Summary
This position is located in the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Mississippi State Office.
The incumbent assists the area/zone or similar engineer and is responsible for providing technical guidance and in-the overall planning, design, installation, and maintenance of the engineering phases of soil and water conservation practices.
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Duties
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- Develops preliminary and final designs for structures of varying engineering complexity.
- Makes site investigations and field construction checks of approved practice design installations.
- Planning, design and construction of engineering practices such as water management, animal waste management, erosion control, flood control, wetland creation or restoration, and other conservation practices needing engineering guidance.
- Interprets plans and specifications for contractors, solving problems at local level as to proper interpretation of specifications.
- Provides training to conservation contractors and others assisting with the planning and application of conservation practices.
- Provides technical guidance and training to personnel in the area of all engineering practices and in the use and care of engineering equipment.
- Coordinates and conducts necessary quality assurance reviews of planned, designed, and constructed engineering projects in the assigned area/state.
Requirements
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Conditions of employment
- You must be a US Citizen or US National.
- Males born after 12/31/1959 must be Selective Service registered or exempt.
- Subject to satisfactory adjudication of background investigation and/or fingerprint check. If selected, you may be sent instructions on obtaining fingerprints. Please note we are unable to reimburse for any fees incurred.
- Probationary and Trial Period - Successful completion of a 1-year probationary period or 2-year trial period unless previous federal service is creditable. Refer to Next Steps for more information.
- Direct Deposit: Per Public Law 104-134 all Federal employees are required to have federal payments made by direct deposit to their financial institution.
- Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit e-verify.gov.
- Must possess and maintain a valid state motor vehicle operator's license for the type of vehicle(s) operated to perform the duties of this position.
Qualifications
In order to qualify, you must meet the eligibility and qualifications requirements as defined below by the closing date of the announcement. For more information on the qualifications for this position, visit the Office of Personnel Management's General Schedule Qualification Standards.
Your application and resume must clearly show that you possess the experience requirements. If education is required or being used to qualify, you must submit a copy of your transcripts.
This is an interdisciplinary position and may be filled in any of the job series listed below:
0810 - Civil Engineering
0890 - Agricultural Engineering
Basic Requirement: GS-0810/0890
: 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: 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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
In addition to meeting the basic requirement, you must also possess experience and/or directly related education listed below.
Specialized Experience Requirement
For the GS-09 grade level: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-07 level or higher in Federal service, or comparable experience not gained through Federal service. For this position, specialized experience is defined as providing technical assistance and guidance in the overall planning, design, installation, and maintenance of engineering practices for soil and water conservation programs; conducting quality assurance reviews of planned, designed, and constructed engineering projects to recommend ways to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of products or services provided to internal and external customers;
OR
Education at the GS-09 grade level: Master's or equivalent graduate degree or 2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree in a field which demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of the position.
OR
Combination of Education and Experience: A combination of education and experience as listed above.
For the GS-11 grade level: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-09 grade level in federal service or comparable experience not gained through federal service. Specialized experience is defined as: independently providing technical assistance and guidance in the overall planning, design, and installation of simple to moderately complex engineering practices, assisting senior engineers with quality assurance reviews of constructed engineering projects to recommend ways to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of products or services provided to external customers, making suggestions for modifications to established policies, precedents and procedures by utilizing engineering principles, practices and techniques; and/or providing interpretation to local government employees and other personnel regarding engineering policies, standards, and procedures.
OR
Education at the GS-11 grade level: Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree in a field which demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of the position.
OR
Combination of Education and Experience: A combination of education and experience as listed above.
For the GS-12 grade level: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-11 grade level in federal service or comparable experience not gained through federal service. Specialized experience is defined as: Formulation of complex engineering planning, design and construction of conservation practices that address natural resource protection; and/or coordinating and conducting engineering quality assurance checks through site investigations and feasibility studies; OR analyzing and managing engineering workload and identifying training needs of personnel and delivering training on both individual and group levels, AND recommending technical policies and procedures that strengthen agency ability to deliver quality resource conservation.
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
This job does not have an education qualification requirement for the GS-12 grade level.
College Transcript: If qualifying based on education, you must submit a copy of your college transcript with course number and department (i.e., Bio 101, Math 210, etc.), course title, number of credit hours, and grade earned. 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 to ensure proper evaluation.
Your education must have been successfully obtained from an accredited school, college or university recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to be credited toward qualifications. You may verify accreditation by visiting the U.S. Department of Education Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs website. We will verify your education accordingly.
Foreign Education: You must submit verification that education completed in a foreign institution, was recognized by an accreditation body accepted by the U.S. Department of Education. You must include a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript. There are private organizations that specialize in this evaluation and a fee is normally associated with this service. For a list of private organizations that evaluate education, visit the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES) website. Your transcripts must be in English or include an English translation.
You may submit an unofficial copy of your transcript at the initial phase of the application process. However, if selected, you will be required to submit official transcripts prior to entering on duty. Please refer to the "How to Apply" section for instructions on submitting transcripts.
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, RPL, or ICTAP 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.
Promotion Potential: If you are selected for a position with further promotion potential, you will be placed under a career development plan, and may be non-competitively promoted if you successfully complete the requirements and if recommended by management. However, promotion is neither implied nor guaranteed.
Physical Demands: The work requires some physical exertion such as long periods of standing, traversing steep slopes and rough construction sites, recurring bending and stooping, jumping across shallow ditches, walking in soft, muddy and slippery conditions, and lifting and carrying equipment and
samples that weigh up to 50 pounds.
Work Environment: Work is typically performed in an office setting. Frequent trips to field sites involve exposure to construction equipment and the environment, and extreme temperatures of hot and cold. Employees will be required to wear hard hats and observe necessary precautions on
scaffolding, in trenches, and in the area of moving machinery. Exposure to noise levels common to construction sites with large earth moving equipment can be expected. There will be exposure to disease carrying insects and irritating plants.
Telework: This position is not eligible for telework.
Incentives: Recruitment and/or relocation incentives may be authorized.
Bargaining Unit: This is a non-bargaining unit position.
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