Technical Fellow Non-Destructive Evaluation

Technical Fellow Non-Destructive Evaluation
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
Langley Research Center
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Summary
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Duties
Requirements
How you will be evaluated
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Summary

The NASA Technical Fellows Program recognizes Agency-wide technical excellence and leadership, with Fellows serving within the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC); advising the Office of the Chief Engineer, NASA programs and Mission Directorates. Also serves as a voting member on the NESC Review Board. Fellows perform value-added testing, analysis, and assessments of NASA's high-risk projects to ensure safety and mission success.

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This job is open to

Internal to an agency
Current federal employees of the hiring agency that posted the job announcement.
Clarification from the agency

The area of consideration for this position is open to current NASA civil service employees on career, career conditional or NASA term appointments with conversion eligibility. A person is considered to be in the civil service only if occupying a civil service position at the time of application.

Duties

The Technical Fellow Non-Destructive Evaluation:

Serves as the Agency's authoritative technical resource in Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE), applying advanced engineering theory and operational expertise, frequently leading teams and providing the technical foundation for evaluating and reducing mission risk.
Provides Agency-wide technical leadership and collaboration in NDE, leading independent assessments and partnering with recognized researchers and engineers across NASA centers, academia, national laboratories, industry, and the Department of Defense to conduct and sponsor work that informs NDE mission risk.
Communicates and fosters NDE knowledge, publishing engineering findings through NASA channels, journals, seminars, NESC Academy courses, or domestic/international universities; serve as an invited presenter at conferences and promote participation in engineering academies.
Provides senior technical leadership for independent technical reviews, serving as the national/international expert in NDE.
Establishes, leads, and stewards a Technical Discipline Team (TDT) of the Agency's foremost NDE experts, and augmenting by external specialists-to support independent assessments and ensure discipline stewardship across NASA.
Applies advanced NDE methodologies using non damaging interrogating energy-such as sound, heat, X rays, microwaves, optical, and Terahertz radiation-to characterize material properties, detect damage, and assess the integrity of aerospace materials, structures, and systems.
Develops, adapts, and customizes NDE techniques to accommodate complex material types, specialized structural geometries, and unique flight components used across NASA missions, ensuring accurate, reliable, and mission appropriate inspection results.
Provides authoritative technical expertise and leadership across the full spectrum of NDE subdisciplines, including dye penetrant, magnetic particle, ultrasonic, acoustic emission, radiographic, thermographic, optical, and electromagnetic methods, as applied to metallic and composite aerospace structures.
Leads Agency-wide NDE discipline stewardship activities, including technical workshops, knowledge-sharing forums, identification and cataloging of critical skills and facilities, assessment of emerging technical challenges, and periodic reporting of discipline health, capability, and risk to Agency leadership.

Requirements

Conditions of employment
The individual selected will be required to file an 'Executive Branch Personnel Financial Disclosure Report' (OGE-278e) within 30 days of appointment and annually from then on.
Successful completion of a background investigation commensurate with the risk and sensitivity level of the position.
Successful completion of random drug screening may be required.
Must be able to obtain and maintain a security clearance as required by the position.
Must be a U.S. Citizen or National.
Must meet qualifications requirements by the closing date of this announcement.
Qualifications

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE:
Candidates must be a recognized subject matter expert with at least 1 year of directly related experience equivalent to the GS-15 level in leading independent technical reviews and serving as an authoritative expert in Nondestructive Evaluation for high-risk aerospace programs. Must have experience developing, evaluating, and applying advanced NDE methods-including ultrasonic, radiographic, thermographic, acoustic, electromagnetic, dye penetrant, magnetic particle, and/or emerging non-damaging interrogation techniques-to assess material integrity, detect flaws, and strengthen mission performance and safety. Must also demonstrate national leadership through collaboration and technical knowledge sharing across NASA centers, academia, national laboratories, industry, and the