Director, Research Services Directorate - Langley Research Center

Director, Research Services Directorate
To apply click HERE.

Duties

This position reports to the Director of the Langley Research Center. The Director, Research Services Directorate:

  • Serves as Langley's Chief of Flight Operations (Senior Line Manager) with authority over all flight activities operated or controlled by the Center, including Commercial Aircraft Services operations, and directly responsible for the development and integration of policies and procedures for the safe and effective conduct of those flight activities.
  • Reviews and concurs upon any Center contract or agreement that includes aviation operations or aircraft modification prior to issuance of an RFI (Request for Information) or RFP (Request for Proposal) solicitation, or award of a sole source contract, grant, or other aviation service procurement.
  • Participates in the formulation and execution of policy in areas of flight and simulation research at the Center and Agency levels as well as determining standards for personnel aircraft qualifications.
  • Ensures appropriate advances in the state-of-the-art in flight research and experimental flight test and simulation are included in research and technology development needed to meet Center and Agency programmatic needs.
  • Works integrally with direct reports ensuring aircraft facilities, pilots, and operations are compliant with applicable NASA, Federal Aviation Administration, and military regulations and directives.
  • Serves as a recognized engineering expert, technical authority, and technical advisor/consultant to Agency management, other government agencies, and the aerospace industry on flight test/research and simulation systems.
  • Manages integration efforts for projects and/or programs involving aeronautical flight systems, vehicles, and/or payloads, including design and operational requirements definition, verification, safety, integration, certification, and operations.
  • Manages multi-disciplinary teams in the design, development, integration, test, evaluation, operation, and long-term maintenance of flight vehicle and/or payload hardware, software, and associated systems.
  • As the Lead of NASA's Eastern Aircraft Region (LaRC/Wallops Flight Facility/Glenn Research Center): Represent the region within the Aircraft Capabilities Office as a member of the Aircraft Management Advisory Board to improve the effective use of aviation capabilities and resources, reduce redundancy, align mission support structures, and standardize processes consistent with roles and responsibilities.
  • Fosters and continually drives a culture of engagement, diversity, inclusiveness, excellence, and innovation within and outside of the organization and NASA. Champions the Agency's commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) and creates an environment and culture that promotes and enables the Agency's commitment to safety, inclusion, integrity, teamwork, and excellence.

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

  • The individual selected will be required to file an 'Executive Branch Personnel Financial Disclosure Report' (OGE-278) in accordance with the Ethics in Government Act of 1978.
  • Initial Senior Executive Service (SES) Career appointee is subject to a one-year probationary period.
  • Successful completion of a background investigation commensurate with the risk and sensitivity level of the position.
  • Successful completion of pre-employment and random drug testing may be required.
  • Must meet qualifications requirements by the closing date of this announcement.
  • The position requires the incumbent to be able to successfully complete an FAA First-Class medical certificate, military pilot flight physical, or obtain a NASA flight medical certification.

Qualifications

This position requires the incumbent to have the following current license and/or certification and specified flight hours. Your resume MUST indicate that you meet the following requirements. You may be asked for further documentation to support your eligibility.

Current license and/or certification: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) commercial pilot's license with an instrument rating or a pilot and instrument rating from the armed services, NASA Pilot-in-Command (PIC), a military rating as an Aircraft Commander, or an FAA Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) certificate.

Flight Hours: A minimum of the following flight time hours:

  • 1,500 hours of flight time as a pilot-in-command (or first pilot) that includes at least 500 hours in jet or turboprop aircraft
  • 250 hours of pilot-in-command
  • 75 hours of night flying

You also must have the skill and ability to perform the duties described above as demonstrated by progressively responsible supervisory/leadership experience, normally obtained over several years by serving in positions at the GS-15 level or equivalent.

To meet the minimum qualification requirements for this position, you MUST address each Executive Core Qualification (ECQ) and Mandatory Technical Qualification (MTQ) separately. If you fail to do so, your application will be rated ineligible. We recommend you provide two (2) examples of relevant experience for each ECQ. Responses to ALL ECQs must not exceed ten (10) pages; MTQ responses must not exceed one (1) page per MTQ. Please include your full name on all documents submitted.

