Temporary Breakthrough Energy Jobs in California

Summary
Are you ready to help shape America's energy future?
The Department of Energy (DOE) is looking for motivated, forward-thinking individuals to join our Power Up Program. This internship gives you hands-on work experience, direct mentorship, and professional networking opportunities within the federal government.
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Duties
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Join DOE's Power Up program and kickstart your federal career! This program is designed to offer exciting early-career opportunities for upcoming professionals ready to make an impact in the Federal government.
As a participant, you will be paired with an on-the-job mentor whose guidance is tailored specifically to your career path-whether you are entering a technical specialty or an administrative/professional role. In this program, mentoring goes far beyond basic job training. Your mentor will serve as a trusted guide, helping you build confidence, develop professional skills, and learn how to navigate and thrive within a structured, mission-driven environment.
As a Power Up Intern in the Office of Science, you will support our daily mission goals.
Your responsibilities may include:

• Review program/project needs and assists with the preparation of documentation (i.e., budget, procurement, SOWs, etc.) to support those needs.
• Collaborate with other scientists, engineers, and staff in related fields both within and outside of DOE on difficult but typically routine technical scientific and/or engineering matters.
• Conduct analysis of technical scientific and/or engineering issues, requirements and development efforts to resolve conflicts and issues.
• Analyze data from various sources that includes incomplete and often conflicting information and alternatives; and proposes solutions to meet project or situation requirements and constraints.
• Make recommendations to reconcile or resolve conflicting, or controversial issues or policies impacting DOE scientific and/or engineering programs/projects.

There are various offices that will be hiring from this vacancy announcement and they include:

• Oak Ridge National Laboratory Site Office - The primary mission is to deliver scientific discoveries and technical breakthroughs needed to realize solutions in energy and national security and provide economic benefit to the nation.
• Thomas Jefferson Site Office - The primary mission centers on advancing breakthrough research in nuclear physics while executing a strategic transition from a single-purpose laboratory into a cutting-edge, multi-purpose national research institution.
• Office of Isotope R&D Production at DOE Headquarters - The primary mission is to advance and sustain a reliable, secure, and innovative domestic supply of critical isotopes to meet U.S. needs in medicine, national security, industry, and research by fostering cutting-edge research, enhancing producution capabilities, strengthening strategic partnerships, and developing workforce.
• Berkeley Site Office - The primary mission is to manage and administer DOE's performance-based contract with the University of California for the management and operation of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to deliver the remarkable discoveries and scientific tools that transform our understanding of energy and matter and advance the national, economic, and energy security of the United States.

Requirements
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Conditions of employment

• You must serve a trial period for the entire length of your appointment.
• Before starting, you must sign a written agreement acknowledging that this job is temporary and cannot be converted to a permanent position.
• You must pass a background investigation. Some positions may require you to get and keep a security clearance.
• If you are a male born after December 31, 1959, you must be registered with the Selective Service System (or have a legal exemption).
• You must be a U.S. citizen, national, or meet the legal exception criteria to be paid from federal funds.
• This employer participates in the e-Verify program.
• This job is filled under the Schedule A-r excepted service hiring authority (5 CFR § 213.3102(r)).
• This is a time-limited appointment in the Excepted Service. Your internship will be for an initial 2 years with the possibility to extend for an additional 2 years. Appointment cannot exceed 4 years.
• This position is designed for temporary development. It does not lead to a permanent job, and it does not grant you competitive civil service status. When your appointment ends, your employment with the agency ends.
• Security level requirements may vary depending on the specific office and position.

Qualifications
**Please note these series do have Basic Education Requirements that MUST be met and are listed in the Education section of the vacancy announcement. There is one for the 0801 series and one for the 1301 series.**
You must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date (09/04/2026) of this announcement.
For the GS-11: You must have one year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-09 grade level in the Federal Service. Specialized experience for this position at the GS-11 includes:

• Participating in the planning, execution, and scheduling of engineering or physical science projects (such as chemistry, physics, or materials science) under the guidance of a project lead.; AND
• Tracking project milestones and coordinating updates on technical activities among stakeholders (such as academic institutions, lab teams, contractors, or project managers).; AND
• Assisting in facility walk-throughs, field inspections, or hazard analyses to record technical data and ensure compliance with safety and environmental standards.

OR YOU MAY QUALIFY FOR THE GS-11 BASED ON EDUCATION: 3 years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree. Graduate education must provide the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform in the position. Please see the information under Education.
OR YOU MAY QUALIFY FOR THE GS-11 BASED ON COMBINATION OF EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE:If you have some qualifying education and some qualifying experience, but don't fully meet either requirement on its own, you may be able to combine them. Only graduate education in excess of two years (36 semester hours or equivalent) can be used in this calculation. Experience must be reflected in your resume, and transcripts are required.

1. Divide your qualifying graduate semester hours beyond the first 36 by 18. That gives you your education percentage.
2. Divide your months of qualifying experience by 12. That gives you your experience percentage.
3. Add the two together. If the total is 100% or more, you qualify.

Experience may include paid or unpaid work, including internships, volunteer service, student leadership, military service, apprenticeships, or other relevant activities. Resumes must clearly describe duties, dates, and hours worked per week.
Note about Graduate Education: One academic year of graduate education is considered to be the number of credits hours your graduate school has determined to represent one academic year of full-time study. Such study may have been performed on a full-time or part-time basis. If you cannot obtain your graduate school's definition of one year of graduate study, 18 semester hours (or 27 quarter hours) should be considered as satisfying the requirement for one year of full-time graduate study.
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' resumes and supporting documentation should only reflect education received from schools accredited by such institutions. Applicants can verify accreditation at the following website: https://ope.ed.gov/dapip/#/home.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 syllabus and/or detailed course description from the university/college for that particular course to ensure you are properly evaluated. Provide all relevant transcripts, not just your most recent one.
Special Instructions for Foreign Education: If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet Minimum Qualifications, you must show that the 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. Failure to provide such documentation with your application will result in lost consideration. For further information, visit: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.
Education
You must meet the following Basic Education Requirement listed below in order to qualify for the 0801 series:
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 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)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.
2. 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.
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.)

You must meet the following Basic Education Requirement listed below in order to qualify for the 1301 series:

1. Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study in an accredited college or university leading to a Bachelor's degree or higher in physical science, engineering, or mathematics that included 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science such as mechanics, dynamics, properties of materials, and electronics.; OR
2. Combination of education and experience education equivalent to one of the majors shown above that included at least 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science, plus appropriate experience or additional education.

Additional information

• We may select from this announcement or any other source to fill one or more vacancies.
• This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional similar vacancies across DOE.
• We may select from this announcement or any other source to fill one or more vacancies.
• For general information on government-wide Telework polices visit: www.opm.gov/telework/
• EEO Policy: www.energy.gov/justice/eeo-complaint-process
• Reasonable Accommodation Policy: www.energy.gov/hc/department-energy-reasonable-accommodation-program
• Veterans Information: https://help.usajobs.gov/working-in-government/unique-hiring-paths/veterans
• Selective Service Registration: http://www.sss.gov/
• Relocation expenses/incentives will NO