As a Strategic Modeling Scientist in the Hypervelocity Impact and Orbital Debris Branch of the Astromaterials and Exploration Science Division, Johnson Space Center, you will be responsible for developing models to define the current and predicted future orbital debris environment, leading verification/validation tasks, providing technical leadership of a civil servant/contractor team responsible for model development, and leveraging modeling expertise across the Center and Agency.

Duties

Serve as a nationally and internationally recognized technical authority and technical adviser/consultant on modeling orbital debris and other space environments/phenomena to NASA management, government agencies, and the space community. Provide analyses and develop models to define the current and future orbital debris environment, lead verification/validation tasks, and provide technical leadership of the NASA orbital debris modeling team. Integrate orbital debris and hypervelocity modeling to support NASA missions and meet customer/stakeholder requirements. Guide civil servant and contractor staff to understand and implement complex mathematical and statistical tools, develop models to address research needs, and find solutions to model phenomena with sparse or incomplete data sets. Work with all levels of NASA programs to resolve complex issues in orbital debris environment modeling, measurement, and mitigation; mission meteoroid and orbital debris risk (MMOD) assessments; and MMOD protection/risk reduction. Guide the efforts of civil servants and contractors to leverage orbital debris, hypervelocity, and planetary science modeling expertise across the Division, Center and Agency to further Division technical capabilities and mission support capacities. Foster a culture of engagement, diversity, inclusiveness, excellence and innovation. Champion NASA's commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility to create an environment that promotes a commitment to safety, integrity, and teamwork.

Requirements

• Position subject to pre-employment background security investigation.
• Current Federal employees must meet qualifications, time in grade, and 90 days after competitive appointment requirements by the closing date of the announcement.
• If selected, you will be required to complete a financial disclosure statement

Qualifications

In addition to the Basic Education Requirement (in the Education section below), to qualify for this position you must meet the requirements below and have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade, which has equipped you with the particular competencies needed to successfully perform the duties of the position described above. NASA utilizes OPM-approved qualification and rating requirements specific for Aerospace Technology (AST) positions which recognizes NASA's unique aerospace work. The specific qualifications and minimum education requirements are further described below and within the education section of the job announcement. To qualify for GS-15, you must have one year of directly related specialized experience equivalent to the GS-14 level: Developing mathematical models to predict current and future space environments such as orbital debris, ejecta, or other populations; Serving as a technical lead for a team in developing orbital debris models or other space environment models; Developing reports and presenting the results of model development and model verification or validation to management or internal/external partners to ensure project requirements and/or objectives are met. Your resume must include a clear and detailed narrative description, in your own words, of how you meet the required specialized experience. Experience statements copied from a position description, vacancy announcement or other reference material constitutes plagiarism and may result in disqualification and losing consideration for the job.

Education

Basic Education Requirement: You must have successfully completed a bachelor's degree with a major in one of the following:
a) Engineering from a college or university that has ABET accredited engineering programs
b) Physical Science, Mathematics, Life Science or other field of Science
c) Computer Science that included 30 semester hours or 45 quarter hours of course work in any combination of mathematics, statistics and computer science with at least half of those hours in mathematics and statistics courses that included differential and integral calculus; and that provided an in-depth knowledge of theoretical and practical applications of computer science, including digital computer system architecture and system software organization, the representation and transformation of information structures, and the theoretical models for such representations and transformations.

If you did not complete a qualifying bachelor's degree, you may be eligible if you have obtained a graduate degree in an AST qualifying field, as listed above.

Degrees in engineering technology are not considered qualifying for this position.

Engineering degrees earned within the United States: Engineering degrees earned within the United States must be from a college or university that has at least one ABET accredited engineering program. To find out if a school has at least one ABET accredited program, please visit http://www.abet.org.

Engineering degrees earned outside the United States: Engineering degrees earned outside the United States must be recognized by a Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA), often known as accords. These are non-governmental agreements among organizations that accredit academic degree programs. MRAs recognize the substantial equivalence of mature accreditation systems and programs accredited by signatory organizations within their jurisdictions. For a listing of Signatories, please visit, https://www.abet.org/global-presence/mutual-recognition-agreements/is-your-program-recognized/.

Science and other related degrees earned within the United States: Science and other related degrees must have been awarded from colleges or universities that are accredited by recognized accrediting organizations. For a list of schools that meet this criteria, go to http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/.

Science and other related degrees earned outside the United States: If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet the qualification requirements, you must show that the education credentials have been evaluated by a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign education programs. These education credentials must be deemed equivalent to that gained in an accredited U.S. education program; or full credit has been given for the courses at a U.S. accredited college or university. For further information, visit: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

All degrees must have been received in the year of, or any year subsequent to the original date of accreditation.

Contacts

• Address Johnson Space Center 2101 NASA Parkway Houston, TX 77058 US
• Name: NASA Shared Services Contact Center
• Phone: 1-877-677-2123
• Email: [email protected]