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Naval Sea Systems Command

Engineer/Scientist

Location: Indiana, Crane
Requires Relocation: No
Start Date: 22/01/2026
End Date: 02/02/2026
Offering Type: Permanent
Hiring Paths: Career transition (CTAP, ICTAP, RPL), Individuals with disabilities, Internal to an agency - appears on USAJOBS, Land & base management, Military spouses, Special authorities, Veterans
Service Type: Competitive
Travel Percentage: Occasional travel
Full Time On-site

Naval Sea Systems Command

About Naval Sea Systems Command

The Navy and Marine Corps team offers innovative, exciting and meaningful work linking military and civilian talents to achieve our mission and safeguard our freedoms. Department of the Navy provides competitive salaries, comprehensive benefits, and extensive professional development and training. From pipefitters to accountants, scientists to engineers, doctors to nurses-the careers and opportunities to make a difference are endless. Civilian careers-where purpose and patriotism unite! This announcement uses the DHA for Science and Technology Reinvention Labs Mission Support of the DoD direct hiring authority to recruit and appoint qualified candidates to positions in the competitive service.

Summary

Job summary

You will serve as an ENGINEER/SCIENTIST in the Expeditionary Warfare Weapons & Energy System Department of NAVAL SURFACE WARFARE CENTER. ** The Secretary of Defense has ordered a department-wide hiring freeze subject to certain limited exceptions. This position is subject to the DoD hiring freeze. Offers of employment related to this vacancy announcement will not be executed until the position has an approved exemption. **

Major duties

You will serve as the Department's leader in assuring the proper technical rigor and discipline is applied to all workload being executed within the Department. You will steward department technical capabilities to meet current and future naval, joint force, and national requirements. You will increase the rigor and discipline in safety, security, quality, and technical performance of workload being executed and the processes used by the Divisions. You will lead and/or be involved in Root Cause Analysis efforts to assure that the true causes of mishaps, incidents, and/or technical failures are identified, and the proper corrective actions are implemented. You will review and assess technical documentation to teach personnel how to better prepare their documents. You will lead department level risk management efforts. You will work with the Department Chief Strategist to identify areas requiring internal investments and recommend, as appropriate, capabilities to develop and divest.

Qualification

In addition to the Basic Requirements for this position, your resume must also demonstrate at least one year of specialized experience at or equivalent to the ND-04 (GS-12/13 equivalency) grade level or pay band in the Federal service or equivalent experience in the private or public sector. Specialized experience must demonstrate the following: as a professional engineer or scientist analyzing technical performance to provide leadership in the execution of customer funded work for an organization. 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=List-by-Occupational-Series FOR 0801: Professional Engineering Series FOR 1301: General Physical Science FOR 1501: General Mathematics and Statistics Series FOR 1515: Operations Research Series FOR 1550: Computer Science Series 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: Applicants must possess FOR 0801: Successful completion of a professional engineering degree. To be acceptable, the program must: (1) lead to a bachelor's degree (or higher) in a school of engineering with at least one program accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (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 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 more information about EI and EIT registration requirements, please visit the National Society of Professional Engineers website at: http://www.nspe.orgOREvidence 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 The FE examination is not administered by the U. S. Office of Personnel Management. For more information, please visit: http://www.nspe.org/Licensure/HowtoGetLicensed/index.html. OR Successful completion of at least 60 semester hours of courses in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences and in engineering that included the courses specified in the basic requirements under paragraph A (above). The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of an engineering program as described in paragraph A (above) OR 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 one 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. FOR 1301: A. Successful completion of a bachelor's degree or higher in physical science, engineering, or mathematics that included 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science such as mechanics, dynamics, properties of materials, and electronics. OR B. Have a combination of education and experience with education equivalent to one of the majors shown above that included at least 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science, plus appropriate experience or additional education. FOR 1501: A. Successful completion of bachelor's or higher degree in mathematics, statistics, or actuarial science. OR B. Have a combination of experience and education achieved from courses equivalent to a major field of study in mathematics, statistics, or actuarial science, plus additional education or appropriate experience. FOR 1515: A. Successful completion of a bachelor's degree in operations research. OR B. Successful completion of a bachelor's or higher degree with at least 24 semester hours in a combination of operations research, mathematics, probability, statistics, mathematical logic, science, or subject-matter courses requiring substantial competence in college-level mathematics or statistics. At least 3 of the 24 semester hours must have been in calculus. FOR 1550: A. Successful completion of a bachelor's degree in computer science. OR B. Successful completion of a bachelor's or higher degree with 30 semester hours in a combination of mathematics, statistics, and computer science. At least 15 of these 30 semester hours were in a combination of statistics and mathematics that included differential and integral calculus.

Evaluations

In order to qualify for this position, your resume must provide sufficient experience and/or education, knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the duties of the specific position for which you are being considered. Your resume is the key means we have for evaluating your skills, knowledge, and abilities as they relate to this position. Therefore, we encourage you to be clear and specific when describing your experience. When the application process is complete, we will review your resume to ensure you meet the hiring eligibility and qualification requirements listed in this announcement. You will be rated based on the information provided in your resume and application package, along with your supporting documentation to determine your ability to demonstrate the following competencies: PROBLEM SOLVING QUALITY ASSURANCE SYSTEMS TESTING AND EVALUATION This recruitment will utilize the following technical assessment tools: Structured Resume Review and Structured Interview. You should list any relevant performance appraisals and incentive awards in your resume as that information may be taken into consideration during the selection process. If selected, you may be required to provide supporting documentation. If after reviewing your resume and supporting documentation, a determination is made that you inflated your qualifications and/or experience, your score may be adjusted to more accurately reflect your abilities or you may be found ineligible/not qualified. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating or consideration for employment. All eligibility and qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of this announcement.