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Engineering Technician

Department of the Interior
National Park Service
Washington Office, Natural Resource Stewardship and Science, Natural Sounds & Night Skies Division
This job announcement has closed

Summary


This position works as an Engineering Technician in a variety of work situations aligned with and/or supporting professional engineering and architecture fields. This position may perform technical work in electrical, materials, and mechanical engineering fields.

Open to the first 100 applicants or until 09/09/2024 whichever comes first. All applications submitted by 11:59 (EST) on the closing day will receive consideration.

Overview

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Hiring complete
Open & closing dates
08/19/2024 to 09/09/2024
This job will close when we have received 100 applications which may be sooner than the closing date. Learn more
Salary
$54,505 to - $86,670 per year
Pay scale & grade
GS 7 - 9
Location
1 vacancy in the following location:
Fort Collins, CO
Remote job
No
Telework eligible
Yes—as determined by the agency policy.
Travel Required
25% or less - You may be expected to travel for this position.
Relocation expenses reimbursed
Yes—You may qualify for reimbursement of relocation expenses in accordance with agency policy.
Appointment type
Permanent
Work schedule
Full-time
Service
Competitive
Promotion potential
9
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
Financial disclosure
No
Bargaining unit status
Yes
Announcement number
WO-1614-NRSS-24-12498593-DE
Control number
805273400

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Duties

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The major duties of the Engineering Technician position include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Assemble, design, and repair monitoring equipment to support park research needs.
  • Assist researchers with troubleshooting, equipment and data transfer, and feasibility assessments.
  • Operate and maintain a safe laboratory/workshop, including purchasing materials and equipment, organizing and inventorying, and managing field equipment and vehicles.
  • Provide coordination support and field support for technical assistance requests, divisional operational support, and project status meetings.
Duties will be developmental in nature when filled below the full performance level.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

  • U.S. Citizenship required.
  • Appointment subject to background investigation and favorable adjudication.
  • Meet Selective Service Registration Act requirement for males.
  • Selectee will be required to participate in the Direct Deposit Electronics Funds Transfer Program.
  • You will be required to operate a government (or private) motor vehicle as part of your official duties; a valid driver's license is required. You will be required to submit a Motor Vehicle Operator's License and Driving Record. You must also submit (within a State sealed envelope or submitted directly by the State authorities), and at your own expense, all certified driving records from all States that disclose all valid driver's licenses, whether current or past, possessed by you.
  • You may be required to work on-call, evenings, weekends, holidays, overtime and shift work.
  • If you are a new employee or supervisor in the Federal government, you will be required to complete a one-year probationary period.
  • You may be required to travel overnight away from home up to 3 nights per month. You must obtain a government charge card for travel purposes.
  • Applicants must be at least (1)18 years old or (2) at least 16 years old and: (a) Have graduated from high school or been awarded a certificate equivalent to graduating from high school; or (b) Have completed a formal vocational training program; or (c) Have received a statement from school authorities agreeing with their preference for employment rather than continuing their education; or (d) Be currently enrolled in a secondary school and either work only during school vacation periods or work part-time during the school year under a formal student employment program.

Qualifications

All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement-09/09/2024-unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement.

Credit will be given for all appropriate qualifying experience. To receive credit for experience, your resume MUST clearly indicate the nature of the duties and responsibilities for each position, starting and ending dates of employment (month/year), and the resume must reflect full and/or part-time or total number of hours worked (i.e., work 40+ hours a week, rather than indicating full-time). If part-time, the hours must be annotated to be able to pro-rate the amount of qualified specialized experience.

To qualify for the Engineering Technician position at the GS-07/08/09 grade, you must meet the following basic requirements by the closing date of this announcement:

Basic Requirement
Specialized Experience: Qualifying specialized experience to include technical work in: drafting, surveying construction estimating, physical science, mathematics, aerospace, architecture, chemicals, electrical or mechanical systems, mining, petroleum, or nuclear systems. Experience in a trade or craft may be credited as specialized experience when the work provided intensive knowledge of engineering principles, techniques, methods, and precedents. Other examples are trade positions with substantial developmental, test, or design responsibilities such as: Planner and estimator who analyzed designs for production purposes; Instrument maker or model maker who performed design or development work on devices fabricated.

