Spring 2021 General Engineer Internship at the Washington Headquarters Services (WHS)

 “The Department of Defense provides the military forces needed to deter war and to protect the security of our country.”

This opportunity is hosted by the Washington Headquarters Services (WHS), Human Resources Directorate, Diversity, Disability, and Recruitment Division. The incumbent will be supporting the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition and Sustainment) (https://www.acq.osd.mil/).

The purpose of the position is to serve as a Post-Secondary Student or Recent Graduate in the Washington Headquarters Services (WHS), Special Employment Programs. The WHS Special Employment Programs are planned, progressive educational programs that provide for the integration of a student's academic studies and federal work experience with the potential of noncompetitive conversion into the federal career service. Work assignments are designed to permit the knowledge acquired through education/ training to be applied to particular work situations as set forth in the Participant Agreement and/or Individual Development Plan (IDP). The incumbent completes on-the-job training and/or self-development.

Full-time and part-time opportunities exist. Most positions begin as temporary / seasonal with the intent of growing top performing participants into permanent employees. Opportunities exist from unpaid to GS-7 pay, depending upon the specific opportunity and candidate.

As a general engineering intern working as an assistant to a senior project engineer, incumbent plans and conducts work characterized by clear and specific objectives. Engineer independently performs a wide range of tasks within own specialty or functional area. Engineer plans work through collaboration with his/her supervisor or higher graded engineer. Additional responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

·      Collect, observe, test and record factual and scientific data within the oversight and management of higher-grade co-workers;

·      Foresee the effects of procedural changes and appraise the validity of results on the basis of experience and practical reasoning;

·      Obtain, compile, clean and summarize narrative information and quantitative data for use by others within the office;

·      Document the design, measurement, analysis, evaluation, and control of production and service operations and systems, and their associated management processes; and

·      Applying new theories, principles, practical concepts, processes, and systems related to engineering programs.

Work consists of performing specific tasks designed to orient the employee in the practical application of theory and basic principles of engineering. Work requires actions based on factual differences. Factual differences may involve such matters as the type and kind of information needed, the consistency of various data with original documents, and the portrayal of data in chart, table, or graph format. The employee shall apply basic theories and principles to carry out well-defined engineering practices.

An engineering degree. To be acceptable, the program must lead to a bachelor’s degree in a school of engineering with at least one program accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET).

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.