General Engineer

Summary

This position is part of the Department of War (DoW), Missile Defense Agency (MDA). The incumbent will be responsible for serving as a General Engineer for Directorate for Test.

Salary Ranges are the following unless statutory/regulatory rates prevail.

For the Redstone Arsenal, AL Location: $93,216 to $144,102 (includes 21.91% locality)

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Duties

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This is a Direct Hire Authority (DHA) solicitation utilizing the DHA for Acq Demo and Technical Management to recruit and appoint qualified candidates to positions in the competitive service.

As a General Engineer at the NH-0801-3 broadband level, there are various areas of engineering application within the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD). Duties may include:

• Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) has multiple positions in various areas of engineering. Duties may include:
  • Digital Engineer:
    
    
    • Performs highly systems and software engineering to implement digital engineering solutions for the GM workforce.
    • Use modern DevSecOps methodologies, cloud architectures, and digital engineering ecosystems to drive the secure, efficient, and rapid delivery of critical defense capabilities.
    • Drive the development, deployment, and scaling of the comprehensive digital engineering solutions and GM Integrated Digital Data Environment. Lead the connection of engineering tools and establish automated data pipelines to ensure teams have consistent, real-time technical data throughout the weapon system lifecycle.
    • Architect, manage, and modernize scalable digital infrastructure, leveraging cloud-based platforms, containerization (e.g., Kubernetes), and Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC).
    • Recommend infrastructure changes necessary to support evolving GM requirements.
  • Ground System Missile Field Engineer:
    
    
    • Provides government oversight for current and future capabilities of GMD Missile Field mechanical systems planning, development, fielding, acceptance testing, and transition to Operations.
    • Review missile field design's to ensure compliance with requirements, Missile Defense System Core Standards, Mission Assurance Plan, Parts, Materials, Processes Procedures, and other agency objectives/processes.
    • Assess technical design reviews and coordinate with stakeholders to identify and resolve Missile field or GWS related-infrastructure issues. Provide recommendations on design acceptance or mitigation of issues.
    • Conduct government technical oversight for missile field construction projects including site planning and preparation, facility, infrastructure, silo, and silo interface vault construction, acceptance testing, and certification and activation actions.
    • Track technical and schedule aspects of projects and provide status reports to GMN Leadership.
    • Investigate anomalies and failures, and participate in failure review boards as required.
    • Provide technical recommendations on improvements of missile field mechanical systems and develop associated inputs to independent government cost estimates and project plans.
  • Software Assessment Engineer:
    
    
    • Leads the DevSecOps efforts in the design, execution, and continuous optimization of GM's DevSecOps environment.
    • Responsible for the implementation of automated security testing, compliance checks, and secure software development practices to ensure rigorous system security and rapid capability delivery.
    • Performing highly complex software and firmware engineering at the system and subsystem level for a defense weapon system.
    • Use software development, DevSecOps, Software Assessment, and Firmware Assessment to assess design, development, and fielding of critical defense capabilities.
    • Serve as the lead for the GMD end-to-end Software IV&V framework across critical mission subsystems.
    • Independently evaluate contractor and vendor software artifacts, conduct source code analyses, and assess test execution coverage to identify integration risks, software vulnerabilities, and defects early in the lifecycle.
  • Requirements and Architecture Engineer:
    
    
    • Performs systems engineering at the system and subsystem level for a GMD.
    • Use Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) tools specifically CAMEO and IBM DOORS to drive concept planning, design, development, and verification of critical defense capabilities.
    • Independently develop, update, and assess complex system level architectural models utilizing MBSE methodologies and CAMEO to define, integrate, and trace critical Missile Defense capabilities down to subsystem-level designs.
    • Develop weapon system requirements by establishing and managing authoritative DOORS databases, maintain rigorous bi-directional traceability from top-level requirements to subsystem specifications, and conduct impact analyses on proposed changes across organizational boundaries.
    • Independently develop and execute engineering assessments to evaluate verification artifacts at the system and subsystem levels.
    • Use SE verification methodologies to identify integration risks and recommend necessary changes to ensure requirements closure and the successful fielding of defense capabilities.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

