Duties

Summary

This position is in the NASA's Pathways Intern Program which provides students with the opportunity to explore NASA careers and gain meaningful work experience. The Engineering and Technology Directorate at Goddard Space Flight Center is seeking engineering interns to implement all phases of the product life cycle for flight and ground system hardware.
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Responsibilities

• As an Engineering Intern, you will work under the guidance of and assist engineering professionals in progressively responsible engineering duties in one or more of the following disciplines:
• Electrical - provide end-to-end electrical engineering capabilities, enabling science observations from space, utilizing instruments, sub-orbital platforms, and observatories.
• Electrical - implement flight and ground electrical/electronic systems in support of programs and projects.
• Electrical - formulate, develop and verify electrical/electronic systems, subsystems, and components.
• Instrument Systems and Technology - full life cycle of flight instrument development providing engineering in the areas of optics, cryogenics and fluids, detector systems, lasers and electro-optics, and microwave instruments.
• Instrument Technologies - includes optical subsystems, detectors, cryogenic coolers and lasers to complete instruments such as hyper-spectral imagers, high spectral resolution spectrometers, atmospheric sounders, microwave radiometers and LIDAR.
• Mechanical - develop mechanical and thermal systems capabilities and technology to design, analyze, fabricate, assemble, integrate, verify and validate scientific instruments and support platforms for ground-based, suborbital, and orbital missions.
• Mechanical - includes materials, structural analysis, mechanical design, thermal, electromechanical, contamination/coatings, manufacturing, and environmental testing and integration for both flight hardware development.
• Reliability - provide analytical support, for GSFC's interpretation of Agency policies, standards, and directives relating to reliability, maintainability, and risk assessment throughout all phases of space systems development and execution.
• Software - provide engineering of software and information systems throughout all phases (formulation through on-orbit operations) of NASA programs and projects.
• Software - develop flight, ground, and science data software for spacecraft monitoring, control, on-orbit performance management and operations.
• Software - develop reusable flight and ground architectures and frameworks to reduce mission cost, decrease development time, minimize customer risk, and increase the scientific value of information products.
• Systems Engineering - provide end-to-end mission systems engineering and guidance, navigation, and control capabilities and technology development to conceive, design, analyze, implement, verify and validate on-orbit.
• Systems Engineering - provide mission systems engineering for in-house flight hardware development and oversight for out-of-house developed instruments and missions.

Travel Required

Occasional travel - Travel may be required for training or other work-related duties

Supervisory status
No

Promotion Potential
11

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• You must be a U. S. citizen or national.
• Enrolled/accepted in an accredited educational institution.
• Pursuing a bachelor's degree or higher.
• Maintain enrollment at least half time as defined by the institution.
• Have and maintain a cumulative GPA of at least 2.9 on a 4.0 scale.
• You must meet eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement.
• You will be expected to start either on February 1, 2021 or June 7, 2021.
• Applicants must have an estimated graduation date of no earlier than one calendar year from the expected start date.
• You must be at least 16 at the time of appointment.
• You will be required to undergo a pre-employment background investigation.

Qualifications

The starting GS grade level you qualify for is based on education. You will be considered for the highest
grade for which you qualify.

GS-4: Enrolled in a bachelor's degree program and have completed at least 30 semester hours or at least 45
quarter hours of undergraduate education.

GS-5: Enrolled in a bachelor's degree program and have completed at least 60 semester hours or at least 90
quarter hours of undergraduate education.

GS-6: Enrolled in a bachelor's degree program and have completed 90 or more semester hours or 135 or
more quarter hours of undergraduate education.

GS-7: Accepted into a master's program OR in the first year of a master's degree program.

GS-9*: Completed one academic year of a master's program OR accepted into a doctorate program OR in
the first year of a doctorate program.

GS-11: Completed one year of doctorate-level study.

*An academic year of Master's level education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent 1 academic year of full-time study. This determination is made based on normal course loads for a full year of study in the graduate program. If that information cannot be obtained from the school, 18 semester hours or 27 quarter hours will be considered as satisfying the 1 year of full-time study. Part-time graduate education is creditable in accordance with its relationship to a year of full-time study at the school attended.

Education

The following majors are preferred:

Aerospace Engineering
Astronomy
Astrophysics
Chemical Engineering
Chemistry
Computer Engineering
Computer Science
Cryogenic Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Electronics Engineering
Materials Engineering
Materials Science
Math, Applied
Mechanical Engineering
Mechatronics Engineering
Optical Science and Engineering
Physics
Photonics Science and Engineering
Robotics Engineering
Systems Engineering

Additional coursework may be required for conversion.

Degrees in engineering technology are not qualifying for this position.

