Engineering Technician

Engineering Technician

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Charleston, South Carolina

Salary Range: $74678 - $97087 Per Year

Job Summary: This position is located within The 3D Innovation Center at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center. The incumbent functions as the Engineering Technician, Additive Manufacturing Technician for the Additive Manufacturing Program. The Additive Manufacturing Program aligns with the initiatives of the VHA Innovation Ecosystem (IE).

Major Duties:

• As an Additive Manufacturing technician, performs various technical engineering, scanning, modeling, and analyzing tasks in support of Additive Manufacturing design, development, and production utilizing 3D printing technologies and other manufacturing techniques at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center. Performs assignments typically dealing with the 3D production, engineering of assigned items, and components as well as equipment maintenance and troubleshooting. Serves as a product manufacturing technical expert and advisor for the development of additive manufactured components in accordance with new and changing technical requirements as well as understanding and complying to medical device manufacturing guidelines and regulations per FDA, ISO and AAMI standards. Designs shape, size structures and mechanical aspects of assigned items and identifies support structure options in terms of feasibility for 3D printing. Identifies printing materials and machine parameters to be used, as well as cost, and post-processing of 3D printed item. Computes loads, stresses, strength and other features; coordinates with engineers, scientists and researchers for more theoretical, analytical or specialized approaches to problems and for inter-relationships and integration of technical efforts. Performs fit analysis of complex assemblies using the Computer Aided Design system. With broad guidance, and previous experience, selects method and makes necessary assumptions to determine proper model orientation and support structure required to achieve technical characteristics and successfully print a 3D component on a variety of machines and materials. Provides design coordination for engineers and technical staff through the use of Computer Aided Design (CAD) models. Establishes production plans, in-process quality control, and cost estimates in support of the 3D print. Within overall assignments, the incumbent maintains a thorough knowledge of 3D scanning operational and software capabilities of the item to be 3D printed. Prepares complete final CAD design and coordinates with engineers and technical staff through use of CAD systems. Visits work areas to maintain a comprehensive understanding of overall item progress and quality, develops and monitors process and planning instructions, and recommends possible solutions to minimize production and post-processing schedules. Provides recommendations for acceptance or rejection of 3D printed item on a case by case basis within the individual program intent and customer needs. Participates in initial planning discussions for projects, attends subsequent staff meetings and participates in discussions relating to assignments. Establishes processes for development, production, and sustainment. Phases include process development; medical scan reconstruction, design influence for manufacturing; additive manufacturing; rapid prototyping; manufacturing technology; design of tools, fixtures, surgical guides, and custom implants. Develops procedures and methods for the construction of medical models, devices, and research and development (R&D) initiatives. Identifies proper materials based on requirements, dimensional tolerances, and secondary processing such as finishing. Serves as technical subject matter expert on additive manufacturing equipment and performs maintenance and troubleshooting activities to maintain the equipment's function per the manufacturer's specifications. Completes training requirements as necessary to have a full understanding of the equipment's operational abilities. Serves as a technical consultant to staff engineers and supervisor for efficient and effective production/quality/manufacturing for programs of record and urgent need projects, with the majority of projects involving medically related models, products, or systems. Evaluates tasks independently with respect to product requirements and related data to make recommendations on alternative approaches and execution. Modifies existing products or prototypes, designs of applicable quality test processes, or complete fabrication of systems to meet customer requirements. Perform other related duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 7:00 am - 3:30 pm Telework: This position is not authorized for telework. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Engineering Technician/PD10055O Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement 03/12/2026. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-11 position, you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-09. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate that you possess one year of time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one year of time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Individual Occupational Requirements Series Definition: This series covers technical positions supervising, leading, or performing work involving applying: knowledge of the techniques and theories characteristic of electronics, such as a knowledge of basic electricity and electronic theory, algebra, and elementary physics; knowledge of electronic equipment design, development, evaluation, testing, installation, and maintenance; and knowledge of the capabilities, limitations, operations, design, characteristics, and functional use of a variety of types and models of electronic equipment and systems related to, but less than, a full professional knowledge of electronic engineering. Electronics technicians may have gained experience assisting in work situations including: Maintenance - Developing maintenance standards and procedures for use by others. Analyzing repair practices and developing procedural instructions for use by others on methods and steps to repair equipment. Installation - Planning and directing the installation of complex systems and associated facilities, particularly where there are site selection and construction problems, dealings with contractors and public utilities, and the possible need to modify equipment for novel site characteristics. Fabrication - Designing and analyzing circuits, determining design feasibility, evaluating equipment performance under varying environmental conditions, and collecting performance data. Designing or modifying designs to achieve performance and cost objectives. Evaluating the adequacy of equipment for such purposes as repair, calibration, and testing. Testing and Evaluation/Research and Development - Developing or evaluating new or modified electronic systems. Completing testing, evaluating data, and determining acceptability of equipment modifications, validity, test procedures and data, or legality of operation. Technicians support professional engineers in performing experiments, research, and developmental activities requiring an in-depth knowledge of technical engineering methods, applications, practices, and principles to work on concepts, prototypes, and experimental projects that are without precedent and support state-of-the-art research. Sustainment - Developing, performing, evaluating, or modifying calibration and test equipment, systems, and procedures. Reporting, analyzing, and archiving test data. Performing complex calculations and manipulations of test data to improve performance of systems, instrumentation, measurement standards, techniques, and procedures. Troubleshooting - Analyzing and diagnosing faults in the operational configuration of electronic systems and equipment. Interpreting circuit wiring, logic cable diagrams, drawings, specifications, and schematics of complete systems and equipment to understand the function and interconnections of the various assemblies and troubleshoot the system. Specialized Experience (for positions at GS-4 or equivalent and above): Some examples of qualifying specialized experience include: Work as a technician, instructor, inspector, or mechanic (civilian or military) that showed progression in theoretical and practical knowledge of electronic theory, and of the characteristics, function, operation, and capabilities of a variety of types of electronic equipment. This experience must have included the use of schematic diagrams, a variety of test equipment, and the application of appropriate electronic formulas involved in such duties as testing, troubleshooting, modifying, designing, calibrating, installing, maintaining, repairing, constructing, developing, and instructing on electronic equipment, or similar functions. Experience in developing policies, standards, and procedures for maintenance, installation, or similar functions, provided the work clearly shows that the applicant applied a specialized knowledge of the theories and principles of a variety of electronic systems or equipment. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level, you must have two full years of graduate education or a master's degree, which meets the requirements for GS-9. One year of full-time graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school has determined to represent 1 year of full-time study. If that information cannot be obtained from the school, 18 semester hours should be considered as satisfying the 1 year of full-time study requirement. Part-time graduate education is creditable in accordance with its relationship to a year of full-time study at the school attended.. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have a combination of specialized experience and education beyond . You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Customer Service Oral Communication Problem Solving Technical Problem Solving Technology Application 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; religions; 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. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Demands: The work requires some physical exertion. Common characteristics of the work are long periods of standing; recurring bending, crouching, stooping, stretching, climbing, or similar activities; recurring lifting of light to moderately heavy items weighing less than 40 pounds, such as testing or measuring equipment. Work Environment: Work is regularly performed in offices, shop and testing environments. The manufacturing areas require the use of appropriate protective and safety gear (gloves, masks, lab coats, goggles, etc.) and applicable safety precautions. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

