Clarification from the agency

U.S. Citizens

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• Serve as an civil engineering specialist engaged in the preparation and review of designs, layouts, analyses and reports relative to beach erosion control, storm protection and navigation works.
• Responsible for the development of in-house and Architect-Engineer (A-E) planning and engineering documents for coastal protection and navigation projects.
• Determine the applicable hydraulic design criteria for the structures and channels involved. Make preliminary appraisal of the type of work required and what it should accomplish.
• Develop the design of protective beach berms, dunes littoral drift basins, sand bypassing structures, pumping plants, and surge suppression structures.
• Perform appropriate computations and gather extracts and analyses data from a wide variety of sources.
• Conceptualize and lay out the project systems and develop the design analyses with justifying methods and computations.
• Establish coastal modeling baseline inputs, such as topography and bathymetry, wave and water level parameters per standard modeling guidance and protocols.
• Meet with federal, state and local government officials, or their engineering representatives, and with private consulting firms for plan reconciliation, project systems designs, and compatibility on joint construction projects.
• Confer and collaborate with and provide technical guidance to A-E in the design of and preparation of coastal project documents, and review and approve changes necessary for design improvements.
• Participate in or develop study cost estimates, schedules, task descriptions, and scopes of work for a wide range of coastal and navigational studies from reconnaissance level to construction plans and specifications for in-house and A-E work.

Conditions of employment

• Appointment may be subject to a suitability or fitness determination, as determined by a completed background investigation.
• Appointment to this position is subject to a two year probationary period unless the appointee has previously met the requirements as described in 5 CFR Part 315.
• Position requires travel away from the worksite (TDY) to other duty locations approximately 20% of the time to conduct site visits and to meet with customers, users, and stakeholders.
• Position requires a valid, state-issued motor vehicle driver's license since project sites may be located in remote areas that are not accessible by public transportation.
• Required to submit a Financial Disclosure Statement, OGE-450, upon entering the position and annually in accordance with DoD Directive 5500-7-R, Joint Ethics Regulation.
• Occasionally participate in the conduct of field work and construction site visits involving hiking on dikes, breakwaters and jetties, and activities in the surf zone, small craft, and work boats, and along wharf, docks, and dredges.

Qualifications

If selected at grade level GS-09 or GS-11, this is a career development position with non-competitive promotion potential to target grade GS-12 based on performance and other requirements.

Category rating, veterans preference and traditional rating and ranking of applicants do not apply to this vacancy.

Who May Apply: US Citizens

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.

Qualifications Requirements: To qualify for this position at grade level GS-12, you must meet the Basic Requirement and the Specialized Experience. To qualify at grade levels GS-09 or GS-11, you must meet the Basic Requirement and Specialized Experience or Education Substitute. Specialized Experience must be clearly evidenced and supported by your resume. Transcripts are required.

Basic Requirement for Civil Engineer (Coastal-Hydraulics):
A. Degree: Bachelor's degree (or higher degree) in engineering. To be acceptable, the program must: (1) lead to a bachelor's degree (or higher degree) in a school of engineering with at least one program accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (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.
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, or 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 A above. The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of an engineering program.
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 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 requirement above, to qualify for this position you must also meet the qualification requirements listed below:

TO QUALIFY FOR GRADE LEVEL GS-09
Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience which(1) assisting in preparing engineering design document in support of coastal or navigation projects, and (2) assisting in performing coastal modeling inputs such as topography, bathymetry, or wave and water level parameters per standard modeling guidance. This definition of specialized experience is typical of work performed at the second lower grade/level position in the federal service (GS-07). Specialized Experience must be clearly evidenced and supported by your resume.
OR
Education: Master's or equivalent graduate degree or 2 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 do the work of the position, such as civil engineering, hydraulics, hydrology, coastal engineering, or related fields.
OR
Combination of Education and Experience: A combination of education and experience may be used to qualify for this position as long as the computed percentage of the requirements is at least 100%. To compute the percentage of the requirements, divide your total months of experience by 12. Then divide the total number of completed graduate semester hours (or equivalent) beyond the first year (total graduate semester hours minus 18) by 18. Add the two percentages.

TO QUALIFY FOR GRADE LEVEL GS-11
Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience which includes (1) preparing engineering design documents in support of major coastal projects; (2) developing coastal or hydraulic design criteria in support of major coastal projects; AND (3) performing coastal modeling inputs such as topography, bathymetry, or wave and water level parameters per standard modeling guidance. This definition of specialized experience is typical of work performed at the second lower grade/level position in the federal service (GS-09). Specialized Experience must be clearly evidenced and supported by your resume.
OR
Education: 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 do the work of the position, such as coastal engineering or hydraulics.
OR
Combination of Education and Experience: A combination of education and experience may be used to qualify for this position as long as the computed percentage of the requirements is at least 100%. To compute the percentage of the requirements, divide your total months of experience by 12. Then divide the total number of completed graduate semester hours (or equivalent) beyond the second year (total graduate semester hours minus 36) by 18. Add the two percentages.

How you will be evaluated

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

Once the announcement has closed, a review of your application package (resume, supporting documents, and responses to the questionnaire) will be used to determine whether you meet the qualification requirements listed on this announcement.

If, after reviewing your résumé and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications and/or experience, you may lose consideration for this position. Please follow all instructions carefully when applying, errors or omissions may affect your eligibility.

You should list any relevant performance appraisals and incentive awards in your resume as that information may be taken into consideration during the selection process. If selected, you may be required to provide supporting documentation.

Veterans and Military Spouses will be considered along with all other candidates.