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Aerospace Engineer

Department of Transportation
Federal Aviation Administration
AVS - Aircraft Certification Service (AIR), COS Program Management Section (AIR-722)

Summary

The Aerospace Engineer serves as a Compliance and Airworthiness (C&A) Technical Advisor and is called upon to provide leadership for highly complex and challenging activities under the minimal direction of a manager or an executive in the Compliance & Airworthiness Division.

Overview

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Accepting applications
Open & closing dates
03/05/2026 to 03/25/2026
Salary
$112,283 to - $173,980 per year

Salary with locality to be determined at time of job offer.

Pay scale & grade
FV K
Location
Few vacancies in the following location:
May be filled in various FAA duty locations
Few vacancies
Telework eligible
Yes—Situational telework may be permitted in accordance with agency policy.
Travel Required
Occasional travel - The job may require travel from time-to-time, but not on a regular basis. The travel may be for training or other work-related duties.
Relocation expenses reimbursed
No
Appointment type
Permanent
Work schedule
Full-time
Service
Excepted
Promotion potential
NA
Job family (Series)
Supervisory status
No
Security clearance
Secret
Drug test
Yes
Announcement number
ACT-AVS-26-IR722-97511
Control number
859827700

Duties

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Applies experience and expert knowledge of engineering principles, theories, and concepts applicable to certification, delegation, and Continued Operational Safety (COS) programs, as well as a comprehensive understanding of new technologies and methodologies, to solve complex problems. The incumbent applies broad technical, organizational, data management and team leadership skills to lead the oversight of assigned product types. May serve as the representative of FAA management in critical certification, delegation, and COS decision-making processes. In doing so, advises management and staff on schedule and prioritization recommendations, independently or in accordance with guidance from management. These duties also include helping to prioritize workload across the division and identify local resource shortfalls for management action.

Assignments require knowledge and experience working across functional and/or organizational lines and require the ability to direct and coordinate the activities of AIR-700 personnel. Typical assignments include serving as a single point of contact (POC) for the AIR-700 division on high profile safety issues which includes serving as the liaison with other AIR and AVS organizations assigned to the issue. Supporting other C&A Technical Advisors and Program Managers (PMs) with complex and challenging issues and risk assessments and supports management in ensuring the FAA meets the certification, delegation, and COS process requirements and metrics.

The incumbent will help monitor FAA and design approval holder (DAH) performance and provide briefings to the workforce to promote adherence to established procedures and working agreements. Leads and coordinates activities of multiple FAA personnel from multiple FAA organizations in engaging with DAHs to arrive at best practices for certification, delegation, and COS activities, enabling consistency across DAHs relative to FAA national strategic objectives. Leads or steers major team activities associated with major working agreements with DAHs and serves as resource for development and maintenance of those agreements.

The incumbent is responsible for supporting management in overseeing the technical activities of personnel. This includes mentoring and coaching PMs and providing policy guidance and instruction to others, both internally and externally. Also, provides guidance to lower-level staff to solve difficult technical issues and work with management to solve technical problems. This will require advising the engineering workforce on the application of risk and causal analyses and ensuring consistent application of risk and causal analysis. The incumbent will also support the engineering workforce and DAHs or foreign authorities in their duties to acquire and review operational data for potential safety issues, as well as leading a team of subject matter experts to resolve complex safety, certification, or delegation issues. Supports management in employee performance management activities, including assessment of employee technical performance, and identification of training and development needs for personnel.

As the technical expert, the incumbent is a technical process owner for the division, providing advice and guidance on the applications of policies and procedures both internally and externally. Speaks credibly across a range of engineering disciplines, operational, and maintenance environments. Collaborate with other C&A Technical Advisors and use advanced engineering knowledge and experience at the product level to identify fleet safety risks and trending across product types, and coordinates safety issues with other C&A Technical Advisors and PMs for potential impact on other products.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

  • US Citizenship is required.
  • Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
  • Must submit an SF50 (See Required Documents).
  • Designated or Random Drug Testing required.
  • This position has a positive education requirement. Transcript(s) required.

