Aviation Safety Technician

About the role

Incumbent serves as a Aviation Safety Technician (AST) in a Flight Standards Office providing technical support to Aviation Safety Inspectors (ASl's) and the public. Performs or assists with a wide range of certification, surveillance, and investigation duties requiring research and evaluation in accordance with current FAA safety directives/orders.

What you will do

• Tasks are performed following prescribed or established procedures to assist inspectors, investigators, and Flight Standards program officials in their fact-finding or program administration responsibilities and requires basic evaluative judgment.
• The work performed falls primarily in one of the following categories: (1) Inspections where determinations are based on visual or other specific inspection techniques and are made based on relatively clear-cut considerations such as the presence or absence of required documents or the obvious physical condition of an item or premises.
• These inspections are governed by specific procedures and serve as bases for action by compliance program officials.
• Typically, such work includes both initial and follow-up inspections including obtaining samples and performing well-established field tests, if appropriate.
• (2) Technical support to inspections or investigations such as searching for, gathering, screening, and providing factual information or explanations related to the subject of an inspection or investigation or to the compliance program itself.
• These tasks are performed following prescribed or established procedures to assist compliance inspectors, investigators, and program officials in their fact finding or program administration responsibilities.
• The work includes activities such as obtaining background information on subjects of inspections or investigations by means of record searches, structured interviews, automated information retrieval, telephone inquiries, or correspondence; providing information to authorized persons concerning the status of particular investigations; explaining licensing or other requirements, including exceptions or exemptions, to persons or organizations subject to regulations; compiling final investigative reports with necessary exhibits; and maintaining required administrative reports on topics such as manpower, case load, and case status.
• Work in investigating, inspecting, or advising individuals or organizations subject to Federal laws, regulations, or other mandatory guidelines to assure their understanding and compliance when such work requires considerable evaluative judgment is excluded from this position.
• DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES Technical Administration Provides technical knowledge and support to aviation safety inspectors, the general public, stakeholders, and airmen regarding a wide variety of aviation-related topics.
• Extracts safety data and information from FAA records to identify trends for items that affect aviation safety and enters technical findings in agency approved databases.
• This individual will provide technical assistance and/or support with certification, surveillance, investigation, and/or enforcement, examples include, but are not limited to: Certification Support - Provides technical support to ASl's during certification of operators and air agencies. - Reviews airmen certification files, submitted by designees for accuracy. - Reviews inspection authorization files for renewal eligibility. - Conducts Operational Color Vision Tests. - Reviews designee management system to determine renewal eligibility. - Compiles data for technical reports.
• Surveillance Support - Assists ASI's with surveillance of aviation events. - Assists in drafting and issuing waivers and authorizations.
• Investigation Support - Drafts Enforcement Investigative Reports (EIR) for review and final approval by an ASI - Acts as the Point of Contact (POC) for safety assets (PPE) related to accident investigations.
• Enforcement Support: Incumbent will be responsible for enforcement functions including: conducting violations, voluntary disclosure, suspect illegal charters, incidents, navigation and altitude deviation investigations.
• Other duties may be assigned.

Requirements

• We are not accepting applications from noncitizens.

Education

Education may not be substituted for experience at these grade levels.

How you will be evaluated

IMPORTANT: Applicants may be rated on the extent and quality of experience, education, and training relevant to the duties of the position(s). All answers provided in the on-line process must be substantiated. Ensure that your application package/resume supports your responses.

Documents you must provide

• If you need to submit additional documents to supplement your online application, e.g. transcripts, SF-50, or veterans' documentation, you may upload these documents with your application in USAJOBS.
• Supplemental documentation can also be faxed to *** on or before the closing date of this announcement.
• Please include your name and the vacancy announcement number on each of your faxed pages and redact all Personally Identifiable Information (PII), such as social security number and date of birth.
• If you are an FAA employee, you MUST provide a copy of your SF-50 (Notification of Personnel Action) containing information in Blocks 15, 17, 18, 19, 22, and 24 so it can be used to verify your position title, series, grade, tenure, and organization of record by the closing date of the announcement.
• You may fax your SF-50 or upload it into the on-line application.
• If faxing the SF-50, please ensure you include the vacancy announcement number on the faxed copy.
• If you are an FAA employee, you can access and print your SF-50 from the eOPF system ***

What to expect next

Once we receive your complete application, the Human Resources Office will conduct an evaluation of your qualifications. Eligible and qualified candidates will be referred to the hiring manager for consideration. You will be contacted directly if selected for an interview.

For instructions on how to check the status of your application, please go to: USAJOBS Help Guide. Important - If you make any changes to your application, you must resubmit it. If you make changes to your application and do not resubmit it, your changes will not be considered part of your application package, and only your previously submitted application will be evaluated.

All qualified applicants will be considered regardless of political affiliation, race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, age, disability, or other non-merit factors. DOT provides reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities.

If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process, please notify the agency contact listed in the Agency Contact Information section of this announcement or the hiring manager. An employee with a disability must notify the decision-maker of the accommodation request.

Job applicants and employees are required to follow up oral requests in writing. Decisions on granting reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis. Additional information on reasonable accommodations procedures or on EEO Programs is available on Office of Civil Rights (ACR) or by contacting the local FAA Civil Rights Office.

Additional information

We may use this vacancy to fill other similar vacant positions. Position may be subject to a background investigation. A one-year probationary period may be required.

The person selected for this position may be required to file a financial disclosure statement within 30 days of entry on duty.

FAA policy limits certain outside employment and financial investments in aviation-related companies. *** This position is covered by the Department of Transportation's Drug and Alcohol Testing Program.

Any applicant tentatively selected for this position will be subject to pre-employment or pre-appointment drug screening. Persons occupying a "testing designated position (TDP)" will be subject to random drug and/or alcohol testing.

As a part of the Federal-Wide Hiring Reform Initiative (streamlining the hiring process), the FAA is committed to eliminating the use of the Knowledge, Skills and Ability (KSA) narratives from the initial application in the hiring process for all announcements.

Therefore, as an applicant for this announcement, you are NOT required to provide a narrative response in the text box listed below each KSA. In lieu of providing a KSA narrative response in the text box listed below each KSA, in your work history, please include information that provides specific examples of how you meet the response level or answer you chose for each KSA.

Your work history examples should be specific and clearly reflect the highest level of ability. Your KSA answers will be evaluated further to validate whether the level that you selected is appropriate based on the work history and experience you provided. Your answers may be adjusted by a Human Resource Specialist as appropriate.

Eligible applicants meeting the minimum qualification requirements and selective factor(s), if applicable, may be further evaluated on the Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSA) listed in the announcement.

Based on this evaluation, applicants will be placed in one of the following categories: score order, category grouping, or alphabetical and referred to the selecting official for consideration.

In-grade/Downgrade applications will be accepted Current FAA employee: You MUST submit a copy of your most recent (non-award) SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action, or equivalent document that verifies tenure (block 24, code 1 or 2).

Failure to provide the required documentation by the closing date of this announcement will result in non-consideration for this position.

Interview policy: If the Agency decides to interview any qualified employee on the selection list, then all on the list who are qualified must be interviewed. Position will be realigned based on approved reorganization. Links to Important Information: Locality Pay, COLA