Civil Engineer

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Department of Agriculture

Job Summary

This position is located in the Northern Region on the Kootenai National Forest in Trout Creek, Montana. The incumbent serves as a civil engineer for the Forest and is responsible for performing a variety of duties requiring professional civil engineering expertise. For additional information about the duties of this position, please contact Tim Rusdal at (406)283-7766 or tim.rusdal@usda.gov.

Major Duties

  • Develops and modifies civil engineering plans and specifications for new construction or to improve utility, quality, appropriateness, and appearance of construction. Prepares original designs and preliminary and final layouts.
  • Supervises inspections of all road construction work, periodically making personal inspections to ensure all are maintained to the original standard of construction and to ensure compliance with safety, health and regulatory requirements.
  • Prepares or supervises preparation of special design specifications, cost estimates, and complete design package.
  • Provides professional engineering input into the interdisciplinary planning process for natural resource development activities involving engineering projects.
  • Coordinates with other resource area specialists to complete environmental documents and clearances.
  • Serves as Engineering Representative (ER) or Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) providing technical advice, recommendations and suitable alternatives to the Contracting Officer and Forest Officials.
  • Interprets Agency policy and contracts for contractor, and resolves problems relating to plans, specifications, materials, reports, etc.
  • Supervises 20 percent or less of the time. Plans the work to be accomplished by the unit, assigns work to employees, and establishes production or quality standards for the unit's work.

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 Requirements for All Professional Engineering Positions, 0800 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 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: 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. 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. 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. 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.) 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: You must have one year specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-9 level in Federal service; 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 non-routine 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. Examples of specialized experience include: 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 nee for new equipment or material; preparing civil engineering design criteria for smaller or less complex projects, including portions of structures such as bridges, retaining walls, or structural pavement sections; 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 assignments, such as determining compliance with existing Federal, State, and/or organization safety regulations and/or analyzing and evaluating potential safety regulation deficiencies. 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

$64,009.00 - $83,210.00

More information...

End Date: 

Monday, March 2, 2020