Duties

Summary

This position is for a Thermal Mechanics Discipline subject matter expert and Team Lead. The discipline tasks involve conducting numerical and experimental thermal analysis of advanced aerospace vehicle systems including science instruments and payloads, spacecraft, launch vehicles, and aircraft to ensure adequate functionality across all phases of the expected life cycle. The work may also include evaluating advanced thermal concepts for suitability to fulfill mission requirements.
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Responsibilities

• Serves as a recognized engineering expert and technical advisor to management, other centers, and the aerospace industry in the area of thermal analysis and evaluation of advanced thermal systems for aerospace vehicles.
• Exercises recognized technical leadership in the analysis of thermal systems, demonstrating outstanding creativity and exceptional scientific and engineering judgment to prove or disprove the feasibility of thermal system concepts.
• Develops and directs thermal analyses and tests conducted on advanced aerospace hardware systems for the purposes of ensuring the thermal performance needed to meet program requirements.
• Evaluates and maintains the technical health of the discipline by encouraging and mentoring junior engineers, identifying relevant training courses and technical seminars, and through active participation in branch technical activities.
• Leads the team by steering the selection and application of appropriate problem solving methods; facilitates team activities, policy implementation, and consensus building.
• Provides technical review and feedback of team products to ensure sound technical approach, accuracy, and completeness.
• Coordinates with management to distribute and balance workload among employees, provides feedback for progress reviews, resolves simple and informal complaints of employees, and refers others to an appropriate management official.

Travel Required

Occasional travel - You may be expected to travel for this position.

Supervisory status
No

Promotion Potential
15

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• Position subject to pre-employment background investigation
• You must meet qualifications requirements by the closing date of this announcement
• If selected, you will be required to complete a financial disclosure statement

Qualifications

In addition to the basic education requirement (shown below), you must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade, which has equipped you with the particular competencies needed to successfully perform the duties of the position described above.

To qualify for GS-15, you must have one year of directly related specialized experience equivalent to the GS-14 level serving as a subject matter expert in thermal mechanics (includes radiation, convection, and conduction heat transfer within solids, fluids, and vacuums).

Your resume must include a clear and detailed narrative description, in your own words, of how you meet the required specialized experience. Experience statements copied from a position description, vacancy announcement or other reference material constitutes plagiarism and may result in disqualification and losing consideration for the job.

Education

You must have successfully completed a bachelor's or graduate degree with a major in either a) engineering from a college or university that has ABET accredited engineering programs or b) Physical Science, Mathematics, Life Science, Computer Science*, or other field of physical science.
*Note: Curriculum must include 30 semester hours of course work in a combination of mathematics, statistics and computer science. Of the 30 semester hours, 15 must be in any combination of statistics and mathematics which includes differential and integral calculus.

Degrees in engineering technology are not considered to be qualifying for this position.

To find out if a school has an ABET accreditation, go to http://www.abet.org.

Degrees must have been received in the year of, or any year subsequent to the original date of accreditation.

Engineering degrees earned outside the United States: Engineering degrees earned outside the Unites States must be recognized by a Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA), often known as accords. These are non-governmental agreements among organizations that accredit academic degree programs. MRAs recognize the substantial equivalence of mature accreditation systems and programs accredited by signatory organizations within their jurisdictions. For a listing of Signatories, please visit, https://www.abet.org/global-presence/mutual-recognition-agreements/is-your-program-recognized/.

Science and other related degrees earned within the United States: Science and other related degrees must have been awarded from colleges or universities that are accredited by recognized accrediting organizations. For a list of schools that meet this criteria, go to http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/ .

Science and other related degrees earned outside the United States: If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet the qualification requirements, you must show that the education credentials have been evaluated by a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign education programs. These education credentials must be deemed equivalent to that gained in an accredited U.S. education program; or full credit has been given for the courses at a U.S. accredited college or university. For further information, visit: https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html .

Additional information

Additional selections may be made for similar positions across NASA within the local commuting area(s) of the location(s) identified in this announcement . By applying, you agree to have your application shared with interested selecting official(s) within NASA. CTAP/ICTAP will be cleared for any additional selection from this announcement.

