General Engineer

Summary

The Volpe Center seeks a General Engineer to serve as a Principal Technical Advisor (PTA) responsible for providing expert engineering and project management approaches to deploying alternative fuels (including hydrogen), electric chargers, and the ground vehicles that use those energy sources. The position has a long-term, nationally significant role of supporting cross-agency federal programs that advance our nation's security by working to increase clean, domestic transportation energy.

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Duties

The General Engineer

Designs, develops, implements, and evaluates plans, programs, guidance, tools, research studies, communications materials, and associated products that focus on advanced transportation technologies and related institutional issues within the alternative fuels and electrification area for ground vehicles. Applies advanced engineering, technology and institutional issue analysis techniques and principles to assignments that present a broad and largely unprecedented range of technical, financial, societal, and public policy elements. Leads teams and is responsible for ensuring that work execution, budgets, and schedules meet the Volpe Center project management standards and demonstrates skills managing full lifecycle projects. Demonstrates excellent customer-focused business development and relationship management skills that routinely result collectively in multiple-year, multi-million-dollar programs. Works with the management and other senior staff across the Volpe Center on the expansion of existing work areas as well as in the development of new business opportunities for the Volpe Center. Participates in professional activities supported by sponsors, including invitations to present or participate in technical meetings, conferences and events and leads high-level meetings among industry, academic, and Federal, state, local government staff, and international counterparts in deliberations on sensitive transportation technology and institutional issues.

The ideal candidate: The Ideal Candidate will be a recognized national and international expert in alternative fuels and electrification deployment for ground vehicles, will have extensive trusting relationships with executives and other subject matter experts throughout the industry and particularly within the Federal government, and will have experience leading complex, multi-year, million plus dollar programs.

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Requirements

Conditions of Employment

You must be a U.S. citizen & meet specialized experience to qualifySubmit application and resume online by 11:59 PM EST on the closing dateRequired documents must be submitted by the closing date. Direct Hire Authority will be used to fill this position

Conditions Of Employment

SELECTIVE SERVICE: Males born after 12/31/1959 must be registered for the Selective Service. GOVERNMENT TRAVEL CARD: This position involves travel. A government contractor-issued travel card will be issued and must be retained for official business only. PROBATIONARY PERIOD: Applicants may be required to successfully complete a one-year probationary period (unless already completed). SECURITY CLEARANCE: Varies by position. If applicable, you must be able to obtain and maintain the appropriate security clearance of the position to which appointed. FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE: Varies by position. If applicable, you may be required to file a confidential financial disclosure form (Office of Government Ethics (OGE) Form 450) or a public financial disclosure form (OGE Form 278e), within 30 days of appointment and annually thereafter. BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION: You may be required to complete a background/security investigation and meet preliminary requirements prior to onboarding. POSITION SENSITIVITY AND RISK: Varies by position and will be based on the position to which appointed. REMOTE WORK: This position may be eligible for remote work, which does not require reporting to the agency worksite location on a regular basis. If selected for a remote work location, you will be required to sign a remote work agreement detailing agency remote work policy requirements, working conditions, and expectations for the position.

Qualifications

To meet the minimum qualifications for this position, you must meet the specialized experience qualifications for the grade at which you are requesting consideration.

To Qualify For The Grade 15, You Must Have At Least One Year Of Specialized Experience Equal Or Equivalent To The GS-14, It Must Include

Experience serving as a senior technical authority in the field of alternative fuels and electrification engineering as it relates to surface transportation (highway, rail and/or transit); and participation in numerous Federal programs that address innovative deployment techniques, guidance, best practices, and requirements in this field. Experience designing, implementing, and leading large, innovative deployment projects with diverse stakeholders (including Federal, state, and local governments, industry leaders developing the technology, fleet owners and operators, or others) that apply to electrified ground vehicle technology, ground vehicle technology that runs on alternative fuels, and the infrastructure that provides refueling/recharging to these ground vehicle technologies.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES (KSAs): Your qualifications will be evaluated on the basis of your level of knowledge, skills, abilities and/or competencies in the following areas:

Mastery of a wide range of qualitative and quantitative engineering methods for the assessment and improvement of programs related to alternative fuels and electrification of ground vehicles and a comprehensive knowledge of ground vehicle electrification technologies, infrastructure integration (including but not limited to deployment of electric vehicle chargers of all power levels from kilowatts to megawatts, and deployment of fuel cell electric vehicle hydrogen stations), cybersecurity, and, systems engineering. Mastery of knowledge and skills to generate and apply new engineering hypotheses and conceptsin planning, conducting, and evaluating long-range transportation technology research and development including recognition of professional expertise by principals in the Federal decision making process such as high ranking appointed officials in the executive and legislative branch, high ranking officials in State governments, public interest groups, the courts, and subject matter experts and policy / institutional issue analysts in the alternative fuels and electrification of ground vehicles field. Interpersonal and administrative skills sufficient to organize and coordinate thorough, systematic, professional efforts that may involve multidisciplinary approaches, to meet established and anticipated needs of executive-level decision makers. Effective oral and written communication skills sufficient to lead high-level meetings and prepare position papers among industry, academic, and federal, state, local government staff, and international counterparts in deliberations on sensitive transportation technology and institutional issues. The incumbent coordinates and communicates work across a broad range of constituencies, and negotiates with multiple stakeholders to resolve or reach agreement on controversial or contentious issues.

For all types of consideration, experience refers to 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.

For additional information about applying to Federal positions, please click on the following link: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-policies/#url=e4

All applicants must meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

Education

Mandatory Education Requirements

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

Education

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:

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. 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. 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. 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: To determine which grade(s) you are eligible for, review the following grade specific details. You will be asked questions as part of your application but make sure to verify how you meet this experience in your resume or you may be deemed ineligible. Upload the appropriate document(s) to your application for verification purposes. (Refer to 'Required Documents' section for additional guidance). Students enrolled in a qualifying degree program can apply if the anticipated graduation date is within six months of the closing date of this announcement. If selected, the final transcript must be received before your start date. Other applicants must meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of this announcement. Transcripts are required for this position.

Additional information

This announcement may be used to fill additional positions if similar vacancies occur within 90 days of the issue date of the referral certificate.

Qualified CTAP/ICTAP candidates receive priority and will be referred to the hiring manager.

DOT is committed to fostering all-inclusive diverse workforce where employees feel valued for their unique backgrounds and qualities and have a sense of belonging and engagement in helping to advance transportation for the public good.

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DOT, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY

Submit Application and Documents Online

1200 New Jersey Ave SE / HAHR - 50

Washington, District of Columbia 20590

United States