Civil Engineer (Geotechnical)
Agency
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Location
Chicago, Illinois, Illinois
Salary
$73,939 - $163,155 Per Year
Open & closing dates
Posted: November 24, 2025
Closes: December 9, 2025 (0 days left)
Job Description
About the Position: This job announcement will fill multiple vacancies for a Civil Engineer (Geotechnical) at the full performance levels (FPLs) of GS-11, GS-12 and GS-13. 4 GS-13 positions are Dam Safety Production Center (DSPC) vacancies and may be filled at any of the duty locations listed on the announcement. The location must be negotiated and agreed upon by both the losing and the gaining organization prior to the selectee receiving a firm job offer."
Qualifications
This job announcement will fill multiple vacancies at the full performance levels (FPLs) of GS-11, GS-12, GS-13. Applicants selected at the FPL level are not eligible for promotion to a higher grade without competition or a valid non-competitive eligibility. This is not a developmental job announcement Who May Apply: 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 Employees Current Department of Defense (DOD) Civilian Employee (non-Army) Domestic Defense Industrial Base/Major Range and Test Facilities Base Civilian Personnel Workforce Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan Land Management Workforce Flexibility Act Military Spouses, under Executive Order (E.O.) 13473 Non-Department of Defense (DoD) Transfer People with Disabilities, Schedule A Priority Placement Program, DoD Military Reserve (MR) and National Guard (NG) Technician Eligible Priority Placement Program, DoD Military Spouse Preference (MSP) Eligible Priority Placement Program, DoD MR and NG Preference Eligible Tech Receiving Disability Retirement Priority Placement Program, DoD Retained Grade Preference Eligible Reinstatement Veterans 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 ENGINEER AT ALL GRADE LEVELS (GS-11, GS-12, GS-13): 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: 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 In addition to meeting the basic requirement above, to qualify for this position you must also meet the qualification requirements listed below: TO QUALIFY FOR THE FPL GS-11: Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience which includes: Assisting basic geotechnical analyses, including settlement, shear strength, and permeability evaluations, to support designs for civil works projects; gathering and analyzing subsurface and lab data to characterize soil and rock conditions; and preparing preliminary technical reports and estimates under supervision. OR Successfully completed a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree in a field which demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform the work of the position, such as (Civil Engineering and other Engineering degrees). (Note: You must attach a copy of your transcripts.) OR Have the specialized experience as described in A, but less than one year; and have at least two years of graduate education as described in B, but less than the required three years. The computed percentage of the requirements must total 100% (To compute the percentage, divide your total months of qualifying experience by 12. Then, divide your semester hours of graduate education beyond the second year (total graduate semester hours minus 36) by 18. Add the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify.). (Note: You must attach a copy of your transcripts.) TO QUALIFY FOR THE FPL GS-12: Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience which includes: Conducting geotechnical analyses for routine foundation, slope stability, and seepage problems using standard engineering software; planning and documenting limited-scope subsurface investigations and coordinating lab testing; and drafting sections of design reports and plans/specs under senior review. 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. TO QUALIFY FOR THE FPL GS-13: Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience which includes: Leading geotechnical design tasks for complex features and coordinate multi-discipline inputs for design documentation reports and plans/specs; developing scopes and overseeing investigations and conducting lab tests programmatically to ensure cost, quality, and schedule alignment; and providing Quality Assurance and District Quality Control reviews, mentor junior staff, and resolve construction-phase issues using instrumentation data or geotechnical expertise. GS-13: 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. 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: For GS-11 - 52 weeks at the GS-09 For GS-12 - 52 weeks at the GS-11 For GS-13 - 52 weeks at the GS-12 .
Required Documents
The documents you are required to submit vary based on the authority you are using to apply (i.e., applying as a veteran, applying as a current permanent Federal employee, applying as a reinstatement, etc). Please review the following links to see which documents you need to provide to prove your eligibility to apply: Applicant Checklist for Internal/Merit Promotion Announcements. As described above, your complete application includes your resume, your responses to the online questionnaire, and documents which prove your eligibility to apply. If you fail to provide these documents, you will be marked as having an incomplete application package and you will not be considered any further. 1. Your resume: Your resume must be two pages or less and must support the specialized experience described in this announcement. Resumes exceeding two pages will be removed from consideration. For each relevant work experience, make sure you include the employer's name, job title, start and end dates (include month and year), for qualifications purposes, the number of hours worked per week, and a brief description that show you can perform the tasks at the required level listed in the job announcement. If your resume does not contain this information, your application may be marked as incomplete, and you may not receive consideration for this position. Use plain language. Avoid using acronyms and terms that are not easily understood. The hiring agency will not make assumptions about what's in your resume. If your resume includes a photograph or other inappropriate material or content, it will not be used to make eligibility and qualification determinations, and you may not be considered for this vacancy. For additional information, to include formatting tips, see: What to include in your resume. 2. Other supporting documents: Cover Letter, optional Most recent Performance Appraisal, if applicable Proof of Eligibility to Apply: Your application must include the documents which prove you are eligible to apply for the vacancy. The Proof of Eligibility document describes authorities commonly used in merit promotion recruitment and what document(s) are required to prove you meet the requirements of the authority. You must meet the requirements of at least one of the authorities listed in the Who May Apply section above to receive further consideration. Time-in-grade documentation: If you are applying for a higher grade and your SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you meet the one year time-in-grade requirement so you will need to provide an SF-50 which clearly demonstrates you meet the time-in-grade requirements (examples of appropriate SF-50s include Promotions, Within-grade Grade/Range Increases, and SF-50s with an effective date more than one year old). This position has an individual occupational requirement and/or allows for substitution of education for experience. If you meet this requirement based on education you MUST submit a copy of your transcript with your application package or you will be rated ineligible. See: Transcripts and Licenses Specific grades/locations require a job-related license. You MUST submit a copy of your license with your application package if it states it is a requirement in the conditions of employment section, or you will be rated ineligible. See: Transcripts and Licenses NOTE: Documents submitted as part of the application package, to include supplemental documents, may be shared beyond the Human Resources Office. Some supplemental documents such as military orders and marriage certificates may contain personal information for someone other than you. You may sanitize these documents to remove another person's personal information before you submit your application. You may be asked to provide an un-sanitized version of the documents if you are selected to confirm your eligibility.
Department Information
Agency
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Department
Department of the Army
Location
Chicago, Illinois, Illinois, United States