Interim Chief Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Summary
This position serves as the Chief Engineer and Senior Technical Authority for the Portfolio Acquisition Executive for Shore Infrastructure (PAE SI) at the Washington Navy Yard. Operating with full technical independence, the incumbent oversees an $11B+ annual portfolio (including $8B MILCON and $3B SRM programs). Established under the FY26 NDAA acquisition reforms, the role provides final engineering authority and strategic counsel to accelerate critical shore capabilities to the Fleet.
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Duties
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• You will serve as a national technical authority on engineering for DON/DoW shore infrastructure.
• You will act as the PAE's primary advisor on all shore infrastructure engineering matters.
• You will develop and recommend technical strategies for the entire Navy infrastructure portfolio.
• You will evaluate trade-offs among cost, schedule, and performance to guide decisions.
• You will inform programmatic and resource choices to accelerate capability delivery to the Fleet.

Requirements
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Conditions of employment

• Must be a US Citizen.
• Must be determined suitable for federal employment.
• Must participate in the direct deposit pay program.
• New employees to the Department of the Navy will be required to successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit e-verify.gov
• You will be required to complete ethics orientation within three months of appointment and submit a Public Financial Disclosure Report, OGE-278e within 30 days of appointment.
• Within the Department of War (DoW), the appointment of retired military members within 180 days immediately following retirement date to a civilian position is subject to the provisions of 5 United States Code 3326.
• Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered for Selective Service.
• This position is covered under the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA). Certification in the Functional Area and Tier assigned to the position, along with Continuous Learning (CL) points, are required within established timeframes.
• This position is a designated Critical Acquisition Position (CAP). You must sign a three-year tenure agreement prior to assuming the position unless a tenure waiver is approved.
• You will be required to obtain and maintain an interim and/or final Top Secret/SCI security clearance prior to entrance on duty. Failure to obtain and maintain the required level of clearance may result in the withdrawal of a job offer or removal.
• Successful completion of a pre-employment drug test (including marijuana) is required. A tentative offer of employment will be rescinded if you fail to report to the drug test appointment or fail the test. You will be subject to random testing.
• This position may require travel from normal duty station to CONUS and OCONUS and may include remote or isolated sites. You must be able to travel on military and commercial aircraft for extended periods of time.
• This position is considered Key/Emergency-Essential. You will be required to provide immediate and continuing support to ensure the success of combat operations or the availability of combat-essential systems.
• This is a Mission Essential position. You will be required to ensure organization or facility continuity of operations and/or completion of tasks that are considered essential to the mission designated by a local or command decision.
• This position require a Professional Engineer (PE) license.
• This is a Key Leadership Position (KLP), as defined by the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) that has a significant level of responsibility to the success of major acquisition programs.

Qualifications
Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution. Candidates will not be hired based on their race, sex, color, religion, or national origin.
To meet the minimum qualification requirements for this position, your resume must show that you possess the Technical Qualifications (TQ) related to this position - NOT TO EXCEED 2 PAGES. Resumes over the 2-page limit will be disqualified. Your resume should include examples of experience, education, and accomplishments applicable to the qualification(s). If your resume does not reflect demonstrated evidence of these qualifications, you may not receive consideration for the position.
TECHNICAL QUALIFICATIONS (TQs): Your resume should demonstrate accomplishments that would satisfy the technical qualifications:
TQ 1. Mastery of advances engineering principles and portfolio management concepts, with nationally/internationally recognized expertise in military construction, facilities engineering, and rapid project delivery.
TQ 2. Proven ability to provide authoritative technical counsel on multi-billion-dollar infrastructure programs and make informed risk management recommendations that balance cost, schedule, and performance to meet urgent warfighter needs.
Additional qualification information can be found from the following Office of Personnel Management website:
https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/#url=GS-PROF
AND
https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/0800/files/all-professional-engineering-positions-0800.pdf
Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (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.
Education
Applicants must meet at least one of the following positive education qualifications requirements of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Qualifications Standards Manual:
For Professional Engineering Series:
A. Degree: Engineering. Successful completion of a bachelor's or higher engineering degree from an accredited college or university. 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. Such education must demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of the position.
-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:
(I) 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; or
(II) 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; or
(III) 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; or
(IV) 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.)
Additional information
This position is a Senior Level position in the federal government. Senior Level employees are in non-executive positions whose duties are broad and complex enough to be classified above GS 15 level. Senior level positions involve highly specialized and complex work.
This position is not covered by the Department of War Priority Placement Program.
This position is subject to work an uncommon tour, including nights, weekends, and holidays to meet mission requirements. Overtime or night differential pay and/or unusual duty hours may be required.
Additional vacancies may be filled by this announcement.
A tentative offer of employment will be rescinded if the selectee fails to meet the pre-employment requirements, including failure to report to any of the scheduled appointments.
Federal annuitant information: The selection of an annuitant is subject to the Department of War and Department of the Navy policy on the employment of annuitants. Policy information may be found at: http://www.secnav.navy.mil/donhr/Documents/CivilianJobs/FedCivAnnuitants.pdf.
There are three key documents that contain important information about your rights and obligations. Please read and retain these documents:
- Noncriminal Justice Applicant's Privacy Rights, for those who undergo an FBI fingerprint-based criminal history record check for personnel vetting, which includes Rap Back,
- FD-258 Privacy Act Statement - FBI (this is the same statement used when your fingerprints are submitted as part of your background investigation), and
- SEAD-3-Reporting-U.pdf (dni.gov), (applicable to those who hold a sensitive position or have eligibility for access to classified information)
Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Policy Statement: http://www.eeoc.gov/federal/index.cfm
Employment Information Resources - Resource Center: https://help.usajobs.gov/how-to
Males born after 12-31-1959 must be registered or exempt from Selective Service (see https://www.sss.gov/RegVer/wfRegistration.aspx)
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Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.
Benefits
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A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.
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Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.