CBRNE Defense and Risk Scientist

Noblis•Washington, DC

11h•Hybrid

About The Position

This CBRNE Risk Scientist role provides scientific and technical programmatic support to the DHS Science and Technology Directorate, as part of a multidisciplinary team of high-performance professionals supporting the client's most vexing technical challenges, and developing solutions to counter current, emerging, and future homeland security threats. Specifically, the selected candidates will support S&T on a variety of programs in biological and chemical defense but will be primarily focussed on providing technical suppport and guidance to the annual CBRNE Human Health risk assessment program and the underpinning R&D efforts that enable its completion and application to emerging fields. The successful candidate will be self-motivated, operate well in a matrixed environment, be able to learn, digest, and provide scientific and technical guidance on a broad spectrum of biological, chemical and related subjects. They must be able to distill and communicate complex technical concepts to enable nontechnical managers to make informed decisions. The successful candidate will be proactive in optimizing their contributions to ensure successful outcomes and will be able to balance fast paced daily policy and coordination tasks with technical review and scientific project development requiring deeper thought and reflection.

Requirements

TOP SECRET clearance required with TS/SCI eligibility
Advanced Degree in chemistry, biology, computer science, security studies, policy or other related field and a five years relevant experience (PhD work beyond the masters level may count towards this minimum) OR Bachelors degree and 10 years relevant experience
Familiarity and experience with relevant departments and agencies in the Homeland Security Enterprise including a track record in successful stakeholder engagement for multidisciplinary projects
Experience providing guidance, feedback, and consulting services to federal program managers that combines technical and policy perspectives to minimise risk and maximize return on investment
Demonstrated experience working in secure/classified programs
Applicants selected must be eligible to receive DHS Suitability
Must be willing to work from client site as needed, often 1-2 times per week
Local travel in the National Capital Region 1-2 times per month and limited (2-3X per year) non local travel may also be required

Nice To Haves

Formal education and/or work experience in developing and/or validating quantitative risk assessments, or other computational models for complex physical, behavioral and economic phenomena; strong background in statistics and modeling
Experience assessing coverage, quality, methods, effectiveness, and independence of the statistics, evaluation, research, and analysis conducted by the Federal Government.
Experience with creating, managing, and supporting processes that comply with risk assessments, analysis and reporting, including the development of technical assessments that provide evidence based data-backed answers to stakeholder questions
Demonstrated experience with DHS acquisition and proficiency providing program management and analytical support to programs and projects serving DHS Mission Areas
Excellent communication, collaboration, and presentation skills.

Responsibilities

Managing multiple chemical and biological defense R&D projects, specifically those related to the development and deployment of models used in the DHS annual CBRN risk assessment and related risk assessments
The development of scientifically-sound and policy- backed responses to congressional inquiries, interagency data requests and other quick-turn leadership requests
Reviewing CBRN and risk-related technical reports and related modeling approaches
Scoping and prioritizing emerging research areas and knowledge gaps for investment. Developing and evaluating scientific capability development strategies to close these gaps
Monitoring projects and technical performance against goals and providing strategic guidance to redirect project scoping and technical approach as needed
Developing scientific program status reports, PowerPoint briefings, and read-ahead materials,
Organizing, coordinating, and participating in meetings, discussions, and seminars on biological and chemical threat and detection technology topics,
Communicating scientific findings to technical and non-technical audiences as needed.