Summary

You will serve as a Polymer Materials Technical Area Lead in the Polymer Materials Science and Technology Department of CARDEROCK DIV NS

This position is part of the Warfare Centers Personnel Demonstration Project. The ND-5 pay band encompasses positions equivalent to GS-14 and GS-15.

Learn more about this agency

Summary

You will serve as a Polymer Materials Technical Area Lead in the Polymer Materials Science and Technology Department of CARDEROCK DIV NS

This position is part of the Warfare Centers Personnel Demonstration Project. The ND-5 pay band encompasses positions equivalent to GS-14 and GS-15.

Learn more about this agency

Overview

Accepting applications

Open & closing dates

04/29/2026 to 05/05/2026

Salary $143,913 - $197,200 per year Pay scale & grade ND 5

Location

1 vacancy in the following location:

Naval Surface Warfare Center, MD

1 vacancy

Remote job No Telework eligible Yes-as determined by the agency policy. Travel Required Occasional travel - You may be expected to travel for this position. Relocation expenses reimbursed No Appointment @type Permanent Work schedule Full-time Service Competitive

Promotion potential

None

Job family (Series)

0806 Materials Engineering

0830 Mechanical Engineering

0893 Chemical Engineering

1320 Chemistry

Supervisory status No Security clearance Sensitive Compartmented Information Drug test Yes Position sensitivity and risk Special-Sensitive (SS)/High Risk

Trust determination process

National security

Financial disclosure No Bargaining unit status No

Announcement number ST-12944150-26-ZLR Control number 866344900

This job is open to

Internal to an agency

Current federal employees of the hiring agency that posted the job announcement.

Career transition (CTAP, ICTAP, RPL)

Federal employees whose job, agency or department was eliminated and are eligible for priority over other applicants.

Land and base management

Current or former employees of a base management agency.

Veterans

Veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces or a spouse, widow, widower or parent of a veteran, who may be eligible for derived preference

Military spouses

Military spouses of active duty service members or whose spouse is 100 percent disabled or died on active duty.

Individuals with disabilities

Individuals who are eligible under Schedule A.

Special authorities

Individuals eligible under a special authority not listed in another hiring path.

Clarification from the agency

Current permanent employees of BSO NV24, DoD Military Spouse Preference (MSP) eligibles, DoD Military Reserve (MR) and National Guard (NG) Technician Preference eligibles and DoD Retained Grade Preference eligibles, and VEOA eligibles.

Duties

You will be responsible for guiding the development of polymeric materials and polymer processing technologies that have application for ship, submarine, combatant craft, and uncrewed systems.

You will be the lead engineer or scientist for polymer property modeling, polymer measurement methodologies, and polymer development.

You will serve as the Navy's expert in the subject area of polymeric materials and their integration in Navy ship, submarine, and combatant craft platforms.

You will determine the plan of attack and direction of work for advancing the state-of-the-art in polymeric materials.

You will plan, organize, and coordinate the various phases of the project assignment to be accomplished.

You will develop solutions to a variety of nonrecurring technology problems, anticipate future trends, and investigate application of new technology or processes.

You will conduct analysis to determine specific technical objectives, makes decisions on trade-offs, and selects the best approach for accomplishing new requirements or resolving polymeric material technical problems.

Requirements

Conditions of employment

Must be a US Citizen.

Must be determined suitable for federal employment.

Must participate in the direct deposit pay program.

New employees to the Department of the Navy will be required to successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit e-verify.gov

Within the Department of Defense (DoD), the appointment of retired military members within 180 days immediately following retirement date to a civilian position is subject to the provisions of 5 United States Code 3326.

Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered for Selective Service.

You will be required to obtain and maintain an interim and/or final security clearance prior to entrance on duty. Failure to obtain and maintain the required level of clearance may result in the withdrawal of a job offer or removal.

MSP/PPP applicants must currently hold the required security clearance.

Successful completion of a pre-employment drug test (including marijuana) is required. A tentative offer of employment will be rescinded if you fail to report to the drug test appointment or fail the test. You will be subject to random testing.

This position may require travel from normal duty station to CONUS and OCONUS and may include remote or isolated sites. You must be able to travel on military and commercial aircraft for extended periods of time.

Qualifications

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) pay band in the Federal service or equivalent experience in the private or public sector. Specialized experience must demonstrate the following: leading a team of engineering or scientific personnel in the execution of polymer materials science tasks; analyzing polymer measurement data to evaluate or process materials for Navy maritime applications; managing operations, safety protocols, and equipment sustainment for a polymer materials laboratory; and authoring technical documents and delivering presentations to provide programmatic oversight on polymer projects.

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

https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/0800/files/all-professional-engineering-positions-0800.pdf

https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/0800/materials-engineering-series-0806/

https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/0800/mechanical-engineering-series-0830/

https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/0800/chemical-engineering-series-0893/

https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/1300/chemistry-series-1320/

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:

Professional Engineering 08XX Series :

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.

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.org

Evidence 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.

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)

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.

Professional Chemistry Series, 1320

Degree: physical sciences, life sciences, or engineering that included 30 semester hours in chemistry, supplemented by course work in mathematics through differential and integral calculus, and at least 6 semester hours of physics.

Combination of education and experience -- course work equivalent to a major as shown in A above, including at least 30 semester hours in chemistry, supplemented by mathematics through differential and integral calculus, and at least 6 semester hours of physics, plus appropriate experience or additional education.

Additional information

This position is covered by the Department of Defense Priority Placement Program.

Additional vacancies may be filled by this announcement.

A tentative offer of employment will be rescinded if the selectee fails to meet the pre-employment requirements, including failure to report to any of the scheduled appointments.

During the application process you will have the ability to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions in the local commuting area. Depending on the hiring organization and the position being filled, job requirements (e.g., security clearance, travel, drug testing, financial disclosure filing, bargaining unit status, etc.) may vary. Other hiring managers filling similar positions may offer relocation expense reimbursement and/or may offer recruitment incentives for new employees, depending on funding availability and in accordance with policy. If you opt-in and are referred on a certificate, your resume will be available to other hiring managers for 180-days from the date the job announcement closes. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions.

Federal annuitant information: The selection of an annuitant is subject to the Department of Defense and Department of the Navy policy on the employment of annuitants. Policy information may be found at: http://www.secnav.navy.mil/donhr/Documents/CivilianJobs/FedCivAnnuitants.pdf

ICTAP Applicants: To be considered well-qualified and exercise selection priority as an ICTAP candidate, displaced Federal employees must satisfy all qualification requirements for the position and receive a rating in the highly qualified category (score 85) or higher. ICTAP candidates must provide copies of all of the following documentation at the time of application: 1) agency notice; 2) most recent performance appraisal; and 3) most recent SF-50 or notification of personnel action that includes position, grade level, and duty location. Applicants who do not provide this documentation will not receive consideration as an ICTAP candidate. For more information about ICTAP eligibility please review the following link: https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/working-in-government/unique-hiring-paths/federal-employees/career-transition/

Military Spouse Preference applicants will be placed at the highest grade for which they have applied and are determined Best Qualified (BQ). A BQ military spouse possesses knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies comparable to others who meet the competitive referral criteria for the specific position.

PPP applicants will be placed at the FPL, if determined Well Qualified (WQ). To receive priority consideration, the FPL must be the same grade level or equivalent of the retained grade or the grade held immediately prior to separation.

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Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

Benefits

A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new window Learn more about federal benefits .

Review our benefits

Eligibility for benefits depends on the @type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.

CARDEROCK DIV NS

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