Quality Assurance Specialist (Aerospace)

Summary

As a Quality Assurance Specialist (Aerospace) within the Aircraft Operations Division, you will provide technical leadership for aircraft maintenance, quality, production, and support activities. You will coordinate maintenance planning, contractor oversight, technical compliance, risk management, and cross-functional efforts to ensure safe, reliable, and mission-ready NASA aircraft.

Duties

• Serves as the Maintenance Technical Lead for NASA aircraft, providing technical leadership for organizational, intermediate, and depot-level maintenance, modification, inspection, repair, and sustainment activities.
• Leads development of aircraft maintenance plans, production schedules, inspection requirements, workload priorities, and resource strategies to support safe, reliable, and mission-ready aircraft operations.
• Provides technical direction across maintenance, quality, engineering, operations, logistics, safety, contractors, and program organizations to resolve aircraft maintenance and airworthiness issues.
• Evaluates maintenance conditions, technical data, operational requirements, schedules, resources, and risk to develop courses of action, recovery plans, and long-range maintenance strategies for leadership.
• Provides oversight of contractor aircraft maintenance activities, assessing technical compliance, workmanship, production, schedules, documentation, and overall maintenance performance.
• Develops and delivers technical briefings, maintenance status reports, risk assessments, and recommendations to leadership, clearly communicating issues, alternatives, impacts, and required decisions.
• Leads maintenance planning meetings, production and aircraft status reviews, technical discussions, and cross-functional teams to define priorities, responsibilities, risks, actions, and schedules.
• Serves as senior technical advisor on maintenance policy, quality assurance, airworthiness, compliance, configuration control, and process improvement to enhance safety, reliability, cost, schedule, and mission performance.

Requirements

Conditions of employment

• This position is open to U.S. citizens, nationals or those who owe allegiance to the U.S.
• This position may require a one-year probationary period. If selected, the requirement to serve such period will be determined by Title 5 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 11. **See Additional Information section**
• Current Federal employees must meet qualifications, time in grade, and 90 days after competitive appointment requirements by the closing date of the announcement.
• Position subject to pre-employment background investigation or higher-level clearance. Investigation/Clearance may differ and be required based on the duty location/NASA Center requirements.
• Financial Disclosure, Drug Testing, and/or the Travel Requirements for this position may differ and be required based on the duty location/NASA Center requirements.

Qualifications

Specialized experience is experience that has equipped you with the particular ability, skill, and knowledge to successfully perform the duties of this position and is typically in or related to this line of work.

To qualify for GS-14, you must have one year of directly related specialized experience equivalent to the GS-13 level:

• Leading aircraft maintenance planning, production, inspection, modification, repair, and sustainment activities involving multiple maintenance organizations, technical disciplines, and operational requirements;
• Coordinating aircraft maintenance activities across maintenance, engineering, quality assurance, logistics, supply, safety, operations, and contractor organizations to resolve technical issues, establish priorities, manage schedules, and support aircraft readiness; and
• Developing and presenting aircraft maintenance plans, status briefings, risk assessments, recovery strategies, and technical recommendations to senior leadership regarding maintenance performance, contractor execution, resource requirements, schedule impacts, and mission support.

Your resume must include a clear and detailed narrative description, in your own words, of how you meet the required specialized experience. Experience statements copied from a position description, vacancy announcement or other reference material constitutes plagiarism and may result in disqualification and losing consideration for the job.

Please visit https://www.nasa.gov/careers/how-to-apply/#Super-Intelligence to review NASA's guidance on the use of super intelligent (SI) or SI-assisted tools during the application process.

Additional information

Additional selections may be made for similar positions across NASA within the local commuting area(s) of the location(s) identified in this announcement. By applying, you agree to have your application shared with interested selecting official(s) within NASA. CTAP/ICTAP will be cleared for any additional selection from this announcement.

If you are applying for a GS-12 or higher level and are a current federal employee, you must meet applicable time-in-grade requirements to be considered eligible for this position. To be eligible, you must have completed a minimum of 52 weeks in a position no more than 1 grade lower than the advertised position. (Please submit your SF-50 that shows Time-in-Grade eligibility and reflects your title, series, and grade. If your eligibility for both merit promotion and/or time-in-grade cannot be determined, your application will be rated ineligible.)

Note: Time-in-grade requirements also apply to applicants who have held a non-temporary, competitive service GS position in the past year.

If you have special priority selection rights under the Agency Career Transition Assistance Program (CTAP) or the Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program (ICTAP), you must:

- Indicate your eligibility when applying for a position. The questionnaire asks you to identify your ICTAP/CTAP eligibility.

- Be well qualified for this position to receive consideration. Candidates rated in the 'Best Qualified' category are considered well-qualified. Please see 'How You Will Be Evaluated' for more information.

- Submit proof that you meet the requirements for CTAP/ICTAP as indicated in 'Required Documents'

For additional information about CTAP/ICTAP eligibility, click here - https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/#ictap.

Qualified NASA term employees who have term conversion eligibility (Term Appointments | NASA) under the NASA Flexibility Act of 2004 will be referred and considered equally with other NASA permanent employees under internal competitive placement procedures

Per Executive Order 14343, this position is not part of a bargaining unit.

Probationary Period

You may be required to serve a one-year probationary period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. If selected, the requirement to serve such period will be determined by Title 5 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 11.

In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider:

• your performance and conduct;

• the needs and interests of the agency;

• whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and

• whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.

Upon completion of your probationary period your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

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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 windowLearn more about federal benefits.

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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.