*Note: Computer Science curriculum must include 30 semester hours of course work in a combination of mathematics, statistics, and computer science that provided in-depth knowledge of the following: (1) theoretical foundations and practical applications of computer science, including digital computer system architecture and system software organization, the representation and transformation of information structures and the theoretical models for such representations and transformations; and (2) essential mathematical and statistical techniques; of the 30 semester hours, 15 must be in any combination of statistics and mathematics which includes differential and integral calculus.

For Computer Science majors, bachelors of arts degrees are not qualifying.

Engineering degrees must be from a college or university school of engineering with at least one curriculum accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) as a professional engineering curriculum. To find out if a degree meets this requirement, go to http://www.abet.org.

Science and other related degrees must be from colleges or universities that are accredited by recognized accrediting organizations. To see if your school meets this criteria, go to http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/.

Additional information

Interns will have the opportunity to perform rotational assignments at other Goddard facilities (i.e. Greenbelt and Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia and Fairmont, West Virginia) after their first tour.

Interns may be promoted to higher grades based on the amount of education completed and acceptable performance eight pay periods after their initial appointment. However, promotions are not guaranteed.

You will only be considered for the highest grade for which you qualify. Pay will be set at the Step 1 of the General Schedule for the qualifying grade.

You must meet eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement.

The salary range indicated in the announcement is representative of a full-time, year-round work schedule. Your salary will be calculated based on the number of hours worked while on rotation.

You will be expected to comply with Center Pathway policies which are:
1. Maintain at least a half-time course load as defined by your educational institution
2. Maintain a GPA of 2.9 or above on a 4.0 scale;
3. Adhere to an established work schedule;
4. Participate in Agency training classes or programs;
5. Successfully perform your assigned duties; and
6. Observe all workplace rules.

The supervisor and Intern will agree on a formally-arranged schedule of school and work rotations. A rotation is a defined period of work or school study, usually a semester, a summer, or a quarter in length.

Although this vacancy announcement is advertised for multiple grade levels, it is not intended to convey any implication nor expectation that positions will be filled at all grade levels.

This vacancy announcement may be used to fill additional positions.

You will serve a trial period for the duration of the Intern appointment.

Interns may be considered for conversion to a term or permanent appointment within 120 days of completing
degree requirements provided they:

• Successfully complete an academic course of study with a grade point average (GPA) of at least 2.9 (on a 4.0 scale);
• Complete a minimum of 640 hours of work experience before completing degree requirements;
• Meet the qualification requirements for the position to which they are converted; and
• Maintain acceptable performance.

Eligibility for conversion does not guarantee that NASA will offer conversion. At NASA, term appointments last from one to six years. If an Intern is converted to a term appointment, they may later be converted to a permanent appointment without competing. Additional coursework may be required for conversion.

You may be converted to an Engineer position with promotion potential to the GS-13 level.

PLEASE TAKE CARE IN PREPARING AND SUBMITTING YOUR APPLICATION. When completing the Supplemental Questions, please pay close attention to the selections and inputs you are making. Entries regarding your eligibility made in error cannot be modified after the application is submitted and you will lose consideration if you are determined to be ineligible based on the answers to the questionnaire.

How You Will Be Evaluated

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

We will review your resume and your answers to NASA-specific questions to ensure that you meet eligibility requirements and minimum qualifications. Your answers to the NASA-specific questions supplement your resume. Please be sure that your answers and your resume are accurate, as NASA is not authorized to alter them. If the information in your resume differs from your answers to the questions, we will use your answers to the questions to determine your eligibility and/or qualifications for this position.

If you meet the eligibility requirements and minimum qualifications, you will be further evaluated based on the preferred majors listed under 'Education.'

Veterans' preference applies in the hiring process. In order to receive preference in hiring, you must clearly identify your claim for veterans' preference when you apply. Veteran's preference will only be granted based on what is supported by the documentation you provide. For more information about Veterans' Preference, please visit this link .

Background checks and security clearance

Security clearance
Not Required

Drug test required
No

Required Documents

NASA's application process has been specifically developed to ensure that we only ask you for the information we absolutely need to evaluate your qualifications and eligibility. In order to apply for this position, you only need to submit your resume and answer a short series of NASA-specific questions. No additional documentation is accepted at the time of application. Nothing further is required until requested by the human resources office. At that point, we may ask you to submit documentation to support statements made in your resume and your answers to the NASA-specific questions. For example, we will ask you to provide academic transcripts. If you are claiming veterans' preference, we will ask you to submit proof of veterans' preference (DD214, and, if claiming 10-point preference, SF-15 plus the proof required by that form). If you fail to provide the requested documents within the stated time period, we may withdraw the job offer and/or remove you from further consideration.

If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:

Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education .

Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.