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Civil Engineer (Hydrologic)

Department of the Interior
Bureau of Reclamation
Technical Service Center, Water Resources Engineering and Management Group
This job announcement has closed

Summary

Reclamation is seeking a career professional looking for an opportunity to capitalize on their expertise as a Civil Engineer (Hydrologic). Make a difference in the West by assisting in meeting increasing water demands while protecting the environment.

Duty Location: Lakewood, Colorado and Location Negotiable After Selection, United States

Duty Location: The final determination of the duty station for this position will be made by the selecting official at the time of the job offer.

Overview

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Hiring complete
Open & closing dates
02/22/2022 to 03/14/2022
Salary
$119,114 to - $143,477 per year
Pay scale & grade
GS 13
Locations
3 vacancies in the following locations:
Lakewood, CO
Location Negotiable After Selection, United States
Telework eligible
Yes—as determined by the agency policy.
Travel Required
Occasional travel - You may be expected to travel for this position.
Relocation expenses reimbursed
No
Appointment type
Permanent
Work schedule
Full-time
Service
Competitive
Promotion potential
None
Job family (Series)
Supervisory status
No
Security clearance
Not Required
Drug test
No
Position sensitivity and risk
Non-sensitive (NS)/Low Risk
Trust determination process
Announcement number
BOR-DO-22-DH-11399770-GB
Control number
638552600

This job is open to

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Clarification from the agency

This position will be filled under the Office of Personnel Management's Direct-Hire Authority and is open to All United States Citizens and U.S. Nationals. Veterans' Preference and traditional rating and ranking of applications do not apply. Qualified veterans will, however, be given full consideration for this position.

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Duties

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- Manages, directs, performs, and coordinates complex and/or controversial hydroclimate data analyses, hydrologic modeling, climate projection downscaling activities, surface water and/or groundwater simulations including simulations under climate change conditions, flood hydrology studies, or operations modeling for water resources planning and management.
- Reviews complex water resources engineering studies for technical adequacy, computational correctness; interpretational adequacy, and conformance with established practice.
- Interprets results from mathematical models of meteorological, hydrological, and/or water resources systems.
- Provides technical consultation, advice, guidance, and leadership as a technical expert in the areas of water resources engineering. Analyzes diverse viewpoints to make planning decisions and solve work problems. Provides recommendations to meet project/program objectives.
- Provides technical reviews, peer views, and checking of water resource engineering analyses and technical documentation to ensure work products are accurate and the quality assurance processes are followed.
- Applies new concepts and developments, hypotheses, and techniques in water resources engineering based on basic and applied research. Modifies or extends emerging techniques in water resources engineering. Develops long-range plans to transition research to operations using the best available science.
- Plans, develops, directs, and prepares procedures and guidance for water resource engineering studies requiring advanced engineering analyses that extend or modify theories, concepts and assumptions or resolve unique or novel challenges. Develops standards and guidelines reflecting newly developed scientific and engineering procedures and methods found to be technically sound and state-of-the-art water resources science and engineering.
- Leads, plans, directs, performs, and coordinates engineering analyses such as technical planning activities; data collection, validation, and management; data analyses and interpretation; analyses of site location and/or conditions; or risk estimation and analyses.- Identifies, assesses, and recommends data needed for design development and engineering assignments. Data may not be readily available. Develops data management and simulation automation software using a variety of programming methods to support engineering studies and risk analyses.
- Applies project management practices to complete complex and/or controversial projects on schedule and within budgets.
- Develops, monitors, and manages projects plans that outline the scope, schedule, and budget of assigned projects. This includes independently managing changes to the project plans with clients, external stakeholders, and Tribes; identifying and addressing issues prior to adverse impacts to the schedule and budget; and leading technical teams.
- Uses project management, conflict management, mediation, team building, and negotiation tools to achieve results in a collaborative spirit.
- Prepares technical documentation, reports, and publications for water resource engineering studies.
- Leads, directs, and manages the preparation of complete, technically sound water resources engineering and management studies, including the preparation of technical reports clearly describing the basis, rationale, and conclusions of work.
- Communicates effectively with all levels and types of organizations and audiences. Provides presentations and technical communication to team members, clients, leadership, and other agencies.
- Directs, advises, and coordinates with other groups both internal and external to Reclamation (e.g., other Federal and non-Federal entities). Uses partnerships/contacts to achieve collaborative solutions and resolve problems and exchange professional expertise and experience.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

You must be a U.S. Citizen or U.S. National.
You must be suitable for federal employment, determined by a background investigation.
You must submit a resume and supporting documentation (see Required Documents).
You must submit eligibility documents for veterans consideration (see Required Documents).
You must meet any minimum education and/or experience requirements (see Qualifications).
You must submit transcript(s) to verify education requirements (see Qualifications/Education).
You must submit a valid Professional Engineering Registration (PE License).

Qualifications

Basic Education Requirements: To be eligible for consideration, you must first meet the Basic Education Requirement for this position, having a
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.
Or
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.
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.)

