Civil Engineer

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Department of Agriculture

Job Summary

This position serves as a Civil Engineer with responsibility for the facilities management program on one or more administrative units. One vacancy will be filled on the Kisatchie National Forest, Supervisor's Office in Pineville, LA. The second vacancy will be filled on the Ozark-St. Francis National Forests in Russellville, AR. See the additional information section below for contact information for each duty location.

Major Duties

  • Participates with the Forest Leadership Team to provide necessary information pertaining to facility design projects.
  • Assists in the development and distribution of standards and guidelines for implementation and compliance by the forest or districts.
  • Provides technical advice on all aspects of complex or unusual facility maintenance projects which are located throughout the forest
  • Assists in the evaluation of facility plans and design objectives including conducting surveys and investigations to establish the necessary data to initiate facility designs.
  • Initiates and performs complex technical calculations, and identifies the most economical and efficient procedures for facility projects. Incorporates critical factors into design considerations and solutions
  • Prepares completed and detailed designs, drawings, and specifications for projects such as roads, trails, bridges, or other miscellaneous facilities and structures.
  • Is responsible for giving advice and guidance in the preparation and issuance of construction contracts, and for resolving controversial issues/problems before and during construction.
  • May supervise inspections; interprets plan and specifications, and confers with contractor representative to resolve differences of opinion.
  • Investigates need for contract change orders, considering conditions at work site, field measurements and computations, and local prices, and negotiates cost for changes required.
  • Conducts safety inspections and condition surveys of structures and facilities and evaluates and recommends corrective action as needed to ensure the safety of all users.

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:

GS-0810:

Degree: Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study in an accredited college or university leading to a bachelor's or higher degree that included a major field of study in professional engineering. To be acceptable, the curriculum must: (1) be in a school of engineering with at least one curriculum accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) as a professional engineering curriculum; 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 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 professional 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: Professional registration -- Current registration as a professional engineer 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. Written Test -- Evidence of having succesfully passed the Engineer-in-Training (EIT) examination, or the written test required for professional registration, which is administered by the Boards of Engineering Examiners in the various States, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Applicants who have passed the EIT examination and have completed all the requirements for either (a) a bachelor's degree in engineering technology (BET) from an accredited college of university that included 60 semester hours of courses in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences, or (b) a BET from a program accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) may be rated eligible for certain engineering positions at GS-5. Eligibility is limited to positions that are within or closely related to the specialty field of the engineering technology program. Applicants for positions that involve highly technical research, development, or similar functions requiring an advanced level of competence in basic science must meet the basic requirements in paragraph A. Because of the diversity in kind and quality of BET programs, graduates of other BET programs are required to complete at least 1 year of additional education or highly technical work experience of such nature as to provide reasonable assurance of the possession of the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for professional engineering competence. The adequacy of this background must be demonstrated by passing the EIT examination. Specified academic courses -- Successful completion of at least 60 semester hours of courses in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences and in engineering that included the courses specified in the basic requirements. The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of a professional engineering curriculum as described for a degree. 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: You must have one-year specialized experience equivalent to the GS-09 in the Federal service. Specialized experience is defined the following: Monitoring day-to-day performance of a contract by 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; Preparing civil engineering design criteria for smaller or less complex projects; Planning and conducting 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; Performing 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. OR 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. 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. TIME IN GRADE REQUIREMENT: If you are a current federal employee in the General Schedule (GS) pay plan and applying for a promotion opportunity, you must meet time-in-grade (TIG) requirements of 52 weeks of service at the next lower grade level in the normal line of progression for the position being filled. This requirement must be met by the closing date of this announcement.

Pay Range

$62,236.00 - $80,912.00

More information...

End Date: 

Monday, November 4, 2019