Qualifications
For the ND-04: In addition to meeting the basic education requirement, your resume must also demonstrate at least one year of specialized experience at or equivalent to the ND-03 pay band (GS-9/11 equivalency) in the Federal service or equivalent experience in the private or public sector. Specialized experience must demonstrate the following:
As a Professional Engineer or Scientist performing non-routine sample analysis to develop detection, identification, separation, or quantification methods for a chemical and material analysis program.
For the ND-03: In addition to meeting the basic education requirement, your resume must also demonstrate at least one year of specialized experience at or equivalent to the ND-02 pay band (GS-5/8 equivalency) in the Federal service or equivalent experience in the private or public sector. Specialized experience must demonstrate the following:
As a Professional Engineer or Scientist applying analytical chemistry theories and methods to interpret qualitative and quantitative data for Research and Development (R&D) efforts.
Additional qualification information can be found from the following Office of Personnel Management website:
all-professional-engineering-positions-0800.pdf (opm.gov)
General Physical Science Series, 1301 (opm.gov)
Chemistry Series, 1320 (opm.gov)
Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (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.
Education
Applicants must meet the following basic education requirements of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Qualifications Standards Manual:
For the 0893 Professional Chemical Engineering Series:
Successful completion of a professional engineering degree. To be acceptable, the program must: (1) lead to a bachelor's degree (or higher) 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. Such education must demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of the position.
OR
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 more information about EI and EIT registration requirements, please visit the National Society of Professional Engineers website at: http://www.nspe.org
OR
Evidence of having successfully passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) 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 The FE examination is not administered by the U. S. Office of Personnel Management. For more information, please visit: http://www.nspe.org/Licensure/HowtoGetLicensed/index.html.
OR
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 under paragraph A (above). The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of an engineering program as described in paragraph A (above)
OR
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 one 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.
For the 1301 Professional Physical Science Series:
Degree: physical science, engineering, or mathematics that included 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science such as mechanics, dynamics, properties of materials, and electronics.
OR
Combination of education and experience -- education equivalent to one of the majors shown in A above that included at least 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science, plus appropriate experience or additional education.
For the 1320 Professional Chemistry Series:
Successful completion of a bachelor's degree or higher in physical sciences, life sciences, or engineering that included 30 semester hours in chemistry, supplemented by course work in mathematics through differential and integral calculus, and at least 6 semester hours of physics. -OR
Have a combination of education and experience with course work equivalent to a major as shown in A above, including at least 30 semester hours in chemistry, supplemented by mathematics through differential and integral calculus, and at least 6 semester hours of physics, plus appropriate experience or additional education.
For the ND-03, You may qualify with the following education or combination of both education and experience:
A master's or equivalent graduate degree;
OR
Two full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a master's or equivalent graduate degree;
OR
A combination of experience and graduate education as described above that equates to one year of experience.