- AND -
To qualify for this position at the GS-07/08/09 grade level, you must possess at least one of the following minimum qualifications by close of the announcement:

To qualify for GS-7:
To qualify for this position at the GS-07 grade level, you must meet the following minimum qualifications by the closing date of this announcement:

EXPERIENCE: At least one full year of specialized experience comparable in scope and responsibility to the GS-06 grade level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). This experience includes activities such as: (1) Repairing, evaluating, and assembling scientific equipment; (2) working in close association with physical scientists, engineers, or other technical personnel such as a laboratory mechanic or in a trade or craft;(3) Processing data from equipment; (4) Electronic and mechanical system testing, development, troubleshooting and maintenance; (5) Routine use of database management, word processing, and specialized software programs essential to laboratory work; (6) Outdoor Field Work in parks to collect acoustic and photometric data. You must include hours per week worked.
-OR-
EDUCATION: Successful completion of at least one full year of graduate education; Major study -- engineering, construction, or industrial technology. You must include transcripts
-OR-
COMBINATION: Successful completion of a combination of education and experience as described above.

To qualify for GS-08:
To qualify for this position at the GS-08 grade level, you must meet the following minimum qualifications by the closing date of this announcement:

EXPERIENCE: At least one full year of specialized experience comparable in scope and responsibility to the GS-07 grade level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). This experience includes activities such as performing the following: (1) Designing, repairing, evaluating, and assembling scientific equipment; (2)working in close association with physical scientists, engineers, or other technical personnel such as a laboratory mechanic or in a trade or craft; (3) Processing data from equipment and system testing;(4) Electronic and mechanical system design, development, testing, troubleshooting and maintenance; (5)Advanced use of database management, word process, Python or R programming, and specialized software programs essential to laboratory work; (6)and Outdoor Field Work Collecting acoustic and/or photometric data. You must include hours per week worked.

There is no substitution of education for experience at the GS-08 grade level of this announcement.

To qualify for GS-09:
To qualify for this position at the GS-09 grade level, you must meet the following minimum qualifications by the closing date of this announcement:

EXPERIENCE: At least one full year of specialized experience comparable in scope and responsibility to the GS-07 grade level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). This experience includes activities such as performing the following: Experience at this level includes performing the following: (1) Designing, repairing, evaluating, and assembling scientific equipment; (2 Experience with CAD and/or circuit design; (3)Working in close association with physical scientists, engineers, or other technical personnel as well as higher level staff such as client representative and managers; (4) Processing data from equipment and system testing; (5) Electronic and mechanical system design, development, testing, troubleshooting and maintenance; (6) demonstrated advanced technical documentation and reporting; (7) and advanced use of database management, word processing, Python and R programming, and specialized software programs essential to laboratory work (8) and Outdoor Field Work Collecting acoustic and/or photometric data.. You must include hours per week worked.
-OR-
EDUCATION: Successful completion of at least two full years of graduate education or a master's degree in the major of engineering, construction, or industrial technology. You must include transcripts.
-OR-
COMBINATION: Successful completion of a combination of education and experience as described above.

You must include months, years and hours per week worked to receive credit for your work and/or volunteer experience. One year of specialized experience is equivalent to 12 months at 40 hours per week. Part-time hours are prorated. You will not receive any credit for experience that does not indicate exact hours per week or is listed as "varies". Experience listed as full-time will be credited at 40 hours per week.

Volunteer Experience: 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.

Education

To qualify based on education, you must submit a legible copy of transcripts from an accredited institution with your name, school name, credit hours, course level, major(s), and grade-point average or class ranking. Transcripts do not need to be official, but if you are selected for this position and you used your education to qualify, you must provide official transcripts before you begin work.

If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet qualification requirements, you must show that your education credentials have been evaluated by a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign education programs and such education has been deemed equivalent to that gained in an accredited U.S. education program; or full credit has been given for the courses at a U.S. accredited college or university.

