Clarification from the agency

ALL US CITIZENS DIRECT HIRE AUTHORITY: This position is being filled using Direct-Hire Authority (5 CFR 337.205) for this occupation.

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Major duties include but are not limited to:

• Serves as a technical advisor to provide project management for the documentation of technology systems and equipment over which the VA is the lead acquisition agency;
• Provides knowledge for the preparation of the technical portion of the information system acquisition packages;
• Formulates technical requirements and procurement data and ensures requirements are documented correctly;
• Assesses contractors' development efforts to modify, realign, or redirect technical evaluations of contractor proposals;
• Performs risk assessments to identify and mitigate technical risks to an acceptable level for meeting mission requirements;
• Collaborates closely with a highly diversified customer base including senior level engineers, project leaders and program managers from VA and other agencies;
• Participates in regular acquisition planning sessions to identify technical barriers in system concepts; and
• Guides the engineering analyses and studies to define performance requirements and major operating characteristics.

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. EST.
Compressed/Flexible: Available
Telework: This position may be authorized for Ad Hoc telework (situational telework). Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process.
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Position Description/PD#: General Engineer/PD442690
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job
• To be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. In addition to the application and questionnaire, this position requires an online assessment. The online assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
• Physical Requirements: The work required does not inherently include any physical requirements essential for successful job performance that could not otherwise be performed with accommodation or workplace adjustment. A pre-placement physical examination is not required.
• Subject to background/security investigation
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued dentification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider:

• your performance and conduct;
• the needs and interests of the agency;
• whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and
• whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.

Upon completion of your probationary period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 06/15/2026.

You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below:

Individual Occupational Requirements: To qualify for this position, you must meet the individual occupational requirements for General Engineering Series, 0801:

• 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) , 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, 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.)

Note: An applicant who meets the basic requirements as specified in A or B above, except as noted under B.1., may qualify for positions in any branch of engineering unless selective factors indicate otherwise.

Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-12 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to:

• evaluating the value and applicability of new or improved project technologies, strategies, trends, or applications based on program and mission objectives with unusual demands or major constraints (e.g., funding, labor, materials, and scheduling);
• providing expert technical advice to senior acquisition colleagues and/or agency officials responsible for systems requirements of hundred-million-dollar projects resolving unique or novel problems, conditions, or issues (i.e., interoperability, reliability, maintainability, and configuration integrity) of acquisition requirements; or
• exercising judgment and ingenuity in assessing and executing technical strategies and actions to affirm the integrity, economy, quality, and effectiveness of information technology programs.

For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be found well qualified, applicants must meet the following qualifications:

• five years of serving as a technical authority reviewing work for consistency with, and potential impact on, broad agency objectives and program goals, and for contribution to the advancement of the field of professional engineering (i.e., comprehensive, in-depth knowledge of mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences applicable to a specialty field of engineering);
• has exercised leadership, creativity, and imagination to multidisciplinary or cross-functional teams to motivate and instigate improvements in the extension, advancement, and achievement of significant objectives in science and technology; and
• has applied the art and science of a specialty area of an engineering or architectural discipline sufficient to formulate, evaluate, nurture, and promote the generation and exchange of new theories, concepts, principles, methods, applications, and practices.

Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/.

Local Commuting Area: The local commuting area for this position is defined as a radius of 50 miles from Eatontown, NJ. This includes all locations that fall within a 50-mile driving distance from 23 Christopher Way, Eatontown, NJ 07724.

How you will be evaluated

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

Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., resume, supporting documents), your responses on the application questionnaire, and your responses to all assessments required for this position. You will be assessed on the following Competencies for this position:

• Attention to Detail
• Communications
• Customer Service
• Decision Making
• Flexibility
• Influencing/Negotiating
• Integrity/Honesty
• Interpersonal Skills
• Learning
• Project Management
• Reading Comprehension
• Reasoning
• Requirements Analysis
• Self-Management
• Stress Tolerance
• Teamwork
• Technical Competence

Your experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month and year start/end dates AND hours worked per week. A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration. Cheating on the online assessment may also result in your removal from 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; religions; 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.

Job Knowledge Test: A portion of your assessment is a Job Knowledge Test that will occur during the application.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) and the 10 responses you provide on the application questionnaire. You will be assessed on the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics):

• Attention to Detail
• Communications
• Customer Service
• Decision Making
• Flexibility
• Influencing/Negotiating
• Integrity/Honesty
• Interpersonal Skills
• Learning
• Project Management
• Reading Comprehension
• Reasoning
• Requirements Analysis
• Self-Management
• Stress Tolerance
• Teamwork
• Technical Competence

The application questionnaire includes a passing score based on the minimum level of required proficiency across these critical competencies. You must meet or exceed the passing score to be considered. You will not be considered for the position if you score below the passing score.

Narrative responses are not required at this time. If you are referred for consideration, you may be contacted for an interview. Your resume and/or supporting documentation will be verified. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating or consideration for employment.