Technical Subject Expert (FAA)

MDR is looking for an amazingly talented Technical Subject Expert to join our team supporting the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST)! In this role you will bring deep, specialized expertise to lead or perform high-priority analyses in your area of the commercial space transportation domain, serving as a go-to authority for the AST customer.

What You'll Be Doing:

• Leading or performing assigned tasks in a specialized area of the industry by virtue of your specialized knowledge and experience
• Providing subject-matter-expert review of engineering documents describing means of compliance with licensing requirements
• Verifying and validating evidence of compliance with regulations, approved methods, and defined procedures, and performing independent analyses
• Supporting regulation, guidance, and standards development, and helping draft policy statements and Advisory Circular content
• Developing and delivering training for FAA staff and industry, and developing job aids that improve operational efficiency and consistency
• Contributing to research and development in areas such as flight safety and system safety modeling (debris generation and trajectories, aerothermal demise, vulnerability and probability-of-failure analysis, explosion, toxic, and overpressure hazards)

What You'll Need:

One of the following combinations:

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, mathematics, science, or a field related to the assignment, plus a minimum of fifteen (15) years of experience in an industry relevant to the statement of work; or
• Master's degree in engineering, mathematics, science, or a related field, plus a minimum of thirteen (13) years of relevant industry experience; or
• Ph.D. in engineering, mathematics, science, or a related field, plus a minimum of ten (10) years of relevant industry experience

Clearance: An active Secret clearance is strongly preferred and is required for select hires. The contract requires two team members total, across the Technical Subject Expert and Principal Engineer/Scientist categories, to hold and maintain a Secret clearance for the duration of the contract - necessary for access to federal launch ranges and military launch operations at commercial ranges.

About the work:

Mission Driven Research (MDR) provides advanced flight safety and system safety support to the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) under an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. AST carries a serious public-safety mandate: under U.S. law it is responsible for protecting public health and safety, property, and the national security and foreign-policy interests of the United States during commercial space launch and reentry activities. AST meets that responsibility by licensing and permitting commercial launch and reentry vehicle operations and launch/reentry site operations, issuing experimental permits and safety approvals, and supporting the FAA's Air Traffic Organization on airspace management and amateur rocket activities.

Our team helps AST evaluate license, permit, and safety-approval applications; develop regulations, guidance, and training; build analytical tools; and conduct research on advanced modeling and computational methods. Quantitative and qualitative risk analysis sits at the center of the work - explosive safety, debris and toxic risk, distance-focusing overpressure, hazard-area determination, maximum probable loss, flight safety systems, software safety, and system safety - applied across launch and reentry vehicle operations, range operations, and the public-safety issues tied to launch and reentry site operations. Work is ordered and scoped through individual task orders, so the mix of activity evolves with AST's priorities.

All contractor personnel must satisfy applicable FAA personnel security requirements (per FAA Personnel Security Order 1600.1) and complete required information systems security training.

Mission Driven Research is an Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability/veterans. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran. If you are interested in applying for employment with Mission Driven Research and need special assistance or an accommodation to use our website, please contact us by email (hr@missiondrivenresearch.com) or by phone by calling (256) 299-9288. When contacting us, please provide your contact information and state the nature of your accessibility issue.