The Department of Commerce ranked top 5 in the 2023 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government for the 12th year in a row! The ranking showcases the Department's continued commitment to increasing our employee engagement, employee satisfaction, diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion. We're looking for a Mechanical Engineer to join our team! This notice is issued under direct-hire authority to recruit new talent to occupations for which NIST has a severe shortage of candidates.

Duties

At the Engineering Laboratory (EL), we believe in the transformative potential of innovation and the crucial role it plays in driving industrial competitiveness in the United States. Our unwavering dedication to pushing the boundaries of measurement science, standards, and technology for engineered systems allows us to make meaningful contributions to bolstering economic security and improving the overall quality of life for everyone. This is an opportunity to join NIST's Engineering Laboratory as a Mechanical Engineer for the Intelligent Systems Division. If you are selected, you will have the opportunity to participate as an essential member of NIST's robotics program. Your role will involve conducting cutting-edge measurement science research related to robotics for manufacturing and other industries. This opportunity will allow you to program both physical and simulated robots using various software tools, positioning NIST as a global leader in measurement science for robotic systems. You will collaborate with engineers, computer scientists, and others to develop and analyze techniques such as robot controls and machine learning to enhance robot capabilities in human-robot interaction and other areas. You will also develop standards for autonomous, wearable, and augmentative robots that seamlessly integrate into human environments, implementing advanced controllers and control techniques for humanoid robots and powered exoskeletons. You will collaborate with interdisciplinary teams to design, simulate, and optimize robotic systems using advanced software tools. You will also have opportunities to publish and present your research in peer-reviewed journals and conferences, contributing to the advancement of the U.S. robotics industry.

Requirements

• U.S. citizenship
• Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered for Selective Service
• Suitable for Federal employment
• (If the position has Physical Requirements, please add: Satisfactory completion of a pre-employment medical examination)
• (If a financial disclosure form is required, please add: Completion of Confidential Financial Disclosure, Form OGE-450)
• (If the position has a drug testing requirement, please add: Designated and/or random drug testing required)
• Bargaining Unit Position: No

Qualifications

Basic Requirements: 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: 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.) In addition to the basic qualifications listed above, applicants must have a minimum of one year (52 weeks) of specialized experience at the GS-8 level (ZP-II level at NIST). Specialized experience is defined as experience in all of the following: Analyzing kinematics, dynamics, and control of powered exoskeletons Implementing and refining controllers using Electromyography (EMG) muscle activation data Experience in multiple programming languages and familiarity with tools such as Matlab, Robot Operating System (ROS), and Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software. OR Master's or equivalent graduate degree. OR Combination of specialized experience and graduate level education. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done. We will credit all qualifying volunteer experience in your application. The qualification requirements in this vacancy announcement are based on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Qualification Standards Handbook. Applicant Reconsideration

Education

This position has an education requirement. Transcripts must be submitted to validate that the education requirement has been met. Unofficial transcripts will be accepted in the application package. However, an official copy will be required prior to a final offer of employment.

Education completed outside of the U.S. must be evaluated by an accredited organization to ensure that it is comparable to education received in accredited institutions in the U.S. Click here to view a listing of accredited organizations from the Department of Education's website. A copy of the foreign education evaluation (containing the results with a course by course listing) is required with your application.

Contacts

• Address Intelligent Systems Division 100 Bureau Drive Gaithersburg, MD 20899 US
• Name: Evelyn Carter-Hopkins
• Phone: 000-000-0000
• Email: [email protected]