Clarification from the agency

This position is being advertised under Direct-Hire Authority. Under this authority, competitive rating, ranking and veterans' preference procedures do not apply.

As a General Engineer, you will perform the following duties:

• Conducts studies of major categories of commodities and technical data in terms of their potential for unwanted technology transfer, and of technology transfer mechanisms of controlled commodities and technical data to identify effective control techniques and strategies.
• Analyzes and processes U.S. export control license applications and commodity classification requests for items that are controlled for national security reasons in accordance with the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) using electronic databases.
• Integrates U.S. industry's economic/regulatory concerns into the Bureau's development of regulations and the Export Control Reform Act of 2018.
• Develops, formulates, and coordinates technical analysis in support of license review, commodity classifications, commodity jurisdiction recommendations, license determinations, advisory opinions, and export control policy options.
• Represents the Bureau and the Department's position at interagency meetings.
• Proposes options to senior officials which may resolve outstanding interagency issues.
• Addresses detailed technical questions from varying audiences to include peers, representatives from federal agencies or professional organizations or industries, and the public, utilizing knowledge gleaned from Export Administration Regulations (EAR).
• Monitors technology transfer developments and prepares analysis and recommendations, as appropriate, to keep the export control system grounded on a sound technical foundation.

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. citizen to apply for this position.
• This position requires a TOP SECRET/SCI CLEARANCE. You must be able to obtain and maintain the required clearance.
• You must successfully pass a background investigation. This may include a credit check, a review of financial issues, as well as certain criminal offenses and illegal use of possession of drugs.
• A probationary period may be required.
• Selective Service: Males born after 12/31/59 must be registered or exempt from Selective Service (see https://www.sss.gov/).
• If you receive a conditional offer of employment for this position, you will be required to complete an Optional Form 306, Declaration for Federal Employment, and to sign and certify the accuracy of all information in your application.
• All Federal employees are required to have Federal salary payments made by direct deposit to a financial institution of their choosing.
• Bargaining Unit Position: No
• Confidential Financial Disclosure Report (OGE form 450): Yes
• Permanent Change of Duty Station (PCS) Expense: will not be paid
• License required: No
• Drug Test Required: Yes. You will be required to submit to pre-employment testing to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment and random drug testing thereafter.
• Pre-employment physical required: No
• Two-Page Resume Limit, see Required Documents section.

Qualifications

Basic Education Requirement:
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) 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).

Specialized Experience Requirement:
To qualify at the GS-14 grade level, you must possess one full year (52 weeks) of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-14 in the Federal service. Specialized experience is defined as:

• Serving as a senior technical expert in any one of the following: Semiconductor systems, including device physics, process flows (e.g. lithography, etching, doping), electrical characterization, thermal behavior, packaging, materials science, laser systems-including beam design, optical alignment, power delivery, safety analysis, thermal mechanical interactions, electronics, Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, including architecture design, model development, performance evaluation and deployment, Machine Learning (ML), computer science.
• Preparing technical analysis on commodity and technology developments and monitoring technology transfer transactions.
• Advising on technical portions of guidelines/policies taking into account US industry concerns.

How you will be evaluated

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

Under the provisions of the Direct-Hire Authority (DHA), rating, ranking and veterans' preference does not apply. While veterans' preference does not apply in DHA, preference eligibles are encouraged to submit their supporting documentation (DD-214 stating disposition of discharge or character of service, VA letter, SF-15, etc.).

You will be evaluated based on how well you meet the qualifications listed in this vacancy announcement. Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., two-page resume, supporting documents), the responses you provide on the application questionnaire and the result of the Structured Interview required for this position.

Applicants who meet the qualification requirements, as defined in the job opportunity announcement, will be referred for selection consideration.

Structured Interview: A structured interview is an assessment method designed to measure job-related competencies of candidates by systematically inquiring about their behavior in past experiences and/or their proposed behavior in hypothetical situations.

Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration. Cheating on an assessment may also result in your removal from consideration.

If you are invited for an interview, you will be required to provide a writing sample.

The technical assessment will evaluate you on the following competencies; please do not provide a separate written response:

• Regulatory Compliance Monitoring and Analysis
• Technical Competence (General Engineering)
• Technical Credibility
• Strategic Thinking
• Attention to Detail

• Classified or government sensitive information
• Social Security Number (SSN)
• Photos of yourself
• Personal information, such as age, gender, religious affiliation, etc.