Why aren’t all the pay bands the same across all the proposed career paths?
Each career path encompasses compilations of positions whose major duties, as determined by NNSA, and basic qualification requirements, as predetermined by OPM, are similar. By design, those occupational attributes and characteristics that allow positions to be grouped into a given career path also serve to exclude these positions from other career paths. To cite an obvious example, because an engineer and a courier do not perform similar work, or require similar qualifications, these two positions are in different career paths. Positions attributable to a given career path will have traditional grading patterns, and recruitment and promotion patterns, in common with other positions in the career path, but not in common with positions in other career paths. For instance, the similarity of engineering and scientific positions in performing work directly attributable to NNSA’s primary missions and programs, in having common applicant sources, and in requiring similar academic attainments
