Polymers and Responsive Materials & Processing Research Team Lead

Job Overview

This job announcement will be accepting candidate submissions until 1700 EDT on 7 Jul 23.  Position is open to current Air Force DR-03 (GS-14 equivalent) and DR-04 (GS-15 equivalent) civilians only.

The AFRL Materials and Manufacturing Directorate seeks to hire a motivated and experienced Scientist or Engineer to serve as the Polymers and Responsive Materials & Processing Research Team Lead in the Polymers & Specialty Materials Branch of the Photonic, Electronic, and Soft Materials Division.  This position will be filled at the DR-03 (GS-14 equivalent) or DR-04 (GS-15 equivalent) level and is located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.  This position is open to current Air Force DR-03 (GS-14 equivalent) and DR-04 (GS-15 equivalent) civilian employees only.

NOTE:  Must use MM/DD/YYYY date format for experience entries on resume.

For resume writing tips, facts about the federal hiring process and additional resources, visit:  https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/faq/application/documents/resume/what-to-include/

Position duties include, but are not limited to:

• Serves as the Polymers & Responsive Materials and Processing Research Team Lead (RTL).  Leads the fundamental and exploratory research and development of mission-enabling materials, capabilities, and technologies for use in operationally relevant environments.   
• Leads research & development activities related to the design, synthesis, fabrication, modeling, and characterization of soft and hybrid materials, material systems, and processing for devices and responsive components.  This includes the exploration of processing & packaging for flexible and hybrid electronic materials; the development and implementation of autonomous research and design tools to accelerate materials discovery and optimization; the design of novel materials such as metamaterials, organic-inorganic hybrids, polymers, active & responsive materials, and nanomaterials; and the exploration of alternative chemical synthesis and processing techniques.
• Leads the development of the strategic technical vision to guide the team’s efforts on elucidating the underlying principles and creating validated models that will enable material and process design. Ensures high quality and relevance of research by fostering productive team dynamics, ensuring collaborative partnerships with external organizations, enabling impactful communication by team members of their results.
• Contributes to the team via personal technical research.     
• Facilities the identification of technology transition opportunities and advocates for the initiation of new research areas. Fosters a culture of productive collaboration and coordination across the directorate, laboratory, Department of Defense, academia, and industry to integrate and align the research team’s efforts to maximize efficiency and impact to AFRL strategy, capabilities, and the technology program.   
• Mentors government in-house research scientists and engineers and advocates for necessary resources, partnerships, collaboration activities, recognition, and capabilities for individual, team, and organizational success. Facilitates team relationships with external funding agencies and other governmental, academic, and industrial laboratories. Supports the broader DoD mission by serving as a trusted consultant and advisor within the Department of the AF, the DoD, and relevant national/international technology communities. 
• Promotes a culture where communication and external leadership is prioritized to ensure the organization has strategic and trusted relationships with scientific and innovation leaders in the field. 
• Fosters Intellectual Property (IP) development. Inherent in the technical publication review process is a thorough screening for potential IP. Scientific/engineering knowledge will be utilized to effectively assist in IP transfer, transition, or commercialization. 

Telework

Yes, this position is eligible for telework opportunities; as determined by agency policy

Remote Work (CONUS)

No, this position is not approved for remote work.

Required Qualifications

• US Citizenship
• Possess a professional Science or Engineering (S&E) degree, in a relevant technical field, from an ABET accredited academic institution. If highest earned S&E degree is a BS, applicant must also have required years of experience to qualify for the applicable broadband level.
• Applicants must currently hold or have the ability to obtain and maintain a DOD TS/SCI clearance. This position will require drug testing.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• This position is an Acquisition Professional Development Program (APDP) position requiring Level 2 Practitioner certification in Engineering and Technical management. Applicants for this position must list any acquisition certifications and status as an acquisition corps member in their resume. Candidates will have 5 years to meet the certification requirement of the position.

Desired Qualifications

• Advanced degree (science or engineering) degree from an accredited academic university.
• Demonstrated ability to oversee multi-disciplinary teams (technical and others) to achieve complicated goals in in-person, virtual, and hybrid environments.
• Demonstrated ability to pivot between or evolve research and technology areas.
• Demonstrated excellent oral and written communications skills in the communication of highly technical and programmatic information to various technical, managerial, and executive decision-making audiences.
• Demonstrated leadership, expertise and scholarship (as demonstrated by technical publications and presentations, patents, leadership in professional societies, etc.) in the research and development of polymers, soft matter, and/or responsive materials.
• Experience with materials data, computational tools, artificial intelligence/machine learning, and autonomous experimentation frameworks.

 

• When uploading documents, please utilize the naming convention listed below.  The Requisition Number for this announcement is 28293 (Replace with Req#):

• Resume:  Req No_Last Name_First Name_Resume
• Transcript:  Req No_Last Name_First Name_Transcript
• Latest SF50:  Req No_Last Name_First Name_SF50

Acceptable file types:  .docx, .pdf

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