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Civil Engineer

Department of Homeland Security
Federal Emergency Management Agency
This job announcement has closed

Summary

The ideal candidate for this position has strong communication skills and experience in the National Flood Insurance Program, in conducting or reviewing hydrologic and hydraulic engineering analyses, and in project management in a federal contract environment.

This position starts at a salary of $104,008 (GS-13). Apply for this exciting opportunity to become a member of the Mitigation Division team within FEMA.

View common definitions of terms found in this announcement.

Overview

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Reviewing applications
Open & closing dates
05/24/2023 to 06/07/2023
This job will close when we have received 100 applications which may be sooner than the closing date. Learn more
Salary
$104,008 to - $135,209 per year
Pay scale & grade
GS 13
Location
1 vacancy in the following location:
Atlanta, GA
Remote job
No
Telework eligible
No
Travel Required
Occasional travel - This position may require occasional non-emergency travel.
Relocation expenses reimbursed
No
Appointment type
Permanent
Work schedule
Full-time
Service
Competitive
Promotion potential
13
Job family (Series)
Supervisory status
No
Security clearance
Not Required
Drug test
No
Position sensitivity and risk
Moderate Risk (MR)
Trust determination process
Announcement number
FEMA-23-VS-644030-DHA
Control number
727838400

This job is open to

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Clarification from the agency

This job is open to: U.S. Citizens

Duties

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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is calling on those who want to help protect American interests and secure our Nation. DHS Components work collectively to prevent terrorism; secure borders and our transportation systems; protect the President and other dignitaries; enforce and administer immigration laws; safeguard cyberspace; and ensure resilience to disasters. We achieve these vital missions through a diverse workforce spanning hundreds of occupations. Make an impact; join DHS.

When disaster strikes, America looks to FEMA. Now FEMA looks to you. Join our team and use your talent to support Americans in their times of greatest need. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) prepares the nation for all hazards and manages Federal response and recovery efforts following any national incident. We foster innovation, reward performance and creativity, and provide challenges on a routine basis with a well-skilled, knowledgeable, high performance workforce.  Please visit www.fema.gov for additional information.

EMERGENCY ASSIGNMENT: Every FEMA employee has regular and recurring emergency management responsibilities, though not every position requires routine deployment to disaster sites. All positions are subject to recall around the clock for emergency management operations, which may require irregular work hours, work at locations other than the official duty station, and may include duties other than those specified in the employee's official position description. Travel requirements in support of emergency operations may be extensive in nature (weeks to months), with little advance notice, and may require employees to relocate to emergency sites with physically austere and operationally challenging conditions.

In this position, you are a source of engineering/scientific expertise for all producers and users of hydrological and hydraulic engineering flood plain information and coastal studies related to flood hazard mapping. Typical assignments include: 

  • Serving as a technical subject matter expert on FEMA programs requiring complex engineering expertise.
  • Performing a full range of project management duties while serving as the Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative/Monitor on federal contracts.
  • Participating in inter/intra agency meetings and serving as a member or lead in creation and delivery of presentations, briefings and trainings on technical engineering matters related to floodplain analysis.
  • Collaborating with federal, state, and local governments and contractors in the development and review of flood hazard information.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

  • You must be a U.S. Citizen to be considered for this position.
  • You must successfully pass a background investigation.
  • Selective Service registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
  • You must be able to obtain and maintain a Government credit card.
  • Please review "Other Information" section for additional key requirements.

To ensure the accomplishment of our mission, DHS requires every employee to be reliable and trustworthy. To meet those standards, all selected applicants must undergo, successfully pass, and maintain a background investigation for public trust as a condition of placement into this position. This may include a credit check after initial job qualifications are determined, a review of financial issues, such as delinquency in the payment of debts, child support and/or tax obligations, as well as certain criminal offenses and illegal use or possession of drugs (please visit: Mythbuster on Federal Hiring Policies for additional information). For more information on background investigations for Federal jobs please visit OPM Investigations.

Please ensure you meet the qualification requirements described below.

Qualifications

The qualification requirements listed below must be met within 30 days of the closing date of the announcement.

You qualify for this position at the GS-13 level (starting salary $104,008) if you possess the following:  One full year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade (GS-12) in the Federal Service.  This experience may have been gained in the federal government, a state or local government, a non-profit organization, the private sector, or as a volunteer; however, your resume must clearly describe at least one year of specialized experience. 

