Civil Engineer
What you'd do
Reclamation is seeking a career professional looking for an opportunity to capitalize on their expertise as a Civil Engineer. Make a difference in the West by assisting with managing, developing, and protecting water and related resources in an environmentally and economically sound manner in the interest of the American public. Duty Location: Billings, Montana
Major duties
This is a Merit Promotion announcement for career and career conditional Bureau of Reclamation employees, Career Transition eligibles (CTAP), and those who are eligible under the hiring paths listed above. Refer to the required documents section for more information. Some of the major duties you will perform include but are not limited to the following: Serves as Regional Design technical expert in the Technical Services Group with responsibility for design of civil structures and features of construction projects such as water conveyance systems, water and sewer systems, pumping plants, powerplants, irrigation systems, multipurpose dams and recreation facilities. Prepares civil designs and technical specifications/drawings corresponding for assigned project(s). Prepares layouts and final designs for the construction/rehabilitation of roads and highways, dams, spillways, etc., including structures of timber, steel, concrete, and prestressed concrete; and canal, lateral and drainage systems and appurtenant structures; based upon data submitted by field offices or gathered during site visits. Reviews civil portions of engineering designs prepared by others, including architect-engineer (A/E) firms and/or Area Offices, for the above and similar type systems and facilities. Checks for proper interpretations and application of criteria to ensure that design drawings and analyses of design are accurate, and that conclusions and assumptions are sound. Notes deficiencies and discrepancies and prepares comments and recommendations for the correction of designs by others. Serves as the Regional Design expert which includes seeking, scheduling, and tracking the workload for TSG Engineering Design. Assigns work to design group team members which can include Civil, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineers, and Civil Engineering Technicians; tracks the progress of these work assignments, and ensures deadlines are met. Serves as a Technical Expert or team member on complex design projects. Makes field trips to project sites to review project scope with customer and gather design data pertinent to site conditions. Provides technical advice and assistance to Area Offices concerning development of engineering plans and collection of design data.
What you need to qualify
All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement - 08/19/2026-unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement. Competitive candidates must also meet Time-in-Grade requirements as defined in 5 CFR 300, Subpart F. For current Federal employees, if hours worked per week are not included on your resume, you must submit a non-award SF-50 as part of your application to be used to validate your work schedule and determine the amount of specialized experience that you will be granted. An award SF-50 will not be acceptable documentation for which to consider your amount of qualifying experience. For periods of time that reflect military service, the DD-214 or Statement of Service is sufficient to meet the work schedule requirement as the service dates will be reflected. For all other applicants who are not current federal employees, your resume must state either "full-time" (or "40 hours a week") or "part-time" with the number of hours worked per week to ensure proper crediting of specialized experience. Selective Placement Factors: This position requires a special qualification that has been determined to be essential to perform the duties and will be used as a screen out element. If you do not provide evidence that you possess the following selective factor(s), you will be rated not qualified. Professional Engineering License -AND- Individual Occupational Requirement: In addition to the specialized experience requirements for this position, you must meet at least one of the following: 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), 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. -OR- 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, and Puerto Rico. -OR- 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. -OR- 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.) -AND- To qualify for the GS-13 you must possess at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-12 grade level in the Federal service, or comparable experience not gained through Federal service. Specialized experience is experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. Specialized experience is defined as demonstrated experience: Technical expertise shall have been acquired through graduation from a bachelor's degree program in engineering with a professional engineering registration, supplemented by several years' experience with the design of complex civil engineering projects. This experience will require exposure to the following phases of an engineering project: Project initiation, project planning, project implementation, project closeout, and responsibility for review of engineering designs, drawings and specifications. Volunteer Experience: 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.
Before you apply
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