The Operational Psychologist serves as a subject matter expert related to high-performance individuals and teams. The incumbent will provide psychological assessment, treatment expertise, and therapeutic support to astronauts and their dependents, pilots, flight crews, and operational teams. Includes astronaut applicant screening and selection; training of astronauts; provision of interventions; monitoring pre-flight readiness; in-flight wellness; and post-flight psychological repatriation.

Duties

Lead real-time clinical and operational psychological support to NASA crew pre-flight, in-flight, and post-flight. Develop and deliver psychological training and countermeasures for human space flight. Develop and implement the psychological suitability portion of astronaut selection. Lead the development of design criteria, standards, and operational requirements for the human system, including habitability, cognition, and human performance. Provide oversight, direction, and mentoring of contract operational psychologists. Monitor contractor performance on Behavioral Health and Performance tasks. Lead the development of novel clinical countermeasures to mitigate mission safety risks related to human performance. Provide aeromedical expertise in individual psychological testing and assessment, with emphasis on neurocognitive testing and psychological suitability assessments for mission-critical positions. Mentor less experienced operational and clinical psychologists in the advanced practice of psychological assessment, training, and psychological support in operational settings. 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

• This position is open to U.S. citizens, nationals or those who owe allegiance to the U.S.
• Position subject to pre-employment background investigation.
• You must meet qualifications requirements by the closing date of this announcement.
• This position may require a one-year probationary period.

Qualifications

In addition to the Basic Education Requirement (in the Education section below), to qualify for this position you must meet the requirements below. Specialized experience is experience that has equipped you with the particular ability, skill, and knowledge to successfully perform the duties of this position and is typically in or related to this line of work. 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: Performing work in clinical psychological testing and evaluation, including behavioral health examinations of spaceflight personnel; Providing design and development of psychological methods and measures to assess and select high-performance personnel for spaceflight; Serving in an operational human spaceflight mission setting with the ability to translate behavioral health and performance knowledge and countermeasures into formal mission operations requirements; Managing budgets associated with the provisioning of behavioral health services. Preferred, but not required: A state license to practice psychology and a Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology or Doctor of Psychology degree. 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. NASA prohibits the use of artificial intelligence (AI) or AI-assisted tool in drafting application and assessment responses. Please visit https://www.nasa.gov/careers/how-to-apply/#Artificial-Intelligence to review NASA's guidance on the use of AI tools during the application process.

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: nssc-contactcenter@mail.nasa.gov