Specialized experience for this position includes: 

  • Civil engineering background in modeling and floodplain mapping and analysis associated with the National Flood Insurance Program, and
  • Experience in managing projects through federal contracts for compliance with federal law, policies, and regulations while meeting mission requirements, and
  • Communicating technical information to a variety of audiences and stakeholders.

And

  1. 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

  1. 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.)

Transmission of transcript is required


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.

NOTE: Qualifications are based on breadth/level of experience. In addition to describing duties performed, applicants must provide the exact dates of each period of employment (from MM/YY to MM/YY) and the number of hours worked per week if part time. As qualification determinations cannot be made when resumes do not include the required information, failure to provide this information may result in disqualification. Applicants are encouraged to use the USAJOBS Resume Builder to develop their federal resume. For a brief video on How to Create a Federal Resume, click here.

Current or former FEMA Reservists/DAE employees: To accurately credit your experience for these intermittent positions, make sure to list the dates (from MM/YY to MM/YY) of each deployment, along with the job title and specific duties you were responsible for during each deployment.  Failure to provide this information may result in disqualification.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) must authorize employment offers made to current or former political appointees.  If you are currently, or have been within the last 5 years, a political Schedule A, Schedule C, Non-career SES or Presidential Appointee employee in the Executive Branch, you must disclose this information to the Human Resources Office. 

Education

If you are qualifying based on education submit a copy of your college transcript (unofficial is acceptable) from an accredited institution. Once selected and prior to appointment, applicants must provide an official college transcript. Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet Federal qualification requirements if you can show that your foreign education is comparable to education received in accredited educational institutions in the United States. For example, specific courses accepted for college-level credit by an accredited U.S. college or university, or foreign education evaluated by an organization recognized for accreditation by the Department of Education as education equivalent to that gained in an accredited U.S. college or university. It is your responsibility to provide such evidence with your application. See Recognition of Foreign Qualifications for more information.

Additional information

  • If you receive a conditional offer of employment for this position, you will be required to complete an Optional Form 306, Declaration for Federal Employment, and to sign and certify the accuracy of all information in your application, prior to entry on duty. False statements on any part of the application may result in withdrawal of offer of employment, dismissal after beginning work, fine, or imprisonment.
  • DHS uses E-verify, an internet based system, to confirm the eligibility of all newly hired employees to work in the United States. Learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities.
  • The Department of Homeland Security encourages persons with disabilities to apply, to include persons with intellectual, severe physical or psychiatric disabilities, as defined by 5 CFR § 213.3102(u), and/or Disabled Veterans with a compensable service-connected disability of 30 percent or more as defined by 5 CFR § 315.707. Veterans, Peace Corps/VISTA volunteers, and persons with disabilities possess a wealth of unique talents, experiences, and competencies that can be invaluable to the DHS mission. If you are a member of one of these groups, you may not have to compete with the public for federal jobs. To determine your eligibility for non-competitive appointment and to understand the required documentation, click on the links above or contact the Servicing Human Resources Office listed at the bottom of this announcement.
  • This announcement may be used to fill one or more vacancies.
  • All candidates must be able to deploy with little or no advance notice to anywhere in the United States and its territories for an extended period of time.
  • A one year probationary period is required for new Federal competitive service employees and new supervisors and managers.
  • If selected for this position, and you have not previously completed these requirements, you are subject to (1) completion of a 2 day onboarding program at your primary duty location; and, (2) completion of a subsequent, multiple day orientation program within 90-120 days of hire, at a location to be determined.  Travel associated with the orientation portion of this requirement may be at FEMA’s expense.
  • Applying to this announcement certifies that you give permission for DHS to share your application with others in DHS for similar positions.
  • This is a Bargaining Unit position.

How you will be evaluated

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

Direct Hire authority will be used to fill this position. Veterans' preference, category rating and traditional rating and ranking of applicants does not apply to positions filled under this announcement.

Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) / Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) Eligible: If you have never worked for the federal government, you are not CTAP/ICTAP eligible. View information about CTAP/ICTAP eligibility on OPM’s Career Transition Resources website. To be considered under CTAP/ICTAP, you must meet the well-qualified standards for the position. A well-qualified applicant must satisfy the following criteria: In addition to meeting minimum qualifications, including selective factors, education, and experience requirements, the applicant must be able to perform the duties of the position upon entry. In addition, you must submit the supporting documents listed under the required documents section of this announcement.

All applicants who meet the basic qualification requirements at the grade level for which they are applying will be forwarded to the Selecting Official for consideration.


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