General Engineer

Full Job Description

This is a Direct Hire Public Notice. Please read this Public Notice in its entirety prior to submitting your application for consideration.

This position is located in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), Assistant Chief Information Officer - Satellites (ACIO-S) with one vacancy in Silver Spring, MD.

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/.

BASIC REQUIREMENTS: This position requires applicants to meet a Basic Education Requirement in addition to at least one full year (52 weeks) of specialized experience in order to be found minimally qualified.

Transcripts must be submitted with your application package. You MUST meet one of the following basic education requirements: To qualify for the 0801 series: EDUCATION: A. Degree: 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.) Note: An applicant who meets the basic requirements as specified in A or B above, except as noted under B.1., may qualify for positions in any branch of engineering unless selective factors indicate otherwise.

-AND- SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: 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.

To qualify at the ZP-5 or GS-15 level: SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: In addition to meeting the Basic Requirements above, applicants must also possess one full year (52 weeks) of specialized experience equivalent to the ZP-4 or GS-14 in the Federal service.

Specialized experience MUST include all of the following: Developing designs, specifications, or other standards for the production of space and ground hardware or software; Managing the programmatic or technical aspects of satellite systems studies, developments, or implementations; and Recommending solutions to scientific, engineering, or program management problems or issues associated with satellite systems projects or facilities.

Major Duties:

As a General Engineer, you will perform the following duties: Lead a team of engineers and scientists in preformulation and formulation phases of new satellite systems and instruments acquisition projects.

Research and manage satellite projects into an operational environment.

Develop and oversee the implementation of designs, specifications, and other standards for the production of hardware and software, and the results of science and engineering studies.

Oversee the development, acquisition, integration, installation, and acceptance of small-scale satellite flight projects.

Manage the development of pre-formulation budgets and plans for new satellite projects. Define project concepts and system performance specifications for those projects.

Provide technical direction for the development, implementation, and management of an integrated, sound, and effective program that is responsive to identify national and agency needs for global environmental data from satellites.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT: Financial Disclosure is required as the job participates personally and substantially through decision or exercise of significant judgment in Government action regarding making a final decision or taking action which will have a direct and substantial economic effect on the interests of a non-Federal entity.

This position requires access to Special Sensitive materials, with SCI access level to participate in meetings, forums, and events that involve National and international satellite operations, RF interference, and other threat issues.

This position is a designated TDP and must submit to mandatory drug testing.