Specialized Experience Requirement: In order to be rated as qualified for this position, the HR Office must be able to determine that you meet the specialized experience requirement - this information must be clearly supported in the resume.
To qualify at the GS-level, you must possess one year of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and complexity to at least the GS-12 level in federal service having demonstrated experience with any consideration of the following: experience serving as a lead in water resource engineering and representing organization as a subject matter expert (e.g., interagency committees, litigation activities); extensive experience in complex and/or controversial hydroclimate data analysis, hydrologic modeling, stochastic modeling, hydrologic risk estimation, or operations modeling for water resources planning and management (e.g., reservoir and river system operations, climate change impacts on water supply and demand, surface water or groundwater modeling, flood hydrology for dam safety); extensive experience leading, directing, reviewing, and coordinating others for complex and/or controversial water resources engineering activities (e.g., hydrologic studies, climate projection downscaling, climate projections, integrating climate change concepts into hydrologic studies, stochastic modeling, decision-making under deep uncertainty, development of data management and simulation automation software); experience developing or revising standards and guidelines related to water resource activities (e.g., hydroclimate data analysis, surface water and/or groundwater hydrologic modeling, flood frequencies, atmospheric processes, frameworks to link assessments to decision-making); experience in computer programming languages (e.g., Fortran) and/or scripting languages (e.g., Python, R); experience preparing written reports and oral presentations documenting data, methodologies, recommendations and conclusions related for complex and/or controversial water resource engineering studies.

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.

Selective Placement Factor: This position requires a current, valid Professional Engineering Registration (PE License). Failure to provide proof of such license will cause you to be rated ineligible for this position.

You must meet all Eligibility and Qualification requirements, including any selective placement factors if applicable, by 03/14/2022.

Education

This position does not allow substituting education for experience.

You will be required to provide official college transcripts to verify educational qualifications, if selected. An official transcript must be sent directly from the University's Registrar's office and must be provided from the institution awarding the degree. Academic transcripts certified by notary publics are NOT official. Official transcripts must be submitted prior to reporting to work as a condition of employment. Failure to submit official transcripts may be grounds for dismissal or rescission of the job offer.

Accreditation: Only education from an accredited college or university recognized by the Department of Education is acceptable to meet education requirements or to substitute for experience, if applicable. For additional info, refer to the Office of Personnel Management and U.S. Department of Education.

Foreign Education: To receive credit for education completed outside the United States, you must show proof that the education has been submitted to a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign educational credentials and such education has been deemed at least equivalent to that gained in conventional U.S. education programs. For additional info, refer to the U.S. Network for Education Information.

Additional information

Flexibilities to work remotely in a virtual posture may be considered. Salary listed is for the Denver, CO locality area and will be adjusted depending on the duty station of the selectee. The final determination of the duty station for this position will be made by the selecting official at the time of the job offer.

You may be required to serve an initial probationary period. Current, permanent Federal employees who are selected from this announcement may be required to serve a probationary period.

Reclamation has determined that the duties of this position are suitable for telework and you may be allowed to telework with supervisory approval.

If otherwise eligible and qualified, you may be offered a recruitment or relocation incentive. The decision to offer an incentive will be made on a case-by-case basis and is neither promised nor guaranteed. For information, visit: Recruitment Incentive or Relocation Incentive.

If otherwise eligible and qualified, you may request consideration for a Superior Qualifications Appointment. For information, visit: OPM Fact Sheet.

Related non-Federal experience or related experience as retired members of the uniformed services may be credited towards computing entitlement to leave accrual, at managerial discretion, providing that experience meets certain criteria. This provision allows new employees to earn annual leave at a higher rate than would otherwise be allowed. (5 Code of Federal Regulations, 630). For information, visit: Creditable Service for Annual Leave

DOI uses E-Verify to confirm the employment eligibility of all newly hired employees. To learn more about E-Verify, including applicant rights and responsibilities, please visit https://www.e-verify.gov/

This position is designated as a LOW RISK position. It requires a fully completed and favorably adjudicated SF85 Background Investigation (T1 or equivalent) that is current (within the last 5 years). This is a condition of employment.

Male applicants born after December 31, 1959 must certify registration with the Selective Service System or that the applicant is exempt from having to do so under the Selective Service Law. Go to: https://www.sss.gov

Additional vacancies may be filled using this job announcement.

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

Human Resources (HR) will review resumes and transcript(s) if applicable, to ensure applicants meet the basic qualification requirements. We will evaluate each applicant who meets the basic qualifications on the information provided in the assessment questionnaire. Applicants determined qualified will be referred to the selecting official.

The application questionnaire can be previewed here: https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/11399770

Your answers will be verified against information provided in your resume. Your resume must clearly support the responses to all the questions by addressing experience, education, and/or training relevant to this position. You must make a fair and accurate assessment of your qualifications. If a determination is made that you have rated yourself higher than what is apparent in the description of your experience, competencies, skills, and/or education/training (or that your resume/application is incomplete), you could be rated ineligible or your score could be lowered.

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