The EPA National Student Services Contract has an immediate opening for a full time PFAS Modeling Engineer Support position with the Office of Research and Development at the EPA facility in Research Triangle Park, NC.

The Office of Research and Development at the EPA supports high-quality research to improve the scientific basis for decisions on national environmental issues and help EPA achieve its environmental goals. Research is conducted in a broad range of environmental areas by scientists in EPA laboratories and at universities across the country.

What the EPA project is about

Model Execution, Laboratory Support, Data Development and Analysis responsibilities will include:

• Applying creativity and intellect to solve complex problems and generate ideas for further investigation;
• Engaging with EPA’s PFAS Thermal Treatment laboratory team to facilitate preparation of EPA’s CFS model for modeling scenarios corresponding to laboratory experiments and potential field tests at full-scale facilities;
• Executing and interpreting output of EPA’s CFS model, a combined computational fluid dynamics and kinetic modeling package;
• Reviewing literature, selecting appropriate kinetic data, and expanding kinetic sets applied to modeling efforts;
• Developing and interpreting large multivariate datasets (~thousands of observations per sample) (e.g., searching for trends, relevancies, patterns, etc. in “-omics data”);
• Generate reports and visualizations of kinetic reactions and CFS model outputs; and
• Other laboratory support tasks.

Communications-related responsibilities will include:

• Participating as a member of a PFAS research team;
• Interacting with other members of the research team as well as collaborating closely with other EPA scientists who are experts in engineering, chemistry, and risk assessment for supporting regulatory decision-making;
• Interacting with EPA’s external research partners to coordinate efforts;
• Documenting methods and efforts;
• Presenting work performed at professional meetings or scientific conference as required; and
• Helping to prepare presentations, EPA reports, conference papers, or manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed journals.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Work Experience, and Education

• Demonstrated education and/or experience in chemical kinetics;
• Prior experience with chemical-reaction-kinetics software (e.g., Gaussian and/or Arkane);
• Prior experience with mechanistic modeling and optimization software (e.g., Chemkin and/or Cantera);
• Demonstrated ability to interpret data and develop models to pose and test hypotheses; and
• Strong written, oral, and electronic communication skills.

• Experience in R and/or Python environments.

Location: This job will be located EPA’s facility in Research Triangle Park, NC.

Salary: Selected applicant will become a temporary employee of ORAU and will receive an hourly wage of $23.37 for hours worked.

Hours: Full-time.

Travel: Occasional overnight travel may be required.

Expected start date: The position is full time and expected to begin June 2023. The selected applicant will become a temporary employee of ORAU working as a contractor to EPA. The contract renews each May through 2025.

For more information, contact EPANSSC@orau.org. Do not contact EPA directly.

• Be at least 18 years of age and
• Have earned at least a bachelor’s degree in the fields of mechanical engineering or chemical engineering or other closely related field of study from an accredited university or college within the last 24 months and
• Be a citizen of the United States of America or a Legal Permanent Resident.

EPA ORD employees, their spouses, and children are not eligible to participate in this program.