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Environmental Engineer

National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Headquarters, NASA
This job announcement has closed

Summary

You will serve as a Technical Authority in Environmental Restoration and Unfunded Environmental Liabilities assigned to the Environmental Management Division (EMD) in the Office of Strategic Infrastructure.

Overview

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Hiring complete
Open date: 09/24/2021
Closed date: 10/04/2021
Location
1 vacancy in the following location:
Work site options
Telework eligible
Yes—as determined by the agency policy.
Relocation expenses reimbursed
No
Salary
$108,885 - $172,500 per year
Pay scale & grade
GS 14 - 15
Promotion potential
15
Pay scale and grade determines the salary of the job.
Work schedule
Full-time
Travel Required
Occasional travel - You may be expected to travel for this position.
Appointment type
Permanent
Occupations and job series
Supervisory status
No
Federal service type
This job is in the Competitive Service
Drug test
No
Security clearance
Not Required
Position sensitivity and risk
Non-sensitive (NS)/Low Risk
Jobs require a background check and some require a security clearance. The type depends on the job.
Background check type
Announcement number
HQ-21-IMP-11230279-CB
Control number
615334900

This job is open to

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Clarification from the agency

**This vacancy has been extended to close on 10/04/2021. Current NASA federal employee serving on a career, career-conditional, Schedule A for individuals with disabilities, or NASA term appointment that provides eligibility to convert to a permanent appointment or a current NASA employee on a long-term rotational assignment to the NASA Engineering and Safety Center or the NASA Safety Center.

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Duties

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  • Duties described below are at the full-performance level. Duties assigned at a lower grade level will be of more limited scope, performed with less independence and limited complexity; duties will be commensurate with the grade of selected employee.
  • Develop and maintain Agency policy, procedures, and guidance.
  • Represent NASA in interagency meetings, and serve as liaison oversight groups.
  • Serve as Task Manager for the NASA Environmental Tracking System.
  • Serve as the EMD Unfunded Environmental Liability (UEL) manager to assure the technical sufficiency of data regarding environmental remediation/cleanup projects for the UEL, representing an Agency liability of approximately $2B.
  • Provide technical engineering assistance to Center environmental remediation/cleanup projects, as well as Center Remedial Program Managers (RPMs).
  • Provide technical engineering oversight of the Agency wide Unfunded Environmental Liability (UEL) accounting, in support of the NASA OCFO Annual Financial Statement.
  • Train and develop Center RPMs in support of the environmental remediation/cleanup program.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

  • You must meet qualifications requirements by the closing date of this announcement
  • If selected, you will be required to complete a financial disclosure statement.
  • The salary range for the GS-14/15 listed on the vacancy announcement is equivalent to the lowest GS-14 and highest GS-15 locality pay across the agency; the selectee's final salary will be set based on their duty location.
  • Duty location will be determined upon selection, selectee will remain at their current duty location.

Qualifications

In addition to the basic education requirement (shown below), you must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade, which has equipped you with the particular competencies needed to successfully perform the duties of the position described above.

To qualify for GS-14, you must have one year of directly related specialized experience equivalent to the GS-13 level as a subject matter expert in at least one environmental restoration discipline (e.g, environmental remediation or unfunded environmental liability) such as preliminary assessments/site inspections, remedial design/remedial actions, decision document preparation, removal actions program reviews, auditing, policy and guidance development, training; and leading a small (e.g., at least 3 member) team in the same or more than one mission assurance discipline.

To qualify for GS-15, you must have one year of directly related specialized experience equivalent to the GS-14 level working with, understanding, and evaluating environmental restoration requirements (e.g., environmental remediation and unfunded environmental liabilities) for each part of a project lifecycle and serving as spokesperson advising project managers on technical issues; preparing agency policy and guidance, evaluating program status and performance; and managing a large communities of practice and project team (e.g., at least 7 members).

Your resume must include a clear and detailed narrative description, in your own words, of how you meet the required specialized experience. Experience statements copied from a position description, vacancy announcement or other reference material constitutes plagiarism and may result in disqualification and losing consideration for the job.

Education

You must have successfully completed a full 4-year course of study in an accredited college or university leading to a bachelor's or higher degree that included a major in 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
Have 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 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 individuals 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 individual 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) 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.
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 you have 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. (The above examples of related curricula are not all inclusive.)

Additional information

Additional selections may be made for similar positions across NASA within the local commuting area(s) of the location(s) identified in this announcement. By applying, you agree to have your application shared with interested selecting official(s) within NASA. CTAP/ICTAP will be cleared for any additional selection from this announcement.

If you are a current federal employee, you must meet applicable time-in-grade requirements to be considered eligible for this position. To be eligible, you must have completed a minimum of 52 weeks in a position no more than 1 grade lower than the advertised position. (Please submit your SF-50 that shows Time-in-Grade eligibility and reflects your title, series, and grade. If your eligibility for both merit promotion and/or time-in-grade cannot be determined, your application will be rated ineligible. Please see Required Documents for additional information).
Note: Time-in-grade requirements also apply to applicants who have held a non-temporary, competitive service GS position in the past year.

If you have special priority selection rights under the Agency Career Transition Assistance Program (CTAP) or the Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program (ICTAP), you must:
- Indicate your eligibility when applying for a position. The questionnaire asks you to identify your ICTAP/CTAP eligibility.
-Be well qualified for this position to receive consideration. Candidates rated in the 'Best Qualified' category are considered well-qualified. Please see 'How You Will Be Evaluated' for more information.
-Submit proof that you meet the requirements for CTAP/ICTAP as indicated in 'Required Documents'

For additional information about CTAP/ICTAP eligibility, click here - https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/#ictap.

Qualified NASA term employees who have term conversion eligibility (http://nasapeople.nasa.gov/hclwp/term-appointments.htm) under the NASA Flexibility Act of 2004 will be referred and considered equally with other NASA permanent employees under internal competitive placement procedures.

How you will be evaluated

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

You will be evaluated for this position based on how well you meet the qualifications and eligibility requirements listed in this vacancy announcement. To determine your qualifications and referral status, we may review your resume and supporting documentation and compare it against your responses to the vacancy questionnaire. Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration.

You will be assessed on the following competencies:
Influencing/Negotiating
Leadership
Environmental Engineering
Technical Competence
Institutional Environmental Engineering and Management
Institutional Environmental Remediation

NASA considers 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.

Under NASA's quality grouping process, applicants will be assessed on the position competencies and placed in one of three groups identified and defined below:

  • Best Qualified Group - Applicants who demonstrate a superior level of all evaluation criteria.
  • Highly Qualified Group - Applicants who demonstrate a satisfactory level of the evaluation criteria.
  • Qualified Group - Applicants who demonstrate the basic qualifications, with general knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Candidates eligible for ICTAP/CTAP, reemployment priority or priority consideration will be referred before other candidates, as necessary. If no such candidates apply or are eligible to be referred, the following candidates will be sent to the hiring official for employment consideration:
  • Best Qualified merit promotion candidates. Highly Qualified merit promotion candidates may also be referred, if additional candidates are needed.
  • Qualified candidates eligible for consideration under Schedule A or VRA in accordance with veterans' preference rules, as applicable.
  • Qualified candidates that are eligible for special hiring authorities or non-competitive hiring authorities.

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Agency contact information

NASA Shared Services Contact Center
Phone
1-877-677-2123
Fax
1-866-779-6772
Email
nssc-contactcenter@nasa.gov
Address
NASA Headquarters
300 E St SW
Washington, DC 20546
US

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