This position is located in the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS). OPS achieves this mission through inspection, investigation, and enforcement activities as well as other oversight and guidance.
The Director and the Accident Investigation Division (AID) play an important role in evaluating pipeline, underground natural gas storage, and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) accidents/incidents and sharing lessons learned to improve safety.
As a Senior General Engineer (Accident Investigator), you will: Lead Pipeline Investigations: Conduct and oversee pipeline accident and failure investigations, serving as the lead investigator when appropriate and coordinating with NTSB, OSHA, and state agencies to ensure thorough investigations and regulatory compliance.
Drive Safety Analysis and Operational Improvement: Collect and analyze technical data, identify safety trends, share lessons learned, recommend corrective actions, and support inspection, investigation, and enforcement efforts to improve pipeline safety and field operations.
Advance Strategic Initiatives: Identify operational improvements, align activities with PHMSA and OPS goals, and lead special projects through the development of reports, briefings, speeches, and other executive-level communications. Represent OPS and Build Partnerships: Serve as an OPS representative on internal, interagency, intermodal, and international working groups while collaborating with technical experts and stakeholders to advance agency objectives.
Lead Public and Government Affairs: Support communications with stakeholders, the public, media, and Congress by promoting OPS programs, responding to emerging issues, and advancing PHMSA's legislative and public outreach strategies This position is perfect for an experienced Engineer who is looking for challenging assignments investigating pipeline facility incidents.
As a Senior Accident Investigator you will serve as a Subject Matter Expert administering the pipeline safety program of PHMSA. This position will require you to ensure that the organization operates as an adequate and highly effective link with Headquarters, Regions and state partners while participating with the Director in establishing and executing national policy and initiatives.
MANDATORY EDUCATION 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) 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). All applicants must meet the education requirements under A or B to qualify for applying to an engineering position. Transcripts are required for this position.
TRANSJOBS@dot.gov · 000-000-0000
This position is with Department of Transportation Headquarters, Department of Transportation.
The posted pay range is $125776 – $187093/yr.
Yes, this position is fully remote.
This position requires a Other security clearance.
Applications close on 2026-09-25.
This is a Full Time position.
This position is open under the 'Fed Transition' hiring path.
Source: USAJOBS.gov — U.S. Federal Government
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