U.S. Air Force Commissioned Officer Jobs

This officer career in the Air Force is a highly technical career field and requires advanced degrees within the following specialties: aerospace, aeronautical, astronautical, computer, electrical, electronics, communication or mechanical.

Specialty Summary

The Developmental Engineer is responsible for planning, organizing, managing, and implementing the systems engineering process to assure required capability over life cycle of Air Force systems. These engineer officers are skilled in the following:

• Accomplishing specialized engineering processes and subprocesses
• Formulating engineering policy and procedures
• Coordinating and directing engineering and technical management activities and operations necessary for system conception, development, production, verification, deployment, sustainment, operations, support, training, and disposal of high value machines and technology.

This includes technical management associated with the requirements definition, design, manufacturing and quality, test, support engineering and technologies, modifications, spares acquisition, technical orders, mission critical computer resources, support equipment, and specialized engineering. Related DoD Occupational Group: 5L. (See individual suffixes for specific engineering occupational codes.)

Duties and Responsibilities

The Developmental Engineers work hand in hand with contracting engineers and companies contracted to make planes, missiles, satellites and other highly technical equipment essential to the Air Force and it's mission. The following are the duties and responsibilities of the engineers:

• Accomplishes systems engineering processes and sub-processes.
• Performs systems planning activities associated with design, development, manufacturing, sustainment, and modification of systems to satisfy customer requirements.
• Identifies and transitions new technologies in systems and subsystems.
• Prepares, evaluates, and implements methods, processes, and techniques that support system design to improve performance, reliability, and maintainability for systems development and modification programs.
• Conducts design studies and manages studies contracted to industries.
• Participates in formulating program documentation and progress assessments for all phases of the acquisition process.
• Provides technical consultation.
• Coordinates engineering and technical management activities.
• Advises management and staff on operations, current and revised policies and procedures, and new business practices.
• Coordinates with other functional activities to accomplish advance planning and to ensure process integration is accomplished, accurate, and understood.
• Maintains engineering and technical management liaison with contractors, Air Force field organizations, Army, Navy, Foreign Military Sales, and other governmental agencies.
• Formulates engineering and technical management policies and procedures.
• Continuously analyzes technical policies and procedures, products, and services to improve customer support.
• Establishes policies and procedures based on improved processes, methods, and sound business practices.
• Plans, organizes, and directs engineering and technical management operations.
• Plans, schedules, and allocates work.
• Maintains work flow data to meet deadlines and established priorities.
• Analyzes Air Force requirements to determine if existing technical related infrastructure is capable of meeting customers needs.
• Directs personnel in performance of development and sustainment functions.

Specialty Qualifications

Knowledge, education, and experience are mandatory of the Air Force systems engineering process, including development, test, and engineering policies, procedures, and management practices.

The following education is mandatory for entry into the Developmental Engineering Officer indicated: (Engineering degrees must be in a school that has at least one program accredited by a nationally recognized body in engineering. Currently, the national accrediting body is the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology.)

62E1. Undergraduate academic specialization or advanced degree in engineering unless member possesses a fully qualified AFSC in a suffix of this specialty.

62E1X. Undergraduate engineering degree in the specialization identified by the suffix except shredouts F, and G.

62E1F. Undergraduate academic specialization in engineering, a physical science, or mathematics.

62E1G. Undergraduate academic specialization in engineering.

The journey a college student, ROTC Cadet, or USAFA cadet is the starting point for this profession:

• Completion of Officer Training School (OTS), Air Force Academy (AFA) or Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC)
• Minimum of 24 months of experience in qualified position or a master’s degree in a specified discipline and 12 months’ experience as a flight test engineer or a Doctor of Philosophy degree in a specified discipline
• Completion of the Air Force Flight Test Engineer course or comparable
• Fundamentals of Systems Acquisition Management course or Acquisition Fundamentals course
• Completion of the Defense Acquisition University

Training

The following training is mandatory for award of the AFSC indicated:

62E3X. Completion of the Defense Acquisition University Fundamentals of Systems Acquisition Management (ACQ 101) course or Acquisition Fundamentals Course (L30QR63A1).

62E3F. Completion of the Air Force Flight Test Engineer Course or comparable US Navy or foreign flight test engineer course.

Specialty Shredouts

A....................Aeronautical (Occ code 4D)
B....................Astronautical (Occ code 4D)
C....................Computer Systems (Occ code 4B)
E.................... Electrical/Electronic (Occ code 4B)
F .................... Flight Test (Occ code 2D)
G....................Project (Occ code 5L)
H....................Mechanical (Occ code 4D)

Levels of Career Progression

AFSC 62E4, Staff Level Engineer Officer
AFSC 62E3, Qualified Engineer Officer
AFSC 62E1, Entry Level Engineer / Officer