General Engineer

US National Telecommunications and Information Administration; Boulder (CO); On-site; USD 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

The U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Office of Spectrum Management is seeking qualified applicants for engineering roles focused on RF propagation, EMC analyses, and spectrum-related research.

Candidates should bring strong analytical, programming, and reporting skills to support federal spectrum management duties. Applicants must meet stringent qualification standards and may be evaluated on specialized experience and education related to engineering, RF

Qualifications

• A bachelor's degree in engineering from ABET-accredited program or equivalent.
• Professional registration or licensure (EI/EIT/PE) or passing FE exam.
• Academic coursework sufficient to meet engineering/physical sciences foundations.

Responsibilities

• Perform analyses of RF propagation, link budgets, or EMC for various systems.
• Develop EMC analysis tools in MATLAB or Python.
• Prepare technical papers or reports based on analyses and findings.

Skills

RF propagation analysis

EMC analysis tools

Technical reporting

Education

ABET-accredited engineering program

Professional registration (EI/EIT or PE)

FE examination or equivalent

60+ semester hours in engineering/physical sciences

Tools

MATLAB

Python

Job description

This position is located in the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), Office of Spectrum Management (OSM). OSM is responsible for managing and analyzing the radio frequency (RF) spectrum used by federal government departments and agencies and advising the President on spectrum-related matters. Qualification requirements in the vacancy announcements are based on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Qualification Standards Handbook, which contains federal qualification standards. This handbook is available on the Office of Personnel Management's website located at: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/#url=Occupational-Series

Applicants must possess one year of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and responsibility to the next lower grade level in the Federal Service. Specialized experience is experience that has equipped the applicant with the particular competencies/knowledge, skills and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position. This experience need not have been in the federal government.

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.

BASIC REQUIREMENTS: All applicants must meet the basic requirements listed below:

A. 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-

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:

1. 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 a 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.
2. Written Test -- Evidence of having successfully passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE)2 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.
3. Specified academic courses -- Successful completion of at least 60 semester hours of courses in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences, including the courses specified in the basic requirements under paragraph. The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of an engineering program as described in paragraph A.
4. 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.)

-AND-

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: All applicants must possess specialized and/or education outlined for each grade identified below:

To qualify at the GS-13 level:

• Performing analyses of RF propagation, link budgets, or electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) for terrestrial, airborne, or space-based systems;
• Developing customized EMC analysis tools in MATLAB or Python; and
• Developing technical papers or reports.

To qualify at the GS-14 level:

• Serving as technical expert on spectrum-dependent technologies;
• Performing complex analyses of RF propagation, link budgets, or electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) for terrestrial, airborne, or space-based systems; and
• Developing customized EMC analysis tools in MATLAB or Python.