General Engineer, AST, Technical Management (Direct Hire)

NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Sacramento (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

NASA invites applications for a Data Officer to shape and implement data strategies across the Biological and Physical Sciences (BPS). The role provides technical leadership in governance, analytics, and policy to enhance data accessibility, collaboration, and scientific decision-making.

The successful candidate will guide open science initiatives, oversee major data repositories, and collaborate with SMD leadership to ensure compliance with NASA standards.

Qualifications

• Experience building data governance frameworks and policies for scientific data.
• Experience managing complex data systems that span repositories and compute.
• Applying open science principles to improve accessibility and decision-making.

Responsibilities

• Leads development of the BPS data ecosystem and interoperability improvements.
• Represents BPS data initiatives across NASA and with partners.
• Provides guidance on data policy, standards, and requirements.
• Oversees major BPS data repositories and performance evaluation.
• Leads data management, sharing, and stewardship to ensure compliance.
• Participates in governance boards with authoritative technical recommendations.

Skills

Data governance

Data integration

Open science

Technical leadership

Stakeholder liaison

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering

Bachelor's degree in Physical Science

Bachelor's degree in Mathematics

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science

Tools

SQL

Python

Data repositories

Job description

Summary

Serves as the Data Officer responsible for developing and implementing data strategies to support effective scientific data management, governance, integration, and use. Applies data science and open science principles to improve data accessibility, collaboration, innovation, and technical decision‑making. Provides technical leadership in data governance, analytics, security, policy, and emerging technologies.

Duties

• Leads development and integration of the Biological and Physical Sciences (BPS) data ecosystem, applying advanced technologies to improve scientific data accessibility, interoperability, usability, and impact.
• Serves as a senior technical authority and liaison for BPS data initiatives, representing BPS across NASA and with Federal and international partners to advance data integration and collaboration.
• Provides expert technical guidance on open science and scientific data policy, collaborating with Science Mission Directorate (SMD) leadership to develop and implement data strategies, standards, and requirements.
• Provides technical oversight of major BPS scientific data repositories and capabilities, evaluating performance, integration, resources, risks, and operational issues to support BPS mission requirements.
• Leads implementation and assessment of BPS data management, sharing, and stewardship requirements, providing technical guidance to ensure compliance with NASA and SMD policies and standards.
• Represents BPS on SMD and NASA data governance boards, providing authoritative technical recommendations on data systems, computing, artificial intelligence, open science, and data stewardship.

Requirements

• This position is open to U.S. citizens, nationals or those who owe allegiance to the U.S.
• This position may require a one‑year probationary period. If selected, the requirement to serve such period will be determined by Title 5 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 11. **See Additional Information section**
• You must meet qualifications requirements by the closing date of this announcement.
• Position subject to pre‑employment background investigation or higher‑level clearance. Investigation/Clearance may differ and be required based on the duty location/NASA Center requirements.
• Financial Disclosure, Drug Testing, and/or the Travel Requirements for this position may differ and be required based on the duty location/NASA Center requirements.

Qualifications

In addition to the Basic Education Requirement (in the Education section below), to qualify for this position you must meet the requirements below. Specialized experience is experience that has equipped you with the particular ability, skill, and knowledge to successfully perform the duties of this position and is typically in or related to this line of work.

NASA utilizes OPM‑approved qualification and rating requirements specific for Aerospace Technology (AST) positions which recognizes NASA’s unique aerospace work. The specific qualifications and minimum education requirements are further described below and within the education section of the job announcement.

To qualify for GS‑15, you must have one year of directly related specialized experience equivalent to the GS‑14 level:

• Developing, implementing, and overseeing data governance frameworks, policies, standards, or stewardship practices supporting scientific research, policy compliance, interoperability, or long‑term data management.
• Managing complex scientific data systems that integrate research data repositories, computational capabilities, and collaborative efforts across multiple organizations.
• Applying advanced technologies and open science principles to scientific data systems to improve data accessibility, analysis, integration, transparency, or technical decision‑making.

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

This position requires education or exceptional experience.

Basic Education Requirement

You must have successfully completed a bachelor's degree with a major in one of the following:

• Engineering from a college or university that has ABET accredited engineering programs
• Physical Science, Mathematics, Life Science or other field of Science
• Computer Science that included 30 semester hours or 45 quarter hours of course work in any combination of mathematics, statistics and computer science with at least half of those hours in mathematics and statistics courses that included differential and integral calculus; and that provided an in‑depth knowledge of theoretical 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.

Engineering Degrees Earned Within the United States

Engineering degrees earned within the United States must be from a college or university that has at least one ABET accredited engineering program. To find out if a school has at least one ABET accredited program, please visit http://www.abet.org.

Engineering Degrees Earned Outside the United States

Engineering degrees earned outside the United 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://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

All degrees must have been