Clarification from the agency

Who May Apply/Clarification From the Agency: U.S. Citizens. Subject position(s) will be filled through delegated examining procedures. For definitions of common terms found in this announcement: http://dhsconnect.dhs.gov/org/comp/mgmt/dhshr/hr/Documents/JOA_Common_Definitions.pdf

You will serve as an Electrical Engineer (CYBER) and be responsible for leading, designing, developing, testing, and evaluating information systems throughout the systems development life cycle.

Being a Coast Guard civilian makes you a valuable member of the Coast Guard team.  Typical work assignments include:

• Analyzing design constraints, analyzing trade-offs and detailed system and security design, and consider life cycle support.
• Developing architectures or system components consistent with technical specifications.
• Identifying and directing the remediation of technical problems encountered during testing and implementation of new systems (e.g., identify and find workarounds for communication protocols that are not interoperable).
• Providing input to the Risk Management Framework process activities and related documentation (e.g., system life-cycle support plans, concept of operations, operational procedures, and maintenance training materials). 
• Working with senior level staff member to assist in the development and review of sensitive information including pre-decisional and/or embargoed IT budget, workforce, and organizational changes pertaining to program system development and operations.
• Implementing and integrating system development life cycle (SDLC) methodologies (e.g., IBM Rational Unified Process) into development environment.
• Conducting a market analysis to identify, assess, and recommend commercial, Government off- the-shelf, and open-source products for use within a system and ensure recommended products are incompliance with organization's evaluation and validation requirements.

Mandatory training is required which must be successfully completed and other training may occur as necessary for success in the position.

A. Federal Acquisition Certification for Program and Project Managers Level I (FAC P/PM-I) or management determined equivalent within two years of entry into the position.

Recruitment Incentive

Selectee(s) for this position who are newly appointed to a permanent position are authorized to receive a one-time recruitment incentive of 10% of the salary, including locality for this position. Receipt of the bonus will require a 12-month service agreement.

"Newly appointed" refers to the first appointment (regardless of tenure) as an employee of the Federal Government, an appointment following a break in service of at least 90 days from a previous
appointment as an employee of the Federal Government, or, in certain cases, an appointment following a break in service of less than 90 days from a previous appointment as an employee of the Federal Government.

Conditions of employment

• U.S. Citizenship is required.
• Males born after 12/31/1959 must be registered for Selective Service.
• A one-year probationary period may be required.
• This position requires a Secret clearance.
• Suitable for Federal employment.

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

Qualifications

Basic Requirements:

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

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 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) 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 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.)

AND

To qualify at the GS-12 grade level, applicants must have at least one (1) full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-11 grade level in the federal sector. Specialized experience is experience that has equipped you with the particular ability, skill, and knowledge to successfully perform the duties of this position and is typically in or related to this line of work.

Specialized experience must include the following: 

• Applying systems engineering processes for a component or device;
• Installation, integration, and optimization of non-networked system components;
• Translating, tracking, and prioritizing needs and collection requirement of non-networked systems;
• Applying system life cycle management principles, including software security and usability, on a component or device;
• Designing the integration of hardware and software solutions for a device or component;
• Tailoring technical and planning information to a customer’s level of understanding; AND
• Utilizing network design processes, to include security objectives, operational objectives, and trade-offs.

To qualify at the GS-13 grade level, applicants must have at least one (1) full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-12 grade level in the federal sector. Specialized experience is experience that has equipped you with the particular ability, skill, and knowledge to successfully perform the duties of this position and is typically in or related to this line of work.

Specialized experience must include the following:

• Applying systems engineering processes across multiple diverse systems;
• Installation, integration, and optimization of system components across the enterprise;
• Translating, tracking, and prioritizing needs and collection requirements across the extended enterprise;
• Applying system life cycle management principles, including software security and usability, across multiple diverse systems;
• Designing the integration of hardware and software solutions across the enterprise;
• Conducting audits or reviews of technical systems; AND
• Identifying critical infrastructure systems with information communication technology that were designed without system security considerations.

National Service Experience (i.e., volunteer experience): 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.

The Office of Personnel management (OPM) must authorize employment offers made to current or former political appointees.  If you are currently, or have been within the last 5 years, a political Schedule A, Schedule, C, Non-career SES or Presidential Appointee employee in the Executive Branch, you must disclose this information to the Human Resources Office.

How you will be evaluated

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

Your résumé, optional cover letter and supporting documentation will be reviewed to determine if you meet the minimum qualifications for the position. If you meet the minimum qualifications stated in the job opportunity announcement, we will compare your resume, optional cover letter and supporting documentation to your responses on the scored occupational questionnaire (True/False, Yes/No, Multiple Choice questions) and place you in one of three pre-defined categories. These categories are "best qualified," "well qualified," and "qualified."

For more information on category rating, please go to: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/competitive-hiring/#url=Category-Rating.

Your resume and/or optional cover letter must support your responses to the scored occupational questionnaire. High self-assessment in the scored occupational questionnaire that is not supported by your resume and/or optional cover letter may impact you or eliminate you from consideration.

Candidates placed in the "best qualified" category will be identified for referral to the hiring manager and may be invited for an interview.

Consideration will be given to performance appraisals and incentive awards as an indicator of quality of prior experience; no points will be assigned.

How you will be evaluated for preference eligibility: Within each category, those entitled to veterans'' preference will be listed at the top of the pre-defined category for which they are placed.

The scored occupational questionnaire will evaluate you on the following competencies; please do not provide a separate written response:

• Knowledge of computer networking concepts and protocols, and network security methodologies.
• Knowledge of measures or indicators of system performance and availability.
• Knowledge of system administration concepts for operating systems such as but not limited to Unix/Linux, IOS, Android, and Windows operating systems.
• Knowledge of IT system operation, maintenance, and security needed to keep equipment functioning properly.
• Knowledge of successful capabilities to identify the solutions to less common and more complex system problems.
• Skill in identifying possible causes of degradation of system performance or availability and initiating actions needed to mitigate this degradation.
• Knowledge of electrical engineering as applied to computer architecture (e.g., circuit boards, processors, chips, and computer hardware).
• Knowledge of telecommunications concepts (e.g., Communications channel, Systems Link Budgeting, Spectral efficiency, Multiplexing).

We recommend that you preview the online questions for this announcement before you start the application process.

Do NOT include the following types of information in your application:

Date of Birth (DOB)

Photos of yourself

Personal information such as age, gender, religious affiliation, etc.