USAJOBS account and click on "Application Status." Click on the position title, and then select "Update Application" to continue. NOTE: Please verify that documents you are uploading from USAJOBs transfer into the Agency's staffing system as there is a limitation to the number of documents that can be transferred. However, once in the Agency's staffing system, you will have the opportunity to upload additional documents. Uploaded documents must be less than 5MB and in one of the following document formats: GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, PDF, TXT or Word (DOC or DOCX). Do not upload Adobe Portfolio documents because they are not viewable. Only one resume will be reviewed. Applicants who submit a resume that exceeds two pages will be removed from consideration.

Application Deadline: 2026-03-10