Electronics Engineer

Full Job Description

This vacancy is for an Electronics Engineer in the National Telecommunications and Information Administration within the Department of Commerce.

Qualification requirements in the vacancy announcements are based on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Qualification Standards Handbook, which contains federal qualification standards.

This handbook is available on the Office of Personnel Management's website located at: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/#url=Occupational-Series Applicants must possess one year of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and responsibility to the next lower grade level in the Federal Service.

Specialized experience is experience that has equipped the applicant with the particular competencies/knowledge, skills and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position.

This experience need not have been in the federal government.

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; knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment.

You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. This position is being filled under the Department Of Commerce Alternative Personnel System (CAPS).

Under CAPS, positions are classified by career path and pay band. To qualify at the ZP-3 level you must meet the following basic requirements and specialized experience.

BASIC REQUIREMENTS - All applicants must meet the basic requirements listed below: A. Degree in Engineering.

To be acceptable, the program must: (1) lead to a bachelor's degree in a school of engineering with at least one program accredited by ABET; or (2) include differential and integral calculus and courses (more advanced than first-year physics and chemistry) in five of the following seven areas of engineering science or physics: (a) statics, dynamics; (b) strength of materials (stress-strain relationships); (c) fluid mechanics, hydraulics; (d) thermodynamics; (e) electrical fields and circuits; (f) nature and properties of materials (relating particle and aggregate structure to properties); and (g) any other comparable area of fundamental engineering science or physics, such as optics, heat transfer, soil mechanics, or electronics.

-OR- B.

Combination of education and experience -- college-level education, training, and/or technical experience that furnished (1) a thorough knowledge of the physical and mathematical sciences underlying engineering, and (2) a good understanding, both theoretical and practical, of the engineering sciences and techniques and their applications to one of the branches of engineering.

The adequacy of such background must be demonstrated by one of the following: Professional registration or licensure -- Current registration as an Engineer Intern (EI), Engineer in Training (EIT), or licensure as a Professional Engineer (PE) by any State, the District of Columbia, Guam, or Puerto Rico.

Absent other means of qualifying under this standard, those applicants who achieved such registration by means other than written test (e.g., State grandfather or eminence provisions) are eligible only for positions that are within or closely related to the specialty field of their registration.

For example, an applicant who attains registration through a State Board's eminence provision as a manufacturing engineer typically would be rated eligible only for manufacturing engineering positions.

Written Test -- Evidence of having successfully passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) examination or any other written test required for professional registration by an engineering licensure board in the various States, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico.

Specified academic courses -- Successful completion of at least 60 semester hours of courses in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences and that included the courses specified in the basic requirements under paragraph A.

The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of an engineering program as described in paragraph A.

Related curriculum -- Successful completion of a curriculum leading to a bachelor's degree in an appropriate scientific field, e.g., engineering technology, physics, chemistry, architecture, computer science, mathematics, hydrology, or geology, may be accepted in lieu of a bachelor's degree in engineering, provided the applicant has had at least 1 year of professional engineering experience acquired under professional engineering supervision and guidance.

Ordinarily there should be either an established plan of intensive training to develop professional engineering competence, or several years of prior professional engineering-type experience, e.g., in interdisciplinary positions.

(The above examples of related curricula are not all-inclusive.) -AND- SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: You must possess one full year (52 weeks) of specialized experience equivalent to the ZP-2 (or GS-09) equivalent pay band) in the Federal service.

Specialized experience is defined as: Applying analytical, statistical, stochastic, or signal processing methods to analyze wireless or radio frequency (RF) signals or systems; AND Assisting with research activities that address spectrum challenges; AND Assisting with the preparation of written technical reports or publications and presenting technical results to internal or external stakeholders; AND Recommending research approaches that address RF, electromagnetic, or wireless signal or spectrum challenges.

-OR- SUBSTITUTION OF EDUCATION FOR EXPERIENCE: 3 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree OR A Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree. Major Duties:

As an Electronics Engineer, you will perform the following duties: Apply established and emerging engineering techniques, methods, and tools to address complex radio spectrum management problems.

Conduct tests and measurements and/or develop, refine, and validate theoretical and empirical radio spectrum or wireless system models under general technical direction; document assumptions, limitations, and findings.

Design, plan, & execute experiments to assess & optimize the performance & interoperability of communication protocols.

Present technical findings to internal teams and participate in meetings with managers, officials, and external stakeholder groups.

Track the progress of research and effectively report to leadership report findings and recommendations tactfully and persuasively.

Contribute to engineering reports and technical documentation that inform spectrum management or evaluate the conformance, performance, and interoperability of wireless systems.

Carry out projects as a full member of a research team or as an independent researcher under general direction and guidance on project objectives.

This Job Opportunity Announcement may be used to fill other Electronics Engineer ZP-0855-3, FPL ZP-04 positions within the Department of Commerce in the same geographical location with the same qualifications and specialized experience.

This position is also advertised under NTIA-ITS-DE-26-12907665, which is open to Delegated Examining eligible applicants. You must apply to both announcements if you want to be considered for both.