Civil Engineer / Agricultural Engineer
What you'd do
This position is located in the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), West Region Arizona Engineering Team. The incumbent serves as area, zone or state engineer and is responsible for providing technical guidance and leadership in the overall planning, design, installation, and maintenance of the engineering phases of soil and water conservation practices as well as watershed flood protection programs.
Major duties
Leads engineering planning, field investigations, feasibility and alternatives, assessment, data acquisition, analysis, and preliminary design associated with hydrology, hydraulics, geotechnical, and structural analyses for conservation practices. Prepares detailed designs, hydrologic/hydraulic/structural/geotechnical analyses, construction drawings, specifications, material calculations, and cost estimates that ensure NRCS standards, policy, site conditions, and technical viability are met. Conduct onsite construction inspection, build relationships, resolve issues, direct inspectors, oversee quality control, verify invoices and pay estimates, develop contract modifications, and perform COR responsibilities for construction contracts. Perform quality reviews of assessments, designs, field checks, and construction installations. Recommend changes to designs/specifications/schedules based on site conditions, material availability, or construction circumstances. Solve problems. Lead development of statewide engineering training. Provide training for field personnel, engineers, customers, and contractors. Deliver on-the-job engineering skill development. Create technical documents, policy, procedures, and “How-To” guides.
What you need to qualify
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. If education is required or being used to qualify, you must submit a copy of your transcripts. This is an interdisciplinary position and may be filled in any of the job series listed below: 0810-Civil Engineering 0890-Agricultural Engineering Basic Education Requirement: 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: 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 above. 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. In addition to meeting the basic education requirement, you must also possess experience and/or directly related education listed below. Specialized Experience Requirement For the GS-12 grade level: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-11 grade level in federal service or comparable experience not gained through federal service. Specialized experience is defined as: formulation of engineering planning, design, and construction of conservation practices that address natural resource protection; analyzing and managing engineering workload; identifying training needs of personnel and delivering training on both individual and group levels; and/or recommending technical policies and procedures that strengthen the agency's ability to deliver quality resource conservation. 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 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. You must meet this requirement by the closing date of this announcement.
Before you apply
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