Qualifications

To view the complete OPM qualification standard for the Group Coverage Qualification Standard for General Engineer, Series 801, please refer to:

General Engineering Series 0801

Basic Requirements: Degree 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.

To qualify for this position, you must demonstrate in your application that you possess at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to FV-J, FG/GS 14. Specialized experience is experience that has equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position.

Specialized Experience is: Experience applying engineering principles applicable to certification and continued operational safety programs, as it relates to 14 Code of Federal Regulations parts 23, 27, and/or 29, to include experience in performing and evaluating risk analysis’ following appropriate risk analysis methodologies.

Qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of this vacancy announcement.

Interview: If the Agency decides to interview any qualified employee on the selection list, then all on the list who are qualified must be interviewed. If the selection list is shortened to a best qualified list through a comparative process, then the best qualified list shall be considered to be the selection list.

Education

This position has a positive education requirement: Applicants must submit a copy of their college or university transcripts(s) and certificates by the closing date of announcement to verify qualifications. If selected, an official transcript will be required prior to appointment. You may upload these documents with your application in USAJOBS or fax it to fax number provided in the announcement (please include announcement number on each page).

Failure to do so will result in loss of consideration.

Schools must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Accreditation may be verified at the following website: www.ed.gov/accreditation.

Foreign education must be evaluated by a private professional organization specializing in interpretation of foreign education credentials or an accredited U.S. educational institution in terms of equivalence to a degree acquired at an American college or university. A copy of the evaluation results must be included, otherwise your foreign education will not be considered.
Make sure your Resume includes detailed information to support your qualifications and answers to the job questionnaire.

Preview job questionnaire

Make sure your resume includes detailed information to support your qualifications and answers to the job questionnaire.

Additional information

We may use this vacancy to fill other similar vacant positions.
Position may be subject to a background investigation.
A one-year probationary period may be required.

The person selected for this position may be required to file a financial disclosure statement within 30 days of entry on duty. FAA policy limits certain outside employment and financial investments in aviation-related companies. www.faa.gov/jobs/workinghere/financial-disclosure-requirements

This position is covered by the Department of Transportation's Drug and Alcohol Testing Program. Any applicant tentatively selected for this position will be subject to pre-employment or pre-appointment drug screening. Persons occupying a "testing designated position (TDP)" will be subject to random drug and/or alcohol testing.

As a part of the Federal-Wide Hiring Reform Initiative (streamlining the hiring process), the FAA is committed to eliminating the use of the Knowledge, Skills and Ability (KSA) narratives from the initial application in the hiring process for all announcements. Therefore, as an applicant for this announcement, you are NOT required to provide a narrative response in the text box listed below each KSA.

In lieu of providing a KSA narrative response in the text box listed below each, in your work history, please include information that provides specific examples of how you meet the response level or answer you chose for each KSA. Your work history examples should be specific and clearly reflect the highest level of ability. Your KSA answers will be evaluated further to validate whether the level that you selected is appropriate based on the work history and experience you provided. Your answers may be adjusted by a Human Resource Specialist as appropriate.

Eligible applicants meeting the minimum qualification requirements and selective factor(s), if applicable, may be further evaluated on the Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSA) listed in the announcement. Based on this evaluation, applicants will be placed in one of the following categories: score order, category grouping, or alphabetical and referred to the selecting official for consideration.

The duty location will be an approved FAA AVS Facility.

This is not a bargaining unit position.

Links to Important Information: Locality Pay, COLA

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

How you will be evaluated

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



IMPORTANT: Applicants may be rated on the extent and quality of experience, education, and training relevant to the duties of the position(s). All answers provided in the on-line process must be substantiated. Ensure that your application package/resume supports your responses.

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