civil engineer - Norwich, United States - Natural Resources Conservation Service

Description

Summary This position is located in a USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) office in Norwich, CT. The incumbent is responsible for engineering aspects of natural resources conservation practices.

A member of an engineering team that supports NRCS mission results and program delivery with technical guidance and training to NRCS staff and others, engineering workload management, and production work across planning, design, and construction phases of a wide range of NRCS projects.

Responsibilities Plan, design, and manage construction of engineering projects to address resource concerns related to livestock water; irrigation water; wetlands, lakes, and streams; agricultural waste; soil erosion; and flood prevention.

Complete designs may include engineering design analysis(s) including hydrological, hydraulic, structural, soil/water/plant relationships, and geotechnical analysis.

Direct and/or conduct calculations of earthwork, concrete, steel, water control structures, and other materials, and prepares construction estimates and bills of materials.

Coordinate and conduct necessary quality assurance reviews of planned, designed, and constructed engineering projects in the assigned area. Work in a team setting consisting of internal and external partners to plan and implement conservation plans projects.

Requirements Conditions of Employment Qualifications Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement including time-in-grade restrictions, specialized experience and/or education, as defined below.

AREA OF CONSIDERATION:

Please note that this job opportunity announcement is only open to current Career/Career-Conditional employees of the FPAC, CTAP/RPL eligibles, and Farm Service Agency permanent county employees.

If you do not possess this status, you will not receive consideration.


Time In Grade Requirement:
Merit promotion applicants must meet applicable time-in-grade requirements to be considered eligible. One year at the GS-09 level is required to meet the time-in-grade requirements for the GS-11 level. (Please submit your SF-50 that shows Time-in

• Grade eligibility and reflects your title, series, and grade.

No Award or General Adjustment SF-50's will be accepted).


Basic Education Requirement:

Degree:
Must have a bachelor's or higher degree in 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 Combination of Education and Experience:

Must have a 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.) (Must submit copy of transcripts and/or licensure and/or proof of passing written test.)

In addition to meeting one of the Basic Requirements listed above, applicants must meet the following Minimum Qualifications Requirement in order to be considered:


MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:
To be considered minimally qualified for this position, you must demonstrate that you have the required specialized experience and/or education for the respective grade level(s) in which you are applying: GS-11

Specialized Experience:
One or more full-time years (12-months) of specialized work experience, equivalent to at least the GS-09 grade level in the Federal service, performing the following duties: Preparing designs, drawings, and specifications on engineering practices within natural resources conservation; Collecting and processing field data to ensure adequacy of the data; Assisting with on-the-job training to field office staff to improve engineering skillset and performance; Collaborating with team members to develop ways to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of engineering products and services; and Assisting with the quality review of conservation engineering projects


OR Education:
Must have 3 years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a Ph.
D. degree or Ph.
D. or equivalent doctoral degree in engineering or other directly related discipline. (Must submit transcripts)

OR Combination of Education and Experience:
Combination of the above-described education and specialized experience such that they total 100% when combined.

To determine your combination, first compute your experience as a percentage of the experience listed above; then determine your education as a percentage of the education listed above; then add the two percentages.

The total percentages must equal at least 100 percent.


Note:
Only graduate level education beyond 2 years or 36 semester hours may be combined with specialized experience. (Must submit transcripts)

The OPM Qualification Standards for this position can be found at:
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 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 You must submit a copy of your college transcripts or a list of college courses with credit hours, dates completed, and grades received to verify all education requirements (i.e. substitution of education and/or basic education requirement). If a relevant course is not clearly qualifying (e.g. special topic, seminar, research, thesis, obscure or misleading course title, etc.), please submit an official course syllabi and/or detailed course description from the university/college for that particular course to ensure you are properly evaluated. Please note that qualifications determinations are based solely on the information submitted for each particular vacancy announcement. You must document all requirements on every vacancy; we cannot use previous determinations as a basis for rating. All required information must be received by the closing date of this announcement, and non-submission of all required documents/documentation will result in non-consideration. Unofficial transcripts will be accepted. This information must be received by the closing date of this announcement. Non-submission of these documents will result in non-consideration. Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Applicants must, therefore, only report attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Applicants can verify accreditation via this link. All education claimed by applicants will be verified accordingly.


Important:

If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education.

Please check out this link for more information Recognition of Foreign Qualifications | International Affairs Office )

Additional Information Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) or Reemployment Priority List (RPL):
Visit the OPM website for information on how to apply as a CTAP or RPL eligible. To exercise selection priority for this vacancy, CTAP/RPL candidates must meet the basic eligibility requirements and all selective factors.

CTAP candidates must be rated and determined to be well qualified (or above) based on an evaluation of the competencies listed in the How You Will Be Evaluated section.

When assessed through a score-based category rating method, CTAP applicants must receive a rating of at least 85 out of a possible 100.

Farm Service Agency (FSA)

County Employees:

Permanent County employees without prior Federal tenure who are selected for a Civil Service position under Public Law will be given a career-conditional appointment and must serve a 1-year probationary period.

This position is eligible for telework within the local commuting area of the position and other flexible work arrangements.

Current USDA policy includes telework for an 8 hour work day, 4 days per week; other flexibilities are possible dependent upon availability and/or the position and its associated duties.

Employee participation is at the discretion of the supervisor.


Physical Demands:
Some physical exertion such as long periods of standing, traversing steep slopes and rough construction sites, recurring bending, jumping across ditches, and lifting and carrying equipment that weigh up to 50 pounds


Work Environment:
Field sites involve exposure to construction equipment and the environment and extreme temperatures of hot and cold. Protective gear/clothing (hard hat, boots, gloves) may be needed at field sites and in areas of moving machinery.


PLEASE NOTE:

In the interest of filling these positions as efficiently as possible, we are requiring the following: If called for an interview, applicants must be available to interview within 3 business days of being contacted.

If a tentative job offer is extended, selectee will have 2 business days in which to accept or decline.

Recruitment and/or relocation incentives may be authorized; Management may authorize superior qualifications & enhanced annual leave for applicants who are deemed to be highly qualified.