There is no substitution of education for experience at the GS-08 grade level of this announcement.

Additional information

A selectee receiving a first appointment to the Federal Government (Civil Service) is entitled only to the lowest step of the grade for which selected The display of a salary range on this vacancy shall not be construed as granting an entitlement to a higher rate of pay.

A Recruitment Incentive May Be Authorized for a newly selected employee when appointed to a permanent, temporary, or term position. A Federal employee who is transferring to the National Park Service from another component, bureau or Federal agency and who does not meet the conditions under 5 CFR §575.102 is not eligible for a recruitment incentive.

A Relocation Incentive May Be Authorized for a Federal employee when the employee must move, as directed by the National Park Service (NPS) either through a management directed reassignment or selection for employment, to a different location at least 50 miles away from the one where his/her position of record held at time of selection is currently located, due to a need of the NPS. A relocation incentive is not the same as a Permanent Change of Station (PCS) move and, as such, may be granted in conjunction with one another.

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

Promotion to the full performance level is neither guaranteed nor implied and will be based solely on your ability to satisfactorily perform the work of the position, existing work at the higher grade level, and recommendation by the position's supervisor.

Physical Demands: The work is primarily sedentary, although there is some walking in offices, production areas, utility plants, maintenance, and work areas. The work requires some physical exertion, such as long periods of standing; walking over rough, uneven, rocky, or slippery surfaces; recurring bending, crouching, stooping, stretching, climbing, or similar activities; recurring lifting of light to moderately heavy items weighing less than 50 pounds (i.e., 23 kilograms), such as testing or measuring equipment; and/or regular visits to construction, industrial, marine, or other outdoor sites.

Working Conditions: The work area is usually an office setting adequately lighted, heated, and ventilated. The work environment involves everyday risks or discomforts requiring normal safety precautions. Work involves regular and recurring exposure to moderate risks and discomforts, such as the following: dust, strong odors, or fumes from fuels, chemicals, or engine exhaust; high levels of noise and vibration, dust, grease, electrical hazards, uncovered moving parts of machinery, moving machinery; or outdoor conditions involving moderate exposure to rain, cold/hot weather, icy streams, and rivers. The work environment requires the employee to stay alert continually and to take special safety precautions including wearing special protective items of clothing.

The National Park Service has determined that the duties of this position are suitable for telework and the selectee may be allowed to telework with supervisor approval.

How you will be evaluated

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

You will be evaluated based on how well you meet the qualifications listed in this vacancy announcement. Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., resume, supporting documents), the responses you provide on the application questionnaire, and the result of the additional assessments required for this position. A review of your resume and supporting documentation will be made and compared against your responses to the Assessment Questionnaire to determine if you are qualified for this job. If your resume is incomplete or does not support the responses provided in the Assessment Questionnaire, or if you fail to submit all required documentation, you will be rated 'ineligible', 'not qualified', or your score will be adjusted accordingly. If a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications or experience, you can lose consideration for this position. Please follow all instructions carefully; errors or omissions can affect your rating.

Candidates will be rated and ranked using Category Rating procedures. These procedures place candidates with veteran's preference above non-preference eligibles within each category. Veterans with a service connected disability of at least 10 percent are listed in the highest quality category, except when the position being filled is scientific or professional at the GS-09 grade level or higher. Under Category Rating, candidates will be rated and ranked into one of three categories:

  • Best Qualified - applicants possessing experience that substantially exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors and are highly proficient in all requirements of the job and can perform effectively in the position
  • Well Qualified - applicants possessing experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors and are proficient in most of the requirements of the job
  • Qualified - applicants possessing experience that meets the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors and are proficient in some, but not all of the requirements of the job.
You will be evaluated on the following competencies:
  • Customer Service
  • Engineering and Technology
  • Measurement and Instrumentation
  • Requirements Analysis
  • Technical Documentation


In order to be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. In addition to the application and application questionnaire, this position requires successful completion of additional assessments, including a panel resume review. These assessments measure the critical competencies listed above that are required to successfully perform the job.

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