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INTERDISCIPLINARY ENGINEER/SCIENTIST

Department of the Navy
Naval Sea Systems Command
This job announcement has closed

Summary

You will serve as the Distinguished Software Engineer for Fleet Signatures Systems in the Signatures Department of the CARDEROCK DIV NS.

You will serve as the authoritative expert for software systems design and development for signatures modeling and simulation including characterization of the platform, the at-sea signatures environment, and sensor modeling and simulation with a focus on the scalability.

Overview

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Reviewing applications
Open & closing dates
09/29/2025 to 10/20/2025
Salary
$201,124 to - $207,500 per year
Pay scale & grade
ND 6
Location
1 vacancy in the following location:
Naval Surface Warfare Center, MD
Remote job
No
Telework eligible
Yes—This position is eligible for ad-hoc/situational telework at the discretion of management.
Travel Required
25% or less - 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
No
Security clearance
Sensitive Compartmented Information
Drug test
Yes
Position sensitivity and risk
Special-Sensitive (SS)/High Risk
Trust determination process
Financial disclosure
Yes - You will be required to complete ethics orientation within three months of appointment and submit a Confidential Financial Disclosure Report, OGE-450, within 30 days of appointment.
Bargaining unit status
No
Announcement number
ST-12790468-25-MCJ
Control number
846848500

Duties

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  • You will provide science and technology (S n T) and research and development (R n D) leadership and oversight for software design and development of Fleet Signatures Systems supporting signatures modeling and simulation.
  • You will provide expert software design consultation for fleet signatures systems to the in-service fleet, NAVSEA, NAVAIR, ONR, ONI, Warfare Centers, University research partners and Industry.
  • You will evaluate current state of research, proposed projects and experimental and operational work to recommend the optimum approach for Navy investment, providing technical consultation in software and system design for Fleet Signatures Systems.
  • You will recommend and oversee major software design and development initiatives in support of fleet signatures efforts within the Division, Warfare Centers, NAVSEA, and the Department of the Navy.
  • You will represent the Navy enterprise in design and implementation of rapid software development environments for fleet systems utilizing DevSecOps (development, security, and operations) and cloud native software architectures.
  • You will support program and project management responsibility for senior engineers and scientists engaged in research, design, development, test and evaluation for Fleet Signatures Systems and Naval platform integration.
  • You will advise technical staff and management regarding issues related to the health of the Navy's Fleet Signatures software systems development environments and provide recommendations on staffing, training, technology growth opportunities.
  • You will mentor division technical staff, providing education to quickly bring up-to-speed new scientists and engineers on the specialized topics of fleet signatures systems software technologies.

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
  • 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.
  • You will be required to complete ethics orientation within three months of appointment and submit a Confidential Financial Disclosure Report, OGE-450, within 30 days of appointment.
  • 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.
  • You will be required to complete training, obtain, and maintain a government credit card for travel and travel-related purchases.
  • 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.
  • This position is covered under the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA). Certification in the Acquisition Functional Area and category assigned to the position is required within established category timeframes.

Qualifications

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. Candidates will not be hired based on their race, sex, color, religion, or national origin.

To meet the minimum qualification requirements for this position, your resume must show that you possess the Technical Qualifications (TQ) related to this position - NOT TO EXCEED 2 PAGES. Resumes over the 2-page limit, will not be reviewed beyond page 2 or may be disqualified. Your resume should include examples of experience, education, and accomplishments applicable to the qualification(s). If your resume does not reflect demonstrated evidence of these qualifications, you may not receive consideration for the position.

There is NO requirement to prepare a narrative statement specifically addressing the Technical Qualifications (TQs).

TECHNICAL QUALIFICATIONS (TQs)
:

TQ 1. Recognized leader and technical expert in the area of software design, development & integration of fleet signatures tactical and training systems across submarine, surface, surveillance platforms.

TQ 2. Specialized expertise in design of fleet operational systems for effective user interface and understanding of complex propagation and environmental effects of acoustic signatures to maintain a tactical advantage through signature management and fleet operational decision support.

TQ 3. Expertise in software technologies for cloud native architectures utilizing virtualization, containerization, and fielding into fleet platforms as edge computing systems.

TQ 4. Demonstrated leadership in transitioning to DevSecOps software development methodologies across large software development teams.

TQ 5. Demonstrated ability to lead and advise senior leadership in software engineering and effective technology transitions into fleet systems

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/#url=GS-PROF

All Professional Engineering series, 08XX
Physics Series, 1310
Computer Science Series, 1550

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 08XX 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 1310-Physics Series: A degree in physics; or related degree that included at least 24 semester hours in physics; or Combination of education and experience -- courses equivalent to a major in physics totaling at least 24 semester hours, plus appropriate experience or additional education; OR

For 1550-Computer Science Series: A degree in computer science or bachelor's degree with 30 semester hours in a combination of mathematics, statistics, and computer science. At least 15 of the 30 semester hours must have included any combination of statistics and mathematics that included differential and integral calculus. All academic degrees and course work must be from accredited or pre-accredited institutions.

An advanced degree of Master's or Ph.D. in one of the educational fields listed above is highly desirable.

Additional information

Senior Scientific Technical Manager (SSTM) positions are positions which exceed the ND-05 (GS-15 equivalent). SSTMs provide a continuity of technical leadership and oversight that is needed to ensure long term stewardship of an organization's technical capabilities. Typically, applicants for SSTM positions are expected to have a graduate degree, significant research or development experience, and a national or international reputation in his/her field and are recognized throughout the applicable community as a renowned expert. SSTM positions are in the competitive service.

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

There are three key documents that contain important information about your rights and obligations. Please read and retain these documents:

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Policy Statement: http://www.eeoc.gov/federal/index.cfm
Employment Information Resources - Resource Center: https://help.usajobs.gov/how-to
Males born after 12-31-1959 must be registered or exempt from Selective Service (see https://www.sss.gov/RegVer/wfRegistration.aspx)

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.

Once the application process is complete, a review of your resume and supporting documentation will be conducted. If you meet minimum qualifications, your Application Package will be further reviewed to determine if you possess the Technical Qualifications (TQ) listed above. TQs must be thoroughly addressed within your two (2) page resume. Separate narratives will not be accepted or reviewed. Highly Qualified applicants may undergo one or more interviews and may be referred to the selecting official for further consideration.

The Ad-hoc Executive Resources Board (AERB) will review results and make recommendations on final selections to the approving authority.

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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