Job opening: Interdisciplinary Physical Scientist/General Engineer
Salary: $117 962 - 181 216 per year
Published at: Jan 23 2024
Employment Type: Full-time
This position is part of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Defense Threat Reduction Agency. The incumbent will be responsible for providing technical oversight, and consultation for the development and integration of advanced engineering models into DTRA's Integrated Munitions Effects Assessment (IMEA) program and other modeling and simulation planning tools.
Duties
As a Interdisciplinary Physical Scientist/General Engineer at the GS-0801/1301-13/14 some of your typical work assignments may include:
Serves as a national-level technical expert on the joint targeting cycle and the associated requirements for developing and demonstrating operational capabilities to defeat HDBT's, WMD targets and associated support equipment / threats.
Performs technical reviews and studies to advance M&S technology to predict blast, fragmentation, structural response and other associated weapons effects on Hard and Deeply Buried Targets (HTBT's) or WMD targets including the degradation of the contents or inhabitants of each.
Drives Agency development and establishment of new/novel artificial intelligence and machine learning programs and approaches to advance computer-based M&S technology to predict weapons effects on HDBT's and WMD targets and the associated degradation of the contents or inhabitants of each.
Drives verification, validation, and accreditation (VV&A) of scientific/engineering-level numerical models and methods, application testing, and direct application to military missions via training, exercises or combat support.
Provides advice/assessment at all levels to decision/policy makers in DoD on advanced technology, concepts, tactics, and techniques and procedures to target and defeat HTBT's, WMD facilities, and delivery systems.
Interfaces internally and externally to assure that weapons effects efforts will result in unique projects and address national targeting/weaponeering capability shortfalls.
Requirements
- Must be a U.S. Citizen
- Travel in the performance of temporary assignments may be required up to 25% of duty time (CONUS/OCONUS). Must be able to obtain and maintain a valid passport.
- Work Schedule: Full-time
- Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered for Selective Service
- Suitable for Federal employment, determined by a background investigation. Must be able to obtain and maintain a TOP SECRET/SCI security clearance.
- May be required to successfully complete a probationary period
- Overtime: Occasionally
- Tour of Duty: Flexible
- Recruitment Incentives: Authorized - https://www.dtra.mil/Careers-Opportunities/DTRA-Opportunities/
- Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA): Exempt
- Financial Disclosure: Required
- Telework Eligibility: This position is telework eligible
- Must consent to and pass pre-employment drug testing and be subject to periodic random drug testing thereafter.
- This is an Acquisition Workforce position in the Engineering and Technical Management functional area. The incumbent will be required to become certified in the Practitioner tier within 5 years.
- The incumbent is required to acquire a minimum of 40 continuous learning points (CLPs) every fiscal year as a goal and 80 CLPs being mandatory within 2 years.
- Incumbent is required to submit a Confidential Financial Disclosure Form, OGE 450, within 30 days of entering the position, annually and upon termination of employment in accordance with DoD Directive 5500.7-R, Joint Ethics Regulation, Aug 30, 1993.
Qualifications
You may qualify at the GS 14, if you fulfill the following qualifications:
A. One year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-13 grade level in the Federal service as listed below:
Experience in overseeing research, development, test, and evaluation efforts associated with hard target or counter-Weapons of Mass Destruction (C-WMD) defeat efforts.
Experience in applying advanced engineering/physical science theories, standards, and methods to evaluate the overall effectiveness and adequacy of advanced hardware and software tools and capabilities to enable C-WMD decision support and targeting operations.
Experience in overseeing the implementation of verification, validation, and accreditation of software and hardware capabilities for transition of capabilities to a program of record or for operational use.
Experience in serving as the technical lead or engineering manager for a development program and briefing senior leaders, other Agencies, and Combatant Command Requirement Managers on technical status of program efforts.
You may qualify at the GS 13, if you fulfill the following qualifications:
A. One year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-12 grade level in the Federal service as listed below:
Experience in supporting and participating in the research, development, test, and evaluation efforts associated with hard target or counter-Weapons of Mass Destruction (C-WMD) defeat efforts.
Experience in applying advanced engineering/physical science theories, standards, and methods to develop advanced hardware and software tools and capabilities that enable C-WMD decision support and targeting operations.
Experience in participating or supporting verification, validation, and accreditation of software and hardware capabilities for operational use.
Experience in serving as an engineer or scientist for a development program and briefing organizational leaders on technical status of program efforts.
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.
In addition to meeting qualifications, your application package must reflect the applicable experience to meet the Individual Occupational Requirements for the 0801/1301, series as listed below:
For the Engineering Series. 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. 2. 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.).
General Physical Science Series, 1301 Degree: physical science, engineering, or mathematics that included 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science such as mechanics, dynamics, properties of materials, and electronics. Or Combination of education and experience -- education equivalent to one of the majors shown in A above that included at least 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science, plus appropriate experience or additional education.
Education
Substitution of education may not be used in lieu of specialized experience for this grade level.
You MUST provide transcripts or other documentation to support your educational claims.
All materials must be submitted by the closing date of the announcement.
GRADUATE EDUCATION: One academic year of graduate education is considered to be the number of credits hours that your graduate school has determined to represent one academic year of full-time study. Such study may have been performed on a full-time or part-time basis. If you cannot obtain your graduate school's definition of one year of graduate study, 18 semester hours (or 27 quarter hours) should be considered as satisfying the requirement for one year of full-time graduate study.
FOREIGN EDUCATION: 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 and such education has been 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://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html
Contacts
- Address Defense Threat Reduction Agency
8725 JOHN J KINGMAN ROAD
MSC 6201
FT BELVOIR, VA 22060-6201
US
- Name: DTRA Servicing Team
- Phone: 614-692-0259
- Email: [email protected]
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