If you are currently serving under a career SES appointment, are eligible for reinstatement into the SES, or have successfully completed a SES Candidate Development Program and been certified by Office of Personnel Management (OPM) you MUST submit a resume and in a separate document address the MTQs. Any ECQs submitted will not be considered. Your resume must clearly state that you are a current career SES, eligible for reinstatement, or SES CDP certified and year of certification.

When preparing your responses to the ECQs and MTQs, you are encouraged to follow the Challenge, Context, Action, and Result model outlined in the OPM's Guide to Senior Executive Service Qualification. For a sample template on how to format your ECQ narrative visit NASA's Executive Leadership Opportunities.

EXECUTIVE CORE QUALIFICATIONS:

ECQ 1 - Leading Change: The ability to bring about strategic change, both within and outside the organization, to meet organizational goals. Inherent to this ECQ is the ability to establish an organizational vision and to implement it in a continuously changing environment.

ECQ 2 - Leading People: The ability to lead people toward meeting the organization's vision, mission, and goals. Inherent to this ECQ is the ability to provide an inclusive workplace that fosters the development of others, facilitates cooperation and teamwork, and supports constructive resolution of conflicts.

ECQ 3 - Results Driven: The ability to meet organizational goals and customer expectations. Inherent to this ECQ is the ability to make decisions that produce high-quality results by applying technical knowledge, analyzing problems, and calculating risks.

ECQ 4 - Business Acumen: The ability to manage human, financial, and information resources strategically.

ECQ 5 - Building Coalitions: The ability to build coalitions internally and with other Federal agencies, State and local governments, nonprofit and private sector organizations, foreign governments, or international organizations to achieve common goals.


MANDATORY TECHNICAL QUALIFICATIONS:

MTQ 1- Research piloting and operations experience in managing aircraft similar to those at the Center (e.g., Boeing 777, Gulfstream, Cessna, etc.). Ten years of relevant aviation experience is desired, three of which are in supervisory or managerial experience in aircraft operations.

Education

This position has a positive education requirement. To be eligible, you must clearly state in your resume the following: degree, major and/or minor, and college/university.

A bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university with major study in engineering, physical science, mathematics, life sciences, computer science, or other field of science.

SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR FOREIGN EDUCATION: 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, click here.

Additional information

Must be able to obtain and maintain a Top Secret security clearance.

  • Benefits

How You Will Be Evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

All qualifications requirements must be met by the closing date of the announcement. You will be evaluated based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

We will review your resume and required documents to ensure you meet the basic qualification requirements. If you meet the basic qualification requirements, your application will be evaluated based on your narrative statements addressing the ECQs and MTQs. Your application may then be referred to and evaluated by an Executive Resources Panel (ERP) and will be placed in one of the following categories: Not Qualified, Qualified, or Highly-qualified. Candidates may receive an interview and/or be asked to provide a list of references. The ERP will make a recommendation to the appropriate approving authority.

Required Documents

You must provide a complete application package. If you do not provide all required information, you will not be considered for this position. Only provide the following:

1. Resume showing relevant work experience (start/end dates stated in month/year, description of duties), applicable education at a minimum, and your contact information. For current or previous Federal employees, it should also include the Pay Plan, Series and Grade for each work experience entry. Limit your resume to 10 pages. If more than 10 pages are submitted, only the first 10 pages will be reviewed to determine your eligibility/qualifications.

2. Executive Core Qualifications narrative responses, if applicable. Limit your response to 10 pages. If more than 10 pages are submitted, only the first 10 pages will be reviewed to determine your eligibility/qualifications.

3. Mandatory Technical Qualifications narrative responses. Limit your response to 1 page per MTQ. If more than 1 page per MTQ is submitted, only the first pages for each MTQ will be reviewed to determine your eligibility/qualifications.

You may be asked to provide additional documentation to support your eligibility and the information provided in your application package. For example, we may request transcripts, SF-50s, SES Candidate Development Program certificate, etc. Therefore, we encourage you to have these documents prepared and ready when requested by the agency. If you fail to provide the required documents within the stated time period, we may withdraw a job offer and/or remove you from further consideration.

Salary $196,023 - $202,085 per year

To apply click HERE.