We are seeking highly motivated professionals to join our team. If you want challenging work and a chance to make a big impact, come join us at the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Commerce! We improve the effectiveness of the Department's programs and operations. We also investigate waste, fraud, and abuse in the Department and those who do business with it.
Responsibilities
As a General Engineer, Electronics Engineer, Aerospace Engineer, Physical Scientist or Meteorologist, you will:
- Serve as a project team member under the Director, Satellites and Weather Systems (SWS) Division with responsibility for applying knowledge in collaborating with other professional engineers, physical and computer scientists, information technology specialists and auditors engaged in addressing complex technical, management, contractual, and policy issues about how systems are planned, managed, designed, acquired, developed, deployed, operated, maintained, and disposed.
- Plan and conduct audits, evaluations, special projects and other work assignments in the areas of systems acquisitions, operations, maintenance, information resources management, as well as other programs involving technology acquisition or development.
- Develop Satellites and Weather Systems (SWS) division input to reviews of selected existing and proposed legislation and regulations related to Department programs and operations, for the purpose of providing the Director SWS; Assistant Inspector General for Audit and Evaluation (AIG); and the Principle AIG for Audit and Evaluation (PAIG) with appropriate recommendations as to the impact these activities have on economy and efficiency in the administration of programs and operations administered or financed by the Department relating to systems acquisitions, systems development, or systems operation.
- Coordinate and appraise remedial actions taken by Department officials to correct deficiencies and to fully implement audit and evaluation recommendations.
- Prepare technical articles and instructional materials on specialized approaches and techniques for the guidance of SWS team members and maintain personal contacts with members of professional societies to keep abreast of new developments, trends, and techniques relating to financial, compliance, management and program audits and evaluations.
This opportunity is also open to Status eligibles under Announcement DOC-OIG-2020-0049. Please refer to that announcement for details on open period, eligibility, and how to apply.
The experience may have been gained in either the public, private sector or volunteer service. One year of experience refers to full-time work; part-time work is considered on a prorated basis. To ensure full credit for your work experience, please indicate dates of employment by month/day/year, and indicate number of hours worked per week on your resume.
You must meet the following requirements by the closing date of this announcement.
Specialized experience: For the GS-14, you must have one year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-13 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience is defined as:
Experience investigating, advising, and resolving unusual and controversial problems from either Engineering, Physical Science or Meteorology perspective.
Examples may include:
Experience conducting analysis, review, and evaluating system acquisitions, documents or programs performance requirements and operations.
Experience serving as a subject matter expert on acquisition processes, system performance and acquisition planning and strategy, technical specifications, sensor design, integration of sensors with spacecraft and launch vehicle, ground system development for spacecraft, program and contractor management, systems and software engineering methodologies and techniques, and operations.
Individual Occupational Requirements for Professional Engineering Positions:
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
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:
A. 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.
B. 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.
C. 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.
D. 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.)
Individual Occupational Requirements for General Physical Science Positions:
Degree: 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
Combination of education and experience -- education equivalent to one of the majors shown in A above that included at least 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science, plus appropriate experience or additional education.
Individual Occupational Requirements for Meteorology Positions:
Degree: meteorology, atmospheric science, or other natural science major that included:
At least 24 semester (36 quarter) hours of credit in meteorology/atmospheric science including a minimum of:
a. Six semester hours of atmospheric dynamics and thermodynamics;*
b. Six semester hours of analysis and prediction of weather systems (synoptic/mesoscale);
c. Three semester hours of physical meteorology; and
d. Two semester hours of remote sensing of the atmosphere and/or instrumentation.
2. Six semester hours of physics, with at least one course that includes laboratory sessions.*
3. Three semester hours of ordinary differential equations.*
4. At least nine semester hours of course work appropriate for a physical science major in any combination of three or more of the following: physical hydrology, statistics, chemistry, physical oceanography, physical climatology, radiative transfer, aeronomy, advanced thermodynamics, advanced electricity and magnetism, light and optics, and computer science.
OR
Combination of education and experience -- course work as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education.
NOTES:
3 openings. Telecommuting is allowed.
Additional Salary Information: These are GS-14 positions in Washington, D.C.
About Department of Commerce, Office of Inspector General
We are seeking highly motivated professionals to join our team. If you want challenging work and a chance to make a big impact, come join us at the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Commerce! We improve the effectiveness of the Department's programs and operations. We also investigate waste, fraud, and abuse in the Department and those who do business with it.
Are you interested in working on nationally critical, high-profile projects? Making recommendations on improving the effectiveness and efficiency of important, highly visible federal programs and operations? Would you take pride in being a part of a high performing team that produces independent, objective, relevant and impactful products that inform leaders in the Executive Branch, Congress, and the American tax payer, and receive media coverage? Then look no further because we at the U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of the Inspector General (OIG) want you to join our team!
