PDF versionJob Summary
The ideal candidate for this position will be experienced in administering various programs for mitigation hazards, including earthquake, flood, and tornado. The ideal candidate will also be familiar with the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and has managed multiple large scale projects previously. This position starts at a salary of $82,721 (GS-12). View common definitions of terms found in this announcement.
Major Duties
When disaster strikes, America looks to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Now FEMA looks to you. Join our team and use your talent to support Americans in their times of greatest need. FEMA prepares the nation for all hazards and manages Federal response and recovery efforts following any national incident. We foster innovation, reward performance and creativity, and provide challenges on a routine basis with a well-skilled, knowledgeable, high performance workforce. Please visit www.fema.gov for additional information.
EMERGENCY ASSIGNMENT: Every FEMA employee has regular and recurring emergency management responsibilities, though not every position requires routine deployment to disaster sites. All positions are subject to recall around the clock for emergency management operations, which may require irregular work hours, work at locations other than the official duty station, and may include duties other than those specified in the employee's official position description. Travel requirements in support of emergency operations may be extensive in nature (weeks to months), with little advance notice, and may require employees to relocate to emergency sites with physically austere and operationally challenging conditions.
In this position, you will coordinate with other Federal State, local, or private engineers on a variety of civil engineering/hazard mitigation issues for the development of projects. Typical assignments include:
- Serving as a technical expert responsible for helping to develop, review and provide comments on FEMA technical standards policies, procedures, best practices, recommendations, guidance on tactics and strategies to minimize the risk of damage to the built environment from natural hazards such as, floods, winds or other hazards.
- Working with others to identify research and development needs in the areas of flood, wind-resistant or other hazard design and construction practices and hazard risk assessment.
- Performing and/or developing technical review of Hazard Mitigation (HMA) and Public Assistance (PA) grant projects to determine the technical feasibility and cost-effectiveness utilizing FEMA-approved BCA software or methodology. Reviewing other analysis for complete and appropriate documentation and standard adherence.
- Developing and maintaining knowledge of the building science and benefit cost analysis aspects of the NFIP, floodplain management regulations, community assistance program, Hazard Mitigation Assistance programs, Public Assistance programs, the Stafford Act, building codes and standards and other natural hazards programs.
- Serving as a point of contact, providing building science and benefit cost analysis advice or training within or on behalf of FEMA Region I to states, local governments, tribes, non-profits, the private sector, design professionals, industry, academia, property owners or other organizations and skillsets as they relate specifically to FEMA’s Mitigation programs.
- Coordinating with other organizational elements of FEMA, other Federal agencies, State, Local and tribal governments, trade or industry associations, property owners, planners academia, non-profits or other organizations as necessary to facilitate effective integration of building science principles into policies and programs.
Qualifications
Current Federal employees must have served 52 weeks at the next lower grade or equivalent grade band in the Federal service. The time-in-grade requirement must be met within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement.The qualification requirements listed below must be met within 30 days of the closing date of the announcement.
You qualify for this position at the GS-12 level (starting salary $82,721) if you possessthe following: One full year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade (GS-11) in the Federal Service. This experience may have been gained in the federal government, a state or local government, a non-profit organization, the private sector, or as a volunteer; however, your resume must clearly describe at least one year of specialized experience. Specialized experience for this position includes: Applying established building code requirements to review or design projects; and
Applying theories, principals, practices and/or techniques of natural flood hazard risk identification, risk communication strategies, and/or mitigation actions to reduce risk; and
Communicating technical information to a variety of audiences and stakeholders In addition to the minimum qualifications described above, you must meet the following requirement(s) to be considered qualified for the position:
Individual Occupational Requirements
Basic Requirements:
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.)
Note: An applicant who meets the basic requirements as specified in A or B above, except as noted under B.1., may qualify for positions in any branch of engineering unless selective factors indicate otherwise.
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 provides valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.NOTE: Qualifications are based on breadth/level of experience. In addition to describing duties performed, applicants must provide the exact dates of each period of employment (from MM/YY to MM/YY) and the number of hours worked per week if part time. As qualification determinations cannot be made when resumes do not include the required information, failure to provide this information may result in disqualification. Applicants are encouraged to use the USAJOBS Resume Builder to develop their federal resume. For a brief video on How to Create a Federal Resume, clickhere.Current or former FEMA Reservists/DAE employees: To accurately credit your experience for these intermittent positions, make sure to list the dates (from MM/YY to MM/YY) of each deployment, along with the job title and specific duties you were responsible for during each deployment. Failure to provide this information may result in disqualification.The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) must authorize employment offers made to current or former political appointees. If you are currently, or have been within the last 5 years, a political Schedule A, Schedule C, Non-career SES or Presidential Appointee employee in the Executive Branch, you must disclose this information to the Human Resources Office.
Pay Range
$82,721.00 - $107,542.00