Program Manager and Lead Scientist Opportunities

Universities Space Research Association (USRA) is partnering with a small business to respond to a NOAA ProTech opportunity to support the National Weather Service’s (NWS) National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Scientific Support Services (SSS) requirement. 

USRA’s small business partner is seeking to fill a Program Manager and/or Lead Physical Scientist IV position – USRA is helping to identify candidates.

Program Manager (Key Personnel) 

Under the direction of the COR, the Program Manager shall provide on-site coordination of the on-site support work, act as a primary interface between the Government and Contractor personnel, and review and monitor Contractor technical work for overall quality, efficiency, and timeliness. The Contractor shall provide a Program Manager who shall be responsible for all Contractor work performed under this PWS. The name of the Program Manager, and the name(s) of any alternate(s) who shall act for the Contractor in the absence of the Program Manager, shall be provided to the Government as part of the Contractor’s proposal. During any absence of the Program Manager, only one alternate shall have full authority to act for the Contractor on all matters relating to work performed under this task order. The Program Manager and all designated alternates shall be able to read, write, speak and understand English. Additionally, the Contractor shall not replace the Program Manager without prior approval from the CO. The Program Manager abilities shall include managing scientific personnel working in an R&D environment, both in technical and administrative areas, to include human resources management, as well as budget tracking for company expenses on the task order, to present the COR with regular reports as required by this PWS. 

The Program Manager shall have an advanced degree (e.g. M.S. or Ph.D.) from an accredited institution in Atmospheric Science, Oceanography, or other Geophysical Sciences, Engineering, Computer Sciences, or Mathematics; and at least 8 years of technical experience in environmental modeling, maintenance, enhancement, and transition-to-operations of advanced numerical guidance systems for weather/water/climate prediction; plus 5 years’ experience in program/project management.

Lead Physical Scientist IV (Key Personnel) 

The Lead Physical Scientist IV shall lead other support scientist personnel in performing advanced scientific programming and numerical analysis to solve state-of-the-art scientific geophysical problems, designing components of the state-of-the-science numerical forecast systems and applying advanced mathematical techniques for the design and implementation of operational forecasts systems and products. 

The name of the Lead Physical Scientist IV, and the name(s) of any alternate(s) who shall act for the Contractor in the absence of the Lead Physical Scientist IV, shall be provided to the Government as part of the Contractor’s proposal. The Lead Physical Scientist IV is further designated as Key by the Government. The Lead Physical Scientist IV and all designated alternates shall be able to read, write, speak and understand English. 

The Lead Physical Scientist IV abilities shall include advanced scientific programming analysis skills applied to geophysical problems and personnel leadership in advanced applications. 

The Lead Physical Scientist IV deliverable outputs will be tasks such as perform meteorological or hydrologic analysis and data integration; emerging operational problems; identify new data sets; and develop routine forecast guidance and analyses. Maintaining situational awareness through continuous assessment,

interpretation and collaboration of meteorological or hydrologic data and forecast model output, and related decision support activities. Forecasting products, such as inundation mapping. In addition, the ability to understand and analyze problems, define potential solutions, and conduct in-depth analysis, assessments and trades and explain results of weather-related studies are expected. 

The Lead Physical Scientist IV shall have an advanced degree (e.g. M.S. or Ph.D.) from an accredited institution in Atmospheric Science, Oceanography, or other Geophysical Sciences, Engineering, Computer Sciences, or Mathematics and have at least 10 years of experience in related areas, 3 years’ experience in project management.

Interested? Contact Dr. Charles Ichoku for additional information at charles.ichoku@howard.edu.