Summary See below for important information regarding this job.
Additional vacancies may be filled from this announcement. Duties Serves as a lead software engineer in a Contract Management Office(CMO) of the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA). | The CMO provides a wide variety of contract administration and support services and implements all agency Software Acquisition Management (SAM) surveillance policies and tools. | Ensures its personnel are trained in accordance with SAM surveillance competency certification requirements. | Conducts internal control reviews to ensure the effectiveness of SAM surveillance activities within the CMO. | Participates with other CMO personnel in integrated product and process teams to assist with determining impacts on contract/program execution, surveillance efforts, and risks. | Provides a consolidated, integrated approach with surveillance and reporting activities. | Influences the development of future DCMA policies, procedures, and best practices.
Qualifications
To qualify for a Computer Engineer, your resume and supporting documentation must support:
A. Basic Requirement: A Bachelor's Degree or higher in professional engineering. To be acceptable, the program must: (1) be in a school of engineering with at least one program accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) as a professional engineering curriculum; 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
A 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 professional 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:
- A. Professional Registration or Licensure -- Current registration as an Engineer Intern (EI), Engineer in Training (EIT), 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.
- B. Written Test -- Evidence of having successfully passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) examination or any other written test required for professional registration by an engineering licensure board in the various States, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico.
- C. Specified academic courses -- Successful completion of at least 60 semester hours of courses in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences and in engineering that included the courses specified in the Basic Requirements above. The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of a professional engineering curriculum as described in the Basic Requirements above.
- D. 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.
B. Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience that equipped you with the particular competencies to successfully perform the duties of the position and is directly in or related to this position. To qualify at the GS-13 level, applicants must possess one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-12 level or equivalent under other pay systems in the Federal service, military or private sector. Applicants must meet eligibility requirements including time-in-grade (General Schedule (GS) positions only), time-after-competitive appointment, minimum qualifications, and any other regulatory requirements by the cut-off/closing date of the announcement. Creditable specialized experience includes:
- Evaluating adequacy of suppliers' software engineering program to achieve design and development objectives.
- Performing technical surveillance of contractor systems and software controls and processes by performing independent audits.
- Participating substantively in technical interchange meetings (Peer Reviews, Content Reviews, Code Reviews) and in-depth reviews of software development products such as: Software Requirements Specifications, Interface Requirements Specifications, Software Top Level Design Documents, Software Data Base Design Documents, Software Detailed Design Documents, Test Specifications, Test Plans and Procedures.
- Collecting, and analyzing complex data utilizing software tools and databases for contract information, software resource estimating, and logging software surveillance activities.
- Determining root cause and recommend corrective action.
- Working on Integrated Product Team (IPT) in high pressure situations with customer/contractor personnel.
- Providing technical comments and recommendations during Software Requirements Reviews, Test Readiness, Reviews, Formal Qualification and Integration/Stage Testing and address the acceptability of Software Products being developed/delivered.
- Applying latest methods and experienced judgement in analyzing a variety of complex technical problems involving software design.
Education Substitution of education may not be used in lieu of specialized experience for this grade level.
If the position has a minimum education requirement you MUST provide transcripts (unofficial are acceptable at the time of application) to support your educational claims. Or, if you are using education to qualify in lieu of specialized experience you MUST provide transcripts (unofficial are acceptable at the time of application) to support your educational claims. The transcripts must include your name, the name of the college or university, class/course list, completed number of credits/hours, and the date degree conferred (if applicable). Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Licenses must be current at time of application.
GRADUATE EDUCATION: One academic year of graduate education is considered to be the number of credits hours that your graduate school has determined to represent one academic year of full-time study. Such study may have been performed on a full-time or part-time basis. If you cannot obtain your graduate school's definition of one year of graduate study, 18 semester hours (or 27 quarter hours) should be considered as satisfying the requirement for one year of full-time graduate study.
FOREIGN EDUCATION: If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet the qualification requirements, you must show that the education credentials have been evaluated by a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign education programs and such education has been deemed equivalent to that gained in an accredited U.S. education program; or full credit has been given for the courses at a U.S. accredited college or university. How you will be evaluated
The assessments for this job will measure the following Competencies:
- Attention to Detail
- Decision Making
- Flexibility
- Integrity/Honesty
- Interpersonal Skills
- Learning
- Reading Comprehension
- Reasoning
- Self-Management
- Teamwork
Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your eligibility and/or score.
