NSF postdoctoral fellowship eligibility requirements I am about to receive my PhD and would like to apply for an NSF postdoctoral fellowship.

I have two questions about the eligibility requirements that I haven't been able to find the answers to online:


I have already secured a postdoctoral position with a mentor. I was offered a postdoctoral position and will start shortly after the fellowship application deadline. The NSF application materials seem designed for people who will start in the Summer or Fall in the year after the application. Does this affect my eligibility for the award?
I will technically receive my PhD after I begin my postdoc. Due to scheduling problems I've had to postpone my official thesis defense until after I begin my postdoc. However, I will have defended by Spring 2015, well before the award would be distributed. Does this affect my eligibility?
The eligibility requirements are stated in the solicitation.  It certainly sounds like you will be eligible.  If you defend in spring of 2015, then you can apply in falls of 2014,'15, or '16 to start the following summer (in fall 2017, it will be too late, since you will have had your Ph.D. for two years on Jan 1, 2018, and 2018 would the "year of the award). The only things that can make you ineligible are: losing your US citizenship (presumably easy to avoid), serving as PI on an NSF grant (again, not a huge danger), and being offered the fellowship and turning it down.  (I think there is also some general stuff about drugs convictions, etc.)  

Taking any kind of job will not make you ineligible, though it's possible it could influence the way your application is looked at (for good or for ill, I can't really say).  You can apply with your current job as your site, or with a different one.  I don't know many examples of people getting the fellowship after they first graduated, though of course, 2015 will be when you first graduated, so maybe that's not an issue.

Just a general comment: if you have questions about NSF awards, ask the program director.  They'll be the ones who actually interpret the rules, so they know better than random people on the internet how they'll be interpreted.