Clarification from the agency

This announcement is open to All U.S. Citizens, and is being filled under the Direct Hire Authority (DHA) for Certain Personnel of the Department of Defense. Appointment of Military Spouses (5 CFR 315.612)(NonComp Mil Sp), Retained Grade Preference (RGP), and Military Reserve and National Guard Technician eligibles may also apply.

This position is being filled under the memorandum from the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (USD(P&R)) "Expansion of Direct Hire Authority for Certain Personnel of the Department of Defense," dated August 12, 2024.

As a Interdisciplinary Physical Scientist / General Engineer at the GS-0801/1301-14 some of your typical work assignments may include:

• Recognizes opportunities for development of new technologies that provide improved capabilities to support the Agency's mission. Seeks to form teams to enhance program development, facilitate synergy, and minimize duplication of effort.
• Ensures that program efforts are fully coordinated with the Services and other Agencies. Ensures that program products are responsive to military and policy requirements.
• Maintains awareness to identify spin-off, non- government applications. Finds, characterizes, and detects activities involved with the construction, testing, evaluation, and operational maintenance and safety features of newly developed or installed reactor components.
• Manages programs in coordination with services and other agencies. Leads complex technical development programs to stay abreast of the latest scientific theories, experiments, and technology trends in Hard and Deeply Buried Targets (HDBT) defeat area, Hard Targets Development (HTD), and Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD).
• Represents the Agency on committees of national and international importance that focus on holding adversarial and command, control, communications, and intelligence (C4I) and WMD-related infrastructure at risk.
• Maintains required liaison with personnel within the Agency, the military Services, DoD agencies, and any other relevant organizations including DIA and other Agencies to assess operational warfighter requirements for Command, Control, Computing, Communications, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance.

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: May Be Authorized
• Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA): Exempt
• Financial Disclosure: Not Required
• Telework Eligibility: This position may be eligible for limited, situational telework subject to supervisory approval and not to exceed current Agency guidelines. This position is not eligible for remote telework.
• Must be able to obtain and maintain a TS/SCI security clearance level.
• Must consent to and pass pre-employment drug testing and be subject to periodic testing thereafter.
• Travel in the performance of temporary assignments may be required 20% CONUS/OCONUS. The employee must be willing to comply with each Combatant Command (COCOM) travel medical requirement to include vaccinations.
• Valid Passport Required.

Qualifications

You may qualify at the GS-14, if you fulfill the following qualifications:

A. One year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-13 grade level in the Federal service as listed below:

• Utilizing technical assessments of Hard and Deeply Buried Target (HDBT), Hard Target Defeat (HTD) and /or Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) mechanical, physical, electrical, and chemical systems to identify system vulnerabilities using analytical methods involving artificial intelligence (AI) solutions.
• Applying the acquisitions of research and development technical & engineering (RDT&E) projects and programs to execute development research programs associated with these targets and their related processes.
• Overseeing complex research and development portfolios by performing gap analyses, developing and implementing strategic approaches, and initiating projects supporting HDBT, HTD, and WMD offensive capabilities.
• Managing multiple concurrent contract R&D projects within a portfolio, including annual financial oversight (1-15 million dollars) to meet obligation and expenditure goals as the government contract officer representative (COR).
• Coordinating collaboration with Department of War (DoW) agencies, USGOV agencies, and foreign partners.

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 0801/1301, series as listed below:

For the General Engineering Series, 0801:

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.
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.)

For the General Physical Science Series, 1301:

A. 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
B. 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.

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

We will review your resume and supporting documents, to ensure you meet the basic qualification requirements. We will evaluate each applicant who meets the basic qualifications on the information provided and evaluate your relevant work experiences as it relates to fundamental competencies, identified below, required for this position.

Traditional rating and ranking of applications does not apply to this vacancy. Your application (resume and supporting documentation) will be evaluated to determine if you meet the minimum qualifications required as listed on the announcement under qualification requirements.

Veterans Preference: If you are entitled to veterans preference, you should indicate the type of veterans' preference you are claiming on your resume. Your veterans' preference entitlement will be verified by the employing agency.

For information on entitlement see http://www.fedshirevets.gov/job/vetpref/index.aspx

Appointment of Military Spouses (5 CFR 315.612) (NonComp Mil Sp): To receive this preference, you must choose to apply using the " Appointment of Military Spouses (5 CFR 315.612) (NonComp Mil Sp)" eligibility. If you are claiming Military Spouse eligibility and are determined to be Well Qualified (score of 85 or above) for the position, you will be referred to the hiring manager. Information and required documentation for claiming Military Spouse eligibility may be found at the General Applicant Information and Definitions link below.

The documents you are required to submit vary based on the authority you are using to apply (i.e., applying as a veteran, applying as a current permanent Federal employee, applying as a reinstatement, etc.). Your complete application includes your COMPLETE resume, your responses to the online questionnaire, and documents which prove your eligibility to apply. If you fail to provide these documents, you will be marked as having an incomplete application package and you will not be considered any further.

The following documents are REQUIRED

1. Your resume:

• IMPORTANT UPDATE: Your resume must not exceed two (2) pages. If your resume exceeds the two-page limit, you will be removed from consideration for this announcement. The resume and required supporting documentation should provide the minimum qualifications and relevant experience for the announced position. Must include the work schedule, hours worked per week, dates of employment, and duties performed. If multiple resumes are submitted by an applicant, only the last resume submitted will be reviewed for qualifications and referred for selection consideration, if eligible. The resume must not be more than 5MB and should be saved and uploaded as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. Page margins should be 0.5 inches, and font styles must be legible. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text. We recommend using a font like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans.
• Additional guidance on writing a federal resume can be found at: USAJOBS Help Center - How do I write a resume for a federal job? The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started.

2. Transcripts:

• This position has a degree or education requirement so you are required to submit a copy of your transcript
• College transcript (s), required if qualifying based on education. We accept unofficial transcripts, as long as they contain your name, the name of the school, the date and degree that was awarded, and the list of classes and credits earned.

3. SF50

• All current and former civilian Federal employees must submit a copy of your MOST RECENT SF50 (Notification of Personnel Action) showing your tenure, grade and step, salary, and type of position occupied (i.e., Excepted or Competitive); or similar Notification of Personnel Action documentation, i.e., Transcript of Service, Form 1150, etc. This is also a requirement to verify your Time in Grade (TIG).

4. Veteran's Documents:

• If applying using veteran's preference or under a Veteran's hiring authority you must submit the following documents: DD214 showing character of service, SF-15 Form and VA letter showing final percentage, or certification of expected discharge or release from active duty.

PLEASE REVIEW THE BELOW LINK FOR OTHER SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS needed for proof of eligibility:
https://www.dla.mil/Portals/104/Documents/Careers/downloads/DODCustomersRequiredSupportingDocumentation.pdf?

Next steps