Securing Travel, Protecting People - At the Transportation Security Administration, you will serve in a high-stakes environment to safeguard the American way of life. In cities across the country, you would secure airports, seaports, railroads, highways, and/or public transit systems, thus protecting America's transportation infrastructure and ensuring freedom of movement for people and commerce.

Duties

This General Engineer position is located Operations Support, Requirements and Capabilities Analysis, Capability Development and Integration Branch, Transportation Security Administration, Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Duties include but are not limited to: Lead studies and analyses to determine the feasibility of various engineering approaches for future aviation security systems or to resolve challenging technical problems in current systems; this includes communicating complex engineering and technical concepts clearly and ensures effective collaboration across technical and stakeholder teams. Address complex and difficult engineering problems through the application of advanced systems engineering concepts, principles, methods and techniques; seek innovative solutions, identify advanced capability opportunities, and advise senior management on course of action. Collaborate across boundaries to include stakeholders across Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and industry to facilitate the requirements development process from defining the capability needs to technical equipment specific requirements; this includes leveraging model-based systems engineering principles and tools to maintain a capability needs, technical requirements, to operational test results. Represent TSA at technical forums, industry days, conferences, and delegations to discuss a capability gap area and an upcoming request for proposals related to addressing the capability gap; this allows Requirements, Human Performance, and Engineering (RHPE) to message their needs to the industry and respond to any questions or concerns. Note: The major duties described above reflect the full performance level of this position. Typically, the lower pay bands (I Band) perform the same duties but will receive more guidance and training; and/or projects/work assignments may be less complex.

Requirements

Qualifications

In addition to the Basic Education Requirements, to qualify at the SV- I (GS-13) grade level: Applicants must possess one full year (52 weeks) of specialized experience equivalent to the SV-H (GS-12) in the Federal service. Specialized experience MUST include all the following: Applying engineering principles, concepts, standards, and methods to conduct studies and analyses and resolve issues related to aviation security screening systems; and Identifying, recommending, and implementing strategies to assess system effectiveness and suitability and provide innovative recommendation In addition to the Basic Education Requirements, to qualify at the SV- J (GS-14) grade level: Applicants must possess one full year (52 weeks) of specialized experience equivalent to the SV-I (GS-13) in the Federal service. Specialized experience MUST include all the following: Applying advanced engineering principles, concepts, standards, and methods to conduct studies and analyses and resolve issues related to aviation security screening systems; and Identifying, recommending, and implementing strategies to assess system effectiveness and suitability and provide innovative recommendation and Applying engineering practices and techniques to conduct studies applicable to systems engineering lifecycle (i.e., system design characteristic operational testing, modeling, and simulation). Credit for experience is given based on a 40-hour workweek. Part-time experience is credited on a part-time ratio, i.e., working 20 hours per week for two months equals one month of experience. No additional credit is given for overtime. National Service Experience (i.e., volunteer experience): 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. 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. You must meet the qualification requirements for this position no later than the closing date of the vacancy announcement.

Education

In addition to the minimum qualifications described above, you must meet the following requirement(s) to be considered qualified for the position:

All Professional Engineering Positions, 0800 Individual Occupational 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:

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.

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. 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.

For positions requiring positive education requirements, or if you are using education to meet all or part of the qualification requirements, you MUST submit a copy of your transcripts or an itemized list of college courses from an accredited college or university, which includes equivalent information from the transcript (course title, semester/quarter hours, and grade/degree earned) in your resume. The information must be provided with the application by the closing date of the announcement. If selected, the applicant must supply a transcript or certification of degree.

Contacts

• Address OS - Requirements and Capabilities Analysis 6595 Springfield Center Dr Springfield, VA 22150 US
• Name: HC ServeU Customer Care
• Email: HC-ServeU@tsa.dhs.gov