Senior Reliability and Risk Analyst

Summary Positions are located in the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR), Division of Advanced Reactors and Non-power Production and Utilization Facilities (DANU), Advanced Reactor Technical Branch 3 (Supervisor: Greg Oberson) and NRR, Division of Risk Assessment (DRA), PRA Licensing Branch C (Supervisor: Alissa Neuhausen). The positions ARE subject to Confidential Financial Disclosure reporting and security ownership restriction reporting requirements Responsibilities As a Senior Reliability and Risk Analyst, the successful candidate will serve as a leading technical authority and senior-level professional staff member in charge of the most complex assignments associated with probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) related issues for new and operating reactors including development of policy and guidance, evaluations of applications for new designs and licensing actions, and analysis of plant operating performance using PRA techniques to evaluate safety risk. Duties include, but are not limited to: 1) performing technical reviews and preparing safety evaluation reports in support of applications for reactors and licensing actions (e.g. amendments, topical reports, and exemptions from regulations); 2) assisting with the preparation of new and revised regulations and supporting documentation including statements of consideration, Committee to Review Generic Requirements (CRGR) packages, backfit analyses per 50.109, and any supporting regulatory guidance. 3) reviewing risk analyses prepared by regional Senior Reactor Analysts and performing independent PRA analysis. 4) reviewing material provided by NRC staff through project managers and technical reviewers in NRR and other NRC offices, and providing authoritative technical expert judgment on these documents as related to PRA and additional individual expertise. 5) supporting reactor and vendor audits and inspections to assure compliance with regulatory requirements and safe plant operation; and 6) preparing responses and making presentations on technical issues, concerns or positions developed on regulatory issues.at public meetings, hearings, and to the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, the Commission, upper management, and outside groups. Requirements Conditions of Employment Conditions of Employment U.S. Citizenship Required This is a Drug Testing position. Qualifications You must meet the qualifications for this position by no later than 30 calendar days after the closing date of this announcement and before placement in the position. In order to qualify for this position, you must have at least one year of specialized experience at the next lower grade level in the Federal service or equivalent experience in the private or public sector. The ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate the following: 1. (DOUBLE WEIGHTED) Demonstrated skill in applying the principles, theories, and practices of probabilistic risk analysis (PRA) in the assessment of complex nuclear facilities (e.g., operating commercial nuclear power reactors, new reactor designs, fuel cycle, etc.). (Describe experience, education, and training which demonstrates your knowledge of the principles, theories and practices of engineering or physical science as it relates to the application of reliability and risk analysis, and/or severe accident analysis in nuclear power facility design, fabrication, construction, analysis, testing, maintenance and/or operations. Provide examples demonstrating your experience in the application of probabilistic risk analysis for nuclear power plants, other complex facilities (e.g., spent fuel analysis, dry case storage, small modular reactors, etc.), or PRA related voluntary consensus standards. Describe your accomplishments in areas such as Levels 1, 2, and 3 risk analyses; severe accident progression; low-power and shut down operations; fire safety; human reliability analysis; common cause failure; and external events including seismic, flooding and high winds.) 2. Ability to analyze complex regulatory or technical issues and to develop sound recommendations based on risk insights and new or first-of-a-kind solutions with a clear demonstration of knowledge of nuclear reactor structures, systems, component design, and general operating characteristics. (Describe your experience and training with analyzing complex nuclear regulatory or technical issues and developing recommendations for resolution. Examples should demonstrate your nuclear power plant experience related to the following: (1) engineering and analysis or inspection experience involving design, maintenance, or operation of nuclear power plant systems; (2) plant transient and accident analysis typical of or similar to SAR Chapter 15. Describe how you applied risk insights and risk informed performance-based philosophy to conduct analyses. Describe examples of new or first-of-a-kind recommendations you have made and the outcomes. Provide examples of your work as it relates to risk informed decision making. Describe your specific role and provide examples that reflect your technical ability and contribution). 3. Ability to communicate information, ideas, and advice in a clear, concise, and logical manner, both orally and in writing, with colleagues, subordinates, NRC management in headquarters or regions, ACRS, the Commission, members of the public, representative of professional groups, or other Federal or State agencies. (Describe specific experience, training and accomplishments which demonstrate your communication skills, both orally and in writing. Describe your ability to lead complex technical discussions and consolidate complex and diverse opinions into concise presentations, memoranda, letters, reports. Describe your ability to formulate balanced and well-founded recommendations. Describe oral and written presentations you have performed within your organization, including published technical documents you have authored. List presentations you have made to outside groups including professional organizations, advisory groups, the public, and/or Congress.) 4. Demonstrated ability to establish and maintain effective work relationships with management and staff, colleagues, and representatives of external organizations. Ability to build and sustain coalitions across organizations. (Describe your specific experience, accomplishments, or training, which demonstrate your interpersonal skills. Describe how you established effective work-relationships with colleagues, supervisors, and other government and industry officials and coordinated and led meetings. Describe situations where it was necessary for you to use tact, diplomacy, and negotiation skills to achieve cooperation or consensus when interacting with staff, management, or external stakeholders. Detail experience and your role in successful team work, team building, coalition building, or small group dynamics. Describe how your interpersonal skills have played a role in the understanding or resolution of issues. Provide examples of leading, mentoring, or training, others. Describe successful interactions with internal and external stakeholders, industry contacts, international contacts, or internal agency contacts at various levels. Include several examples demonstrating the above.) SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE is defined as demonstrated skill in applying the principles, theories, and practices of PRA in the assessment of complex nuclear facilities (e.g., operating commercial nuclear power reactors, new reactor designs, fuel cycle, etc.). Education Qualification for All Professional Engineering 0800 Series: Basic Requirements: A. Degree: Engineering. To be acceptable, the program must: (1) lead to a bachelor’s degree in a school of engineering with at least one program accredited by ABET; 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 B. 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. The adequacy of such background must be demonstrated by one of the following: Professional registration or licensure Current registration as an Engineer Intern (EI), Engineer in Training (EIT)1, 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. Written Test Evidence of having successfully passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE)2 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. Specified academic courses Successful completion of at least 60 semester hours of courses in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences and that included the courses specified in the basic requirements under paragraph A. The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of an engineering program as described in paragraph A. 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. (The above examples of related curricula are not all-inclusive.) Qualification for All Physical Science Series positions, 1301 Basic Requirements: Degree: physical science, engineering, or mathematics that included 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science such as mechanics, dynamics, properties of materials, and electronics. or Combination of education and experience education equivalent to one of the majors shown in A above that included at least 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science, plus appropriate experience or additional education. Additional Information In general, employees are expected to be in the office at a minimum of 4 days per pay period. Telework schedules, including full-time telework, are approved, on a case-by-case basis. If selected, telework will be determined in accordance with Agency policy and the Collective Bargaining Agreement, if applicable.