Aerospace Engineer

Federal Aviation Administration •

Washington DC, DC, USA

Position Type: Permanent

Job Description:

The position serves as an Aerospace Engineer in the Space Policy Division (ASZ-200), Space Policy and Outreach Branch (ASZ-220) which conducts policy-related business, including creating new regulations and standards and supporting interagency and industry engagement, including Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC).

Duties:

Performs multiple, varying, and complex assignments and plans the implementation of projects/programs under limited direction of a manager, project/program manager, or more experienced engineer. Performs analyses of highly complex policies involving space, interagency space priorities, and integration of space through the national aerospace system.

Acts as a key technical point of contact for assigned activities and as a contributing specialist. May take a lead role on team projects, including actively encouraging communication, coordination, innovation, and team products.

Provides advice on key strategy and other initiatives. Reviews and develops policy positions and responses to action that have implications for space policy, national security space policy, and international space policy.

Responsible for development and review of technical standards for orbital safety, coordinating technical space safety issues involving astrodynamics, explosive siting and other technical standards related to safety of spaceflight with internal and external space related partners.

Assists in the development of regulatory requirements for new and existing technologies and concepts for commercial space transportation involving expendable and reusable launch vehicles.

Contributes to the preparation of management/technical reports or contractual documents and may be called upon to communicate the overall results of a project or work activity to FAA management, the commercial space transportation industry, and other external parties.

Provides technical and policy assistance in enabling licensed and permitted operations to be safely and efficiently integrated into the National Airspace System.

Defines, plans, organizes, and reviews, and makes adjustment to strategies, concepts, programs for oversight of safe commercial space activities such as collision avoidance, nuclear system analysis and explosive catastrophic failure of systems.

Applies experience and advanced knowledge of engineering principles, theories, and concepts applicable to their discipline to accomplish assignments-and to develop plans and techniques to improve programs and policies. Understands how technical area interacts with or is affected by other disciplines and considers the objectives of the major subdivision and LOB/SO when developing, integrating, and implementing solutions to diverse, complex problems

Supports FAA operational licensing activities by providing technical expertise on policy and program guidance; Identifies and informs management of problems that require their attention. focuses senior policy attention on issues with space policy, national security, or international and foreign policy implications.

Combines technical expertise with policy awareness to assist with technical reviews during the evaluation of license, permit or safety approval applications.

Contacts are internal and external. Represents the FAA as policy and technical representative on interagency working groups developing technical safety standards for safe commercial space operations, delegations to international meetings and conferences. Presents FAA positions to Congressional staff. Leads interagency coordination activities with space interagency partners at various security levels on tasks related to public safety including the launch of commercial space launch vehicles with nuclear space systems.

Monitors Congressional action on space programs and policy. Responds to technical assistance requests from Congress on potential legislation impacting DOT space authorities.

Work is reviewed periodically, typically at major milestones and at completion, for technical compliance and alignment with the requirements of the project or other work activity.

Work activities typically support and may be vital to the success of projects or activities of one or more organizational units, subdivisions, and LOB's/SO's.

Job Requirements:

Requirements:
Conditions of Employment

US Citizenship is required.
Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
Designated or Random Drug Testing required.
This position has a positive education requirement. Transcript(s) required.
Travel Required: 25% (Domestic)

Qualifications:

To qualify for this position you must demonstrate in your application that you possess at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the FV-H, FG/GS-12 level. This experience is typically related to the line of work of the position to be filled and which has equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position. To be creditable, specialized experience must have been at least equivalent to the next lower level in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.

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SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE IS DEFINED AS: Experience related to the safety of space operations including the technical assessments of safety at launch sites and/or the safety of commercial space launch systems;

AND;

Experience related to drafting, evaluating and interpreting space policy, launch vehicle safety, and technical guidance

OR;

Experience with integration analysis related to commercial space flight systems and operations

OR;

Experience evaluating orbital trajectories and the safety impacts of space launch objects, orbital debris, and reentering space objects on United States and international space activities as well as public safety.

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You should include relevant examples of the specialized experience in your work history. Errors or omissions may impact your rating or may result in you not being considered.

Answer all questions to the best of your ability. DO NOT ASSUME THAT BECAUSE YOU HOLD, OR HAVE HELD THIS POSITION, YOU WILL AUTOMATICALLY BE FOUND ELIGIBLE. You may be asked to provide evidence or documentation that you have this type of experience later in the selection process. Your responses are subject to verification through job interviews, or any other information obtained during the application process. Any exaggeration of your experience or any attempt to conceal information can result in disqualification.

*Applicants who fail to demonstrate possession of any of the above criteria AND who do not provide the required documentation will receive no further consideration for this position.*

Applicants may be asked to verify information on your application for employment with the FAA.

**All qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of this vacancy announcement.**

Eligible applicants meeting the minimum qualification requirements and/or selective placement factor(s) (SPF) may be further evaluated on the Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSA) and/or Quality Ranking Factor (QRF) listed in the announcement. Based on this evaluation, applicants will be placed in one of the following categories: (1) score order; (2) category grouping; (3) alphabetical; or (4) priority grouping, and referred to the selecting official for selection consideration.

Education:

This position has a positive education requirement: Applicants must submit a copy of their college or university transcripts(s) and certificates by the closing date of announcement to verify qualifications. If selected, an official transcript will be required prior to appointment. You may upload these documents with your application in USAJOBS or fax it to fax number provided in the announcement (please include announcement number on each page).

Failure to do so will result in loss of consideration.

Schools must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Accreditation may be verified at the following website: www.ed.gov/accreditation.

Foreign education must be evaluated by a private professional organization specializing in interpretation of foreign education credentials or an accredited U.S. educational institution in terms of equivalence to a degree acquired at an American college or university. A copy of the evaluation results must be included, otherwise your foreign education will not be considered.

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.)

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.

If you are a current or former Federal employee, and you currently hold or previously held a position classified in the 0800 occupational series, you are not required to submit a college transcript provided you upload a copy of the SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action, verifying your classification in the 0800 occupational series.

Applicants, who are not currently in the 0800 occupational series in the Federal Government and fail to provide a copy of an unofficial or official transcript will not receive further consideration for this vacancy. Upon selection, if not currently employed in the 0800 occupational series, you will be required to submit an official transcript prior to appointment. If you do not have an official transcript (original, with the raised seal), you should contact your school immediately to request it.

Foreign Education: For additional information, visit: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html

Required Documents:

Only supplemental documentation (e.g. transcript, certifications, and/or SF-50) will be accepted in combination with your on-line application or faxed to 202-267-7032. These documents must be uploaded on faxed or before the closing date of the announcement. All submitted documents must reference the announcement number.

For guidance on how to create a Federal resume, visit http://www.archives.gov/careers/jobs/forms/resume-guide.pdf.

Failure to submit all required documents by the closing date will result in a finding of ineligible. We are not responsible for incomplete, illegible or missing documents.

Please DO NOT email your application documents. We cannot accept documents received via the email system. Documents sent via email will NOT receive consideration.

This position has a positive education requirement; college transcripts are required for ALL candidates newly appointed to the FAA in the 0800 (Engineering) series.

College transcripts must be submitted from current FAA employees applying for internal vacancies if they have never held a position in the 0800 (Engineering) series with the FAA.

College transcripts are not required from current FAA employees who are currently occupying an 0800 (Engineering) series.

If selected, official transcripts are required prior to employment.

Forms:

SF-15 : Application for 10-Point Veteran Preference

If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:

Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.

Salary Range: $95,293-$147,691 per year

Relocation: No

Travel: 25% or less

Job Ident #: 731813000

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Aerospace Engineer

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