General Engineer

Summary

This position is located in the Air Traffic Organization (ATO), Safety Service Unit, Policy & Performance Directorate, Safety Performance Group (AJl-3400). This group creates and manages safety performance metrics and incorporates human performance management programs, data, and efforts to maximize safety performance.

Learn more about this agency

Duties

Help

The General Engineer applies experience and comprehensive knowledge of several engineering disciplines such as Systems, Computer, and Safety engineering to evaluate and analyze National Airspace Systems (NAS) and equipment, including procedures and software, to develop safety performance metrics. Plans and accomplishes highly complex and challenging projects/programs and other work activities under the minimal direction of the team manager or more experienced engineer. This work directly affects the Safety Service Unit, the Air Traffic Organization (ATO), and the strategic goals of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Applies extensive experience and comprehensive knowledge of engineering principles, theories, and new technologies to study and evaluate NAS systems and equipment. Facilitates decision-making by analyzing trend data and simulations to identify safety risks. Solves complex engineering problems and improves engineering processes, metrics, and measurements. Analyzes calculations and computations to evaluate safety performance targets.

Conducts safety and performance assessments of NAS systems, operations and procedures, including communication systems, peripheral control systems and business architectures to develop safety data and to analyze information through the use of dashboards, advanced analytics, collaboration environments, visualizations, and briefings. Establishes data management and analysis methods to provide the components necessary for capturing, tracking, and learning from safety risk management efforts and to facilitate safety performance target monitoring for NAS systems and equipment.

As a principal technical specialist or as a project/program manager or team leader for large work activities, the engineer uses experience applying project/program management principles to support the Safety Management Tracking System (SMTS) by gathering and managing system requirements for SMTS. Leads teams in the analysis and assessment of safety data to identify trends, risks, and areas for improvement in safety measures. Develops detailed documentation of requirements to ensure configuration management and traceability. Interprets equipment performance data to provide advice and to recommend changes in the ATO Safety Management System (SMS) Manual and related policies.

Contacts are internal and external. The Engineer often represents the FAA as a senior technical point of contact on projects, programs and other work activities. Communicates results to all levels internally within AJI and externally. Plays a lead role in drafting, reviewing, and editing reports for final approval prior to external distribution. Presents briefings to obtain consensus/approval on policies and coordinates significant technical matters with representatives of external organizations.

Although broad policies and objectives provide general guidance for addressing issues, the Engineer is allowed considerable discretion to develop new and innovative approaches. Provides guidance to lower-level staff to solve difficult technical issues and resolves all but unique technical problems without the intervention of the Team Manager or a more experienced engineer.

The Team Manager rarely reviews work, typically though status reports and at project completion, to ensure technical compliance and alignment with the requirements of the project or other work activity.

Requirements

Help

Conditions of employment

• US Citizenship is required.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
• Must submit an SF50 (See Required Documents).
• Designated or Random Drug Testing required.
• This position has a positive education requirement. Transcript(s) required.
• Some, all, or none of the applicants may be interviewed.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position at J band level, you must demonstrate in your application that you possess at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the FG/GS-13 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.

Specialized experience is defined as:

• Experience applying project or program management principles to assist in organizing team, tracking, and executing work within a project.
• Experience analyzing and assessing safety data to identify trends, risks, and areas for improvement in safety measures.

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; or (3) alphabetical, 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:

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:

To qualify for this position, you must have a degree in professional 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 the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (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

A 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 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 bachelors 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.)

If you are a current or former Federal employee, and you currently hold or previously held a position classified in the 0801 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 0801 occupational series.

Applicants, who are not currently in the 0801 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.

Preview job questionnaire

Make sure your resume includes detailed information to support your qualifications and answers to the job questionnaire.

Additional information

We may use this vacancy to fill other similar vacant positions.

Position may be subject to a background investigation.

A one-year probationary period may be required.

The person selected for this position may be required to file a financial disclosure statement within 30 days of entry on duty. FAA policy limits certain outside employment and financial investments in aviation-related companies.

This position is covered by the Department of Transportation's Drug and Alcohol Testing Program. Any applicant tentatively selected for this position will be subject to pre-employment or pre-appointment drug screening. Persons occupying a "testing designated position (TDP)" will be subject to random drug and/or alcohol testing.

NOTES:

1)As a part of the Federal-Wide Hiring Reform Initiative (streamlining the hiring process), the FAA is committed to eliminating the use of Knowledge, Skills and Ability (KSA) narratives from the initial application in the hiring process for all announcements. Therefore, as an applicant, you are NOT required to provide a narrative response in the text box listed below each KSA.

In lieu of providing a KSA narrative response in the text box listed below each KSA section, in your work history, please include information that provides specific examples of how you meet the response level or answer you chose for each KSA. Your work history examples should be specific and clearly reflect the highest level of ability. Your KSA answers will be evaluated further to validate whether the level that you selected is appropriate based on the work history and experience you provided. Your answers may be adjusted by a human resource specialist as appropriate.

2) This position is covered by the FAA Core Compensation plan. Additional information about core compensation is available on the following website:

3) This Level 2 (Non-Critical Sensitive; Secret) position requires favorable adjudication of an Access National Agency Check and Inquiries (ANACI) background investigation prior to appointment, unless a waiver is obtained.

This is not a bargaining unit position.

Links to Important Information: Locality Pay, COLA

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.

Help

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.

Review our benefits

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.