Nuclear Engineer

Summary

This position is part of the Deputy Administrator for Naval Reactors, Department of Energy. National Nuclear Security Administration Demonstration Project: This position is covered by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Demonstration Project. The NN-04 pay band is equivalent to the GS-14/15 grade levels. For more information on the NNSA Demonstration Project and Pay Band/Salary Tables, review http://www.energy.gov/nnsa/nnsas-demo-pay-system-compared-general-schedule.

Duties

• PLEASE NOTE: This is an Open Continuous Announcement which allows acceptance of applications through the closing date of 12/15/2026. Check the "How to Apply" section for more details. As a Nuclear Engineer, NN-0840-04, you will: Lead and provide expert engineering support across the lifecycle of naval nuclear propulsion plants, including research, development, design, acquisition, specification, construction, inspection, installation, certification, testing, overhaul, refueling, operations, maintenance, supply support, and ultimate disposition. Advise program offices and site managers on interpretation and application of technical requirements and policies; evaluate proposed modifications and alternative approaches; recommend and track corrective actions; and provide oversight and coordination with Navy, DoD, DOE, design laboratories, shipyards, and other partner organizations. Prepare internal policy guidance, technical standards, and related documentation that may drive changes in policy, technical direction, and program execution for naval nuclear propulsion activities. Participate in meetings, panels, and conferences with federal and state agencies, national laboratories, contractors, and other stakeholders; present briefings and speeches; communicate office positions; and articulate issues, impacts, and solutions on complex technical and policy matters. Review, analyze, and assess technical research and development reports, engineering plans, and program proposals related to areas such as submarines, surface ships, reactor plants, instrumentation and control, materials, nuclear components, and reactor safety; provide recommendations to inform program decisions. Serve on ad-hoc and cross-functional teams with other government and private-sector engineers to conduct broad policy and technical studies, support advanced concepts (e.g., advanced submarines, new ship designs, advanced and nuclear technologies), and address emergent issues in naval nuclear propulsion.

Qualifications

In addition to demonstrating the basic requirement listed in the education section of this announcement, applicants must also demonstrate possession of specialized experience. SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS: A qualified candidate's online application and resume must demonstrate at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade level NN-03, or GS-13 in the Federal service. Specialized experience for this position is defined as meeting ALL of the following: Experience applying nuclear, mechanical, electrical, and/or chemical engineering principles to plan, manage, and evaluate contractor activities for nuclear propulsion systems; Overseeing or assessing propulsion plant design changes and ship construction to ensure compliance with technical requirements, safety standards, and program objectives; and Experience ensuring implementation of health and safety precautions in engineering work, including evaluation of contractor safety practices and integration of safety considerations into design, construction, and modification activities. Please ensure that your resume does not exceed two (2) pages in length. If you submit more than two pages, only the first two will be reviewed to determine your eligibility and qualifications. Your full resume will be shared with the hiring manager if you are referred. You can find the qualification standards for the announced position on the Office of Personnel Management website. All Professional Engineering Positions: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/0800/files/all-professional-engineering-positions-0800.pdf National Service Experience (i.e., volunteer experience): 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. Time-in-Grade Requirements: Under competitive merit promotion procedures, any individual who is currently holding, or who has held within the previous 52 weeks, a General Schedule (GS) position under a non-temporary appointment in the competitive or excepted service at the, must meet "time-in-grade" requirements (have served 52 weeks at the next lower grade of the grade for which you are applying). Few exceptions are outlined in 5 CFR 300.603(b). NOTE: Current or former GS federal civilian employees, applying for a position under the Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) must meet time-in-grade requirements. Please ensure EACH work history includes ALL of the following information: Job Title (include series and grade if Federal Job) Duties (be specific in describing your duties, we cannot make assumptions regarding your experience) Employer's name and address Supervisor name and phone number Start and end dates including month, and year (e.g. June 2007 to April 2008) Start and end dates for each grade/pay level if you've held a federal position. Full-time or part-time status (include hours worked per week) You must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of this announcement, or by the cut-off dates listed in the "How to Apply" section below.

Education

Basic Requirements: 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: Professional registration or licensure -- 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 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. Written Test -- 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. 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. 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). For Professional, Scientific and Engineering Positions: If qualifying on the basis of an alternate method, i.e., professional license, you must submit official documentation to support your claim with your application package. If selected for the position you will be required to submit official transcripts prior to onboarding. Education must be from an accredited institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Foreign Education: Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet the qualification requirements. You must show the education credentials have been evaluated by a private U.S. organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign educational credentials and such education has been deemed equivalent to that gained in an accredited U.S. education program. It is your responsibility to provide such evidence with your application. See Recognition of Foreign Qualifications for more information. If this vacancy specifies particular educational requirements, please provide documentation to verify your educational claims. This can include unofficial transcripts or any report that lists the institution, courses titles, credit earned, and final grades. For additional information, please see How to fill out your education.

How to apply

Please read the entire announcement and all the instructions before you begin an application. To apply for this position, you must complete the initial online application, to include submission of the required documentation specified in the Required Documents section. A complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (EST) on the announcement closing date and/or the cut-off dates to receive consideration. If your materials are not received by the closing date and/or cut-off dates, your application will be evaluated solely on the information available, and you may not receive full consideration or may not be considered eligible. PLEASE NOTE: This is an Open Continuous Announcement which allows acceptance of applications through the closing date of 12/15/2026. To receive consideration for this vacancy, applicants must submit a complete application prior to the established cut-off date(s). The initial cut-off date will take place on 08/21/2026 beginning the initial applicant consideration. Applications received after the initial cut-off date will be considered upon subsequent cut-off dates every 30 days. CUT-OFF DATES: 08/21/2026 09/21/2026 10/21/2026 11/20/2026 12/15/2026 Applicants are encouraged to apply early in order to maximize their employment opportunities. Final application disposition will be completed once all positions have been filled or the announcement has reached the end of its open period. The application process is as follows: You must have a login.gov account to sign into USAJOBS: https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/how-to/account/. To begin the application process in USAJOBS, click the Apply Online button. Answer the questions presented in the application and attach all required and supporting documentation. You must click the Submit Application button prior to 11:59PM (ET) on 12/15/2026 and/or the cut-off dates. Resume Requirements Submit your two (2) page RESUME showing all relevant work experience (paid and unpaid) including: duties performed; full name and address of the each employer; start and end dates (month/year); work schedule (part-time, full-time, number of hours if intermittent); and any completed education and training (program title, subject area, number of hours completed, and completion date). If more than 2 pages are submitted, only the first 2 pages will be reviewed to determine your eligibility/qualifications. Resumes must be legible so they can be reviewed for eligibility, minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement. Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started. See "Guidance for Applicants on 2-Page Resume" and visit the USAJOBS Help Center for more information. To update your application, including supporting documentation, at any time during the announcement open period by return to your USAJOBS account https://my.usajobs.gov/Account/Login. There you will find a record of your application, the application status, and an option to Update Application. This option will no longer be available once the announcement has closed. To verify the status of your application both during and after the announcement open period, log into your USAJOBS account: https://my.usajobs.gov/Account/Login. All of your applications will appear on the Welcome page. The application record in your USAJOBS account provides an Additional Application Information page that provides information regarding the documentation you submitted and any correspondence we have sent related to this application. The Application Status will appear along with the date your application was last updated. For information on what each Application Status means, visit: https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/how-to/application/status/. If you need help with login.gov or USAJOBS (e.g., account access, Resume Builder) visit the USAJOBS Help Center: https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/