If you are a current federal employee, you must meet applicable time-in-grade requirements to be considered eligible for this position. To be eligible, you must have completed a minimum of 52 weeks in a position no more than 1 grade lower than the advertised position. (Please submit your SF-50 that shows Time-in-Grade eligibility and reflects your title, series, and grade. If your eligibility for both merit promotion and/or time-in-grade cannot be determined, your application will be rated ineligible. Please see Required Documents for additional information).
Note: Time-in-grade requirements also apply to applicants who have held a non-temporary, competitive service GS position in the past year.

If you have special priority selection rights under the Agency Career Transition Assistance Program (CTAP) or the Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program (ICTAP), you must:
- Indicate your eligibility when applying for a position. The questionnaire asks you to identify your ICTAP/CTAP eligibility.
-Be well qualified for this position to receive consideration. Candidates rated in the 'Best Qualified' category are considered well-qualified. Please see 'How You Will Be Evaluated' for more information.
-Submit proof that you meet the requirements for CTAP/ICTAP as indicated in 'Required Documents'

For additional information about CTAP/ICTAP eligibility, click here - https:// www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/#ictap.

Qualified NASA term employees who have term conversion eligibility (http://nasapeople.nasa.gov/hclwp/term-appointments.htm) under the NASA Flexibility Act of 2004 will be referred and considered equally with other NASA permanent employees under internal competitive placement procedures.

How You Will Be Evaluated

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

You will be evaluated for this position based on how well you meet the qualifications and eligibility requirements listed in this vacancy announcement. To determine your qualifications and referral status, we may review your resume and supporting documentation and compare it against your responses to the vacancy questionnaire. Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration.

You will be assessed on the following competencies:
Thermal Structures
Thermal Systems
Thermal Test Engineering
Aerospace Engineering
Aerothermodynamics
General Engineering
Mathematical Modeling and Analysis

NASA considers 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.

Under NASA's quality grouping process, applicants will be assessed on the position competencies and placed in one of three groups identified and defined below:

• Best Qualified Group - Applicants who demonstrate a superior level of all evaluation criteria.
• Highly Qualified Group - Applicants who demonstrate a satisfactory level of the evaluation criteria.
• Qualified Group - Applicants who demonstrate the basic qualifications, with general knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Candidates eligible for ICTAP/CTAP, reemployment priority or priority consideration will be referred before other candidates, as necessary. If no such candidates apply or are eligible to be referred, the following candidates will be sent to the hiring official for employment consideration:

• Best Qualified merit promotion candidates. Highly Qualified merit promotion candidates may also be referred, if additional candidates are needed.
• Qualified candidates eligible for consideration under Schedule A or VRA in accordance with veterans' preference rules, as applicable.
• Qualified candidates that are eligible for special hiring authorities or non-competitive hiring authorities.

Background checks and security clearance

Security clearance
Not Required

Drug test required
No

Position sensitivity and risk
Moderate Risk (MR)

Trust determination process
Suitability/Fitness

Required Documents

A complete application package includes a resume, required documents and completion of the vacancy announcement questionnaire. Please see this guidance: What to include in your resume . Your resume should describe your specialized experience and support your answers to the vacancy announcement questionnaire

The following documents are required:

• Resume
• SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action
• Transcript

There may be other supporting documents (licenses, certification, veterans preference, etc.), depending on your answers to the questionnaire and job announcement description, that you may have to submit, please verify your application.

If you are a surplus or displaced employee (CTAP and ICTAP), submit proof that you meet the requirements for CTAP/ICTAP. This includes copies of your agency notice, most recent Performance Rating and most recent Notification of Personnel Action (SF-50) noting current position, grade level, and duty location.

If you are a veteran and you are claiming veterans' preference, you must submit a DD214, Certificate of Release from Active Duty, which shows dates of service and discharge under honorable conditions. For more information on veterans' preference and possible other supporting documents that you may have to submit, please visit FedshireVets

If you do not submit a transcript, we will not use your education when deciding if you're qualified for the job and you will lose consideration.

Official documents are required at the time of appointment for verification of eligibility and qualifications.

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.