General Engineer - Transportation Security Administration - Arlington, Virginia - EXPIRED

This General Engineer position is located in the Requirements and Systems Engineering Branch, Mission Analysis Division, Office of Security Capabilities (OSC), Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS). If you are selected, you will perform engineering activities to conceptualize, design, and integrate the next generation of commercial aviation security screening systems for deployment at the nation\'s airports. You will participate within a group of subject matter experts who collaborate on technical efforts with DHS Science and Technology, TSA program offices, external stakeholders, and contract support personnel.

Duties include:

• Conducting studies and analyses to determine the feasibility of various advanced engineering approaches for future programs or resolving major challenging problems in current programs.
• Communicating complex engineering products and collaborating with OSC program offices, other branches within Mission Analysis, Office of Security Operations, and other stakeholders to ensure effective collaboration between the Requirements and Systems Engineering Branch and other internal TSA organizations.
• Leading initiatives in support of the development of a risk-based framework that improves the analysis of mission requirements, gaps and needed capabilities to support risk-based security.
• Developing detailed technical documentation required to support the procurement of security screening technologies and systems, identifying gaps between security capability needs and currently available technologies/processes/procedures, and identifying and guiding technical initiatives to address those gaps.

The major duties described above reflect the full performance level of this position. Typically, the lower pay band (H Band) performs the same duties but will receive more guidance and training; and/or projects/work assignments may be less complex.

Basic Requirements for all Engineer Positions (must meet A or B):

A. Bachelor\'s or higher degree in professional engineering. To be acceptable, the curriculum must: (1) be in a school of engineering with at least one curriculum accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) as a professional engineering curriculum; 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 professional 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-Current registration as a professional engineer 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 Engineer-in-Training (EIT) examination, or the written test required for professional registration, which is administered by the Boards of Engineering Examiners in the various States, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Applicants who have passed the EIT examination and have completed all the requirements for either (a) a bachelor\'s degree in engineering technology (BET) from an accredited college of university that included 60 semester hours of courses in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences, or (b) a BET from a program accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) may be rated eligible for certain engineering positions at GS-5. Eligibility is limited to positions that are within or closely related to the specialty field of the engineering technology program. Applicants for positions that involve highly technical research, development, or similar functions requiring an advanced level of competence in basic science must meet the basic requirements in paragraph A. Because of the diversity in kind and quality of BET programs, graduates of other BET programs are required to complete at least 1 year of additional education or highly technical work experience of such nature as to provide reasonable assurance of the possession of the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for professional engineering competence. The adequacy of this background must be demonstrated by passing the EIT examination.

3. Specified academic courses-Successful completion of at least 60 semester hours of courses in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences and in engineering that included the courses specified in the basic requirements. The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of a professional engineering curriculum as described in paragraph A.

4. Related curriculum-Successful completion of a curriculum leading to a bachelor\'s degree in engineering technology or in an appropriate professional field, e.g., physics, chemistry, architecture, computer science, mathematics, hydrology, or geology, may be accepted in lieu of a 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 requirements, to qualify for the SV-H Pay Band (equivalent to GS-11/12), you must meet one of the qualification requirements (A, B, OR C) outlined below.
A. Experience: For those qualifying using experience, your application must clearly outline one year of specialized experience at the SV-G Pay Band or GS-9 in Federal service or equivalent experience in the private sector. Specialized experience is experience that has equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties of this position. Such experience is defined as applying engineering theories, principles, concepts, standards and methods to assist in engineering feasibility studies and analyses; and utilizing engineering concepts and methods in order to assist in developing specifications and deploying and integrating systems for use in security screening or similar applications (such as, aviation, DOD, or private corporations).

OR B. Education: Completion of a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree in or in a related field; OR Three full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree;

OR C. Combination of Education and Experience: Combinations of successfully completed graduate level education (beyond the second year) and experience may be used to meet total qualification requirements for this position, and may be computed by first determining your total qualifying experience as a percentage of the experience required for the band level; and then adding the two percentages. The total percentages must equal at at least 100 percent.

to qualify for the SV-I Pay Band, (equivalent to GS-13), you must have one year of specialized experience at the SV-H Pay Band or GS-12 in the Federal service or equivalent experience in the private sector. Specialized experience is defined experience that has equipped you with the expert knowledge, skills and abilities required to successfully perform the duties of the position. Such experience is defined as employing engineering concepts and methods in order to develop specifications and deploy and integrate systems for use in security screening or similar applications (such as, aviation, DOD, or private corporations); and conducting engineering feasibility studies and analyses to resolve issues or assess the impact of actions, designs, or new processes, and advances in technology You must meet the qualification requirements for this position no later than the closing date of the vacancy announcement.