Clarification from the agency

Open to IRS Career/Career-Conditional, Treasury/IRS CTAP, & IRS RPP employees

WHAT IS THE APPEALS DIVISION?
A description of the business units can be found at: https://www.jobs.irs.gov/about/who/business-divisions

Vacancies will be filled in the following specialty areas:

Office of Appeals Specialized Exam Prog and Ref

The following are the duties of this position at the full working level. If this vacancy includes more than one grade and you are selected at a lower grade level, you will have the opportunity to learn to perform these duties and receive training to help you grow in this position.

• Provides expert technical advice and direction to Appeals Team Case Leaders, Appeals Technical Guidance Coordinators, International Specialists, Appeals Officers and other service employees relative to the largest and most complex engineering and valuation issues. Provides technical support and assistance on complex cases which have engineering or valuation issues. Works issues that often require development of new engineering and valuation theories, approaches and techniques, new sources and applications of knowledge and data to achieve or promote issue settlement.
• Organizes work independently, identifies priorities, applies knowledge and skills to expeditiously and efficiently assist in the resolution of issues assigned.
• Develops and revises, as needed, Appeals settlement positions for those issues benefitting from engineering knowledge. Detail the hazards of litigation by maintaining active knowledge of case law and other legal authorities.
• Provides technical expertise as a consultant to Appeals and other divisions, and on committees and workgroups identifying emerging and strategic issues and developing new engineering and valuation procedures, models, theories, approaches, and related training programs. Serves as an instructor or speaker for courses or sessions addressing engineering and valuation issues.
• Provides authoritative reviews of the valuation, engineering and technical findings provided by the Service's examination, and those presented by the taxpayer's appeal. Considers the relative merits of contesting interpretations providing expert guidance to Appeals as to the appropriate determinations and issue resolutions. As necessary, prepares written valuation findings, engineering reports, and other technical guidance for the Appeals hearing and settlement of the issues.

Conditions of employment

STANDARD POSITION DESCRIPTIONS (SPD):
PD95270
Visit the IRS SPD Library to access the position descriptions.

• Telework Eligible Positions: Telework eligible positions do not guarantee telework. Employees must meet and sustain IRS telework eligibility requirements (e.g., reporting at least twice a pay period to your assigned Post of Duty (POD)) and supervisor's approval to participate in the IRS Telework Program. Employees must also be within a 200-mile radius of their official assigned post-of-duty (POD) while in a telework status. As a reminder - If you are selected for a position, you are responsible for reporting to your designated POD (location) on the negotiated start date or as directed by management.

• Obtain and use a Government-issued charge card for business-related travel.

Qualifications

Federal experience is not required. The experience may have been gained in the public sector, private sector or Volunteer Service. One year of experience refers to full-time work; part-time work is considered on a prorated basis. To ensure full credit for your work experience, please indicate dates of employment by month/year, and indicate number of hours worked per week, on your resume.

You must meet the following requirements by the closing date of this announcement:

BASIC REQUIREMENT IOR:

Four (4) year course of study in an accredited college or university leading to a bachelor's or higher professional engineering degree. The curriculum must: 1) be in a school of engineering 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

A Combination of education and experience. The education must include courses equivalent to a major in engineering, as shown above. To be qualifying your experience must be sufficient to demonstrate: Thorough knowledge of the physical and mathematical sciences underlying professional engineering, and a good understanding, both theoretical and practical, of the engineering sciences and techniques and their applications to one of the branches of engineering.
This must be demonstrated by meeting one of the following:
1. 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.
2. Written Test showing evidence of having successfully passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) examination, or any other written test required for professional registration.
3. 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.
4. 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 that you have at least 1 year of professional engineering experience acquired under professional engineering supervision and guidance.

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: GS-14 LEVEL: In addition to the basic requirement, you must have 1 year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-13 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience for this position includes: Experience in engineering and applying fundamental and diversified professional engineering concepts, theories, and practices to achieve engineering objectives with versatility, judgment, and perception. Examples of specialized experience include: Adapt and apply methods and techniques of related scientific disciplines; and organize, analyze, interpret, and evaluate scientific data in the solution of engineering problems; Experience with basic tax laws relating to land, buildings, plant facilities, machinery, transportation equipment, patents, contracts, goodwill etc.; Law and legal documents dealing with real and/or personal property and transfers; Pertinent industry practices, procedures, and methods including standard, accepted real estate appraisal procedures, such as the cost, market, and income approaches to value; Standard analytical techniques and procedures. Interdisciplinary approach to determine the tax effect of multiple issues; Highly complex valuation issues and the ability to identify the valuation and tax implications of a variety of engineering and financial transactions, both domestic and international.
AND

MEET TIME IN GRADE (TIG) REQUIREMENT: TIME-IN-GRADE REQUIREMENTS: Under merit promotion procedures, Federal applicants must have served 52 weeks at the next lower grade to satisfy time-in-grade restrictions contained in 5 CFR 300, Subpart F. Time is credited based on calendar time served in a grade, regardless of the number of days or hours worked. If you currently hold or have previously held a position at the same (or equivalent) or higher grade/level in the Federal government as of this announcement, you will meet the TIME IN GRADE REQUIREMENTS.
AND

TIME AFTER COMPETITIVE APPOINTMENT: By the closing date (or if this is an open continuous announcement, by the cut-off date) specified in this job announcement, current civilian employees must have completed at least 90 days of federal civilian service since their latest non-temporary appointment from a competitive referral certificate, known as time after competitive appointment. For this requirement, a competitive appointment is one where you applied to and were appointed from an announcement open to "All US Citizens".

For more information on qualifications please refer to OPM's Qualifications Standards.

How you will be evaluated

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

Your application includes your resume, responses to the online questions, and required supporting documents. Please be sure that your resume includes detailed information to support your qualifications for this position; failure to provide sufficient evidence in your resume may result in a "not qualified" determination.

Rating: Your application will be evaluated on the Critical Job Elements (CJE) of the position to be filled, in accordance with Article 13 of the IRS/NTEU National Agreement. Your application will also be rated and ranked among others, based on your responses to the online questions/assessment. Your experience, education, training, prior performance, and awards, relevant to the position being filled, will be considered throughout the hiring process. IRS employees may obtain most recent awards listing at https://persinfo.web.irs.gov/.

Referral: If you are among the top qualified candidates, your application may be referred to a selecting official for consideration. You may be required to participate in a selection interview (telephonic and/or in person at the discretion of the Selecting Official in accordance with hiring polices). We will not reimburse costs related to the interview such as travel to and from the interview site.

If you are a displaced or surplus Federal employee eligible for Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP), you must receive a score of 80 or better to be rated as well qualified to receive special selection priority.