What to know
- Full-time HHS employees at the GS-11 grade / O-3 rank and above are eligible for the program.
- Applications for the 2024-2025 cohort are open from June 28, 2024 and close at 11:59 p.m. ET on August 13, 2024.
- If you have questions about the application process, please contact the IETA program at ieta@cdc.gov.
Requirements
To be eligible, you must meet all the criteria below:
- Be a full-time HHS federal employee (Civil Service or U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps officer).
- Be at the GS-11 grade or above (Civil Service) or O-3 rank or above (U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps officer).
- Be in your current position for 12 or more consecutive months as of September 1 of the year you apply.
- Excluding deployments, have not worked in a U.S. Embassy as an HHS federal employee. If you have previously worked as an HHS federal employee assigned to an International Organization, you are eligible to apply to the IETA program.
- Be available to travel for a minimum 12-week international field assignment anytime between January 15 to September 1.
- Have permission from first-level and second-level supervisors to apply and fully participate in the program. Applicant's home office must be willing to cover travel costs associated with the orientation and closing meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.
- Understand and agree to being matched with a country where CDC has a global presence, which could be a high-threat country.
- Have a government credit card and official U.S. Government employee (maroon) passport. Failure to obtain a government credit card or passport will result in being removed from the program.
Who can apply
The IETA program seeks applicants from a wide variety of professional backgrounds including:
- Behavioral and Social Science
- Biostatistics
- Clinical Trial Design/Management
- Clinician
- Communications and Public Affairs
- Compliance
- Contract Management
- Cooperative Agreement/Grant Management
- Economics
- Emergency Preparedness and Response
- Engineer
- Environmental Science
- Epidemiology/Surveillance
- Financial Management
- Global Health
- Health Education/Health Promotion
- Human Resources
- Informatics
- Information Technology
- Instructional Design and Facilitation
- Laboratory Science
- Law
- Management and Operations
- Monitoring and Evaluation
- Partnership Engagement
- Policy
- Program Implementation/Management
- Quality Control
- Scientific Review and Clearance
- Scientific Writing
- Strategic Planning
All applicants must be in their current position for 12 or more consecutive months at the time of application and receive written permission from their first-level and second-level supervisor.
Applications are now open
Cost
The participant's home office covers salary and benefits throughout the 12-month program as well as any travel costs associated with the IETA program orientation and closing meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.
The host program covers all costs associated with the international assignment including:
- Travel costs to and from the country.
- Per diem while on the field assignment.
- Lodging while on the field assignment.
- U.S. Department of State security trainings (if needed).
Frequently asked questions
Yes, Term FTEs are eligible to apply to the IETA program. However, the term end date must not end before the end of the IETA program (September 30, 2025). They must be able to dedicate 100% of their work time during their field assignment on the scope-of-work of their field assignment.
As with past cohorts, Title 42s are eligible to apply to the program as long as their supervisors are supportive. To be eligible for the program, a T42 employee must be a U.S. citizen. Non-U.S. citizen Title 42 employees are not currently eligible for the IETA program.
Contractors are not eligible to apply to the IETA program.
PMFs are not currently eligible for the IETA program.
Currently only those USPHS officers assigned to HHS agencies are eligible to apply to the IETA program. We are exploring opening IETA up to non-HHS assigned USPHS officers in the future. If you are an officer assigned to a non-HHS agency and you are interested in the program, you can share your interest by contacting the IETA program. In your email, please summarize your interest and whether you have supervisory support to participate in the program.
We welcome applications from previous applicants. The program has updated and expanded its eligibility criteria since 2020. In addition, the IETA program is implementing a new screening process which began with the 2022-2023 cohort, which is described in detail on this website.