• Must be a U.S. Citizen
• Occasional Travel
• Work Schedule: Full-time
• Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered for Selective Service
• Suitable for Federal employment, determined by a background investigation
• May be required to successfully complete a probationary period
• Overtime: Occasionally
• Tour of Duty: Flexible
• Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
• Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA): Exempt
• Financial Disclosure: Required
• Telework Eligibility: This position is situational telework eligible.
• Must obtain/maintain Non-Critical Sensitive/Secret security clearance
• This position is subject to an initial drug screening, and random testing thereafter. You may be required to sign a "Drug Test Statement of Understanding" if you are selected for this position.
• This is an acquisition position coded Practitioner in Engineering and Technical Management. Incumbent must obtain mandatory Back-to-Basics (BtB) certification within 60 months of entry into position.
• Incumbent must acquire 80 Continuous Learning Points every 24 months.
• Selective Service Requirement: Please visit for more information

Qualifications

You may qualify at the NH -03 Broadband Level, if you fulfill the following qualifications:

A. One year of specialized experience equivalent to the NH-02/GS-11grade level in the Federal service as listed below and must meet 2 of the 3 specialized experience listed below to be qualified:

• Experience applying acquisition policies to complex defense systems.
• Experience in the field of systems engineering in one or more of the following key specialty areas: systems architecture, systems engineering, threat systems engineering, cybersecurity engineering, modeling & simulation, sensors & radars, command& control, battle management, missiles, targets, kill vehicles, space vehicles, directed energy, discrimination, hypersonics, artificial intelligence/machine learning;
• Experience in one or more sub-specialty area: architecture development, requirements development, design, model-based systems engineering, object oriented analysis, performance modeling & analysis, interface development & engineering, system integration, test requirements, test & performance analysis, system assessment, risk management, verification & validation, lethality, specific/multiple radar frequencies, signal processing, antenna design, networks, protocols, propulsion, avionics, guidance, navigation & control, structures & dynamics, rocket motors & thrusters, seekers, radiation hardening, software engineering, data analytics, cyber testing, power systems, parts / materials, industrial & manufacturing, sustainability, reliability, international requirements, and/or specialty engineering.

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.

In addition to meeting qualifications, your application package must reflect the applicable experience to meet the Individual Occupational Requirements for the 0801, series as listed below:

This position has a Basic Requirement for the 0801 series:

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), 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: Failure to provide transcripts will result in you being rated ineligible for this position. All materials must be submitted by the closing date of the announcement.

Education

Substitution of education may not be used in lieu of specialized experience for this grade level.

All materials must be submitted by the closing date of the announcement.

FOREIGN EDUCATION: 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 and such education has been 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:

Additional information

Other Notes:

ACQUISITION POSITION: This position requires Acquisition Workforce Level Practitioner Certification prior to hiring is not essential but must be accomplished within 60 months after entry into this position.

• DAWIA (Back to Basics) Certification: NON-CAP: Position requires DoD Acquisition Engineering and Technical Management, Practitioner certification. Certification prior to hiring is not essential but must be accomplished within 60 months after entry into this position. Selectee must also achieve 80 hours of Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) every 2-years. Click here for more details and Resources.

RE-EMPLOYED ANNUITANT: This position DOES NOT meet criteria for re-employed annuitant. The DoD criteria for hiring Re-employed Annuitants can be found at:

All applicants must meet qualifications and eligibility criteria by the closing date of the announcement.

Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered or exempt from Selective Service (see Who Needs to Register | Selective Service System : Selective Service System (sss.gov))

This position is subject to an initial drug screening, and random testing thereafter. A negative drug test result must be received by HR within 30 calendar days after the EOD (i.e., start date). The selectee's inability successfully pass; or refusal to conduct the test may result in: 1) the tentative or FJO being withdrawn during the recruitment process; or 2) subsequently being removed from Federal service for failure to meet a condition of employment.

You may be required to sign a "Drug Test Statement of Understanding" if you are selected for this position.

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

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A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.

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Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.