How to Apply: All applicants are encouraged to apply online. To apply for this position, you must complete the questionnaire and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section below. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on 03/12/2026 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12895059. To begin, click Apply Online to create a USA JOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USA JOBS resume and/or other supporting documents and complete the occupational questionnaire. Click Submit My Answers to submit your application package. NOTE: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date. Beginning September 27, 2025, Federal agencies will only accept resumes up to two pages in length to comply with the Merit Hiring Plan. Resumes longer than two pages will result in ineligibility for further consideration for the position. USAJOBS will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages, and you will need to update the resumes in your profile before applying for a job. Resumes should include information relevant to the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of the position to which you are applying. VA is unable to make assumptions about qualifications if not clearly listed. 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. Helpful Hints for Creating a Two-Page Resume: Prioritize most relevant and recent experience Use concise, results focused language Align language from the job announcement Focus on demonstrating skills and competencies Remove outdated or unrelated experience Use the USAJOBS resume builder Additional guidance on this new requirement and resume building tools can be found at: https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/merit-hiring-plan-resources/applicant-guidance-on-the-two-page-resume-limit/ Special Employment Consideration: VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply, including those eligible for hiring under 5 CFR 213.3102(u), Schedule A, Appointment of persons with disabilities [i.e., intellectual disabilities, severe physical disabilities, or psychiatric disabilities], and/or Disabled veterans with a compensable service-connected disability of 30% or more. Contact the Agency Contact for information on how to apply under this appointment authority via the Selective Placement Coordinator. The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal/VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be well-qualified: applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are proficient in most of the required competencies of the job. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/. During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions.

Application Deadline: 2026-03-12