MSC Employment Opportunities and HR Information

Port Engineers, Marine Systems Engineers, Marine and Mechanical Engineers, Electrical Engineers and Naval Architects

MSC is the largest US flag shipping organization, employing shipboard and shoreside marine personnel to provide ocean transportation of equipment, fuel, supplies and ammunition to sustain U.S. forces worldwide both during peacetime and in war.

MSC uses a commercial business model for its fleet of ships. MSC ships are crewed primarily (in some case exclusively) by civilians. Crewmembers are USCG licensed officers and USCG documented unlicensed mariners. MSC ships comply with USCG Regulations, are classed under American Bureau of Shipping Rules, and meet most International requirements (IMO, SOLAS and MARPOL).

MSC offers exposure to a significant number of different ship types and a wide variety of technical opportunities. You will get a broad exposure to marine and maintenance engineering, naval architecture and other associated technical disciplines while working closely with established professionals.

MSC has a large number of different engineering positions including:

Design engineer (mechanical, marine, electrical)
Naval Architect
Port Engineer
Maintenance Engineer
On-site Owner's Representative
Engineering Test and Inspection
Safety Engineers and Specialists
Environmental Engineer
Energy Conservation Engineer

Design Engineers work on both new construction and existing ships; design and evaluate changes to add new capabilities to existing platforms; design changes to replace equipment and systems; evaluate operational and repair processes; provide project management to integrate mechanical, electrical, and naval architectural requirements; determine operational envelopes, constraints or practices when design limits operational capability; and interface with regulatory bodies.

Naval Architects work on projects in hydrodynamics, structural analysis, trim and stability, arrangements, habitability, drydocking, inclining tests, and damage and intact stability. They also provide project management to integrate mechanical, electrical, and naval architectural requirements; determine operational envelopes, constraints or practices when design limits operational capability; and interact with regulatory bodies.

Port Engineers are responsible for the life cycle management of MSC ships, including inspections and surveys to USCG and ABS requirements; development of maintenance and repair specifications; preparing cost and time estimates; performing project management during a ship's repair availability, and evaluating ongoing maintenance and repair events.

Maintenance Engineers determine the best approach to performing preventive and predictive maintenance to shipboard equipment and systems. They determine the best predictive technologies (vibration, lube oil analysis, infrared, ultrasonic, performance analysis, etc.) to determine the heath of equipment and also use reliability centered maintenance and root cause analysis to keep machinery operating at optimum performance. They also determine what performance measurements and data should be used to determine machinery condition and work with software developers to create maintenance engineering software for both shipboard and shore side personnel.

On-Site Owner's representatives are onsite in a ship yard where construction of new ships for MSC is ongoing. The owner's reps provide technical oversight of design and construction ensuring MSC requirements are met; participate in the review of the shipbuilder's design, perform quality insurance inspections along with ABS and USCG, attend ship trials; are active in solving ship and system performance problems that arise during construction; provide lessons learned for other construction programs; and provide support to the ships crew and life cycle managers during the warranty phase. Owner's reps are typically on site for the duration of the project.

Safety Engineers and Specialists perform technical analyses of safety systems, features, controls and human factors for ships and ship systems. This work frequently includes analyzing hazards, safety codes, legal requirements, and operations; advising on safety requirements; performing risk analyses; determining cost and economic impact; and conducting accident investigations.

Environmental Engineers work both with environmental systems (fuel, waste treatment, hazardous material, air pollution, combustion control, etc.) and regulatory compliance (impact of and ability to meet IMO, MARPOL, USCG, EPA and other environmental standards). They also perform analyses of existing systems performance and participate in the design of new systems to meet environmental requirements. They keep abreast of current regulations and devise operational or engineering solutions to existing, new, or changing requirements.

Ship Inspection and test engineers perform quality assurance oversight of contract operated ships by performing ship inspection and testing and providing government oversight of repair availabilities. They also perform system and equipment testing to ensure ships meet material readiness requirements. Extensive international travel is required for these positions.

Energy Conservation engineers evaluate and implement various approaches to reducing energy consumption of MSC ships. This involves work on improving existing equipment and system performance; research, development, test and evaluation of proposed new technologies or system approaches; economic and cost benefit analysis of energy saving ideas; promotion of energy conservation through training and awareness; investigation of energy conservation tools and techniques; and collection, analysis, and dissemination of fuel usage information.

MSC IS HIRING!

Full time positions after graduation

Potential for Graduate Intern program

Winter and summer work intern opportunities

Washington, D.C.
Norfolk, Va.
Mobile, Ala.

Other locations where MSC Engineers work include San Diego; Naples, Italy; Moss Point, Mass., Singapore; Guam and Bahrain.

For upcoming or recent college graduates, there are full-time positions available as well as the potential for the MSC Graduate Intern Program.

Winter and summer work internship opportunities and co-ops are available in Washington, D.C., and Norfolk, Va.

