Department: Department of Health and Human Services
Location(s): Silver Spring, Maryland
Salary Range: $85447 - $111087 Per Year
Job Summary: This Direct-Hire position is in the Food and Drug Administration and is located in the Center for Tobacco products, Office of Science, Division of Product Science.
Major Duties:
Qualifications: The position of General Engineer falls under the 0801 occupational series. To qualify for this position at grade GS-11, you must meet all requirements by 11:59 pm EST on 05/13/2026. Basic Requirements Degree in 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: 1). Professional registration or licensure -- Current registration as an Engineer Intern (EI), Engineer in Training (EIT) 1, 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. 2) Written Test -- Evidence of having successfully passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE)2 examination or any other written test required for professional certifications. 3) 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 above. 4) 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. NOTE: Applicants must submit all relevant transcripts that demonstrate you possess the required education to meet the Basic Qualifications. Minimum Qualifications: Specialized experience is experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. The specialized experience must demonstrate one year of full-time work experience , or the equivalent if part-time (for example, an employee working 20 hours per week for a 12-month period should be credited with 6 months of experience.) Experience may have been obtained in either the federal service or its equivalent with state or local government, the private sector, or nongovernmental organizations. To qualify for the GS-11: Applicants must have 1 year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-09, in the Federal service, which includes: Researching engineering principles and practices to solve practical engineering problems; analyzing and determining the adequacy of design and manufacturing information; reviewing engineering and/or scientific data to determine project technical needs. -OR- 3 years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. OR equivalent doctoral degree. -OR- Have a combination of specialized experience and graduate education as described above, when combined equal 100% of the total requirement. All qualification requirements must be met by 11:59 pm (Eastern Time) on 05/13/2026. If, after reviewing your resume and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your responses when compared to your background information, you may be deemed ineligible or your score may be adjusted to more accurately reflect your skills and abilities. You must continue to meet all requirements through the hiring process. You may be asked to provide additional information at a later time. All interview requests and selection decisions are at the full discretion of the hiring office. NOTE: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date . To verify your application is complete, log into your USAJOBS account,https://secure.login.gov/, select the Application Status link and then select the More Information link for this position. The Details page will display the status of your application, the documentation received and processed, and any correspondence the agency has sent related to this application. Your uploaded documents may take several hours to clear the virus scan process. IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Qualifications are based on breadth/level of experience. In addition to describing duties performed, applicants must provide the exact dates of each period of employment (from MM/YY to MM/YY) and the number of hours worked per week if part time. As qualification determinations cannot be made when resumes do not include the required information, failure to provide this information may result in disqualification. Applicants are encouraged to use the USAJOBS Resume Builder to develop their federal resume. 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.
How to Apply: To apply for positions with the Food & Drug Administration, you must have a https://secure.login.gov/ account, and be signed in to that account, before you click "Apply Online". See the USAJOBS Help Site article "How does the application process work?" for more on this process. Additionally, you must provide a resume and any required supporting documentation listed on the announcement, and you must complete all assessment questionnaires BEFORE 11:59 pm Eastern Time on the closing date of this announcement, 05/13/2026. We recommend that you start the application process early enough that you can complete and submit your application before this deadline. Please note that you cannot submit documentation or make changes to your application after the close date. If you would like to learn how to use USAJOBS including: accessing and managing your account, adding saved documents, building a resume, or starting an application; we recommend you visit the USAJOBS How To site, and read up on any topic that you need help with. This site is located at: https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/how-to/. Additionally, if you need technical assistance with USAJOBS (such as account issues) please visit the main USAJOBS Help site at: https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/. FDA's Applicant Help Desk is not able to support USAJOBS-related issues. The Food & Drug Administration uses a system called Application Manager (USA Staffing) to post jobs and accept applications. If you are not familiar with Application Manager or encounter any difficulty with the site, we recommend that you review the Applicant HELP Site at: https://help.usastaffing.gov/Apply/index.php?title=Applicant. This help site contains step-by-step instructions for completing the application process, submitting documentation, and completing questionnaires, and should be very helpful to you! You are encouraged to apply online. Applying online will allow you to review and track the status of your application. The FDA will provide reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities who are not able to apply online. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process, please contact the Applicant Help Desk. Decisions on granting a reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis. If after reviewing the USAJOBS and Application Manager help sites, you're not able to find the answer to your question or concern, or if you wish to request a reasonable accommodation, please contact the FDA Applicant Help Desk at 866-807-3742, or e-mail QuickQuestions@fda.gov. The Applicant Help Desk is staffed between the hours of 7am and 6pm Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, except for government holidays. If you contact the Applicant Help Desk, please provide the following Vacancy Identification Number (VIN) 12952808 so that we may assist you faster.
Application Deadline: 2026-05-13