The Food and Drug Administration has announced ambitious plans of hiring more than 1,300 people in the next few months, many in the Washington, D.C., metro area.
In this fiscal year, the agency hopes to bring in more than 600 new hires and fill 700 other existing positions -- nearly triple the number of additions since 2005.
It will be on the hunt for medical officers, consumer safety officers, chemists, nurse consultants, biologists, microbiologists, health and regulatory scientists, mathematical statisticians, epidemiologists, pharmacologists, pharmacists and veterinary medical officers -- all positions the agency has deemed critical to its work.
The agency said it needed the higher head count to help implement the requirements of new legislation, including the FDA Amendments Act of 2007, the Food Protection Plan and the Import Safety Action Plan. And the plans come at a time when the FDA has requested a $130 million boost in its budget to reach $2.4 billion for fiscal year 2009.
"It takes a large pool of talented people for the FDA to protect and promote the public health," said John Dyer, FDA's deputy commissioner for operations and chief operating officer, in a statement. "Each month there is a delay in bringing critical staff on board impairs the agency's ability to fulfill this mission."
While the Office of Personnel Management has given the FDA authority to hire qualified candidates within weeks, removing certain rating and ranking preferences to speed the process, the vast number of open positions will be a challenge to fill in what's often been a tight labor market.
Most will be located in the FDA's offices in Rockville, Silver Spring and College Park, though the agency is also adding people across the country and overseas.
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