General Benefits

MSC offers excellent benefits, travel opportunities and competitive salaries. Some of these benefits include:

Interesting Assignments - MSC employees work in many capacities including design, damage control, environmental protection, communications, life cycle management, safety, and inspections.
Job stability - MSC conducts many important Navy programs, and while no organization is completely immune to government cutbacks, MSC is very well positioned for the future.
Flexibility in work schedule - Whether intern or employee, the MSC workforce works a 40-hour work week. Like many company and government agencies, MSC offers some options that add flexibility to the traditional work schedules including flexi-time that allows flexible work schedules and other benefits to allow for employees' varying work schedule needs.
Travel opportunities - Travel will usually be required in your job and is a great opportunity to see other parts of the country (and sometimes the world) and many different ship types while working with top professionals in other locations.
Potential promotion opportunities - Most MSC employees are usually promoted in a timely manner because they are recognized and appropriately rewarded for good performance with promotions, bonuses and permanent pay increases. Employees are eligible, depending on performance, for a patterned progression of promotion, normally in yearly increments until the full performance level is reached. Assignments may include different activities to enhance professional development, academic classes (for those interested in pursuing advanced degrees), and some department-specific orientations. All recent graduate engineers are eligible to be enrolled in the Accelerated Training Program that allows the employee to be non-competitively promoted to the next grade level within the first six months of employment depending on performance and completion of established training goals.
Insurance - MSC participates in group life and health insurance programs. This will greatly reduce your out-of-pocket expenses. Having a large group of people involved in these programs keeps the costs reasonable (the Government pays ~ 72% of health care insurance). You can choose from a large number of health insurance plans, HMOs and PPOs to find the insurance that meets your needs.
Leave - In addition to 10 paid federal holidays, new employees earn 13 vacation days a year (2.6 work weeks), increasing to 20 days after 3 years and to 26 days a year after 15 years. Also, employees earn an additional 13 sick days per year.
Retirement - New MSC employees are enrolled in the Federal Employees Retirement System. This includes a defined pension, Social Security, and the Thrift Savings Plan (401k type plan) which allows employees to contribute a portion of their pre-tax income into their retirement fund and the government will match the first 5%!
Professional Development - Most engineering departments fund continued engineering related education and development (e.g. Professional Engineering License, technical training courses, etc.).
Overtime - Overtime paid for hours worked over 40 hours per week at 1 � times the normal hourly rate.

Graduate Intern Program

What is the MSC Engineering Graduate Intern Program?
The MSC Engineering Graduate Intern Program trains promising young college graduates in the field of ship technical management. The Military Sealift Command employs many engineers to design, build and maintain their ships which include underway replenishment, special missions, prepositioning, and strategic sealift ships. Unlike many intern programs that offer unpaid experience in exchange for the intern's time on the job, MSC intern positions are full-time, paid positions. This 24-month program offers travel, training and experience throughout the MSC organization. During the approximately 2 year program, you'll work with many MSC employees from various offices, and gain an understanding of how ideas and blueprints become the ships that support the Navy and other Government organizations.

If I am accepted into the MSC Engineering Graduate Intern program, will I be moving around?
You will have a base location (Washington DC or Norfolk, VA). The MSC Engineering Intern program is designed to provide you with an understanding of how the various program offices and field activities work together to meet MSC's goals. Some of your time will be spent at MSC headquarters, located on the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, D.C rotating between different parts of the Engineering Directorate or in one of the Program Offices. But in order to understand the working relationships between headquarters and MSC activities located around the country, you will spend some time and gain some hands-on experience at one or more of these locations. These moves are called external rotations and serve an important role in your professional development. The standard external rotation lasts four months and you have the opportunity to complete several of these. The full cost of these moves is included in the program, so you'll keep your residence in Washington, D.C. or Norfolk and MSC will pay for your transportation, lodging and meals. You may even have the opportunity to go to sea for sea trials or shipchecks on a MSC ship for a short period of time.

Can I expect job opportunities after completing the program?
By the end of the career development program, typically 24 months in length, most interns are enthusiastic about pursuing further career options at MSC. They understand the work is not easy, but that it is exciting, challenging, and because MSC plays such an important role in national defense, a career with MSC is a career that makes a difference. Your intern experience puts you on an accelerated career track to accept more challenging roles and increasing responsibilities once you have completed the program. Your intern training will provide you with a solid foundation to assume both technical and managerial roles. Career advancement in the coming decade is filled with opportunities. Many of the senior personnel will transition into retirement in the coming years, creating a strong demand for junior employees to step up into leadership roles.

What type of career path can I expect after completing the program?
The Engineering intern program puts new hires on an accelerated track to assume challenging and high responsibility roles within MSC once they have completed the program. The intern training provides members with the cross command look at how the technical part of a shipping company operates and the strong foundation to assume both technical and managerial roles.

Send your cover letter and resume to: msc_engineering_jobs@navy.mil
Call 202-685-5727 for additional information.

For information on afloat engineering jobs, call 1-866-562-7672 or go to http://www.sealiftcommand.com/.