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Civil Engineer (Highway - Project Manager) - DIRECT HIRE

Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
This job announcement has closed

Summary

The Central Federal Lands Highway Division (CFLHD) is within the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA), Office of Federal Lands Highway (FLH) and delivers and constructs projects primarily in 14 western states for federal, state, and local partners. Our partners rely upon FLH to solve and manage unique program and project challenges that are wide-ranging in environment, geography and complexity, through engineering solutions that are sensitive to the context of the land.

Overview

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Reviewing applications
Open & closing dates
11/07/2022 to 01/25/2023
Salary
$104,038 to - $135,247 per year
Pay scale & grade
GS 13
Location
many vacancies in the following location:
Lakewood, CO
Remote job
No
Telework eligible
Yes—as determined by the agency policy.
Travel Required
25% or less - Some travel is required to visit project locations.
Relocation expenses reimbursed
Yes—Relocation has been authorized for this position.
Appointment type
Permanent
Work schedule
Full-time - Full Time
Service
Competitive
Promotion potential
13
Job family (Series)
Supervisory status
No
Security clearance
Other
Drug test
No
Position sensitivity and risk
Non-sensitive (NS)/Low Risk
Trust determination process
Announcement number
FHWA.CFL-2023-0002
Control number
687630000

This job is open to

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Clarification from the agency

Applications will be accepted from any U.S. citizen. Direct Hire Authority will be used to fill this position. The 'Rule of Three', Veterans Preference and traditional rating and ranking of applicants does not apply to this vacancy. This is not a Bargaining unit position.

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Duties

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As a Civil Engineer-Highway-Project Manager, you will:

  • Establish and maintain good working relationships with customers and project participants in order to effectively lead the delivery of highway and bridge projects.
  • Lead, motivate, and manage cross-functional project development teams including technical experts and interagency personnel.
  • Manage the scope, schedule, budget, and quality control/quality assurance processes for a number of projects. Maintain reasonable and targeted costs levels, and coordinate with Planning and Programming Branch.
  • Manage the project delivery decision-making process through design and construction such that customer and FHWA/CFLHD agency requirements are satisfied.
  • Engage the Construction Operations Engineer (COE) during design development, award, and advertisement for input on construction engineering costs and constructability.
  • Support the COE in contract modifications, including obtaining additional funding if needed, claims and dispute resolution as required. Provide expert advice to the Construction Management Engineer (CME), and Legal Counsel in claim situations, through close coordination with the COE and the Leadership Team.

This position is ideal for an individual who is interested in leading the delivery of highway and bridge projects through cross-functional teams within a project management based matrix organization. The ideal candidate will have proven experience in successfully coordinating complex and sensitive issues with stakeholders from various federal, state, and local governmental agencies as well as with private citizens and public interest groups. The ideal candidate will possess highly effective communication, facilitation, and collaboration skills to successfully deliver highway and bridge projects from scoping through the completion of construction.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

  • You must be a U.S. citizen & meet specialized experience to qualify
  • Submit application and resume online by 11:59 PM EST on the closing date
  • Required documents must be submitted by the closing date.
  • Direct Hire Authority will be used to fill this position

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT:

  • SELECTIVE SERVICE: Males born after 12/31/1959 must be registered for the Selective Service.
  • GOVERNMENT TRAVEL CARD: This position involves travel.  A government contractor-issued travel card will be issued and must be retained for official business only.
  • PCS/RELOCATION/RECRUITMENT: Permanent Change of Station (PCS), Relocation, and Recruitment Incentive authorization varies by position/selection.
  • PROBATIONARY PERIOD: Applicants may be required to successfully complete a one-year probationary period (unless already completed).
  • PHYSICAL DEMANDS: Site visits often involve strenuous activities such as long periods of standing, walking, climbing or bending over irregular terrain.
  • BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION: You will be required to complete a background/security investigation and meet preliminary requirements prior to onboarding.
  • WORK ENVIRONMENT: Site visits involve field conditions that may include mountainous terrain, proximity to high traffic volume areas, exposure to dust and auto/heavy equipment exhaust, and exposure to a variety of environmental and weather conditions.

Qualifications

To meet the minimum qualifications for this position, you must (1) meet the Education Requirement for the series, (2) provide a copy of transcripts for verification, AND (3) meet the experience qualifications for the grade at which you are requesting consideration.

To qualify for the GS-13, you must have at least one year of experience equal or equivalent to the GS-12 and it must include:

  • Experience leading, motivating, and managing professional and technical project teams and establishing and maintaining good working relationships with partners and project stakeholders in the delivery of highway and bridge projects; AND
  • Experience making decisions on project delivery issues including analyzing input on complex engineering questions related to project scope, schedule, budget and quality for highway and bridge projects; AND
  • Experience in the design of highway and/or bridge projects, and the development of Plans, Specifications, and Estimates (PS&E), demonstrating broad knowledge of highway design principles and theories for the planning and completion of complex highway engineering projects.

You cannot substitute education at this level, you must have experience.

For all types of consideration, 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.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES (KSAs): Your qualifications will also be evaluated on the basis of your level of knowledge, skills, abilities and/or competencies in the following areas:

  1. Civil Engineering principles, methods, and practices as applied to all phases of highway design and construction.
  2. Contract development, negotiation and administration. Ability to identify and integrate program and project issues, work process and data.
  3. Communication - Includes: Written and oral communication; Partnering/negotiating; Interpersonal skills; and Teamwork.

Education

All applicants must meet the education requirements under A or B to qualify for applying to an engineering position.

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.
  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 in paragraph A.
  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.) 

For more specifics, please see the OPM qualifications standard for GS-800: All Professional Engineering Positions qualifications at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/0800/files/all-professional-engineering-positions-0800.pdf

(2) Upload the appropriate document(s) to your application for verification purposes.

Students enrolled in a qualifying degree program can apply if the anticipated graduation date is within six months of the closing date of this announcement. If selected, the final transcript must be received before your start date.  Other applicants must meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

Additional information

This announcement may be used to fill additional positions if similar vacancies occur within 90 days of the issue date of the referral certificate.

Qualified CTAP/ICTAP candidates receive priority and will be referred to the hiring manager.

How you will be evaluated

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

For this announcement, all applicants will be reviewed to determine if they meet the basic qualifications for this position, specifically the educational requirements.  Applications that are verified to meet the basic qualifications will be referred to the selecting official.

Applicants will not be rated or ranked.  Veteran’s Preference does NOT apply.

This announcement will be open for 12 months with the first selection certificate to be issued after 20 days. Given our continuing need for professionals in this field, we will routinely review applications and refer candidates for potential interviews multiple times during the open period of the announcement. We will give equal consideration to all applications we receive.

All applicants will be reviewed to determine if they meet the mandatory education requirements and provided the appropriate documentation. Applications that are verified to meet the education requirements will be referred to the selecting official for further review.

PLEASE NOTE: A writing sample will be requested from applicants who are determined as qualified and referred to the selecting official.


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