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SENIOR SCIENTIST - UNDERSEA WARFARE SURVIVABILITY

Department of the Navy
Immediate Office of the Chief of Naval Operations
This job announcement has closed

Summary

You will serve as the Senior Technologist (ST) for Undersea Security and Survivability in the Undersea Warfare Division of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV)

Overview

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Hiring complete
Open & closing dates
12/06/2023 to 12/26/2023
Salary
$185,335 to - $212,100 per year

Actual salary may vary depending on the scope and the complexity of the qualifications and current compensation of the selectee.

Pay scale & grade
ST 00
Location
Pentagon, Arlington, VA
1 vacancy
Remote job
No
Telework eligible
Yes—This position is eligible for part time, substantial or ad-hoc telework at the discretion of management.
Travel Required
Occasional travel - You may be expected to travel for this position.
Relocation expenses reimbursed
Yes—Relocation expenses (i.e. PCS) or relocation incentives as described in 5 USC 5753 may be authorized in accordance with applicable travel regulations.
Appointment type
Permanent
Work schedule
Full-time
Service
Competitive
Promotion potential
None
Supervisory status
Yes
Security clearance
Sensitive Compartmented Information
Drug test
Yes
Announcement number
DE-12233127-24-JS
Control number
764400300

Duties

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  • You will be responsible for technical execution, directing and communicating the work that ensures the U.S. Navy understands the risks and options to operate a secure and survivable undersea force that meets current and future mission requirements.
  • You will develop and oversee a portfolio of physics-based analysis of potential threats and potential counter-undersea warfare (USW) solutions that sustain force survivability.
  • You will collaborate with the intelligence community at a detailed technical level to support the creation of a viable threat construct.
  • You will be responsible for developing, prioritizing and executing an effective long-term portfolio of technical, operational, and countermeasures work to assure undersea force survivability.
  • You will be responsible for evolving and sustaining the Department of the Navy (DON) technical foundation from which undersea security vulnerabilities are characterized, understood, and mitigated.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

  • Must be a US Citizen.
  • Must be determined suitable for federal employment.
  • Must participate in the direct deposit pay program.
  • New employees to the Department of the Navy will be required to successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit e-verify.gov
  • You will be required to complete ethics orientation within three months of appointment and submit a Public Financial Disclosure Report, OGE-278e within 30 days of appointment.
  • Within the Department of Defense (DoD), the appointment of retired military members within 180 days immediately following retirement date to a civilian position is subject to the provisions of 5 United States Code 3326.
  • Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered for Selective Service.
  • May be required to successfully complete a 1-year probationary period.
  • You will be required to obtain and maintain an interim and/or final security clearance prior to entrance on duty. Failure to obtain and maintain the required level of clearance may result in the withdrawal of a job offer or removal.
  • Successful completion of a pre-employment drug test (including marijuana) is required. A tentative offer of employment will be rescinded if you fail to report to the drug test appointment or fail the test. You will be subject to random testing.
  • This position may require travel from normal duty station to CONUS and OCONUS and may include remote or isolated sites. You must be able to travel on military and commercial aircraft for extended periods of time.
  • Supervisors in the executive branch have a heightened personal responsibility for advancing government ethics. You will be required to review the 14 General Principles of Ethical Conduct at 5 CFR 2635.101.

Qualifications

QUALIFICATIONS REQUIREMENTS: Applicants will be assessed against Mandatory Technical Qualifications (MTQs). Failure to provide a separate narrative statement which describes fully and concisely how your experience meets the Mandatory Technical Qualifications will eliminate you from consideration.

MANDATORY TECHNICAL QUALIFICATIONS: (Each must be addressed separately in your Supplemental Narrative Statement. Each MTQ must not exceed 2 pages.)

1. Experience in and detailed knowledge of physics governing nuclear submarine signature generation, propagation and exploitation. Experience developing and validating physics based models of signatures, propagation and detection problems relevant to submarine signatures expressed undersea, in-air, and in space.

2. Experience formulating and executing exploratory science and technology research plans, developing and managing analytical and empirical investigations ranging from bench science to full scale at-sea experimentation. Demonstrated experience leading the design and successful execution of fleet exercises to validate analytically based models of undersea warfare system technologies.

3. Experience in management techniques and organizational functions, processes, principles, methods, and procedures used to gather, analyze, and evaluate technical information concerning management/program organizational operations. Experience recruiting scientific and engineering talent from DoD and DoE laboratories, Federally-Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs), Universities, and University-Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs).

4. Experience and detailed knowledge of nuclear submarine propulsion and life support systems, operational profiles, control, communication systems, sensor systems, weapon and defensive systems and fire control. Experience in planning and managing complex systems development and support projects, particularly in the area of engineering requirements analysis, involving interaction with a variety of organizations, laboratories, field activities, and contractors.

5. Demonstrated systems engineering expertise related to ship systems in the acquisition and modernization processes with experience in development of corporate level policies, standards, evaluation techniques, and technical certification criteria. Familiarity with the execution of the naval ship design process, including associated milestone decision support requirements.

Additional qualification information can be found from the following Office of Personnel Management website:
https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/#GS-PROF
AND
0801 Professional Engineering Series
1301 General Physical Science Series

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 positive education qualifications requirements of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Qualifications Standards Manual:

For 0801 Professional Engineering Series:
A. Degree:
Engineering. Successful completion of a bachelor's or higher engineering degree from an accredited college or university. 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. Such education must demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of the position.
-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:
(I) 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; or
(II) Written Test -- 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; or
(III) 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; or
(IV) 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 1301 General Physical Science Series:
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.

Additional information

This position is a Senior Scientific position in the federal government. Senior Scientific and professional employees are in non-executive positions whose duties are broad and complex enough to be classified above GS 15 level. Senior level positions involve performance of high-level research and development in the physical, biological, medical, or engineering sciences.

This position is not covered by the Department of Defense Priority Placement Program.

Additional vacancies may be filled by this announcement.

A tentative offer of employment will be rescinded if the selectee fails to meet the pre-employment requirements, including failure to report to any of the scheduled appointments.

Federal annuitant information: The selection of an annuitant is subject to the Department of Defense and Department of the Navy policy on the employment of annuitants. Policy information may be found at: http://www.secnav.navy.mil/donhr/Documents/CivilianJobs/FedCivAnnuitants.pdf.

Certain incentives (such as Recruitment, Relocation or Student Loan Repayment) may be authorized to eligible selectees.

A relocation incentive is generally a single payment intended to offset some of the relocation costs experienced by the selectee. A relocation incentive may be authorized.

How you will be evaluated

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

All candidates will be screened against the above listed minimum qualifications required. Candidates considered basically qualified will be further reviewed by a panel of subject matter experts for preliminary evaluation and recommendation for review by the Navy Science and Technology Personnel Review Board who will recommend via the Chief of Naval Research the best qualified candidate(s) to the official authorized to make the selection.

If selected, you may be required to provide supporting documentation.

All qualifications requirements must be met by the closing date of this announcement.

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