Civil Engineer

Summary

This announcement is being advertised as a Forest Service National Hiring effort to fill multiple vacancies. Positions may be filled at one or more of the duty locations included in this announcement. Final determination of the duty location will be made at the time of the job offer.

? For additional information about the duties of this position, please contact Prudence Crampton at View email address on click.appcast.io.

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Duties

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• Duties are listed at the GS-12 grade level.
• Reviews and provides input into new, proposed, or revised forest and regional policy direction concerning facility engineering.
• Coordinates all aspects of the engineering and administrative work between the unit and the Regional Office.
• Provide journey level engineering expertise and leadership on behalf of the Forest Service to external partners and agencies that result in successful collaborative ventures.
• Offer assistance and guidance in the development of long and short range facility, transportation system, bridge and or special projects at a forest level to achieve goals and objectives of the agency.
• Serve as a Contracting Officer's Representative, providing professional engineering construction oversite, resolving controversial issues/problems before and during construction, and ensuring a satisfactory finished project.
• Coordinate design oversight and engineering expertise for facility, bridge, transportation, and or aquatic engineering projects.
• Conduct safety inspections and condition surveys of structures and facilities, according to agency requirements; and evaluates and recommends corrective action as needed to ensure the safety of all users.
• Performs supervisory duties 20% or less of the time.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

• Must be a U.S. Citizen or National.
• Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered for Selective Service or exempt.
• Subject to satisfactory adjudication of background investigation and/or fingerprint check.
• Per Public Law 104-134 all Federal employees are required to have federal payments made by direct deposit to their financial institution.
• Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit E-Verify.
• As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider: your performance and conduct; the needs and interests of the agency; whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service. Upon completion of your probationary period your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Qualifications

In order to qualify, you must meet the eligibility and qualifications requirements as defined below by the closing date of the announcement. For more information on the qualifications for this position, visit the Office of Personnel Management's General Schedule Qualification Standards.

Your application and resume must clearly show that you possess the experience requirements. Transcripts must be provided for qualifications based on education. Provide course descriptions as necessary.

Basic Requirement:

See Education for the Individual Occupational Requirements for the 0810 Series.

In addition to meeting the basic requirement, you must also possess experience and/or directly related education in the amounts listed below.

Specialized Experience Requirement:

For the GS-11 Level: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-09 grade level;

OR

Applicants must have 3 years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree (coursework directly related to position being filled);

OR

An appropriate combination of specialized experience and graduate level education (beyond what is required for a master's degree, i.e., more than 36 semester hours leading to a Ph.D.) Professional engineering experience is defined as nonroutine engineering work that required and was characterized by (1) professional knowledge of engineering; (2) professional ability to apply such knowledge to engineering problems; and (3) positive and continuing development of professional knowledge and ability.

Qualifying specialized experience is defined as one or more of the following:

• Monitored day-to-day performance of contract reviewing drawings for accuracy and adequacy, evaluating requests for routine design deviations, and/or conducting site surveys to determine the need for new equipment or material;
• Prepared civil engineering design criteria for smaller or less complex projects, including portions of structures such as bridges, retaining walls, or structural pavement sections;
• Planned and conducted engineering projects according to clear and specified objectives such as developing technical data on materials, sizes, dimensions, and quantities and costs of materials to be incorporated in formal specifications; and/or
• Performed routine safety related assessments, such as determining compliance with existing Federal, State, and/or organization safety regulations and/or analyzing and evaluating potential safety regulation deficiencies.

For the GS-12 level: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-11 grade level.

Qualifying specialized experience is defined as one or more of the following:

• Provided professional advice and consultation in one or more of the areas of transportation system planning, facilities planning, or aquatic engineering;
• Prepared original designs, or preliminary and final layouts, for transportation systems, facilities, bridges, or aquatic engineering with difficult/unusual components, or characterized by a variety of conditions;
• Monitored work of contractors by reviewing progress charts, conducting field surveys, verifying fulfillment of obligations on moderate complexity projects, and providing technical assistance; and/or
• Provided engineering input into the interdisciplinary planning process for natural resource development activities involving transportation system, facilities, bridges or aquatic engineering.

Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

Education

See above for education that may be qualifying for the GS-11 grade level. There is no substitution of education for specialized experience for the GS-12.

Basic Requirement:

GS-0810 Series:

A. Degree: Engineering. To be acceptable, the program must: (1) lead to a bachelor's degree in a school of engineering with at least one program accredited by ABET; or (2) include differential and integral calculus and courses (more advanced than first-year physics and chemistry) in five of the following seven areas of engineering science or physics: (a) statics, dynamics; (b) strength of materials (stress-strain relationships); (c) fluid mechanics, hydraulics; (d) thermodynamics; (e) electrical fields and circuits; (f) nature and properties of materials (relating particle and aggregate structure to properties); and (g) any other comparable area of fundamental engineering science or physics, such as optics, heat transfer, soil mechanics, or electronics. OR B. Combination of education and experience college-level education, training, and/or technical experience that furnished (1) a thorough knowledge of the physical and mathematical sciences underlying engineering, and (2) a good understanding, both theoretical and practical, of the engineering sciences and techniques and their applications to one of the branches of engineering. The adequacy of such background must be demonstrated by one of the following:

1. Professional registration or licensure Current registration as an Engineer Intern (EI), Engineer in Training (EIT)1, or licensure as a Professional Engineer (PE) by any State, the District of Columbia, Guam, or Puerto Rico. Absent other means of qualifying under this standard, those applicants who achieved such registration by means other than written test (e.g., State grandfather or eminence provisions) are eligible only for positions that are within or closely related to the specialty field of their registration. For example, an applicant who attains registration through a State Board's eminence provision as a manufacturing engineer typically would be rated eligible only for manufacturing engineering positions.
2. Written Test Evidence of having successfully passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE)2 examination or any other written test required for professional registration by an engineering licensure board in the various States, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico.
3. Specified academic courses Successful completion of at least 60 semester hours of courses in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences and that included the courses specified in the basic requirements under paragraph A. The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of an engineering program as described in paragraph A.
4. Related curriculum Successful completion of a curriculum leading to a bachelor's degree in an appropriate scientific field, e.g., engineering technology, physics, chemistry, architecture, computer science, mathematics, hydrology, or geology, may be accepted in lieu of a bachelor's degree in engineering, provided the applicant has had at least 1 year of professional engineering experience acquired under professional engineering supervision and guidance. Ordinarily there should be either an established plan of intensive training to develop professional engineering competence, or several years of prior professional engineering-type experience, e.g., in interdisciplinary positions. (The above examples of related curricula are not all-inclusive.)

Additional information

The USDA Forest Service has legislative authority to recruit and fill Permanent (Career/Career-Conditional), Temporary, and Term Appointments under the USDA Demonstration Project. Under this authority, any U.S. citizen may apply.

Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP), Reemployment Priority List (RPL), or Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP): To exercise selection priority for this vacancy, CTAP/RPL/ICTAP candidates must meet the basic eligibility requirements and all selective factors. CTAP/ICTAP eligibles must meet the agency's definition for a quality candidate as provided in the How You Will Be Evaluated section of this announcement to be considered.

If you are selected for a position with further promotion potential, you will be placed under a career development plan, and may be non-competitively promoted if you successfully complete the requirements and if recommended by management. However, promotion is not guaranteed. Promotion potential will vary based on position filled and will either be at the GS-11 or GS-12 grade level.

Salary wage as shown is for Rest of the U.S. Final salary will be determined at the time of selection dependent on the duty location for more information, refer to the Office of Personnel Management, Salary and Wages web page.

The Forest Service may use certain incentives and hiring flexibilities, currently offered by the Federal government, to attract highly qualified candidates. Additional Information is available on the OPM Website.

This is a non-bargaining unit position.

Housing may be available.

Forest Service daycare facilities may be available.

We may select from this announcement or any other source to fill one or more vacancies. Multiple positions may be filled from this announcement.

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

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A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.

Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.