This position is in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), Office of Enterprise Services in Washington, DC. The mission is to provide innovative science and technology solutions for the DHS. This is accomplished through the timely research, development, testing, and evaluation (RDT &E) programs of new technologies and systems. This position will serve as a System Safety Engineer within S&T's Environment, Safety, Health, and Energy Branch (ESH).

Duties

As a Safety Engineer, GS-0803-13/14, your typical work assignments may include: Providing subject matter expert review of Environment, Safety, Health (ESH) concerns for S&T projects for compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Planning, organizing, and conducting comprehensive studies and evaluations of S&T programs to develop recommendations and options for program changes.

Requirements

• You must be a U.S. citizen to apply for this position.
• Males born after 12/31/1959 must be registered for Selective Service.
• You must successfully pass a background investigation.
• You will be required to undergo pre-appointment drug testing for illegal drug use. Employment is contingent upon favorable results.
• Current federal employees must meet time-in-grade requirements.
• You may be required to serve a one-year probationary period.
• Applying to this announcement certifies that you give permission for DHS to share your application with others in DHS for similar positions.
• This position is eligible for telework based on agency policy.
• You will be required to complete an OGE 450, Confidential Financial Disclosure Report, within 30 days of starting your federal employment and annually thereafter as long as you occupy a position that requires financial disclosure reporting.
• This position requires you to have access, safeguard, and store classified national security information on a regular basis. You must be able to obtain and maintain a Secret security clearance.
• Current and former federal employees within the General Schedule (GS) must meet the time-in-grade requirements outlined in the "Qualifications" section of this announcement.
• This is not a bargaining unit position.

Qualifications

GS-14: Specialized Experience: You qualify for the GS-14 grade level if you possess one year of specialized experience, equivalent to the GS-13 grade level in the Federal government, performing duties such as: 1) Performing an engineering review on proposed actions (i.e. construction, ventilation systems, leasing, program activities, grants, etc.) to ensure that system and/or occupational safety elements are considered in planning and decision making; 2) Managing organizations occupational safety and health programs (i.e. general safety, industrial hygiene and occupational health, laboratory safety, explosives safety, radiation safety, etc.) to develop recommendations to resolve highly complex planning and management issues; 3) Evaluating innovative health and safety practices and research to determine applicability to program facilities; and 4) Providing technical direction and planning for system safety engineering programs. GS-13: Specialized Experience: You qualify for the GS-13 grade level if you possess one year of specialized experience, equivalent to the GS-12 grade level in the Federal government, performing duties such as: 1) Providing safety engineering expertise to organization occupational safety and health programs (i.e. general safety, industrial hygiene, occupational health, laboratory safety, explosives safety, radiation safety, etc.); 2) Evaluating data to identify areas for improvement within the program; 3) Developing program communications and responding to data calls for specialized safety information, OSHA reports, accident, and injury reports; and 4) Performing risk assessments and/or hazard analysis of general industry operations, processes, and equipment to develop workplace controls. Substitution of education in lieu of specialized experience may not be used for this grade level. All qualifications and eligibility requirements must be met by the closing date of the announcement. Time-in-grade: Current General Schedule (GS) federal employees, and those that have served in GS positions within the last 52 weeks, must have served 52 weeks at the next lower grade, or a combination of the next lower grade level and an equivalent band in the federal service by the closing of this announcement. Note: Current or former Federal employees MUST submit a copy of their SF-50 Form which shows competitive service appointment ("position occupied" block 34 on the SF-50 should show a "1"), tenure group (block 24 should show a 1 or 2), grade, and salary. If you are applying for a higher grade, please provide the SF-50 Form which shows the length of time you have been in your current/highest grade (examples of appropriate SF-50s include promotions, With-in Grade/Range Increases, and SF-50s dated a year apart within the same grade/job). If you have promotion potential in your current position, please provide proof. Employees applying with an interchange agreement must provide proof of their permanent appointment. IF YOU DO NOT SUBMIT ALL OF THE REQUIRED DOCUMENTATION, YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE CONSIDERATION AS A STATUS CANDIDATE. 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. Current or Former Political Appointees: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) must authorize employment offers made to current or former political appointees. If you are currently, or have been within the last 5 years, a political Schedule A, Schedule C, Non-career SES or Presidential Appointee employee in the Executive Branch, you must disclose this information to the Human Resources Office.

Education

Applicants must possess the basic education requirements for the GS-0803, Safety Engineer Series:

A. Successful completion of 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:

1. Professional registration or licensure -- Current registration as an Engineer Intern (EI), Engineer in Training (EIT)1, 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.

2. Written Test -- Evidence of having successfully passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE)2 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.)

Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications; applicant's resumes and supporting documentation should only reflect education received from schools accredited by such institutions. Applicants can verify accreditation at the following Website: https://ope.ed.gov/dapip/#/home

If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency (a U.S. private organization's interpretation that such education has been deemed at least equivalent to conventional U.S. education programs) with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For more information regarding evaluation of foreign education for federal employment, please visit the U.S. Department of Education webpage on the Recognition of Foreign Qualifications.

Contacts

• Address Department of Homeland Security Headquarters OCHCO/HRMS/MS #0170 6595 Springfield Center Drive Springfield, VA 20598-0170 US
• Name: Jenny Kern
• Phone: (912) 267-3100
• Email: [email protected]