Senior Aerospace Engineer (Flight Test Engineer)

Duties

The incumbent serves as a Senior Flight Test Engineer in the Flight Test Branch of the Seattle Aircraft Certification Office (SACO) with responsibility for organizing, planning, and conducting type certification projects and continued operational safety activities of aircraft and aviation products. Assures compliance of aircraft and products with the Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) and non-U.S. regulations governed by bi-lateral agreements. These compliance activities involve advance systems and technology which may require substantial departure from previous certification methodology. Incumbent, as a crew member, will be a member of a flight test team and will be required to participate in flight tests on experimental aircraft. As a crew member, incumbent is required to maintain currency in the tasks assigned in the flight Test Operations Manual (FTOM) and is required to maintain a current third class medical and is subject to drug testing as testing designated position.

Provides briefings or technical presentations to manufacturers, professional organizations or representatives of foreign governments. Mentors journey level flight test engineers and flight test pilots within the branch. The incumbent’s expertise is relied on within the industry, the Directorate, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to provide oversight to ensure airworthiness of FAA certified aircraft and to enhance the safety of commercial aviation. Provides input to the branch manager to assist in the assignment of projects and identification of training needs for less experienced technical employees. If assigned by the branch manager, organizes the work of a team, accepts or rejects the work of team members and, on request, provides input to branch manager on the performance of team members.

The incumbent learns and applies risk management in planning and decision making regarding the appropriate level of FAA involvement in: oversight of organizational delegations and/or individual designees who are authorized to make findings on behalf of the FAA; certification projects, continued operational safety decisions, review of findings made by Foreign Civil Aviation Authorities. Each of these areas depend upon a clear understanding of FAA and industry roles and responsibilities to enable effective and appropriate FAA involvement in consideration of shared safety responsibilities.

Additionally, the incumbent must be able to apply systems thinking to the above responsibilities. The FAA is moving to a systems-based approach to oversight of the aviation industry and it is essential for the incumbent to be able to evaluate large/complex delegated organizations as well as smaller delegated entities and determine how to most efficiently and effectively oversee these entities based upon compliance and safety risks within the aviation system.

Qualifications

BASIC QUALIFICATION: To qualify for this position you must have a degree in professional engineering. To be acceptable, the curriculum must: (1) be in a school of engineering with at least one curriculum accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) as a professional engineering curriculum; 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

A combination of education and experience that furnished (1) a thorough knowledge of the physical and mathematical sciences underlying professional 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. There are alternate methods to meeting the engineering educational requirement (for example, holding current professional engineering registration, having passed the EIT examination, or having completed specified academic courses or a related degree). For more information on the alternate methods, please refer to the OPM Qualification Standards for Engineering.

In addition to the basic qualification, to qualify for this position you must demonstrate in your application that you possess at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to FV-I, FG/GS-13 in the Federal Service. Specialized experience is experience that has equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. Specialized experience includes but is not limited to: Experience with aircraft and/or rotorcraft performance testing, avionics performance testing, or airborne systems evaluations to determine compliance with civil, military, or foreign standards AND Flight test program management experience or experience leading a team to technical and operational solutions.

Qualifications must be met by the closing date of this vacancy announcement.

Please ensure you answer all questions and follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may impact your rating or may result in you not being considered for the job.

Education

EDUCATION:

IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING EDUCATION, PLEASE READ:
If you are not a current FAA employee in an Engineering series, you MUST submit a copy of your college or university transcript by the closing date. If selected, an official transcript will be required. You may upload these documents with your application in USAJOBS or fax it to (425) 227-2199 (please include announcement number on each page). Schools must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Accreditation may be verified at the following website: www.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/index.html

Foreign education must be evaluated by a private professional organization specializing in interpretation of foreign education credentials or an accredited US educational institution in terms of equivalency to a degree acquired at an American college or university. A copy of the evaluation results must be included, otherwise your foreign education will not be considered.