PDF versionJob Summary
This position is with the Engineering Division, Design Branch, Civil Design Section, Geotechnical Team. As a Civil Engineer (Geotechnical), you will serve as a senior geotechnical engineer for civil works and military projects. The incumbent will be responsible for the investigation and design of geotechnical aspects of levees, channels, pumping stations, jetties, dikes, breakwaters, and shore protection for major civil projects and other unique geotechnical assignments.
Major Duties
- Serve as a senior geotechnical engineer in areas of dam and levee safety, design of flood damage mitigation structures, dredge spoil containment dikes, and geotechnical engineering.
- Develop site characterization studies to include boring layouts, sampling programs, and laboratory and field testing programs.
- Utilize knowledge of geotechnical engineering principles to determine design properties of soil and rock
- Perform geotechnical calculations such as stability, settlement, permeability, and bearing capacity.
- Provide expert technical advice and authoritative conclusions on complex and significant technical problems affecting large scale, high-profile and politically sensitive projects and programs.
- Advise and consult with personnel both internal and external to USACE, including A/E firms, other federal agencies, State and local Agencies, State Dam Safety offices, military installations, and private construction contractors.
- Perform geotechnical engineering design of structures and criteria, such as buildings, earth and rock-fill dams, reservoirs, channels, levees, shore protection structures, roads, recreation areas, and underground structures, airfield pavements.
- Perform review of technical design documents, and evaluate and recommend necessary changes pertaining to the soil mechanics, foundation design and foundation engineering applications.
- Ensure compliance with established criteria, sound engineering principles, standard practices, and existing building codes. Detect omissions, discrepancies, inadequacies, and non-conformance with approved criteria.
- Perform field inspections of proposed or existing works and evaluate design during and after construction.
Qualifications
Only applicants who meet one of the employment authority categories below are eligible to apply for this job. You will be asked to identify which category or categories you meet, and to provide documents which prove you meet the category or categories you selected. See Proof of Eligibility for an extensive list of document requirements for all employment authorities. Current Department of Army Civilian EmployeesCurrent Permanent Department of Defense (DOD) Civilian Employee (non-Army)Domestic Defense Industrial Base/Major Range and Test Facilities Base Civilian Personnel WorkforceInteragency Career Transition Assistance PlanLand Management Workforce Flexibility ActMilitary Spouses, under Executive Order (E.O.) 13473Non-Department of Defense (DoD) TransferPriority Placement Program, DoD Military Spouse Preference (MSP) EligibleRe-employed AnnuitantReinstatementVeterans Employment Opportunity Act (VEOA) of 1998 In order to qualify, you must meet the education and experience requirements described below. 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). You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Your resume must clearly describe your relevant experience; if qualifying based on education, your transcripts will be required as part of your application. Additional information about transcripts is in this document. Basic Requirement for Civil Engineer (Geotechnical) GS-13: A. Degree: Bachelor's degree (or higher degree) in engineering. To be acceptable, the program must: (1) lead to a bachelor's degree (or higher degree) in a school of engineering with at least one program accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (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), 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) examination, or any other written test required for professional registration, by an engineering licensure board in the various States, the District of Columbia, Guam, or 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 A above. The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of an engineering program.
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 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. In addition to meeting the basic requirement above, to qualify for this position you must also meet the qualification requirements listed below: SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: One year of specialized experience which includes 1) Developing and preparing geotechnical engineering designs (plans, specifications, calculations); 2) Reviewing complex geotechnical engineering plans, cost estimates, and design analyses; 3) Reviewing proposal prepared by contractors regarding modifications or changes; and 4) Identifying deficiencies or non-conformance to criteria, recommending implementable solutions. This definition of specialized experience is typical of work performed at the next lower grade/level position in the federal service (GS-12). Some federal jobs allow you to substitute your education for the required experience in order to qualify. For this job, you must meet the qualification requirement using experience alone--no substitution of education for experience is permitted. SELECTIVE PLACEMENT FACTOR: This position requires the possession of a current Professional Engineer registration issued by any State in the United States, the District of Columbia, Guam, or Puerto Rico. You will be evaluated on the basis of your level of competency in the following areas:
Geotechnical EngineeringManages and Organizes InformationTechnical CompetenceTechnology Application Time in Grade Requirement: Applicants who have held a General Schedule (GS) position within the last 52 weeks must have 52 weeks of Federal service at the next lower grade or equivalent (GS-12).
Pay Range
$105,417.00 - $137,045.00