Once the application process is complete, a manual review of your resume and supporting documentation will occur to determine if you are eligible and among the best qualified as determined by the predetermined cutoff score. Your score is based on your responses to the assessment questionnaire.
If you meet the minimum qualifications of this position, you may be presented with instructions on how to access the USA Hire Assessment. This additional online assessment is required and must be completed within 48 hours of submitting your application (which may be prior to the closing date of this announcement), unless you have requested Reasonable Accommodation for the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments. Your results will be kept on record for one year when applying for future jobs that require the same USA Hire Competency Based Assessments. How to apply To apply for this position, you must complete the online questionnaire and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section above.
To preview the questionnaire, please go to https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/13106030.
The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (EST) on 11/23/2026 to receive consideration.
- To begin, click Apply Online to access an online application. Follow the prompts to select your USAJOBS resume and/or other supporting documents. You will need to be logged into your USAJOBS account or you may need to create a new account.
- You will be taken to an online application. Complete the online application, verify the required documentation, and submit the application. NOTE: Resumes up to a total of two pages will be accepted. Resumes exceeding two pages will be removed from consideration.
- You will receive an email notification when your application has been received for the announcement.
- If you are required to complete any USA Hire Assessments, you will be notified after submitting your application. The notification will be provided in your application submission screen and via email. The notification will include your unique assessment access link to the USA Hire system and the completion deadline. Additionally, in USAJOBS you can click "Track this application" to return to your assessment completion notice.
- Access USA Hire using your unique assessment link. Access is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials.
- Review all instructions prior to beginning your assessments. You will have the opportunity to request a testing accommodation before beginning the assessments should you have a disability covered under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended.
- Set aside at least 3 hours to take the USA Hire Assessments; however, most applicants complete the assessments in less time. If you need to stop the assessments and continue later, you can re-use your unique assessment link.
- Your responses to the USA Hire Assessments will be reused for one year (in most cases) from the date you complete an assessment. If future applications you submit require completion of the same assessments, your responses will be automatically reused.
- Visit the USA Hire Applicant Resource Center for practice assessments and assessment preparation resources at https://support-usahire.opm.gov/hc/en-us.
- To verify the status of your application, log into your USAJOBS account, https://www.usajobs.gov, select the Application Status link and then select the More Information link for this position. The Application Status page will display the status of your application, the documentation received and processed, and your responses submitted to the online application. Your uploaded documents may take several hours to clear the virus scan process.
As required by 5 C.F.R. § 302.106., DLA will provide Section 508 conformant ICT to employees with disabilities. All ICT interfaces with the public related to vacancy announcements and career transition opportunities must conform to the applicable requirements in the current ICT Standards and Guidelines (36 C.F.R. § 1194). Other information
- This position does not meet criteria for appointment of Reemployed Annuitants. The DoD criteria for hiring Reemployed Annuitants can be found at: DoDI 1400.25-V300.
- Tour of Duty: Flexible
- FLSA: Exempt
- Bargaining Unit: No
- Selectee may be required to serve a trial/probationary period.
- Recruitment/Relocation/Retention Incentive may be authorized at Management's discretion.
- Permanent Change of Station (PCS) expenses may be paid in accordance with the Joint Travel Regulation (JTR). When you perform a civilian PCS with the government, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) considers the majority of your entitlements to be taxable. Visit https://www.dfas.mil/civilianemployees/civrelo/Civilian-Moving-Expenses-Tax-Deduction/ for more information.
- Acquisition, Technology & Logistics(AT&L) NON-CAP: Position requires DoD Acquisition Engineering and Technical Management, Practitioner certification within required timeframes. Selectee must also achieve 80 hours of Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) every 2-years. Click here for more details and Resources.
- Military spouses working remotely are exempt from in-person work under the conditions explained by OPM's February 12, 2025 memorandum and the March 20, 2025 Frequently Asked Questions.
